Marching one hundred and seventy miles in less than three weeks, in the most inclement weather, through mountain passes and over abominable roads, on ten days’ rations, without a change of clothing, in expectation of an attack at any moment (our regiment alone forming line of battle over nineteen times), they point with pride to the thanks tendered to them by General Meade in his official report, and claim that they have done all that could be expected of them—if not more; and although smarting under the usage they received from those they went to protect, they stand ready, if an occasion of similar emergency should again arise, to meet again the same hardships, and undergo the same labors; but the next time we hope to be directed by generals who know a little about the details of their business, and will not have to learn at our expense.
It is an elementary maxim that soldiers will not serve with any credit under a man they do not respect; and when they find their leaders ignorant of the first rules of military life, obliged to ask information from subordinates, and constantly sneered at as ignoramuses by those who do know what they are about, they speedily become discontented and suspicious, and in that condition are worse than useless.
Our Colonel and other officers had learned their duty in previous campaigns; and by the manner in which they handled their men, and the care with which they regarded their welfare, earned at once the gratitude and respect of their command. And this remark is also true of such men as Colonel Roome of the Thirty-seventh, and Colonel Maidhoff of the Eleventh. But what would have happened to the militia generally, and to our brigade in particular, if it had not been for their regimental officers, it is difficult to foresee. When we think of what did take place, and what might have taken place, the New York militia fervently pray,
“From long marches, wet weather, short commons, and militia generals, good Lord deliver us.”