26o
��The Northern Volunteers.
��ican soldier with any of the soldiers of the old continent. He has the merits of some, and faults the most opposite of others. Untiring on the march, resigned amid the greatest sufferings, he attacks resolutely, but coldly. The combat, which for him is not sustained by the sharp peals of trumpet or the rhythmic roll of drum, has something sombre and sinister. If he believes his efforts useless, he halts ; neither orders nor exhortations can make him go forward. Once en- gaged, he is tenacious even to obsti- nacy, even to disobedience : he neither wishes nor knows how to retreat, and thousands of men perish where an order to retreat executed with docility would limit the sacrifice to hundreds. In the long file of ambulances which bear off the wounded, all bleeding, whom not even a dressing has re- lieved, one hears neither complaints nor groans. His death is always stoical. He will ask of you a little water or to place him in an easier po- sition, and he waits patiently. . . . And, notwithstanding he is so cold in appearance, he is susceptible of im- pulse."
To illustrate this, he tells two anecdotes. In one, Gen. Humphreys' troops, reluctant to go forward, see the general and his son leave them and march v/ith slow step alone toward the enemy, when the whole line, impelled by this heroic example, sweep forward to the combat. In the other, Gen. Meade breaks his sword upon the heads of his soldiers, whose retreat he cannot stop, and they after- ward present him with a new sword, inscribed with the date and |)lace of this occurrence. The view which Gen. de Chanal takes of us is dra-
��matic to some extent. His memory has been impressed with the extraor- dinary incidents of our war to such a degree as to obscure the ordinary conduct of our soldiers in some re- spects. He tells rather what they were capable of than what they ordi- narily did.
Col. Chesne3% an eminent English military authority, says that the blun- ders and want of coherence of our early volunteers were amply atoned for by the stubborn courage after- ward displayed, and that " if a man's claims to be regarded as a veteran are to be measured by the amount of actual fighting he has gone through, the most seasoned soldiers of Europe are but as conscripts compared with the survivors of our war ; and the fol- lowing passage from his book is a generous tribute from a l^ritish sol- dier. He says, — " If the organiza- tion and discipline of their improvised troops were inferior, the actual fight- ing was, in fact, more stubborn, for no European forces have experienced the amount of resistance in combat which North and South opposed to each other. Neither was the fre- quently indecisive result of the great battles fought in America any proof that they formed exceptions to the ordinary rules of military science. These actions were so inconclusive, first from deficiency in cavalry, and next because the beaten side would not break up. The American sol- diery, in thus refusing to yield to panic when losing the day, retiring in good order and keeping a good front to the victorious enemy, dis- played, let us believe, an inherited quality. In order to pursue, there must be some one to run awav, and,
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