John D. Billings, The history of the Tenth Massachusetts battery of light artillery in the war of the rebellion

With our departure from Poolsville more than nine months of our term of service had expired. If we had not made our mark in active service the fault was not our own. We obeyed orders, we did not originate them. It was not unusual for troops to be inactive several months after their muster. It will be remembered, too, that there was little activity in the main army after our arrival at Washington. The Army of the Potomac lay inactive nearly five months subsequent to the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg. But there is no doubt whatever about our having been serviceable here, and that the presence of our brigade at the upper fords of the Potomac did prevent frequent incursions of Rebel raiders into this section.

But there are other reasons for claiming that these were valuable months for the Company and the government. First, then, there is of necessity a broad chasm to be spanned between the citizen and the full-fledged soldier. The citizen possesses certain rights in whose exercise he is restricted when he becomes a soldier. As a citizen he has a voice in deciding who shall be his rulers; as a soldier, usually none: as a citizen he is justly bound to obey all laws intended to promote the general welfare, since he had a voice in making them; as a soldier he is held rigidly accountable for the infringement of all military laws, in whose making he had no voice. It matters not if they are the mandates of the veriest tyrant in the army, or if they violate every principle of reason, common-sense, or justice; the laws of the service are inexorable, and its exigencies require an unflinching and exact obedience. The existence