[
69]
In fidelity to duty and observance of prescribed regulations, it may be assumed that the
Confederate soldier compared favorably with any similarly taxed and ill provided.
Generally, he was scarce surpassed in willing attributes by the model followers of the first
Napoleon.
Dominated by patriotism, his ardor yielded neither to hunger nor nakedness.
The following statement contains a just tribute to a gallant and efficient officer—a present honored and useful citizen of
Richmond:
In connection with the prevalent idea so often expressed that there was little or no discipline in the Army of Northern Virginia [?], I take pleasure in putting on record what I heard
General Harry Heth say of
General John R. Cooke's North Carolina brigade, composed of the Fifteenth, Twenty-seventh, Forty-sixth, Forty-eighth and Fifty-fifth North Carolina regiments.
We were talking on the subject of discipline of troops, and he said that he thought at no time had the United States army ever been in better condition and discipline than the command of
General Albert Sydney Johnston in
Utah in 1858, and that no portion of that command was in better drill, discipline and general efficiency than the brigade above mentioned, just previous to the end of the war.
R. H. Finney, Late
Adjutant General of
Heth's division, Army of Northern Virginia.
