Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-08-10
TIE PRIVATE SOLDIERS.

We have no words to express our admiration of
the private soldiers in the ranks of the Southern
Army. They are not enlisted mcrcenarieS; they
volunteers, and yet bear all the hardShps and
perils that fail to the lot of mercenary privates and
like them, thrown in the front ground in peril and
thrown in the back ground in the distribution of
glory. 1t is necessarily So for glory, so widely
ditfuSed bears to each man no distinguishing mark,
though each has been hero worthy "a Greek
and Roman fame" And it is because knowing
that they would have the lions share of danger and
that the monopoly of the renown must, and perhaps
ought to, fall to the more prominent figures in the
canvass to the military leaders, they rush not only
with willingness but enthusiasm to the ranks that
honor and admire the volunteer private soldiers
of the South above all other'men and classes of men
in the Nineteenth Century.
We honor and respect as all men ought the great
military chietainS and all the subordinate officers
who arc qualified for their positions, but yet we
look upon the private volunteer soldiers with
that we feel for official rank Their be-
ing where they are shows us just what they are
Their position the trouble of analysing their
motives; they arc honest as they are hrave-th
are men-genuinc men, the true metal, pure gold.
They are no political aSpirantS, military pretend
erS, no fuss and feathers humbugs; but patriots
and heroes, tc whom you may take off your hat,
and do homage to sincerity and manlincss in the
most perfect combination and unquestonable shape.
With few exceptions, Of worthless and reckless
adventurers-so few that they only establish the
general rule-the volunteer prvacS of the Southern
States the very flower of the whole land. In all
that constitutes character virtue and social position,
the great body of: these men, carrying muskets on
their shoulders sleeping often on the bare ground,
and eating cheerfuly the coarsest food equal in
every respect TO the highest officers by whom they
are led to battle. Yet, for that very reason, no
symptom of discomfort, spirit of INSTRUMENTATION,
is ever manifest in their ranks. Implicit obedience
to ORDERS which it thought would be difficult
thing to enforce among highspirited Southerners,
has become a distinguishing characteristic of the
Southern camp, whilst the very opposite prevails
among the Northern soldiers, whose frequent rows
and breaches of discipline are matters of Constant
newspaper notoriety. The reason of the difference
is that the Southern Army, the rank and file, is
mostly made up of gentlemen, who have taken up
arms from the puTest sentiments Of patriotism; who
submit to the most irksOme discipline on account OF
the cause and whose habtual selfrcspect precludes
the very existence of spirit of envy and insubordl-
nation towards official superinrS.
We do not speak the language Of exaggeration
when we say that such an army as the South has
now in the field the world never saw before. Eu-
rope has had larger armies made up, however, Of
mercenaries, of the very dregs of EARTH but never
any country in ancient or modern times an army
comprising the very cream of the intelligence, vir
tue and honor of the land. Drawer men neither
Greece nor Rome ever produced; the Old Guard OF
NAPOLEON and the ZouaveS OF the present Emperor,
never achieved greater prodiges of valor, but who
would compare the one or the other, in invdual dig
nifty of character with the private soldiers of the
Southern Army? Their valor, however, is surpass-
ed by their fortitude and patience, exercised in the
endurance of privatons and hardships far more try
ing to such spirits than the ordeal of the battlefield
1t is mystery to us how youths, tenderly nurtured,
and many of them not come to mans estate; how
gentlemen accustomed net only to the comforts of
competency, but the luxuries of wealth, exchange
all this for the cakes and fried bacon of the camp
cooking it themselves and in the most perfect gno
rance of how to cook it properly sleeping often on
the bare ground exposed to all the vcissitudes of
weather, and enduring personal privations, wants,
and hardships which the most of their slaves have
never suffered and all this without murmur or
complaint; all this for the and without the
faintest hope of that renown and fame officers may
hope for, but which, in the nature of things, must
be greatly weakened by diffusion through large
mass. gentleman, who has seen many Of our
wounded soldiers, informs US that he has not met
one who complained of his wounds, and it is difficult
to find one who complains of his coarse fare and
hard life. Did the world ever see such men before?
1t is an honor to live in the same age with such
lofty, disinterested spirits. Surely such will
be blessed of Heaven, and their cause and all they
hold dear be under its special care.-RichmOnd
Dispatch.