the Heroic Virtues 221 



altogether too light instead of too heavy? You re 

 member the scanty fare, and you remember, above 

 all, how you got to estimate each of your fellows by 

 what there was in him and not by anything adven 

 titious in his surroundings. It was of vital impor 

 tance to you that the men of your left and your right 

 should do their duty ; that they should come forward 

 when the order was to advance; that they should 

 keep the lines with ceaseless vigilance and fortitude 

 if on the defensive. You neither knew nor cared 

 what had been their occupations, or whether they 

 were in worldly ways well off or the reverse. What 

 you desired to know about them was to be sure that 

 they would "stay put" when the crisis came. Was 

 not this so? You know it was. 



Moreover, all these qualities of fine heroism and 

 stubborn endurance were displayed in a spirit of de 

 votion to a lofty ideal, and not for material gain. 

 The average man who fought in our armies during 

 the Civil War could have gained much more money 

 if he had stayed in civil life. When the end came 

 his sole reward was to feel that the Union had been 

 saved, and the flag which had been rent in sunder 

 once more made whole. Nothing was more note 

 worthy than the marvelous way in which, once the 

 war was ended, the great armies which had fought 

 it to a triumphant conclusion disbanded, and were in 

 stantly lost in the current of our civil life. The sol- 





