ceive discipline--began to show themselves. The army at this time was
principally composed of the better educated and better conditioned class,
who were the first to volunteer; and as I have already said, many of
the privates were men of high position, culture and wealth. Thus
composed, it was equal to great deeds of gallantry and dash. _Elan_ was
its characteristic--but it was hard to reduce to the stratified regularity
of an army. Napier has laid down as an axiom that no man is a good
soldier until he has become a perfect machine. He must neither reason
nor think--only obey. Critics, perhaps equally competent, in reviewing
the Crimean war, differ from this and declare the main advantage of the
French troops over the Russian was a certain individuality--a pride in
themselves and their army that had been entirely drilled out of their
stolid adversaries. Be this as it may, the _esprit de corps_ of the
Frenchman was in his corps only as such; and he would no more have
discussed the wisdom, or prudence of any order--even in his own
mind--than he would have thought of disobeying it.

The steady-going professional men who sprung to arms throughout the
South could face a deadly fire, without blenching, for hours; but they
could not help reasoning, with nothing to do for twenty hours out of
every twenty-four.

The gay young graduates of the promenade and ball-room could march
steadily, even gaily, into the fiery belching of a battery, but they
could not learn the practice of unreasoning blindness; and the staunch,
hard-fisted countryman felt there was no use in it--the thing was over
if the fighting was done--and this was a waste of time. _Nostalgia_--that
scourge of camps--began to creep among the latter class; discontent
grew apace among the former. Still the camp was the great object of
interest for miles around; there were reviews, parades and division
dinners; ladies visited and inspected it, and some even lived within
its lines; but the tone of the army went down gradually, but steadily.
During the summer more than one of Beauregard's companies--though of
the best material and with a brilliant record--had to be mustered out
as "useless and insubordinate." Excellence in drill and attention to
duty both decreased; and it was felt by competent judges that rust was
gradually eating away the fabric of the army. This was certainly the
fault to a great extent of the officers, though it may, in part, have
been due to the men th