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��IN BATTLE AND IN PRISON.
��IN BATTIE AND IN PRISON.
��A REMINISCENCE OF THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
��BY. WILLIAM E. STEVENS.
��The events I am about to describe took place at a critical period of "the war to keep the Union whole, " and cover that date in the career of the army of the Potomac beginning with Hooker's flank movement against Lee, entrenched on the heights of Fredericks- burg, and ending with the disastrous re- pulse which attended that finely plan- ned, yet poorly executed, and ill-starred campaign. Of course, I am not writ- ing history, except in a small way ; nor do I essay to describe in detail or with accuracy the events in question. My purpose is to give my own observations and experiences, mainly from memory, reinforced by a few scraps and half-il- legible memoranda saved from the ac- cidents by flood and field.
I was a participant in many of the earlier battles fought by the army of the Potomac ; but my opportunities for acquiring accurate information touching the general aspects of the field were necessarily limited to that part of it within my own immediate range of vision, and even here — so rigid- ly did our commanders aim to reduce us to mere automatons — w£ were often in the dark as to the meaning of this or that movement. I strove hard to mas- ter the situation, but not until the war closed and the reports of commanders were given to the public, did I have other than a very indefinite conception of much that transpired about me. Why we made this or that change of front ; why we were kept for hours in line of battle beneath a broiling sun with no enemy in sight ; why we were rushed from one point to another in an apparently hap-hazard manner, endur- ing fatigue and hunger and subsisting upon wormy " hardtack ;" why we were
��pushed against impregnable positions, when a flank movement seemed to our inexperienced eyes the proper thing to do — now fighting, now building cordu- roy roads, digging rifle-pits or support- ing batteries in our rear, which did more execution upon us, by reason of defective ammunition, than upon the en- emy — concerning all these points, and many more we were anxious to be in- formed, but not one atom of informa- tion could we get.
"Ours not to inquire why, Ours but to do and die."
Was this reticence in pursuance of the mistaken theory that machine soldiers are best ? Or was it because " some one had blundered, " and ignorance or in- capacity, or something still worse, could be the more easily concealed? What- ever the reason, the fact remains that to the rank and file much of the cam- paigning done up to 1863-64 seemed to them worse than needless ; — and looking back over that period with the light of history thrown upon it, I am not prepared to say the rank and file were mistaken in their estimate. I was impressed then, and the impres- sion has never been effaced, that the reticence observed toward the men in the ranks touching what was going on about them, was a grievous error on the part of our commanders. It is a question, certainly, whether it would not have been better to have kept the "boys" informed of the real military situation and of what they were ex- pected to achieve. The belief that much of the hardship endured was the re- sult of blundering generals, or, worse, of criminal indifference, did much to unman our soldiers and cause them to lose faith and hope. Ourvolunteers were not
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