Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/135

Rh son and deserve equal praise. The world never saw better soldiers than those who composed the Confederate armies. But we must utterly repudiate the reason General Hooker assigns for the efficiency of the Confederate soldiers. So far from its being due to "discipline alone"—so far from its being true that the Confederates were "vastly inferior, intellectually and physically," to the soldiers on the other side, it can be abundantly demonstrated that just the reverse is nearer the truth, and that the world never saw an army composed of more superb material, intellectually, physically and morally, in all that constitutes what we call morale in an army, than the armies of the Confederate States of America.

It was a very popular idea of the North, which found expression in many of the newspapers of the day and has gone into their histories, that the masses of the people of the South were opposed to the secession of their States, but that a few "traitor leaders" entered into a conspiracy which succeeded in dragooning the States into "rebellion," and that after they had thus brought on the war, the "conscript act" forced into the army unwilling soldiers, who were ignorant and debased. But this is not true. On the contrary, the people really forced the leaders to act, and though anxious to avert war and ready to sacrifice all save honor to preserve the peace, yet when the war was forced upon them and they were compelled to defend their homes and firesides, there was never a more general and spontaneous uprising of the masses of a people to resist invasion than that of the people of the South. In illustration of this popular patriotism, reference may be made to the action of Virginia. The State had elected a convention which was overwhelmingly "Union;" i. e., opposed to passing an ordinance of secession as long as there was any hope of obtaining proper guarantees of rights in the Union. Commissioners were sent to Washington, the "peace convention" was called, and the "Old Dominion" on bended knee begged for