登陆注册
15709400000212

第212章

I never could learn from any one what was the true number of this army on the Potomac. I have been informed by those who professed to know that it contained over 200,000 men, and by others who also professed to know, that it did not contain 100,000. To me the soldiers seemed to be innumerable, hanging like locusts over the whole country--a swarm desolating everything around them. Those pomps and circumstances are not glorious in my eyes. They affect me with a melancholy which I cannot avoid. Soldiers gathered together in a camp are uncouth and ugly when they are idle; and when they are at work their work is worse than idleness. When I have seen a thousand men together, moving their feet hither at one sound and thither at another, throwing their muskets about awkwardly, prodding at the air with their bayonets, trotting twenty paces here and backing ten paces there, wheeling round in uneven lines, and looking, as they did so, miserably conscious of the absurdity of their own performances, I have always been inclined to think how little the world can have advanced in civilization, while grown-up men are still forced to spend their days in such grotesque performances. Those to whom the "pomps and circumstances" are dear--nay, those by whom they are considered simply necessary--will be able to confute me by a thousand arguments. I readily own myself confuted. There must be soldiers, and soldiers must be taught. But not the less pitiful is it to see men of thirty undergoing the goose-step, and tortured by orders as to the proper mode of handling a long instrument which is half gun and half spear. In the days of Hector and Ajax, the thing was done in a more picturesque manner;and the songs of battle should, I think, be confined to those ages.

The ground occupied by the divisions on the farther or southwestern side of the Potomac was, as I have said, about twenty miles in length and perhaps seven in breadth. Through the whole of this district the soldiers were everywhere. The tents of the various brigades were clustered together in streets, the regiments being divided; and the divisions combining the brigades lay apart at some distance from each other. But everywhere, at all points, there were some signs of military life. The roads were continually thronged with wagons, and tracks were opened for horses wherever a shorter way might thus be made available. On every side the trees were falling or had fallen. In some places whole woods had been felled with the express purpose of rendering the ground impracticable for troops; and firs and pines lay one over the other, still covered with their dark, rough foliage, as though a mighty forest had grown there along the ground, without any power to raise itself toward the heavens. In other places the trees had been chopped off from their trunks about a yard from the ground, so that the soldier who cut it should have no trouble in stooping, and the tops had been dragged away for firewood or for the erection of screens against the wind.

Here and there, in solitary places, there were outlying tents, looking as though each belonged to some military recluse; and in the neighborhood of every division was to be found a photographing establishment upon wheels, in order that the men might send home to their sweethearts pictures of themselves in their martial costumes.

I wandered about through these camps both on foot and on horseback day after day; and every now and then I would come upon a farm-house that was still occupied by its old inhabitants. Many of such houses had been deserted, and were now held by the senior officers of the army; but some of the old families remained, living in the midst of this scene of war in a condition most forlorn. As for any tillage of their land, that, under such circumstances, might be pronounced as hopeless. Nor could there exist encouragement for farm-work of any kind. Fences had been taken down and burned; the ground had been overrun in every direction. The stock had of course disappeared; it had not been stolen, but had been sold in a hurry for what under such circumstances it might fetch. What farmer could work or have any hope for his land in the middle of such a crowd of soldiers? But yet there were the families. The women were in their houses, and the children playing at their doors; and the men, with whom I sometimes spoke, would stand around with their hands in their pockets. They knew that they were ruined; they expected no redress.

In nine cases out of ten they were inimical in spirit to the soldiers around them. And yet it seemed that their equanimity was never disturbed. In a former chapter I have spoken of a certain general--not a fighting general of the army, but a local farming general--who spoke loudly, and with many curses, of the injury inflicted on him by the secessionists. With that exception I heard no loud complaint of personal suffering. These Virginian farmers must have been deprived of everything--of the very means of earning bread. They still hold by their houses, though they were in the very thick of the war, because there they had shelter for their families, and elsewhere they might seek it in vain. A man cannot move his wife and children if he have no place to which to move them, even though his house be in the midst of disease, of pestilence, or of battle. So it was with them then, but it seemed as though they were already used to it.

