Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/209

 Reunion of Virginia Division, A. N. V. Association. 203

But while this clanship organization doubtless had its great advan- tages it was not without its evils, and chief among these was the dis- proportionate consequence of the captains during the first part of the war. Ours was an army of general-in chief and captains. The captain was the great man. He was the head of a family of a com- munity, of a part of the same community he had left behind. To him had been committed, by their fathers and mothers, the tender boys who had gone out with him — boys who had never been away from home before — and who he was charged to look after as his own children. How he did this, what he did and said, and how he behaved, whether he was kind and gentle, or cross, and how he took care of his men, was sure to be known at home, and talked over at the firesides, as the family sat through the long winter evenings thinking of how the boys were suffering in Virginia. The colonel and other field officers were scarcely of as much consequence, even though they did ride, while the captain walked. This at first was the source of some trouble in camp, and led naturally to some insu- bordination, and when it did not go to that extent, at least for some time impaired the regimental discipline.

As an illustration of the false view of the character of the company organization in the formation of an army, let me remind you of the multitude of company colors with which we went to war. A stand of colors was presented to every company almost, before it left home, and brave and glorious were the pledges given that it should wave on the bloody fields in advance of all others. But they were soon all sent ignominiously to the rear. The Southern cross — the Con- federate battle flag — we found quite enough to follow and to guard.

So, too, each company came into service with a name which the members did not doubt they would make immortal. A collection of these names would form an interesting chapter in the history of our army. There were of course the Washington Artillery, from New Orleans, and the Washington Light Infantry, from Charleston, and Jefferson Guards innumerable, and so on. But the Revolutionary titles soon ran out, and when a second and third company was raised from a county the name of the county would no longer answer as a prefix to the Rifles, Guards, Infantry and Light Infantry, &c. Then came the Invincibles, the Tigers, and the Hornets, &c. Various and curious indeed were the devices in company nomenclature. In our own regiment (Gregg's First South Carolina volunteers) we had one company from Horry district, which boldly assumed the title of "Rebels" — the " Horry Rebels" — and the Huguenot name of Sum-