Canada; its Defences, Condition, and Resources / Being a third and concluding volume of "My Diary, North and South"

by Sir William Howard Russell

In the Crimean war, when our army was enlarged at a time that severe losses had much diminished the number of officers, we saw that our standard was considerably lowered by the precipitate infusion of new men. No wonder, then, that the United States had and has great difficulty in procuring officers of the least value for a levy of more than half-a-million of volunteers.

But the system itself is a most formidable barrier to success. Under no circumstances can it reach a moderate degree of efficiency, unless the test of subsequent examination be rigidly enforced. There is no superiority of rank, of military knowledge, of personal character, of social position, to create an emulation in the mind of the private to be the obedient but daring equal of the officer in the time of danger. To such general remarks there are many and brilliant exceptions.

In the course of time, the personal qualities and the reputation for bravery and skill of officers would stand in the Republican armies in lieu of those influences which move the British soldier. No one is foolish enough to think or say that the private follows his officer because the latter has paid so much money for his commission or has so much a year. The gradual rise from one rank to another is a guarantee of some military knowledge—at all events, of acquaintance with drill. Social position counts for much. Men who are equal before the law are very unequal in the drill-book.

It would be lamentable to see so much faith in a cause, such devotion, zeal, boundless expenditure, and splendid material comparatively lost—to behold the petted Republic wasting away under this influence, and the vis inertiæ of the force it has called into being, were it not that the spectacle is a lesson for the nations. It has not yet come to its end.

If standing armies there must be, let them be as complete in organisation as possible. If an empire must rely on volunteers as its main defence, let care be taken that they are organised and officered so as to be effective, and regulated on such principles of economy that they may not overwhelm with debt the country they are engaged in protecting by their arms.

It is quite true that the Confederates suffer from the same disadvantages as those which affect the Federals, but in a far less degree. Mr. Davis, early in the war, got hold of the army and subjected it to discipline. It was not so difficult to do so in the South as in the North, owing to the difference in the people. The officers were appointed by him. The men were animated, as they are now, by an intense hatred of their enemy. Their armies were in a defensive attitude; a large number, comprising some of the best, of the United States officers sided with them. They are operating besides on the inner lines.

But, after all, if the possession of the seaboard, the use of navies, the vast preponderance of population, the ability to get artillery and arms, and the occupation of the heads of the great river communications be not utterly thrown away, the North must overrun the South, if only the Northerners can fight as well as the Southerners, and if the North can raise money to maintain the struggle.

Let us leave out of view the slave element for once. The Abolitionists assert that the most formidable weapon in the United States armoury is the use of the emancipated slave; but it is rather difficult to see how the slaves could assist the North as long as they remain obedient and quiet in the South, or how the North can get at them by a mere verbal declaration till it has conquered the Slave States. Above all, it is not clear that it would benefit the penniless exchequer of the North to have 4,000,000 black paupers suddenly thrown on it for support.

Slavery is to me truly detestable; the more I saw of it the less I liked it. It is painful, to one who has seen the system at work and its results, to read in English journals philosophical—pseudo-philosophical treatises on the subject, and dissertations on the “ethics and æsthetics” of the curse, from which we shook ourselves free years ago with the approbation of our own consciences and of the world.