Their Horses
Were Strong And Serviceable, And The Men Were Stout And In Good
Health; But The General Appearance Of Everything About Them Was
Rough And Dirty.
The American cavalry have always looked to me like
brigands.
A party of them would, I think, make a better picture
than an equal number of our dragoons; but if they are to be regarded
in any other view than that of the picturesque, it does not seem to
me that they have been got up successfully. On this occasion they
were forming themselves into a picture for my behoof, and as the
picture was, as a picture, very good, I at least have no reason to
complain.
We were taken to see one German regiment, a regiment of which all
the privates were German and all the officers save one - I think the
surgeon. We saw the men in their tents, and the food which they
eat, and were disposed to think that hitherto things were going well
with them. In the evening the colonel and lieutenant-colonel, both
of whom had been in the Prussian service, if I remember rightly,
came up to the general's quarters, and we spent the evening together
in smoking cigars and discussing slavery round the stove. I shall
never forget that night, or the vehement abolition enthusiasm of the
two German colonels. Our host had told us that he was a slaveowner;
and as our wants were supplied by two sable ministers, I concluded
that he had brought with him a portion of his domestic institution.
Under such circumstances I myself should have avoided such a
subject, having been taught to believe that Southern gentlemen did
not generally take delight in open discussions on the subject. But
had we been arguing the question of the population of the planet
Jupiter, or the final possibility of the transmutation of metals,
the matter could not have been handled with less personal feeling.
The Germans, however, spoke the sentiments of all the Germans of the
Western States - that is, of all the Protestant Germans, and to them
is confined the political influence held by the German immigrants.
They all regard slavery as an evil, holding on the matter opinions
quite as strong as ours have ever been. And they argue that as
slavery is an evil, it should therefore be abolished at once. Their
opinions are as strong as ours have ever been, and they have not had
our West Indian experience. Any one desiring to understand the
present political position of the States should realize the fact of
the present German influence on political questions. Many say that
the present President was returned by German voters. In one sense
this is true, for he certainly could not have been returned without
them; but for them, or for their assistance, Mr. Breckinridge would
have been President, and this civil war would not have come to pass.
As abolitionists they are much more powerful than the Republicans of
New England, and also more in earnest. In New England the matter is
discussed politically; in the great Western towns, where the Germans
congregate by thousands, they profess to view it philosophically. A
man, as a man, is entitled to freedom. That is their argument, and
it is a very old one. When you ask them what they would propose to
do with 4,000,000 of enfranchised slaves and with their ruined
masters, how they would manage the affairs of those 12,000,000 of
people, all whose wealth and work and very life have hitherto been
hinged and hung upon slavery, they again ask you whether slavery is
not in itself bad, and whether anything acknowledged to be bad
should be allowed to remain.
But the American Germans are in earnest, and I am strongly of
opinion that they will so far have their way, that the country which
for the future will be their country will exist without the taint of
slavery. In the Northern nationality, which will reform itself
after this war is over, there will, I think, be no slave State.
That final battle of abolition will have to be fought among a people
apart, and I must fear that while it lasts their national prosperity
will not be great.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ARMY OF THE NORTH.
I trust that it may not be thought that in this chapter I am going
to take upon myself the duties of a military critic. I am well
aware that I have no capacity for such a task, and that my opinion
on such matters would be worth nothing. But it is impossible to
write of the American States as they were when I visited them, and
to leave that subject of the American army untouched. It was all
but impossible to remain for some months in the Northern States
without visiting the army. It was impossible to join in any
conversation in the States without talking about the army. It was
impossible to make inquiry as to the present and future condition of
the people without basing such inquiries more or less upon the
doings of the army. If a stranger visit Manchester with the object
of seeing what sort of place Manchester is, he must visit the cotton
mills and printing establishments, though he may have no taste for
cotton and no knowledge on the subject of calicoes. Under pressure
of this kind I have gone about from one army to another, looking at
the drilling of regiments, of the manoeuvres of cavalry, at the
practice of artillery, and at the inner life of the camps. I do not
feel that I am in any degree more fitted to take the command of a
campaign than I was before I began, or even more fitted to say who
can and who cannot do so. But I have obtained on my own mind's eye
a tolerably clear impression of the outward appearance of the
Northern army; I have endeavored to learn something of the manner in
which it was brought together, and of its cost as it now stands; and
I have learned - as any man in the States may learn, without much
trouble or personal investigation - how terrible has been the
peculation of the contractors and officers by whom that army has
been supplied.
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