This was particularly the case with General
Clebourne's men, who so loved their gallant leader that, at his death,
revenge had almost replaced patriotism in their hearts.
I do not consider myself competent, nor do I wish to criticise the
generals who led our armies and who, since the war, have, with few
exceptions, labored assiduously to throw the blame of failure upon
each other. I have read their books with feelings of intense sorrow
and regret,--looking for a reproduction of the glories of the
past,--finding whole pages of recrimination and full of "all
uncharitableness." For my own part, I retain an unchanged,
unchangeable respect and reverence for all alike, _believing each to
have been a pure and honest patriot, who, try as he might, could not
surmount the difficulties which each one in turn encountered_.
A brave, _vindictive_ foe, whose superiority in numbers, in arms, and
equipment, and, more than all, _rations_, they could maintain
indefinitely. And to oppose them, an utterly inadequate force, whose
bravery and unparalleled endurance held out to the end, although
hunger gnawed at their vitals, disease and death daily decimated their
ranks, intense anxiety for dear ones exposed to dangers, privations,
all the horrors which everywhere attended the presence of the
invaders, torturing them every hour.
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