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THE WAR Y^r 
 
 u:nited states 
 
 EEPOET 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT ; PRECEDED BY A DISCOURSE 
 TO TEE FEDERAL MILITARY SOCIETY" ASSEMBLED 
 AT BERNE, AUG. 18, 1S62. 
 
 BY 
 
 FERDINAKD LECOMTE, 
 
 LiEFTEN ant-Colonel, Swiss Confederation: 
 
 Author of" Relation Historique et Critique de la Campagne d'ltalie en 1859;" " L'ltalie en 1860; 
 and " Le GeneraLJ<f»ipii,ta yie-ei tes Ecrita." 
 
 ^^)^^ 1871 
 
 TRANSLATED FEOM TEE FRENCH. 
 
 NEW tore:: 
 D. VAN NOSTRAND, 192 BROADWAY. 
 
 1863. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 
 
 D. VAN NOSTRAND, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 2 3 r 
 
 )^ 
 
 0. A. ALVOED, STEEEOTYPEK AND PEINTER, 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 FEDERAL MILITARY SOCIETY, 
 
 Assembled in Annual Session at Berne, August 18, 1862. 
 
 Gentlemen Officers : 
 
 About two months since, I was requested by our 
 committee to say something at this meeting, of the 
 war in [N'orth America, in which I have had the 
 honor of taking a feeble part. I have with pleasure 
 responded to this appeal, in the first place, because it 
 could not be a matter of indifference to republicans 
 that I should speak to them of the misfortunes of 
 another republic ; and in the second, because I was 
 gratified to have this opportunity of rectifying some 
 errors which have been current in Em*ope, in regard 
 to these transactions. 
 
 Before speaking, or rather, before speaking to you 
 of the American war, I ought to establish the causes 
 of it. In so doing, I shall be obliged to enter a little 
 upon the domain of politics. It is nothing surprising 
 that in a country so vast as the United States, extend- 
 
4 DISCOUESE TO THE 
 
 ing over twenty-five degrees of latitude, comprising, 
 therefore, very different climates, and by consequence 
 different manners, — reckoning tliirty-one millions of 
 souls, thirty-four sovereign States, and nine ten-ito- 
 ries, all accustomed to democratic rule, — it is nothing 
 surprising, I say, that in such a country, a great 
 number of parties should exist. Ever since its origin, 
 tlie struggles of parties there have been incessant and 
 active ; but the sentiment of respect for law had 
 always triumphed over the malignity of these con- 
 tests. Recently, however, this has not been the case. 
 
 Three principal parties had succeeded in establish- 
 ing themselves. One was that of the Southern popu- 
 lation, inhabiting a fertile soil, enriching themselves 
 from the products of this soil, particularly from cot- 
 ton, and employing in its culture African laborers, 
 brought by force to this country and reduced to the 
 condition of slaves. This party is styled Democratic, 
 although it would be better named Oligarchic, Its 
 social state resembles a little that of the old feudal 
 lords, or the patriarchs of the East. By its homoge- 
 neousness, as opposed to the multiple interests of the 
 North, it has almost always succeeded in carrying the 
 candidates of its choice, in the elections for the Presi- 
 dency. 
 
 In opposition to this party of the South, or Slave 
 party, is found one called the Northern, or Republi- 
 can party, which I shall define, briefly, by saying 
 that it is almost the contrary of that of the South. 
 
FEDERAL MILITARY SOCIETY. 5 
 
 Between the two is a mixed party, preferring above 
 every thing else, the enjoyment of the benefits of the 
 Union, and making, for this object, concessions on 
 both hands. 
 
 ' At the last Presidential election, there were four 
 candidates in the field ; the ballot was very full and 
 regular ; Mr. Lincoln, the candidate of the Eepubli- 
 can party, was elected. The Southern States then 
 carried into actual efi'ect the threat which they had 
 long made ; and with South Carolina at the head, de- 
 clared for a separation from the Union. Tliey seized 
 its arsenals, its forts, its custom-houses, its posts ; 
 blockaded its garrisons ; and finally bombarded the 
 Federal garrison of Fort Sumter, the first act of hos- 
 tility of the actual campaign. 
 
