Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-10-18

result. Bragg made some Intellectual at
tempts to discipline the army of the West
but the Southern blood was too high to
bend to what it conceived to be degrade
ton, and could not then realize that it was
better than the eternal degradation that
followed.
The infantry service of the Confederate
army was the finest body of light foot, ba-
ting the discipline, the world ever saw. 1t
possessed all the tenacity in line of the
Austrians ; all the confidence in column,
| boldness in attack and cool self-possession
in defeat, of the British, and all the daring
intrepidity and fearless dash of the French
Corps dAfri4ue; while the deliberateness
and precision with which it delivered its
deadly rifle fire, inficting nearly double
loss on the enemy in almost every engage
ment, attested its vast superiority over that
of the enemy. The Confederate skirmish-
ers were the terror of the Federal army ;
and IN all combined movements in the open
field, and with numbers always inferior to
the enemy, the Southern infantry has never
falled to win the field. This superiority
proceeded not from the greater bravery of
the Confederate troops, but from their
greater combined skill and intelligence,
flowing from that larger latitude given to
individual action. Without their officers
to guide and direct them, the Federal troops
were little better than an armed mob. The
Confederate troops acted generally as we'll
without as with their officers, whose supe-
riority was only the temporary distinction
of rank. There were men in the ranks of
the Southern army who could have sup
piled the places of their general officers
General Roger A Pryor, after gallantly
serving his country as commander of brig
ade, rendered his resignation, and fought
to the end of the war in the capacity of a
gallant private of the famous 9th Virginia
cavalry.
The English refer with just pride and en-
thusiastic praise 10 the solid tenacity and
stubborn courage of the British infantry at
the battle of Inkerman. where 5000 British
hghtfOot held in check and finally repulsed
$4,000 Russian infantry, but it cannot COM
pare with the brilliant and spirited infan-
try charges of Eweirs and Longstreet's
corps upon the fortified position of the
enemy at Gettysburg, on the evening of
the second days battle, where the Southern
infantry moved to the assault under a
whitening artillery fire, and swept before it
three heavy lines of battle. And nothing
is SO forcibly illustrative of that high intel
hgence that was the distinguishing charac-
teristic of the Southern army, than the fact
that it saw and felt, before the attack Was
made, that the assault of the Sd must prove
failure.
The cavalry branch of the Confederate
army was, strictly speaking, only part of
its infantry arm, clothed with equestrian
powers and Offices It was only superior
body OF mounted infantry that, as advanced
videttes and daring scouts, formed the ears
and eyes of that army that was never but
once taken by surprise The mounted
force of the Confederate army resembled
the Russian Cossack, whose office is to har-
rass and threaten, not to attack and as
guerrillas, they became as renowned as the
famous knights of the Cid, Ashby, and
Stuart, and Forrest, and Hampton, and
Mosby, and Fitz Lee, recall memories of
Villars and Fitz James-of Tancred and
Alva-never Of Rupert and Murat.
But the essential pride and glory of the
Southern army, particularly of that portion
of 1t that was known as the army of
Northern Virginia, was its matchless artil-
lery arm. The world mighthave been con-
fdently challenged to produce such splen-
did array of high intelligence, practiced
skill and disciplined valor as was centered
in that renowned artillery corps that was
welded by that eminent patriot chief, Ma
jor-General William III. Pendleton. AS a
body, it was composed of the very pride
and flower of the Southern chivalrv, and
fully attested its lofty claims to distinction
on all those bloody fields, stretching from
Manassas to Petersburg, and it is the espe-
cial glory of the famous Washington Artil-
lery to have first wreathed the Confederate
banner with the smoke of its guns on the
field of Bull Run, and doomed the last hos
tile defiance on mournful Appomattox
Walton, Walker and Long Poague, Car
ter and Haskell Pegram, Mcintosh and
hot no
ed in the proud pantheon of Southern he
roism and devotion, and will Live as long as
the fame of that immortal struggle which
they so brilliantly signalized by their own
lofty endeavor.
The original organization of the Confed-
crate artillery was into companies, attached
each to its infantry brigade, and subject to
the orders of the brigadier; but it was soon
discovered that commanders of brigade,
the great majority of whom were from the
walks of civil life, were not the class of Of
fcers to give the artillery arm that power
and effectiveness of which, under skillful
scientific direction, it was SO eminently sus-
ceptible. Therefore, before the opening of
the spring campaign of 1868, a regular ar
tillery and ordnance staff was organized, in
the Army of Northern Virginia, with Gen
eral Pendleton at its head. Battalions were
Aul1OS1luSS 11OAA 01AtCSA W O"OuUS
guns each and operating in the field with
its respective infantry division, and each
under the immediate command of it's own
artillery chief, who had been assigned or
promoted to it by reason of his distinguish
ed fitness and qualification, as indicated by
former tests of high excellence in the prac-
tice of the field. And under the direction
of this able corps of artillery officers, the
grand Southern field park, both mounted
and horse proudly asserted its claim to a
place in the very front rank of the artillery
armament of the world. Pelham and Nc
Gregor's famous cavalry batteries that ope-
rated with the dashing troopers of Stuart,
won a distinction second not even to the
celebrity of the famous flying artillery of
Austria.
For the first two years of the war the
field metal of the Confederate park was
greatly inferior to that of the enemy. The
battles of Bull Run, Manassas and the
Seven Pines were fought with six-pounder
guns, twelve-pounder howitzers and few
rifles a.; and it was not until the
battle of Charlottesville that the Confed-
crate artillery armament was of sufficiently
hoavv metal To zone successfully with the