And The Men Who Are Not Individually Prominent In
Danger, Who Stand Their Ground Shoulder To Shoulder, Bear Themselves
Gallantly Also, Each Trusting In The Combined Strength Of His
Comrades.
When such combined courage has been acquired, that useful
courage is engendered which we may rather call confidence, and which
of all courage is the most serviceable in the army.
At the battle
of Bull's Run the army of the North became panic-stricken, and fled.
From this fact many have been led to believe that the American
soldiers would not fight well, and that they could not be brought to
stand their ground under fire. This I think has been an unfair
conclusion. In the first place, the history of the battle of Bull's
Run has yet to be written; as yet the history of the flight only has
been given to us. As far as I can learn, the Northern soldiers did
at first fight well; so well, that the army of the South believed
itself to be beaten. But a panic was created - at first, as it
seems, among the teamsters and wagons. A cry was raised, and a rush
was made by hundreds of drivers with their carts and horses; and
then men who had never seen war before, who had not yet had three
months' drilling as soldiers, to whom the turmoil of that day must
have seemed as though hell were opening upon them, joined themselves
to the general clamor and fled to Washington, believing that all was
lost. But at the same time the regiments of the enemy were going
through the same farce in the other direction! It was a battle
between troops who knew nothing of battles; of soldiers who were not
yet soldiers. That individual high-minded courage which would have
given to each individual recruit the self-sustained power against a
panic, which is to be looked for in a general, was not to be looked
for in them. Of the other courage of which I have spoken, there was
as much as the circumstances of the battle would allow.
On subsequent occasions the men have fought well. We should, I
think, admit that they have fought very well when we consider how
short has been their practice at such work. At Somerset, at Fort
Henry, at Fort Donelson, at Corinth, the men behaved with courage,
standing well to their arms, though at each place the slaughter
among them was great. They have always gone well into fire, and
have general]y borne themselves well under fire. I am convinced
that we in England can make no greater mistake than to suppose that
the Americans as soldiers are deficient in courage.
But now I must come to a matter in which a terrible deficiency has
been shown, not by the soldiers, but by those whose duty it has been
to provide for the soldiers. It is impossible to speak of the army
of the North and to leave untouched that hideous subject of army
contracts.
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