every fifth of their able-bodied men was in
service. In one single month one hundred and sixty-five thousand men
were recruited into service. Once, within four weeks, Ohio organized
and placed in the field forty-two regiments of infantry--nearly
thirty-six thousand men; and Ohio was like other States in the East
and in the West. The well-mounted cavalry numbered eighty-four
thousand; of horses and mules there were bought, from first to last,
two-thirds of a million. In the movements of troops science came in
aid of patriotism, so that, to choose a single instance out of many,
an army twenty-three thousand strong, with its artillery, trains,
baggage, and animals, were moved by rail from the Potomac to the
Tennessee, twelve hundred miles, in seven days. On the long marches,
wonders of military construction bridged the rivers, and wherever an
army halted, ample supplies awaited them at their ever-changing base.
The vile thought that life is the greatest of blessings did not rise
up. In six hundred and twenty-five battles and severe skirmishes blood
flowed like water. It streamed over the grassy plains; it stained the
rocks; the undergrowth of the forests was red with it; and the armies
marched on with majestic courage from one conflict to another, knowing
that they were fighting for God and liberty. The organization of the
medical department met its infinitely multiplied duties with exactness
and despatch. At the news of a battle, the best surgeons of our cities
hastened to the field, to offer the untiring aid of the greatest
experience and skill. The gentlest and most refined of women left
homes of luxury and ease to build hospital tents near the armies, and
serve as nurses to the sick and dying. Beside the large supply of
religious teachers by the public, the congregations spared to their
brothers in the field the ablest ministers. The Christian Commission,
which expended more than six and a quarter millions, sent nearly five
thousand clergymen, chosen out of the best, to keep unsoiled the
religious character of the men, and made gifts of clothes and food and
medicine. The organization of private charity assumed unheard-of
dimensions. The Sanitary Commission, which had seven thousand
societies, distributed, under the direction of an unpaid board,
spontaneous contributions to the amount of fifteen millions in
supplies or money--a million and a half in money from California
alone--and dotted the scene of war, from Paducah