Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1862-01-15
Re-eniistment of Soldiers.

Within few months the term of the twelve
months volunteers of the army will expire. Thou
sands of our brave men will therefore be relieved
from the legal obligation to continue in the service.
But will they retire from the field? We hope not
We believe not Necessity may oblige some to re-
tire but we hope thousands stand ready to step in
their places.
Our volunteers have had hard lot Inacton,
bad food comforteSs dgings, night watchngs and
disease have decimated their numbers appalingly
The arrow of death sped from the guns of the en-
envy, has laid but few in the dust but how fearful
has been the havoc Of disease. Could they have
gone torcard and breasted the hail and fire of their
foes perhaps fewer would have fallen and pcradVen
ture instead of blockading Washington, they might
now be bombardng Philadelphia; but circumstances
have ordered otherwise and now shall they retire
and leave breach for the enemy to enter? Never,
no never. Most of them now are trained men, in
ured to camplfe and ready for battle. One of them,
perhaps, is equal to two or three raw recruits
Shall they leave the field till the enemy is driven
back? We trust not
This subject is exciting much concern. Our
Richmond contemporaries are cogitating upon it and
giving utterance to Their views The Dispatch
thinks it is now McClellan's policy to wait until
they return home 1t fears that the brutality OF
some of the officers and the inactivity of the army
have worn them out and hence many of them will
return, but hopes not-nay it Indignantly rejects
the idea that Southern volunteers will hesitate to
reenlist in view of the impending fate which awaits
the South if they do.
We fully sympathize with the Dispatch in its
views, and we predict that thousands of our brave
men will re-cnst to resist the invader. 1t must be
done, and We rely upon the patriotism and the self
sacrifice of our soldiers, to Uotunteer to do it.
The views of the Richmond Examiner are how
ever of different stripe. With an unwonted abil-
ity edtorially, is that paper conducted but attict
ed with chronic dyspepsia it is snaps and snars
at every thing, merely to be odd. That paper
scouts the idea Of begging soldiers to re-enst
1t conceives that its contemporaries commit blum
der in exhorting and persuadng the twelve months
men to counter for the Indeed it now seems
| to scout the volunteer system altogether. Mount
ing its war-horse it would have the government to
order them to remain. 1t is mere toadyism to ask
them to rally to the standard of the country Bona
parte did not solicit, but ordered men to fall into
/ ranks, and they ooeyed. lnese are Stout "oiuS
| verify from subaltern. Such sentiments can only
to gall and worry freeren, not to insprit them
to go forward By the way, is the South too,
military despotism? Are the free people of the
South under Napoleonic rule? Let not the govern
ment turn mad under the promptings of the E1a"'-
iner's gyratons. If this be war OF the people, as
the Examiner insists, let it be So and let the peo-
pie fight it out, and let them UOlunteer to do it
Appeals to their patriotism will move them, but such
hectoring and bravado will drive them from the
field Indeed, if our brave volunteers are backward
to re-enlist it is, doubtless, more the result Of
harsh treatment from officials which the Exam
liner has been forward to rebuke, than from any
want of patriotic devotion to the interests of the
country.