The Northern Volunteers.
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��to the credit of the Americans, the ordinary conditions of European war- fare in this respect were usually absent from the great battles fought across the Atlantic. "
It is true, as said by the French writer before quoted, that neither trumpet nor drum was used to incite our men to combat. Martial music stirred them as well as the soldiers of other countries, but by common im- pulse our commanding officers left their musicians behind to care for the wounded. It did not seem needful to expose the lives of these non-com- batants merel}' to render battle more cheerful. There was no call to so quicken the courage of men who al- ready had the will to do their duty.
To the examples of impulse in our soldiers before mentioned, a more noteworthy one may be added. It is the facing about of the fugitives to follow Sheridan to the front on his famous ride from Winchester. The general says in his report, — The whole army had been driven back in confusion, . . . a very large por- tion of the infantry not even pre- serving a company organization," and ten miles to the rear as he was flying to the front, he says "the head of the fugitives appeared in sight, trains and men coming to the rear with appalling rapidity." He modestly relates the result of his arrival in these words : "I am hap{)y to say that hundreds of the men, who on reflection found they had not done themselves justice, came back with cheers."
The fact is, that a steady stream of fuofitives — both officers and men — was pouring to the rear, and the efforts of all other officers to stop it were una-
��vailing. When the impetuous Sheridan, the flaming incarnation of war, came rushing by, eager to reach the front and face the foe, he cried to his men as he rode on, to turn back and fol- low him, and, all at once, the tide turned, and thousands of men. taking new heart, streamed to the front to join the ranks. The lines restored, the advance was ordered, the enemy were routed, and the campaign was ended in victory. It is not to be for- gotten that half the army had re- treated in good order, and had halted to resist the further advance of the enemy ; but yet here was a veritable instance of a great defeat turned into a greater victory through the enthusi- asm excited by one man, and his boundless courage and energy and superlative militar}' skill.
At the beginning of the war we de- sired to find a Napoleon to lead us, and, with implicit confidence in our national destiny, we took it as a matter of course that he would appear at once. The soldiers fondly be- lieved they had found him in McClel- lan, and his handsome face, soldierly carriage, and winning manners con- firmed their desire to raise him to the ideal rank, and he was cheered where- ever he appeared.
Then Burnside, handsomer still and more affable even than McClellan, was cheered in his turn.
The clear-eyed, erect, soldierly, and impetuous Hooker excited equal en- thusiasm. But with Hooker there was the end of crowning the com- mander of the army with laurel in advance. The impotent conclusion of McClellan's campaigns, the useless slaughter at Fredericksburg under Burnside, and the feeble influence of
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