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[154] The original ‘Stars and Bars’ he regarded as a sort of offspring of the discarded ‘gridiron’—of this abandonment he often expressed himself in terms of regret, by the way—and its successors he was wont to describe irreverently as ‘shirttails.’ He did, in time, come to develop respect and affection for his battle-flag, the little red square charged with the star-studded blue saltire, but even that his eminently practical mind conceived mainly as a convenient object upon which to dress up a line of battle or to serve as a rallying-point in the event of that line being broken. It was essentially his, the soldier's flag, and was never at any stage the national flag; its traditions were all of his own creation and he had baptized it with his blood. In the main, he regarded his service in the light of an unpleasant duty, and he went at it much as he would have undertaken any other disagreeable job.

General Lord Wolseley—then Colonel Wolseley—relates an interview he had with General Lee, during a visit to the headquarters of the latter, just after the Maryland campaign of 1862. Having intimated a desire to see the troops of whose performance he had heard so much, General Lee took him for a ride through the lines, and upon their return remarked to his distinguished guest:

‘Well, Colonel, you have seen my army—how does it impress you, on the whole?’

‘They seem a hardy, serviceable looking lot of fellows,’ Wolseley replied, ‘but, to be quite frank, General, I must say that one misses the smartness which we in Europe are accustomed to associate with a military establishment—but perhaps it would not be reasonable to look for that so soon after the hard campaign they had just gone through.’

‘Ho!’ replied ‘Marse Robert,’ ‘my men don't show to advantage in camp, and to tell the truth, I am a little ashamed to show them to visitors. But, sir, you should see them when they are fighting—then I would not mind if the whole world were looking on!’


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