occasionally with every effective man, the
squadron had no engagement except the picket fights, which were of
constant occurrence. The reason of this was that the Federals never came
outside of their lines, except for very short distances, and then in
bodies so strong that we dared not attack them. The practice of firing
upon and attacking pickets was then much condemned by the Federal
officers, but no valid reason has ever been assigned for this
condemnation. It is true that killing and annoying pickets does not
decide the result of campaigns, neither do the minor skirmishes and
partial battles which so frequently occur in all wars, yet it is the
means of affecting the general result, and assisting to make it
successful as much as any other method of harassing an enemy. If war is
to be confined to sieges, pitched battles, etc., then every method of
wearying, annoying and discouraging an adversary, of keeping him in
doubt, or goading him to desperation, must be equally condemned. All
stratagem must be discarded, and a return may as well be had to the
polite but highly ridiculous practice of lines of battle saluting each
other and refusing to fire first. There are certain rules of war whose
observance humanity and the spirit of the age demand. Prisoners ought
not to be killed or maltreated, unless in retaliation; the terms of
capitulations and surrenders ought to be honorably fulfilled and
observed; war ought not to be made on non-combatants. But the soldier
ought to be content to take his chance. It is more soldierly to teach
pickets to fight when attacked, than to complain of it, and a picket who
will allow himself to be surprised on his post ought to be shot. At the
time of which I write the Federal army at Green river was provided with
no cavalry, or cavalry that was useless. Its commander, therefore,
unless informed by his spies, whose reports were, of course, infrequent,
was ignorant of all that transpired even immediately outside of his
advance videttes, and it was impossible for him to know whether an
attack on his picket line was made by a scouting party, or premised a
serious affair. He was, then, obliged either to prepare for battle every
time any thing of the kind occurred, greatly harassing his troops, or to
take the risk of an attack when unprepared. It was an excellent means,
too, of judging of the strength of an infantry camp and the changes made
from time to time in it, to attack the picket line at various