Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1862-05-02
The Volunteers and the ProFasionai CON


full of admiration for the volunteers OF tho
Confederate army. Every tongue speaks their
praise, every heart overAows with gratitude,
and every Christian prayer bears their names
. 10 tho car Of Heaven The sentiment is just
Never did mon deserve more of their country;
never did a country bring forth such men.
Their clsim to the love and affection Of the
ueople is not confined to the mere fact that
they aro in the field to defend our liberties. 1t
rests not in more sentiment; it is not based
alone on their suhsrings and privations, their
valor, or their victories. Their conduct will
bear every test, and the more strikingly de-
serves our admiration and gratitude tho more
tits known.
When our volunteer army took the field,
it soon found that its fortitude was 10 be
tested rather than its cos:sge-a far more
painful and trying ordeal. It's moral strength,
its spirit, its devotion, wero not to be directed
in the channel it had hoped. Its physical
strength was pitted against disease, rather
than against tho enemy, and the spirit OF the
men was subjected to the fiery trial Of that
''hopc deferred which ,nskoth the heart sick, :"
instead of being stimulated BY action, and IN
famed by the excitement Of tho march, the
battle, and tho victory. We do not row
either applaud or impeach tho wisdom OF this
course; We only refer to it as fact, and to the
severe trial to which it subjected our soldiers.
The war of the revolution furnished the model
to our rulers, rather than the campaigns OF
France, whenel, recipitated the enthusiasm
and 1mpet Gus valor of her people upon the
combined and confident hosts Of Europe, and
vrested safety from fortune.
Besides the example of the Revolutionary
War, there was another reason which aided
in shaping the use made of the volunteer
army.
The statesmen who directed our affairs saw,
or thought they saw, different road to liberty
from the old red path which all other peoples
have had to tread. Along this white and easy
course bloomsd the cotton plant in all its
beauty, making the way infinitely more at
trac,ive to the eye than that narrow path,
beset with bayonets and streaming with blood,
which in modern times has led from the house
Of bondage to tho land of promise.
An army vas not deemed very necessary By
such as chose the easy way. Time and the
increasing wants Of England and France would
accomplish all, they thought, and We would
be spared tbs rough, hard work of war. But
these expectations Of our rulers, dangerous
when INDUCED in the presence Of the immense
preparations Of the enemy, vain and fallacious
as they have been found to be, disastrous in
the consequences they have brought upon US,
produced another effect, not SO generally
known, which We desire now to bring to the
attention Of the people, that they may better
know the magnitude of our debt to our volun-
teers, ard more clearly see the shining merits
of our army.
The expectation Of the speedy termination
of the wnr, by the operation of the influences
above alluded to, psralyzed our military pre-
parations, and Of course our operations, and
kept our army immoble during the past au.
tumn and winter; and, as is known to the
student Of the legislation of Congress, it kept
that body quiet in council. They made no
provision for raising an army, except by re-
cruiting that already in the field by new vol
unteeEs, and inducing the enlisted men to
remain. This was thought to be sufficient,
and to this extent they went, and no further.
10 fac! there was no efflcacious law passed to
raise force for our defence until fortnight
ago, when the sound of the enemy's cannon,
and the tramp Of his advancing columns awoke
the Congress to belief that there was real
danger Of tremendous war. and that cannon,
not cotton, would win the day.
Had adequate provision been made last
September TO bring into the field an army in
s.stste of preparation to take the place ofsuch
of the original volunteers as might desire to
return home on the expiration Of their term Of
service, it might, perhaps, have been WE'LL
Such measure would not have prevented the
original volunteers from re enIisting, and no
one can doubt that when the peril burst upon
us, the volunteers would have remained at their
posts, and sought compensation for their long
inaction, in the impending conflict with the
enemy.
But such was not the idea Of the Congress.
That body considered it sufficient to keep the
volunteers in the field, and to repair by re-
cruits the rsvages of disease. TO attain this
object, the Provisional Congress offered many
inducements to the violin -'---- .-------f'..
They passed law by which the mon were
allowed to re enlist in any company and in
any arm Of the service they pleased, or if they
could find nothing to suit them, they were per,
mitted to form some organization to suit them
selves. This idea had not occurred to tho men
it was the original suggestion Of the wisdom Of
tho Provisional Congress.
Acting upon the suggestion, however, the
men began to re- enlist freely; some in compa-
nies other than their own; some changed their
arm of service; some formed new companies to
suit themselves; and all awaited the expiration
Of their term Of service, to bcgu anew in the
organizations Of their choice The work went
brsvely on The problem of retaining the
volunteers was solved but its solution enian-
gered tho existence ofthe army as an organized
force.
but the quiet of last winter ceased with the
frst melting Of the snow. The preparations
Of tho enemy were completed; and the expecta-
tionE of those who counted on cotton vanished
with the dissipation of the little cloud foreign
WAT that rose from the affair of tho Trent The
fruits Of energy and vigor Of preparation were
r4ped BY the enemy at Henry, Donclson, and