country, ready to join
hands with all good men in every good work, and prove themselves as
brave and good in peace as they were stubborn and unconquerable in war.

Many a weak, puny boy was returned to his parents a robust, healthy,
_manly man_. Many a timid, helpless boy went home a brave, independent
man. Many a wild, reckless boy went home sobered, serious, and
trustworthy. And many whose career at home was wicked and blasphemous
went home changed in heart, with principles fixed, to comfort and
sustain the old age of those who gave them to their country, not
expecting to receive them again. Men learned that life was passable and
enjoyable without a roof or even a tent to shelter from the storm; that
cheerfulness was compatible with cold and hunger; and that a man without
money, food, or shelter need not feel utterly hopeless, but might, by
employing his wits, find something to eat where he never found it
before; and feel that, like a terrapin, he might make himself at home
wherever he might be. Men did actually become as independent of the
imaginary "necessities" as the very wild beasts. And can a man learn all
this and not know better than another how to economize what he has, and
how to appreciate the numberless superfluities of life? Is he not made,
by the knowledge he has of how little he really needs, more independent
and less liable to dishonest exertions to procure a competency?

If there were any true men in the South, any brave, any noble, they were
in the army. If there are good and true men in the South now, they would
go into the army for similar cause. And to prove that the army
demoralized, you must prove that the men who came out of it are the
worst in the country to-day. Who will try it?

Strange as it may seem, religion flourished in the army. So great was
the work of the chaplains that whole volumes have been written to
describe the religious history of the four years of war. Officers who
were ungodly men found themselves restrained alike by the grandeur of
the piety of the great chiefs, and the earnestness of the humble
privates around them. Thousands embraced the Gospel, and died triumphing
over death. Instead of the degradation so dreaded, was the strange
ennobling and purifying which made men despise all the things for which
they ordinarily strive, and glory in the sternest hardships, the most
bitter self-denials, cruel suffering, and death. Love for home, kindred,
and friends, intensified, wa