522 HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR, BY THE COMTE DE PARIS. 



of the impression which tlie reality of war will produce upon them, are apt to rush into the fight 

 with as much daring and resolution as veteran troops, and, once engaged, they will sometimes con- 

 tinue to behave well ; but experience makes them timid, and their courage fails them afterward 

 when called upon to face a danger they have learned to appreciate. On the contrary, participation 

 in those dangers, the loss of their comrades, the suflerings and hardships of the war, went to 

 strengthen the courage and increase the self-possession of the volunteers, whom .a patriotic duty 

 had taken from the occupations of civil life. Iron, when pure and of good quality, acquires shape 

 and strength under the repeated blows of the blacksmith's hammer, while metal adulterated with 

 bad alloys splits and soon flies to pieces."' 



" The ])crso7inel of staff and administrative departments being once organized, and that of the 

 contingents purified, and the first principles of discipline established among the oflicers, as well as 

 among the soldiers, the great task of drilling the Army had yet hardly begun. Indeed, a great 

 assemblage of men resembles a statue of clay, unable to move without breaking, and having no vital 

 breath. In order that it may acquire suppleness and agility, the recruits must go through a series 

 of exercises and evolutions equally irksome to the teachers and the taught— first singly, then by 

 platoons, by battalions next, and finally by brigades. This task was the more difficult in the 

 American Army, because instruction was as necessary for the officers as for the men, and because , 

 the latter, having no example to encourage them, did not understand the utility of so long an 

 apprenticeship. Their intelligence, however, which rendered them submissive to the voice of chiefs 

 really worthy to command them, soon made them undertake it with ardor. Full of confidence in 

 themselves, they made up their minds, not that it was useless to learn, but that it would be very 

 easy for them to learn anything they wished, the trade of war as well as any other ; having enlisted 

 voluntarily, they were determined to do everything in their power to become good soldiers, capable 

 of victory.'' ^ 



' The following graceful tribute to the merit and services of the Eegular Army of the United 

 States may close these extracts: 



" These are the last lines we shall devote, by way of special mention, to the little Eegular Army 

 which we have followed since its formation ; for, after having preserved its military traditions, and 

 supported, in the hour of danger, the tottering edifice of the Federal Constitution, it was absorbed 

 into the improvised armies to the creation of which we have just referred. But if it ceased to have 

 a separate existence, its spirit still survived and continued to control the action of new-comers; the 

 influence and the importance of the regular officers will increase in proportion as the volunteers 

 acquire more military experience ; and when, at the end of the struggle, the Regular Army shall 

 orce more emerge to view, we shall find five hundred and fifty of its ofBcers detached among 

 the volunteers, one hundred and fifteen of whom were generals, and sixty commanders of regiments. 

 Let us add, however, that this Eegular Army, such as we shall then see it re-appear, will no longer 

 be the same we have known before the war, constituting a kind of isolated corporation, and the 

 jealous guardian of its traditions; it will, in fact, have opened its doors to all merit displayed on 

 the field of battle ; and numbering in its ranks all those who, after achieving distinction, have 

 desired to continue in the military career, it will have the rare good fortune to combine the best 

 qualities of the volunteers with the noble attributes of the old regulars."' 



' pp. 195-106. 2 p. 272. 3 pp. 2y0--2yi. ♦ 



