The
Men, Moreover, Were Less Muddy Than Their Brethren Either East Or
West Of Them - At Any Rate This May Be Said Of Them As Regards The
Infantry.
But perhaps the greatest charm of the place to me was the beauty of
the scenery.
The Green River at this spot is as picturesque a
stream as I ever remember to have seen in such a country. It lies
low down between high banks, and curves hither and thither, never
keeping a straight line. Its banks are wooded; but not, as is so
common in America, by continuous, stunted, uninteresting forest, but
by large single trees standing on small patches of meadow by the
water side, with the high banks rising over them, with glades
through them open for the horseman. The rides here in summer must
be very lovely. Even in winter they were so, and made me in love
with the place in spite of that brown, dull, barren aspect which the
presence of an army always creates. I have said that the railway
bridge which crossed the Green River at this spot had been destroyed
by the secessionists. This had been done effectually as regarded
the passage of trains, but only in part as regarded the absolute
fabric of the bridge. It had been, and still was when I saw it, a
beautifully light construction, made of iron and supported over a
valley, rather than over a river, on tall stone piers. One of these
piers had been blown up; but when we were there, the bridge had been
repaired with beams and wooden shafts. This had just been
completed, and an engine had passed over it. I must confess that it
looked to me most perilously insecure; but the eye uneducated in
such mysteries is a bad judge of engineering work. I passed with a
horse backward and forward on it, and it did not tumble down then;
but I confess that on the first attempt I was glad enough to lead
the horse by the bridle.
That bridge was certainly a beautiful fabric, and built in a most
lovely spot. Immediately under it there was also a pontoon bridge.
The tents of General McCook's division were immediately at the
northern end of it, and the whole place was alive with soldiers,
nailing down planks, pulling up temporary rails at each side,
carrying over straw for the horses, and preparing for the general
advance of the troops. It was a glorious day. There had been heavy
frost at night; but the air was dry, and the sun though cold was
bright. I do not know when I saw a prettier picture. It would
perhaps have been nothing without the loveliness of the river
scenery; but the winding of the stream at the spot, the sharp wooded
hills on each side, the forest openings, and the busy, eager,
strange life together filled the place with no common interest. The
officers of the army at the spot spoke with bitterest condemnation
of the vandalism of their enemy in destroying the bridge. The
justice of the indignation I ventured very strongly to question.
"Surely you would have destroyed their bridge?" I said. "But they
are rebels," was the answer. It has been so throughout the contest;
and the same argument has been held by soldiers and by non-soldiers -
by women and by men. "Grant that they are rebels," I have
answered. "But when rebels fight they cannot be expected to be more
scrupulous in their mode of doing so than their enemies who are not
rebels." The whole population of the North has from the beginning
of this war considered themselves entitled to all the privileges of
belligerents; but have called their enemies Goths and Vandals for
even claiming those privileges for themselves. The same feeling was
at the bottom of their animosity against England. Because the South
was in rebellion, England should have consented to allow the North
to assume all the rights of a belligerent, and should have denied
all those rights to the South! Nobody has seemed to understand that
any privilege which a belligerent can claim must depend on the very
fact of his being in encounter with some other party having the same
privilege. Our press has animadverted very strongly on the States
government for the apparent untruthfulness of their arguments on
this matter; but I profess that I believe that Mr. Seward and his
colleagues - and not they only but the whole nation - have so
thoroughly deceived themselves on this subject, have so talked and
speechified themselves into a misunderstanding of the matter, that
they have taught themselves to think that the men of the South could
be entitled to no consideration from any quarter. To have rebelled
against the stars and stripes seems to a Northern man to be a crime
putting the criminal altogether out of all courts - a crime which
should have armed the hands of all men against him, as the hands of
all men are armed at a dog that is mad, or a tiger that has escaped
from its keeper. It is singular that such a people, a people that
has founded itself on rebellion, should have such a horror of
rebellion; but, as far as my observation may have enabled me to read
their feelings rightly, I do believe that it has been as sincere as
it is irrational.
We were out riding early on the morning of the second day of our
sojourn in the camp, and met the division of General Mitchell, a
detachment of General Buell's army, which had been in camp between
the Green River and Louisville, going forward to the bridge which
was then being prepared for their passage. This division consisted
of about 12,000 men, and the road was crowded throughout the whole
day with them and their wagons. We first passed a regiment of
cavalry, which appeared to be endless. Their cavalry regiments are,
in general, more numerous than those of the infantry, and on this
occasion we saw, I believe, about 1200 men pass by us.
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