[207]
strong impression that you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. It is not ludicrous, but sad, to see such soldiers in this Army of the Potomac, after three years of experience.
The man could not have been better: tall, strong, respectful, and docile; but no one had ever taught him. It was a clear case of waste of fine material, left in all its crudity instead of being worked up. And this is the grand characteristic of this war — waste.
We waste arms, clothing, ammunition, and subsistence; but, above all, men. We don't make them go far enough, because we have no military or social caste to make officers from.
Regiments that have been officered by gentlemen of education have invariably done well, like the 2d, 20th, and 24th Massachusetts, and the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry.
Even the 44th and the 45th, nine-monthers, behaved with credit; though there was this drawback in them, that the privates were too familiar with the officers, having known them before.
However, perfection does not exist anywhere, and we should be thankful for the manifold virtues our soldiers do pre-eminently possess.
I see much to make me more contented in reading Napier, before referred to. After the taking of Badajos, the English allowed their own wounded to lie two days in the breach, without an attempt to carry them off.. This is the nation that now gives us very good lectures on humanity.
As to old Wellington, I suspect he was about as savage an old brute as would be easy to find.
August 8, 1864
“What do you think of filling up with Germans?”
you ask. Now, what do you think of a man who has the toothache — a werry, werry big molar!--and who has not the courage to march up and have it out, but tries to persuade himself that he can buy some patent pain-killer that will 