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

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[13] against the secessionists; and in observing the weak part played by the military element in her public life, far from being astonished that she did not succeed sooner, one should, on the contrary, admire her for having accomplished so much and created so much without any preparation. We might quote many instances of this contrast, so honorable to her energy, between the organized resources that she possessed and the results she attained. Thus the department of war, which in 1865 had control of more than a million of men, was, at the beginning of the present century, amalgamated with that of the navy, and was composed of one secretary and eight clerks.

The six thousand men voted by Congress in 1808, when war with England seemed imminent, had never been brought together. Therefore, when, in 1812, after twenty years peace, that war broke out at last, the traditions of the war of independence had been nearly obliterated. There was no enthusiasm to supply their place: this could not be kindled in behalf of a war in which the national existence was not at stake. We shall not pause to narrate the particulars of that war, for it has left no important traditions behind, and only developed a small number of distinguished men. It presents but few instructive examples of the mode of fighting in the New World, and with the exception of the brilliant affair of New Orleans, it scarcely displayed aught save the ordinary defects of American volunteers, without bringing their best qualities into relief. The campaigns in Canada, if such a term may be applied to a series of disjointed operations as insignificant in their results as in the means employed, are utterly destitute of interest. The regular army was hardly in existence. The volunteers, few in number, levied in haste, and generally for the term of a single expedition, confined to the frontier of their own State, could scarcely be considered as part of the army. The militia, more insubordinate still than under Washington, found constitutional reasons for refusing, even in the midst of active operations, to go beyond the frontier to support their comrades in the field. The most bloody affair, perhaps —that of Niagara—was a night skirmish, in which each of the contending parties, believing itself beaten, abandoned the field of battle before the break of day; while the rout of Bladensburg