House. It would be ludicrous, and the lowest comedy of life, were
not the track running through blood and among corpses. I am told
that even Halleck squints that way. And why not? All is possible;
and Halleck's nag has as long ears as have the nags and hacks of the
other race-runners.

_April 14._--Halleck consolidates the regiments and incidentally
deprives the army of the best and most experienced officers. The
numerically smaller regiment is dissolved in the larger one. But
most generally the smaller regiment was the bravest and has seen
more fire which melted it. Thus good officers are mustered out and
thrown on the pavement, and the enthusiasm for the flag of the
regiment destroyed, for its victorious memories, for the
recollections of common hardships and all the like noble cements of
a military life. Certainly, great difficulty exists to remount or to
restore a regiment. But O, Hallecks! O, Thomases! O, McDowells! all
of you, genii, or genuises, surmount difficulties.

_April 14._--In a public speech in New York, General Fremont has
explained the duty and the obligations of a soldier in a republic.
Few, very few, of our striped and starred citizens, and still less
those educated at West Point have a comprehension of what a
Republican citizen soldier is.

_April 14._--Halleck directly and indirectly exercises a fatal
influence on our army. I learn that his book on military not-science
largely circulates; above all, in the Potomac Army.

_April 14._--It is the mission of the American people to make all
the trials and experiences by which all other nations will hereafter
profit. So the social experiment of self-government; the same with
various mechanical and commercial inventions. The Americans
experiment in political and domestic economy, in the art provided
for man's well-being and in the art of killing him. New fire-arms,
guns, etc., are now first used.

The until now undecided question between batteries on land and
floating ones will be decided in Charleston harbor. Who will have
the best, the Monitors or the batteries?

_April 15._--I wrote to Hooker imploring him for the sake of the
country, and for the sake of his good name, to put an end to the
carousings in his camp, and to sweep out all kind of women, be they
wives, sisters, sweethearts or the promiscuous rest of crinolines.

_April 15._--Certain Republican newspapers perform now the same
capers to please and puff Seward and Halleck, as they di