There Was Also A Fourth Army Under General
Hunter, In Kansas, But I Did Not Make My Way As Far West As That.
I
do not pretend to any military knowledge, and should be foolish to
attempt military criticism; but as far as I could judge by
appearance, I should say that the men in Buell's army were, of the
three, in the best order.
They seemed to me to be cleaner than the
others, and, as far as I could learn, were in better health. Want
of discipline and dirt have, no doubt, been the great faults of the
regiments generally, and the latter drawback may probably be
included in the former. These men have not been accustomed to act
under the orders of superiors, and when they entered on the service
hardly recognized the fact that they would have to do so in aught
else than in their actual drill and fighting. It is impossible to
conceive any class of men to whom the necessary discipline of a
soldier would come with more difficulty than to an American citizen.
The whole training of his life has been against it. He has never
known respect for a master, or reverence for men of a higher rank
than himself. He has probably been made to work hard for his wages -
harder than an Englishman works - but he has been his employer's
equal. The language between them has been the language of equals,
and their arrangement as to labor and wages has been a contract
between equals.
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