Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[73] up for the numerical inferiority of the whites. But while waiting for this opportunity the gunners would take up the musket or the carbine, and, fighting either on foot or on horseback, share all the dangers of their companions. Finally, the artillery officers found themselves frequently invested, either by choice or the chances of seniority, with the command of important expeditions; and they gave ample proof of having lost none of the traditions of the Mexican war, where we have seen them play such a brilliant part.

We have already mentioned the great scientific labors of the officers of the engineer and topographical engineer corps. In the war-expeditions they occupied the post of honor, for they performed the functions of staff-officers and had charge of clearing the route for the army, and of directing its march.

The administrative branches of the service had an important task to perform in those campaigns where it was necessary to prepare everything in advance that the army could require. The reader will understand this when he recalls the fact of Johnston's army being followed by a train of four thousand wagons. It is not astonishing, therefore, that when it became necessary to provide for a million of volunteers, there should have been found among the various corps, quartermasters and commissaries of subsistence possessed of the required experience for directing every part of such a vast administration.

It was in the midst of this active and instructive life that the news of the disruption of the Union reached the American army. The perfidious foresight of the late Secretary of War, Mr. Floyd, had removed almost the whole of this army far from the States which his accomplices in the South were preparing to rise against the Federal authority. The soldiers had been honored with the belief that they would remain faithful to their flag. Under a multitude of pretexts the Federal forts and arsenals had been dismantled by the very men whose first duty was to watch over the general interests of the nation, and the garrisons which had been withdrawn from them, to be scattered over Texas, had been placed under the command of an officer who seemed to have been only selected for the purpose of betraying them.

But thus removed from the haunts of civilization, the regular