[252] clothes and ‘hard-tack’ were oftener matters for jest than complaint. When his officer was considerate and capable, he was his idol. He was intelligent, understood the issues at stake and discussed the merits and conduct of every battle. Whether on the picket line or the forefront of battle, behind every trusted musket there was a thinker, and there was an accommodation and comradeship between the mere boy and the oldest veteran. It was such devotion and unsurpassed heroism as was displayed by the privates of each army, equally brave and of one nationality, that makes our country great and demonstrates to the world the excellence and superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race.
Can comrades cease to think of those who boreNo, never! while a widowed heart ceases to forget, or a sister shall coldly touch the brother's ‘honored blade.’ All honor then to the noble women who, in his old age and poverty—that ‘ill-matched pair’ seek to provide, if not a home, at least a shelter for him. May Heaven's choicest blessings rest upon them and all who shall aid them in their pious and patriotic work. To return to my narrative. After the affair of Fisher's Hill we fell back to the lower passes of the Blue Ridge, where Sheridan followed us as far as Staunton. Then, after destroying the Central railroad, he retreated up the Valley and took position behind his entrenchments at
The brunt of conflict, marching side by side—
Forget how youth forgot his beardless face,
Made beauteous by his valorous arm?
