Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/208

 202 Southern Historical Society Papers.

army in the Crimea and elsewhere ; ItaHans who had fought under Gari- baldi ; Frenchmen who had served in the armies of /o belle France; Teu- tons from the Prussian army, and some of the fighting sons of Ireland, ever ready for the fray; others who had fought in the Mexican war, and ex-regu- lars of the United States."

Alter the first warlike impulse of the North was exhausted, the Federal armies were recruited from abroad, when not by draft at home. En£land, Ireland and Germany were drummed to swell the ranks of the Union army. Recruits thus enlisted generally made admirable bummers, if not very efficient soldiers.

But such were not the men who marched with Jackson, who fought at Chickamauga, who stormed the heights of Gettysburg, who charged with Hampton and Stuart, or who stood amidst Sumter's crumbling walls. The assembling of our armies was really the gathering of clans.

The first two acts of the Confederate Congress for raising troops authorized the President to receive volunteers by companies, bat- talions or regiments, and in their haste to get to Virginia few of our volunteers waited for regimental organizations. They rushed for- ward in companies, and were organized into regiments after reaching Virginia, and often in the face of the enemy. It was the assembling by clans. The young men of a neighborhood formed themselves together into a company at the call of some one who had been a leader in the community ; the company was in fact but a represen- tative part of the community from which.it came. A letter from home to any individual member was of interest to all. The neigh- borhood news was of equal concern to the captain as to the humblest private, and the box from home was sure to be shared in common. The casualties of battle affected the whole community. Though the member or members of one family escaped in any engagement, there was no room for joy, for death was sure to have been among some of their neighbors.

This clanship in the cotnpany undoubtedly had a most excellent effect in maintaining the conduct alike of officers and men in battle. No one could afford to shirk, for news of his conduct was sure to go home with the news of the ba'ttle. Every private, as well as every officer, fought every engagement in the presence, as it were, of his home people, and he could not afford to disgrace them. This was the great incentive, no doubt, to the extraordinary perseverance and patience of our soldiers amidst the greatest privation, as well as of the individual valor of men who could hope for no particular notice in orders or reports.