The Unpopular History of the United States
This is just another illustration of individual initiative—working backwards.
It is perfectly possible to take a thousand individuals, each of whom is individually fearless, form them hastily into a regiment, and collectively they will not stand fire. A thousand individual heroes may easily make one collective regimental coward. Such is the incomprehensible psychology of the mob.
But the point to be emphasized is this: Nobody seemed to learn anything from these staggering stampedes. Even General William Henry Harrison, who had sense enough to become President of the United States some years later, tried his hand at the same game. He selected another army for the express, sworn, and heralded purpose of wiping out the stain of Hull’s surrender. Again it was militia—frontiersmen—from Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania. Volunteers surged forward with the greatest enthusiasm, and offered themselves in such numbers that General Harrison could only take a chosen few, and leave the disappointed
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