cient limbs, the decorations
which exalt and ennoble him in the eyes of his countrymen. Many a
chivalrous deed will be recounted with pride and satisfaction, and
handed down to immortality by the pen of history and poetry, and by the
pencil and chisel of art. Even the undistinguished services of those who
have fought in the war for the Union, and who have passed unchallenged
through the fiery ordeal, will be cherished by their children, and
transmitted to their remoter posterity with patriotic pride and
pardonable self-satisfaction. Thus the glory of noble deeds in this
memorable war will everywhere shed its lustre on the national character,
and will tend to stimulate the loftiest virtues in the present and
succeeding generations.

But, on the other hand, the unavoidable dissipation of military life,
the vices of the camp, the brutality and want of moral sensibility
engendered by the necessity of slaughter and the horrible ravages of
war, will tend largely to counteract the good results already noted.
Those who may be nobly disdainful of their own sufferings, will
sometimes be even more regardless of the sufferings of others; and
perhaps sometimes, with the natural perversion of human passion effected
by civil war, will seek to avenge their own misfortunes by ungenerous
rigor and cruelty toward all within their power, suspected of favoring
the enemy only in thought or sentiment. Even this imperfect
discrimination is too often altogether omitted, and innocent loyalty is
made to suffer losses and severities which ought never to be visited on
non-combatants, even though they be of the enemy. The fearful disregard
of human life, and of the accumulations of human labor in the shape of
property, which marks the movements of our armies in almost all
quarters, and even distinguishes the conduct of some of our high
officials, constitutes one of the most serious evils which attend the
contest, and which will leave their natural consequences as a permanent
injury to the nation. The record of these misdeeds, now disregarded in
the hurry and excitement of the conflict, will hereafter confront us
with terrible effect. The bad acts themselves will long continue to bear
fruit after their kind, and to scatter the seeds of vice over the land.
Such drawbacks, however, accompany more or less all great military
operations, no matter how sacred the cause in which armies are engaged.
Yet, we fear, no such example of generous and unselfish dev