 It became necessary for the Union also to take arms, 
 to re-establish the authority of the Constitution and 
 the laws. Unfoi-tunately, if the Union is well organ- 
 ized to cause the arts of peace to flourish, it has the 
 worst possible adaptation for the direction of war. 
 There is wanting to it the very first instrument of a 
 government, an army. It lacks, besides, unity of com- 
 mand and strength of government. There is a super- 
 abundance of criticism, and of political wheel-work, 
 which complicate tlie progress of military aflairs. It 
 is nothing surprising that the first demonstrations of the 
 JSTorth had been marked by reverses ; and had ended 
 in the deleat of Bull Eun, on the 21st of July, 1861. 
 But the I^ortli persisted ; gav^e a better organization 
 
6 DISCOURSE TO THE 
 
 to its forces ; levied five hundred thousand men ; and 
 in this second campaign obtained great successes. 
 It might ahnost have been believed, last June, that 
 the war would terminate, — the great war, I mean, — 
 before Kichmond ; when new reverses, on the Chicka- 
 hominy, and in the Shenandoah, caused the Feder- 
 als to replace themselves on the defensive, and begin 
 another campaign with new levies. 
 
 The war therefore will continue, for the Union 
 persists more than ever in wishing to re-establish the 
 unity of its territory ; and, besides, peace, in the actual 
 condition of things, would be only a truce of some 
 years, wholly for the advantage of the South. The 
 war will therefore be pursued ; and I permit myself 
 to express publicly here my lively and sincere wishes 
 for the final triumph of the North. 
 
 I express these wishes, because secession is an ille- 
 gality : it is contrary to the letter and the spirit of 
 the Federal Constitution, to the spirit of every Con- 
 stitution, and of every organization of political society 
 whatever. If it is allowed to one of the parties to a 
 contract sanctioned by all, to withdraw himself from 
 it without the consent of the others ; if it is allowed 
 to South Carolina to separate herself from the old 
 Union, how can the right be refused to Yirginia, for 
 example, to separate herself from the new? How 
 can the right be refused to a county, or subordinate 
 division (commune), to separate itself from the State ; 
 to a family to withdraw itself from the county ; to 
 
FEDERAL MILTTAKY SOCIETY. 7 
 
 an individual to liberate himself from society, and 
 to arm himself agauist it ? This doctrine of secession 
 leads straight to anarchy, and is only, at bottom, a 
 subtle theory of the right of force and of barbarism. 
 
 I express also my wishes for the Union, because 
 secession is an injustice^ and an iniquitous act. Let 
 it be granted that the inhabitants of a country may 
 quit it en masse j it may be admitted that they have 
 a right to do so, and that in so doing they injure 
 chiefly themselves. But that they should carry away 
 the territory, which is a property of the State, is 
 another thing. The frontiers would be changed, as 
 well as the conditions of prosperity and security to 
 those who remain. The Union is an entirety, an edi- 
 fice which has been in course of erection for a long 
 period, and not a heap of pebble stones thrown pell- 
 mell the one beside the other. If one of the fractions 
 of this edifice, if a single panel of the wall, is with- 
 drawn, it is not only the removal of that panel, which 
 is produced, but the falling in of the whole. 
 
