William W. Bennett, A narrative of the great revival which prevailed in the Southern armies during the late Civil War

To the people of the Old World the war must have been a subject of interest and wonder.

The rapid transformation of peaceful citizens into excellent soldiers must have created among them surprise, if not alarm; the ingenuity and skill displayed in the preparation of war material revealed a progress in this direction which they hardly dreamed that we had made; the steady valor of many battlefields assured them that the American veteran of twenty months was not inferior to the European veteran of twenty years.

The atrocities of the war must have shaken their faith in the sincerity of a people who subscribed the code of nations, and professed to regard the Bible as a revelation from Heaven. On the other hand, the patient endurance of hardships, toil, and all manner of privation by a people whom they had been educated to look upon as voluptuous, tyrannical, and effeminate, by reason of their peculiar institutions, must have filled them with astonishment, if not with admiration. The leading public journal of the world thus described the impression made on the European mind by the attitude of the Southern people:

The people of the Confederate States have made themselves famous. If the renown of brilliant courage, stern devotion to a cause, and military achievements almost without a parallel, can compensate men for the toil and privations of the hour, then the countrymen of Lee and Jackson may be consoled amid their sufferings. From all parts of Europe, from their enemies as well as from their friends, from those who condemn their acts as well as those who sympathize with them, comes the tribute of admiration.

When the history of this war is written the admiration will doubtless become deeper and stronger, for the veil which has covered the South will be drawn away, and disclose a picture of patriotism, of unanimous self-sacrifice, of wise and firm administration, which we can now only see indistinctly.