ROBERT KENDERDINE. 319 



career so fraught with danger, as well as hardship, which his 

 health would not be likely to encompass; there were the pangs 

 he felt to part with his loved pursuits and the society of his 

 friends. On the other hand, he argued that his life was 

 worth no more than another's ; that they who talked should 

 act; that while men with families were going to the front he 

 should not hesitate. While he reasoned, there came the re- 

 verses to the Union armies before Richmond. 



Those were dark days. We hear of the discouraging out- 

 look for the Union cause just before the victories of Vicksburg 

 and Gettysburg. But it could not have been more gloomy 

 than during the days following the defeats of McClellan and 

 Pope in '62, nor result in more depression among the loyal. 

 Faith in the Army of the Potomac was near gone, and enlist- 

 ments were slow. The heyday of the war was over. Many of 

 the soldiers were returning, but not from expiration of term of 

 service. Some were sick from the malaria of the Chickahominy. 

 Some had lost an arm, others a leg, and once in a while, by 

 express, would come an ominously shaped box with " Honor 

 the Brave " stencilled on the top. It was a grand exhortation, 

 but the inanimate form within was poor capital for a recruit- 

 ing-officer. So also were the empty sleeves and trouser-legs, 

 and fever-wasted forms of the others. But these times, while 

 they depressed the many, made the few resolve to consecrate 

 the lives, which they had hitherto withheld from the sacrifice, 

 to the service of the country. 



At that time patriotism meant more than advocating the 

 war, willingness to bear a share of its costs, encouraging en- 

 listments, or even enlisting expecting only to help garrison 

 forts around Washington, or to repel State invasion. Serving 

 the country meant not standing up for it alone; it meant 

 standing up in line of battle as a mark for Confederate rifle- 

 men or cannoniers, with the questionable compensating privi- 

 lege of making targets of these rebellious marksmen. Many 



