Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[74] officers had remained utter strangers to the turbulent quarrels which it engenders, and had paid but little attention to the movement which divided their country into two hostile camps. Consequently, no class of men suffered more keenly, when the citizens armed themselves against each other, than that military family whose members were united by so many ties. All those belonging to the North, notwithstanding the great diversity of opinions on the questions of the day, prepared to respond to the appeal of their government. Among those who adhered to the Southern States on account of their birth or connections, there were some who, like the veteran Scott, remained faithful to their oath, believing that the insurrection, far from releasing them from it, obliged them to defend the threatened life of their country. The greatest portion of them, however, controlled by the influence of party spirit and imbued with the fatal doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of the States, which had come to be a kind of dogma among them, abandoned the Federal flag en masse to go and organize the infant forces of the rebellion. Many among them did not adopt this course, so much at variance with the common notions of military honor, without regret. These regrets, well known to their old comrades, contributed to mitigate the horrors of war, by removing from it all bitterness and passion; and their recollection actuated General Grant when, four years later, he extended a friendly hand to his conquered adversary.

There were some, however, who by their conduct aggravated the always painful spectacle of military defection. General Twiggs, who commanded the troops in Texas, was seen conniving at the success of the rebellion while still wearing the Federal uniform, and delivering into the hands of the rebels the depots of provisions and ammunition of his own soldiers, in order to take away from the latter every means of resistance. Abandoned by a portion of their officers, destitute of resources, finding only enemies among the ungrateful population they had protected during so many years, these brave soldiers were further obliged to resist the flattering representations of those who promised them a brilliant future in the ranks of the insurgents. One of their old chiefs, Van Dorn, had the sad hardihood to reappear among them, to support these propositions with the influence which his rare