The Army.
It has often been said, but we have scarcely been able to realize it till of late, that the public virtue, the manhood, and all those qualities peculiar to the
South, lie mainly in the army.
The wheat has been separated from the chaff, and though some good grains remain upon the threshing floor, the great bulk of it is not here.
Such a resolution as that of the 12th Mississippi, recently chronicled in these columns, determining to go without food one day in every week, and giving their rations for that day to the poor of this city, surround that regiment with a halo of almost supernatural light.
It is the immortal crown and consummation of the unnumbered deeds of generosity and self-sacrifice which the army has performed from the very beginning of the war. whenever a deed of kindness and charity was to be done, whenever some poor widow, or some distressed community, required succor, or when a monument was to be raised to the memory of departed greatness, it is the army which has always led the way. whenever the public spirit of men at home, reclining on soft couches and feeding plentifully, has drooped and desponded, it has been the army, with no bed but the cold earth, with insufficient food and scanty raiment, which has sent back a shout of cheer and defiance that electrified the coldest soul and drowned the clamors of doubt and discontent.
And whenever a State, or what was left of it after the military wine of its life had been drawn off, became lukewarm and faltering, it has been the soldiers of that State who have taught it how to think and fell, how to suffer and endure, and, in suffering and enduring, to conquer.
Nothing more heroic, inspiring, and worthy of a great cause has been seen during this war than the resolutions of
Gordon's (Ga.) brigade, published in our issue of Thursday last.
It has the clear ring of a bugle in the front of the battle.
It is the voice of
Georgia in the field, and it is only in the field that we behold
Georgia or any other State.
It has the same inspiring and loyal utterances that have come from the gallant sons of
North Carolina, and, like them, will send a thrill of new energy, confidence, and hope to every confederate heart.
The army is the country.
Let those who stay at home labor to feed and clothe it, to invigorate and encourage it, to imitate it in endurance and self-sacrifice, and to be thankful that they live in the same land and generation with it.
