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THE POPULARITY OF MR. LINCOLN'S GOVERNMENT.

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of war with the soldiers, held by those sent by the commission, amounting to many thousands, and many more thousands of letters written for the soldiers to their friends, or to obtain discharges or descriptive lists."

Were the work an effort of a sect or only a development of the influence of Christian principle, I should hesitate to extend any further representations. But I wish to show the sympathy of the nation, and the most enlightened and benevolent portion of the community, not only with the army, but with the object for which the army exposes itself in the midst of warfare. The United States Government at present are sustained by the people, the Protestant Churches, the Christian families, and the wisest patriots in the country, with few and insignificant exceptions. "One of themselves" has said in beautiful earnestness :

"If we, as women, can devise new duties for ourselves, if we can find new channels of help, new inspiration for good, new modes of evincing our love of country without public demonstration, let us not shrink but rejoice. And it may be that some among us who, seeing no present distress, have never yet fairly awakened to the full perception of the requirements and privileges of the hour, will, for the honour of the sisterhood, now come forward, and, being fresh in the work, press on beyond the foremost. We are all needed, and we must not hold back, supposing the work to grow less pressing. The spring budding around us, reminds us that the time of comparative inaction in our armies is over, and that our boys will soon be in want of everything we can do for them. Let us abridge our luxuries for their sakes; let us give them of our leisure; let us consecrate a large portion of our thoughts to them; let us write them innumerable letters of hope, and love, and cheer, full of sweet home chat and bright visions of the future, when their toil shall be over and the victory won. Let us pledge ourselves to treat with a true disdain every insidious attempt at corrupting public feeling at the North; every man who is engaged in fomenting these miserable party divisions, which form the last hope of our traitorous enemies."

CHAPTER IX.

THE ARMY: ITS CONSTITUENTS-ALL RANKS-VOLUNTEERS—

SUBSTITUTES-DRAFTS.

THE army which fought under Washington in the revolutionary struggle was disbanded at the close of the War of Independence. The eighth section of the Constitution of 1787 empowered Congress to "raise and support armies," and in the second article of the section the President was constituted "Commander-in-Chief of the army, and navy, and of the militia, when called into the service of the United States." A war department was established in 1789. The present articles of war were enacted in 1806, and form the military code which governs all American troops when mustered for service. In 1791 the rank and file of the army were 2116; but in 1792 an act of Congress provided for a uniform militia throughout the United States. Few alterations have been since introduced into the system. In 1796, four regiments of infantry, eight companies each, two companies of light dragoons, and a corps of artillerists and engineers, constituted the body of the army; a brigadier and major-general, with a suitable staff, were the controlling authorities; but, in a short time, the major-general was dispensed with as an unnecessary extravagance. The excitement stimulated by the wars of the French Revolution induced Congress to authorize the President in 1798 to raise a provisional army of 10,000 men. The peace establishment was again adopted in 1802, but in 1807 the retaliatory French and English decrees on com

PROGRESS OF THE AMERICAN ARMY.

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merce prompted warlike apprehensions, and again the Congress authorized the President to accept 30,000 volunteers, and in 1808 the entire militia of the country was newly equipped. In January, 1812, an act directed that an additional force should be raised; in February the force was increased, and on the 18th June of that year war was declared, and 35,000 were voted to carry on successfully what had been commenced with 10,000 men. At the close of this war, in 1815, the provisional army was disbanded. In 1821 a systematic organization was given to the new peace establishment, which remained with slight and only temporary enlargements till 1861. The several parts of the American army of peace were seven infantry and four artillery regiments, with the various staff corps and departments, which were the nucleus of the present war establishment. A regiment of dragoons took the place of irregular mounted rangers in 1833, and a second regiment of the same class was raised in 1836. The Florida war occasioned disturbance and apprehension from 1835 till 1839, but a treaty, which took full effect in 1842, gave promise of future peace. The scheming of Southern slaveholders involved the Union in prospective war with Mexico in 1845-6, which caused temporary additions to the army. In May, 1846, the aggregate of the line troops was 7,244. Regulars were enlisted during the war in total number 29,000, and 50,000 volunteers were employed for various terms of service. In 1848, at the treaty of peace, the volunteers and regulars were brought home and disbanded: the only addition left being a regiment of mounted riflemen. In 1855 two regiments of infantry and two of cavalry were added to the standing army to defend frontiers, etc., in an increased territory. General Winfield Scott was by brevet nominated Lieutenant-General, the only successor in that title to Washington.

When Fort Sumter was attacked, in April, 1861, the

United States army consisted of only 14,000 regular troops, scattered in small parties over the whole land by a preconcerted arrangement of the members of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet. The United States' navy numbered no more than 5000 seamen, stationed in all parts of the world, beyond the reach of speedy recal. Officers high in rank had resigned their positions in the service of the Union, and joined the conspirators, diminishing the force of the United States, and strengthening their foes. All the troops in rebel states were either turned out from their territories, or conquered as being few, or bribed to enter the service of the secessionists. Only one garrison remained flying the flag of the Union within the Southern states. Major Anderson had conveyed his small band from Fort Moultrie or another less secure, and had occupied Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbour. General Beauregard and his confederates laid seige to it, and surrounded it by forces which a small body of men, less than a hundred, could not hope to withstand. Vessels were sent with provisions and assistance to the beleaguered fortress, but could not reach it through the armed obstructions placed in the channel. Here, then, was the commencement of the war, under the generalship of the secessionist Beauregard, and in obedience to the commands of Mr. Jefferson Davis and the men who with him had conspired to break up the Union, and set up a rebellious confederacy in violation of their oaths and regardless of the bloodshed and ruin which might follow. It has been often urged that the United States began the war between the South and North, and that they are responsible for its continuance. Men who ought to know better and should have led in a wiser path have spoken rash and harsh things. The Confederate Secretary of War, Mr. Walker, Montgomery, Ala., threatened that before the 1st of May the Confederate flag should be waving over the capitol at Washington, and Faneuil Hall, Boston.

THE CRUDE ELEMENTS OF THE MAIN ARMY.

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The army of the United States, throughout the present conflict, is not constituted as modern European armies have been. The Highland regiments of earlier times, when the chief of a clan and the cadets of his family drew together all who bore his name, or by collateral lineage had their sympathies, and dwelling in the glens and associations of their strath, or mountain range, were nearer, in comparison, to the Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and even Kansas battalions, which have been marshalled in battle array. When President Lincoln first called on the loyal states to help him to meet the rebels, multitudes rallied fresh from the plough, the loom, the forge, the workshop, fresh from college seats, professors' chairs, the bar, the pulpit, and the countinghouse. From every department of American industry the army of the Union was promptly convened to hasten into the field of war. They were enrolled as volunteers, many of them only for three months, and others for nine months; they expected the struggle would be brief and their return to peaceful pursuits would be speedy. The men first in command were mostly as unskilled in military tactics as were the ploughmen who filled the ranks. Many men who marched rank and file, were, in their home circles, as high in position as were the officers who stood as leaders. But few of them had ever fired a musket, even on parade, until they had to stand the fire of an enemy. The Secessionists had been familiar with bowie-knife and revolver, and had, many of their chief men, contemplated the fate of war, and had been familiar with the necessity of self-defence among the slaves, whom they were wont to oppress and pursue. They had tasted blood and smelled powder; while the mass in rank and file of the Southern army had the idle brute habits, which gloried in violence and plunder; fit as automata to be wielded by those who promised rapine and murder as their guerdon. The first rebel bands were di

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