s own appointed time and in his own way. The
"defensive" is weak, lowering the morale of the army reduced to it,
enforcing constant watchfulness lest threatened attacks become real, and
keeping commander and troops in a state of anxious tension. These
truisms would not deserve mention did not the public mind ignore the
fact that their application is limited to trained soldiers, and often
become impatient for the employment of proved ability to sustain sieges
and hold lines in offensive movements. A collection of untrained men is
neither more nor less than a mob, in which individual courage goes for
nothing. In movement each person finds his liberty of action merged in a
crowd, ignorant and incapable of direction. Every obstacle creates
confusion, speedily converted into panic by opposition. The heroic
defenders of Saragossa could not for a moment have faced a battalion of
French infantry in the open field. Osman's solitary attempt to operate
outside of Plevna met with no success; and the recent defeat of Moukhtar
may be ascribed to incaution in taking position too far from his line of
defense, where, when attacked, manoeuvres of which his people were
incapable became necessary.

CHAPTER III.

AFTER MANASSAS.

After the action at Manassas, the summer and winter of 1861 wore away
without movements of special note in our quarter, excepting the defeat
of the Federals at Ball's Bluff, on the Potomac, by a detached brigade
of Confederates, commanded by General Evans of South Carolina, a
West-Pointer enjoying the sobriquet of _Shanks_ from the thinness of his
legs.

In the organization of our army, my regiment was brigaded with the 6th,
7th, and 8th regiments of the Louisiana infantry, and placed under
General William H.T. Walker of Georgia. Graduated from West Point in the
summer of 1837, this officer joined the 6th United States infantry
operating against the Seminoles in Florida. On Christmas day following
was fought the battle of Okeechobee, the severest fight of that Indian
war. The savages were posted on a thickly jungled island in the lake,
through the waters of which, breast-high, the troops advanced several
hundred yards to the attack. The loss on our side was heavy, but the
Indians were so completely routed as to break their spirit. Colonel
Zachary Taylor commanded, and there won his yellow sash and grade.
Walker was desperately wounded, and the medical people gave him up; but
he laughed at their predict