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[437] must undergo two adjustments to hit it: the one perpendicular, and the other lateral. Now, who is competent to make the lubberly thing fulfil all these conditions? No man that ever lived or ever will live. To keep a cannon sighted upon a moving object is difficult enough, but to load and fire it, and still keep it on the moving object, is impossible. “Marching up to the cannon's mouth,” then, if done quickly, is demonstrably less dangerous than remaining stationary at exact ca monrange. A word more and I have done. Possibly, before the war ends, you may get under a general who may command you to pursue a routed foe. In that event, stop not as long as you can keep your feet. Bear hunger and thirst to the utmost point of endurance, rather than stop; and cut off your arm sooner than pause to gather booty at such a time. The reason is obvious: when your enemy is in flight, he is impotent, and you destroy him without hazard to yourselves. His dispersion is so great that he cannot be brought to face you again for months, if ever. His all falls into your hands. His spirit is broken for all time. And oh! remember, as we pass along, that all these evils, half told, become yours, when you flee. Soldiers! lay to heart the things that I have written, and reduce them to practice, and our liberty is sure.
Van Nostrand. New York, New York. 1862.
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