同类推荐
  • 圣佛母小字般若波罗蜜多经

    圣佛母小字般若波罗蜜多经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 梅谱序

    梅谱序

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 致身录

    致身录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 黄帝阴符经注

    黄帝阴符经注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 新刊贤首国师碑传

    新刊贤首国师碑传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 归墟生

    归墟生

    天地有缺,其名归墟。无尽虚无,传说中的神与圣。混沌中,足以遮天的双翼缓缓扇动。
  • 清穿之萌妃,休想逃

    清穿之萌妃,休想逃

    四爷,福晋把侧福晋给打了。没事,福晋还好吧。下次打重一点。这些人皮厚。四爷,把福晋宠的无法无天了
  • 快穿:我是快递员

    快穿:我是快递员

    “万界速递”诶,这是什么公司。不管了,进去看看。听说这里的工资很高,还有很多保呢!。――――――想到当初那时候的我是那么单纯,现在唉!“万界速递”快递要快,不快扣“工资,工资”虽然可以在里面捞一点油水,哈哈哈…………――――――我在王者给李白送啤酒,在末世给丧尸女王送西红柿,在兽世给狐狸送衣服,在未来科技里送医学用品…………本文无男主,女强。
  • 只能我爱你

    只能我爱你

    一个金融界的故事,没有太多出众的感觉,也没打算能有人看,一个自私的金融师变成一个无私的金融师,从复仇变成救赎,从囚犯变成一个人们心中的救市主的故事。
  • 殿下专宠:甜心,哪里跑

    殿下专宠:甜心,哪里跑

    “顾白笙,我之前认识你么?”夏芮芮疑惑了。“夏芮芮你忘性还真够大的,要不要我帮你回忆回忆?”顾少邪魅一笑,离芮儿的小脸蛋越离越进......小时候就与顾白笙有一面之缘,呃,不算一面之缘吧!阔怕的是芮芮居然糊涂的忘记了!一边是腹黑校草,一边是整人表哥!芮芮的命运究竟何去何从捏?『作者:同情我家芮宝三秒!芮芮:三秒太少了!作者要不要太抠了!顾少:什么你家?明明是我家!潇然:不错,很强势呀!』最甜蜜卖萌新作!你值得拥有!嘿嘿!
  • 中华营养百味:美味素食菜品

    中华营养百味:美味素食菜品

    邂逅舌尖的素菜风情!《美味素食菜品》让你爱上素菜的味道!饭桌上,素菜和荤菜可以说是平分秋色,各占半边天。有的时尚人士甚至奉行“素食主义”。素菜的特征主要有:新鲜为主,清爽素净;花色繁多,制作考究;富含营养,健身疗疾。现在就跟随这本书学习制作美味的素食菜肴,然后做给自己的家人吃吧!
  • TFBOYS之潇然叶落

    TFBOYS之潇然叶落

    王俊凯:“雨梦,为什么要这样,你怎么变了?为什么要分手?”萧雨梦:“呵呵,你难道才知道吗?我们......你可以走了......”他,心灰意冷,转身离开......殊不知,在他转身的同时,她手中的枯叶,潇然落下......“琪雪,我们要永远在一起,好不好?”“千玺,我们......还有可能吗?”“依依,执子之手......”“源源,与子偕老。”
  • 湘西秘史

    湘西秘史

    一部大湘西百科全书式的小说,一把开启湘西神秘之门的钥匙,一幅描绘湘西世事百态的画卷,一曲吟唱湘西不了乡愁的哀歌。清末,湘西昔日最繁华的水码头浦阳镇正走着下坡路,浦阳镇西帮三十六家商号的两个主要商家张家和刘家也在逐渐走向衰落。张家的公子张复礼和刘家的千金刘金莲定下了娃娃亲,但张复礼逢场作戏的出轨惹怒了刘金莲,从此开始了两人之间的恩怨情仇……小说以此为主线,抒写了清代末叶浦阳镇近半个世纪的生活图景,由此而衍生出的枝叶藤蔓,更是几乎涵盖了这一时期湘西社会生活的所有层面,把百年前一个神秘而真实的湘西展现在你的面前。纷繁世事,千头万绪,奇风异俗,色彩纷呈……
  • 凤尊凰妃

    凤尊凰妃

    凤九幽与凰紫狸二人本是华夏隐士门的门主,魂穿到历史无任何记录的苍穹大陆。凰紫狸魂穿到御吟国丞相的爱女身上,因手帕交御希诺的关系与御吟战王御墨殇邂逅。谁料皇帝竟下旨把她赐婚给御墨殇,为保护丞相府,凰紫狸只好奉旨下嫁。却因此惹怒了从小就爱慕战王的护国公孙女慕沁雪,招来了杀身之祸...而另一女主凤九幽穿越到痴傻失贞不受宠的凤鸣九公主身上,更是复仇产子两不误。更多精彩详情,烦劳各位看官入驻细赏!!!
  • 月老今天不上班!

    月老今天不上班!

    重大消息!重大消息!天庭要裁员,王八蛋太白不敢得罪人,只能拿月老开刀!原来凡间的各种真情真爱,举案齐眉,寡妇鳏夫,八十老妪,统统开后宫!统统开后宫!王八蛋太白,月老幸幸苦苦干了几万年,你说裁就裁,你还他工作来,还他工作来!