Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/42

 34 Southern Historical Society Papers.

men who, around the camp fires, could discuss and quote the philosophy and eloquence of the Greek and the Roman. These were the men who bore with cheerfulness, and without com- plaint, the conditions described; who asked only that by their service and suffering their country might be saved.

Yes, it was of these men, in these pavilions, that the assistant surgeon of the hospital, Dr. James E. Steele, a Canadian by birth, said to me: "Adjutant, your men are so different from those who formerly occupied these pavilions; when I go among your men they inspire in me a feeling of companionship."

In the same article of the Tribune there is something personal to myself. I will lay aside all false modesty, and quote it here for preservation for those who take an interest in me.

ADJUTANT J. F. CROCKER.

"In pavilion No. 3 we saw seven'! Confederate officers, with one or two exceptions, they were abed, the nature of their wounds rendering it painful for them to sit up. One of these officers, however was sitting at a table writing a letter. He was very civil and communicative. He was a native of Virginia, a gradu- ate of Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, where he was wounded a lawyer by profession, and really a man of superior talents and culture. He has brown hair and a broad high fore- head. He is apparently 35 years of age. He said it was im- possible for the North to subdue the South. The enemy might waste their fields, burn their dwellings, level their cities with the dust, but nothing short of utter extermination would give the controlling power to the North. The intelligent people of the South looked upon the efforts to regain their rights as sacred, and they were willing to exhaust their property and sacrifice their lives, and the lives of their wives and children, in defend- ing what they conceived to be their constitutional rights. They would consent to no terms save those of separation, and would make no conditions in relation to the question of slavery. They would suffer any calamity rather than come back to the Union as it was. They would be willing to form any alliance with any country in order to accomplish the fact of separation. 'Such are my sentiments/ said the Adjutant. 'I will take the liberty of