Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/227

 have been difficult to find a general less fit for the command of the volunteer bodies in the Palatinate. He was a very fat and ponderous old gentleman who looked as if he preferred to wield fork and knife rather than the sword, and to whom a good night's rest would be much more welcome than the tumult of battle. Neither could he say the little he had to say in intelligible German. His performance as an organizer of the popular army consisted mainly in hindering the military commission that was to aid him. The consequence was that while the provisional government issued an abundance of appeals and orders, most of them remained unobserved. After a labor of six weeks the Palatinate had not more than seven to eight thousand men, most of whom were very badly armed, and all of whom were indifferently disciplined.

In the neighboring grand duchy of Baden things looked much more favorable; the whole infantry and artillery, as well as the largest part of the cavalry of the state, had come over to the popular side and presented a well-equipped army corps of about fifteen thousand men. Moreover, the fortress of Rastatt had fallen into the hands of the insurrectionists, with all its stores of arms, ammunition and equipments. Newly formed organizations could therefore much more easily be provided with all the necessaries, and thus an army of some forty or fifty thousand men might have been organized in a comparatively short time. To be sure, the officers had mostly remained true to the grand duke, and thus separated themselves from their commands, but their places had been filled with promoted corporals and sergeants, and among these were able men in sufficient numbers to maintain among the troops tolerable discipline. Thus the revolution appeared in Baden in more or less stately armament.

But the political leaders in the Palatinate and Baden