The Soldiers' journal. (Rendezvous of Distribution, Va.) 1864-1865, 1864-03-02
Our Veteran Troops.

unity of our troops, in their purpose to suppress
the rebellion by force of arms, could be furnish
ed than the fact that our armies -enlisting
almost neGSse. From every department from
the Rio Grande to the Potomac, and from the
everglades of Florida to the wide-spreading pra-
ries of Missouri, the same cheering intelligence
reaches us, that instead of growing weary of the
service and &C tired of the war;" the old troops
are everywhere renewing their adhesion to the
cause by re-enlisting. How pleasing the COM
parison between the conduct of our troops and
those of the enemy. By wholesale CONSUMPTION
they have succeeded in placing every available
man in the Confederacy in the army, but while
their recruits are coming up from the rear, their
armies are filtering into our lines with almost as
great rapidity as the reinfOrcements arrive. This
is striking illustration of the "perfect unanim-
ity" of the Southern people. There has been
much ado recently at Richmond about the
enlistment of the veterans of the rebel armies,
and the would-b Presidentof the Southern Con-
feracy has issued long, bombastic proclama-
ton, in which he lauds the bravery and endur-
ance of the chivalry to the skies, but forgets to
mention that the "perfect unanimity' y of their
armies in re-enlisting is the result of sundry
olutions in the rebel Congress, entitled An Act
to conscript all the able-bodied men in the Con-
federacy,' including those who have furnished
they have been, are now, or have not already
been in the service. With these Inducements it is
probable that, if the should continue so long,
the rebs might become gray in the service, and
yet not be veterans in the sense implied by the
voluntary re-enlistment of the patriotic soldiery
of our armies. The veteran corps of our army
promises to be a most formidable organization,
in the character of the material of which it is
composed, well numerically, as none but
those who have seen two or more years active
service are eligible to it's ranks. To men who
have seen two years. field service the army be-
comes home, and trade, and it seems more
like assuming new business obligations than
what most persons in civil life regard as a sla-
wish servility. The experience of the veterans
who were granted thirty day furloughs under
the late order, clearly demonstrates this fact
Used by long habit to life in camp, the veteran
experiences much the same solicitude for re-
turn to his martial associations that the new
recruit feels for the pleasantries of his home
and fireside. While the recruit muses. of his as
sociations in the crowded metropolis or the plea
SAINT rural village the veterans thoughts are of
the fierce battle, the exciting skirmish or the
tiresome march, and he never feels so perfectly
at home as when sitting with his comrades in
arms around the blazing camp fire, recting and
hearing related the scenes of the various bloody
conflicts in which they have participated. With
a haversack full of pork and crackers, a canteen
of good water, and pouch filled with cut and
dry'' well-tried rifle and plenty of ammuni-
ton, he can look forward to the shock of battle
with complacency entirely unknown to those
in civil life who live the fat of the land, but
are in constant dread of the coming draft"
Many think, doubtless, that the large Govern
ment, State and municipal bounties offered are