[20]
with four hundred guns, and a well-equipped cavalry force thirteen thousand strong.
The leader of this fine army, like his immediate predecessor, was a zealous patriot and active soldier, and gave the tone of his own emotions to those of his troops.1 “All were actuated by feelings of confidence and devotion to the cause,” he said, “and I felt that it was a living army, and one well worthy of the Republic.”
2
Lee, meanwhile, had been assiduous in preparing his army for the spring campaign.
He first turned his attention to supplies and equipment.
His appeals to the people for the former were liberally answered.
The arsenals at Richmond were kept busy in the re-equipment of his troops and the arming of new recruits.
Much of his field artillery, which was inferior to that of Hooker, was replaced by new and improved guns.
Careful attention was bestowed upon discipline.
Prompt measures were taken to prevent
1 At this time General Hooker introduced the badge designation into his army with excellent effect. The idea originated with General Kearney at the battle of Fair Oaks. See page 411, vol. II. The occasion was as follows: It was impossible, at that time, for the common soldiers to renew their clothing, except by drawing
Corps badges. |
Kearney decoration. |
2 Testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.