 In the particular case, it is to strip the Union of 
 advantages which it has acquired at the price of 
 heavy sacrifices. It is the Union which has aggran- 
 dized the South, and led her to a height of riches and 
 power which cause her to think to-day of her sepa- 
 ration. It was the Union which purchased Louisiana 
 for sixty millions of francs from the Emperor JSTapo- 
 leon ; it was the Union, and not the South, which 
 purchased Florida ; which has procured the annexa- 
 
b DISCOURSE TO THE 
 
 tion of Texas ; which made war against Mexico, 
 
 against the English, and has several times come near 
 
 getting into a war with Spain, — having been thrown 
 
 into tliese troubles chiefly by, and for the advantage 
 
 lof, the Southern States. If the Union has made these 
 
 I .... . 
 
 sacrifices, it is, in part, in order to have possession of 
 
 the outlet of her great artery of navigation in the 
 w^est, the Mississippi, which she cannot leave in hos- 
 tile hands ; it is to open for herself an access to the 
 Gulf of Mexico ; to have the anchorages necessarj^ for 
 her marine npon the Atlantic : and she has succeeded, 
 in fact, in becoming a great maritime nation. To 
 take from her three-fourths of her coasts, as the South 
 wishes to do, and the outlets of her great basins, is 
 entirely to change her situation, and to strip her of 
 that which constitutes her strength. It is, in a word? 
 to strike a death-blow at the Union. 
 
 Does any great idea, any supreme interest of hu- 
 manity, any political principle, at least, religious or 
 national, inflame the Southern mind in its culpable 
 enterprise ? Alas, no ! It is not for the assertion of 
 the rights of a particular nationality, since all the in- 
 habitants of the South as well as of the North, are, 
 in large majority, of the same Anglo-Saxon race, and 
 speak the same English tongue. Xor is it undertaken 
 in the name of a religious principle, as was the thirty 
 years' war. Not only are the people all Christians, 
 but the great mass at the South, as well as the North, 
 belongs to the same Protestant confession, to the 
 
FEDERAL MILITARY SOCIETY. 9 
 
 same church system, to independent churches, free 
 from all connection with the State. Political diver- 
 gences are not more sensible. All are democratic; 
 the constitutions of the different States, Korth and 
 South, are almost identical ; a legislative power of 
 two chambers, a governor as the executive power, 
 universal suffrage, the liberty of the press, the right 
 of association, etc., are common featm-es of all these 
 constitutions. 
 
 In spite of all that, it should be avowed that there 
 is an idea in this raising of the shield of the South, 
 but a detestable idea. Slavery, which she believes to 
 be in danger (and she is right), has put arms in her 
 hands. It is for the defence, it is for the great glory 
 of this abominable institution, which shames the 
 civilization and the Christian sentiments of our age, 
 that she has put herself at war with her brethren. 
 
 It is pretended in Europe, I am aware, that slavery 
 is not at stake in this war. ISTothing equals the 
 falsity of this assertion, except its effronter3^ It is 
 besides enhanced by a certain malice, which demands 
 some examination. 
 
 No ! slavery is not at issue in this war, if it is 
 thought that the ISTorth has undertaken a sanguinary 
 crusade against the South to bring about the imme- 
 diate emancipation of all the blacks, without giving 
 herself any uneasiness about the difficulties in the 
 way, and about certain economic necessities. With- 
 out doubt there is a party in the I^orth, a party 
 1* 
 
10 DISCOITRSE TO THE 
 
 ardent, vigorous, and embracing a great number of 
 men of talent and of faith, which would be inclined 
 to proceed in this manner, because it thinks that 
 slavery is at the same time an evil so great, and a 
 crime so horrible, that no consideration tending to 
 retard its suppression, can be put in comparison with 
 it. But this party, if it is, perhaps, the very nucleus 
 of the great Northern party, is not its head, and if its 
 ideas are generally admitted in principle, its means 
 of execution are reprobated. 
 
 By the side of this party is found another, or 
 rather another shade of party, which is composed of 
 men not less convinced, but more practical, more 
 careful of the consequences of their acts, and, besides, 
 placed under a heavy responsibility, since its princi- 
 pal members are of the government. This party 
 can be judged by its acts, which are official decisions. 
 It is seen by these that this party too desires the sup- 
 pression of slavery, but that it desires to proceed 
 towards the end more calmly, and more surely than 
 the abolitionists. It wishes to adhere to the law, as 
 far as possible, and to avoid revolutionary and violent 
 measures. Thus it has given the example, wdthin the 
 limits of its power, and decreed the enfranchisement 
 of the slaves within the Federal District of Columbia, 
 with indemnity to the proprietors. This the South 
 always opposed. 
 
