Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-05-05
Our Volunteer Army.

A State never is aware of its resources until
they are called forth by some such national emer
gency as the present. A people never knows the
depths of patriotism in their hearts until they
respond to the call to defend their homes and fire.
Sides and then the answer comes in tones that as
tonish even themselves. In ordinary and peaceful
times, men are unaware Of the ardent love of cOun-
try which sleeps deep down in their own and IN
their neighbOrs hearts. 1t may not have call to
awake once in an ordinary Lifetime; it may awake
but once; but aroused, let the foe and the in
vader beware; the quiet peaceful citizen becomes
| the bravest and most ready soldier.
Our city has been crowded with men called, in
most cases, at few hours notice from the quiet pur
suit of their VocatiOns-from the endearments of
family and home to undergo the hardshps and dan
gers of soldiers life. None could look them
without some emotion of regret at the necessity
which has called them FORTH yet the regret
forgotten in pride that Georgia could furnish such
men; whole, nObler specimens of the physical
could not be found in any land, and their
duct while with has been such as proves that the
soul of the soldier and the gentleman animated
them-amOng the thousand troops not subjected to
to the strctest discipline, which have thrODged our
streets, we have heard of few, even the slightest
violations of good order, and the chivarous courte-
sy of their conduct was subject of general re-
mark. An approaching lady could any time drive
to the edge of the sidewalk crowd of stalwart
fellows, and we know they will never yield before
Northern bayonets in the same way some
of them yield before the young bellies of city,
and what was still more honorable to them, before
old ladies with no claim upon soldiers courtesy
but that highest Of all claims-they were ladies'
Our Northern foes congratulating themselves
with the idea that Southerners being unaccustomed
to restraint, labor and fatigue, will never submit to
discipline or be able to endure the toll of a cam
paign. They suppose that the toll hardened mus
cles Of their farmers and mechanics will endure the
tests of soldiers life much larger and better. But
the best drilled soldiers the world has ever seen
have been of the most fiery Southern and with
out that element of rmnesS in them, mixture the
Saxon blood, such as ours have. The legions of
Rome conquered the then known world by disci-
pliue combined with bravery not superior to that
of the nations they subjected. The Spanish infantry
were famous for their steadiness and discipline.
Both these Southern peoples were the conquering
races of their times, and were conquered and
driven back only when their nobility became
effate, and their effemnate leaders failed them.
Our officers yet Of the people
As to the relative endurance, TIE nuture of the
Southern planter is better adapted to make the sol
der than thatof the NorthernerThe first lives almost
continually in the open air, and in the practice of
such exercises tend to invgOrate and supple tha
bodv-the other, if a farmer spends half the year
shut up in a close room with hot stove, and the
9th half in such and unremittng toll that
| both body and mind become laggard and slow. The
difference is that between the hgh-bred horse
and the plough horse-the last may toll necessarily,
| but emergency the latter undergo, with
out dminution OF spirit fagues that would kill the
| other. Blood shows itself in men much as in
horses.
If we have ever had shade of doubt as to the
| event of our contest with the North with such
splendid specimens of Southerl sOldiery we have
| had before us for the Last day or two, our conf
deDce as to the result would become unlimited. An
army of such men. large is proposed to raise,
could drive the invaders from soil easily as
| the whirlWinl sweeps the chaff before it.