, dumb, and hear the more fortunate ones, who had "smelt the
battle," tell to admiring home circles the story of the bloody field.
Most of these "got in" in time to satisfy their longings, and "got out"
to learn that the man who did not go, but "kept out," and made money,
was more admired and courted than the "poor fellow" with one leg or arm
less than is "allowed."

It is fortunate for those who "skulked" that the war ended as it did,
for had the South been successful, the soldiers would have been favored
with every mark of distinction and honor, and they "despised and
rejected," as they deserved to be. While the war lasted it was the
delight of some of the stoutly built fellows to go home for a few days,
and kick and cuff and tongue-lash the able-bodied bomb-proofs. How
coolly and submissively they took it all! How "big" they are now!

The rubbish accumulated by the hope of recognition burdened the soldiers
nearly to the end. England was to abolish the blockade and send us
immense supplies of fine arms, large and small. France was thinking
about landing an imperial force in Mexico, and marching thence to the
relief of the South. But the "Confederate yell" never had an echo in the
"Marseillaise," or "God save the Queen;" and Old Dixie was destined to
sing her own song, without the help even of "Maryland, my Maryland." The
"war with England," which was to give Uncle Sam trouble and the South an
ally, never came.

Those immense balloons which somebody was always inventing, and which
were to sail over the enemy's camps dropping whole cargoes of
explosives, never "tugged" at their anchors, or "sailed majestically
away."

As discipline improved and the men began to feel that they were no
longer simply volunteers, but _enlisted volunteers_, the romantic
devotion which they had felt was succeeded by a feeling of constraint
and necessity, and while the army was in reality very much improved and
strengthened by the change, the soldiers imagined the contrary to be the
case. And if discipline had been pushed to too great an extent, the army
would have been deprived of the very essence of its life and power.

When the officers began to assert superiority by withdrawing from the
messes and organizing "officers' messes," the bond of brotherhood was
weakened; and who will say that the dignity which was thus maintained
was compensation for the loss of personal devotion as between comrades?

At the outset, the fact that men were