 The Federal Government has also decided, using a 
 right recognized for every belligerent, to confiscate 
 
FEDERAL MILITARY SOCIETY. 11 
 
 the slaves of its adversaries in arms, and to liberate 
 tliem ; all the fugitive blacks which have been em 
 ployed in the war, are also declared free. It is 
 readily seen that the war will result, by this single 
 means, in the liberation of a great number of slaves. 
 I may observe further, that there are already forty 
 thousand in this condition. The Congress of Wash- 
 ington has followed by proclaiming emancipation as 
 an object of public utility ; and the resources of the 
 Union will be pledged to all the States which may 
 wish to rid themselves of this plague. Severe 
 measures have been taken against the trade in con- 
 trabands, and, finally, a slave-trader has been exe- 
 cuted in New York, which, in view of the rareness of 
 the fact, has produced a great and salutary sensation. 
 In fine, the Northern party has shown that it did not 
 wish only the emancipation of the slave, but also the 
 rehabilitation of the negro race, still, from a con- 
 descension to the Southern spirit, too much despised 
 even in the North. The liberated blacks will re- 
 ceive territories which they will colonize, and wdiich 
 they will be able, one day, to have admitted into the 
 Union by the same title as the others. The black 
 republics of Hayti and Liberia have been recognized, 
 to which the South was always opposed ; and, hence- 
 forth, black ambassadors will be reckoned in the 
 diplomatic corps at Washington. 
 
 It is seen, therefore, that on tlie side of the North, 
 slavery is a decided interest in the war ; and whether 
 
12 DISOOUKSE TO THE 
 
 it be continued, or whether the government of Mr. 
 Lincohi shall soon enter upon the full exercise of its 
 authority, the solution of tins great problem will be 
 positively advanced. In this it is by no means 
 intended to say that the Federal Government intends 
 to place itself in opposition to legal rights, and to the 
 Constitution, which it represents. 
 
 But if we direct our attention particularly to the 
 South, we see that slavery is its great motive to the 
 war. The people of the South do not wish to hear a 
 word spoken of abolition, either gradual or imme- 
 diate. They wish, on the contrary, to cause to be 
 recognized their right to extend slavery into all the 
 territories, and to cause this right to be protected. 
 Slaver}" has become, for these populations, not only a 
 fact, useful or injurious according to the several 
 points of view, but a doctrine which has penetrated 
 all institutions, a dogma which, according to them, 
 ought to command the respect of the entire world. 
 Their constitution determines the consequences of 
 slavery ; their discourses, their proclamations, their 
 conversations, their threats, their complaints, their 
 history, and especially the recent troubles of Kansas, 
 all testify that it is slavery- — its prosperity, its ex- 
 tension, the fear of its diminution, — which has thrown 
 tlie South into the war. Their priests even preach 
 the sanctity of it. And for every man not prejudiced, 
 it remains certain, that if the South has refused to 
 recognize the act of the majority of the nation of 
 
FEDERAL :NnLrrARY SOCIETY. 13 
 
 wliich it has formed a constituent part ; if it has 
 brutally torn the Constitution, to whose observance 
 it has sworn ; if it desires the destruction of the 
 Union which has afforded it protection, and of a 
 country of which the prodigious increase and pros- 
 perity have demonstrated the importance in the 
 world ; — if the South wishes to commit this double 
 crime, it is that she may the more readily commit 
 one greater still, — that of the maintenance and exten- 
 sion of slavery. 
 
 Tliis being so, how happens it that Europe, which 
 prides itself on being humane and Christian, receives 
 with so much bitterness every thing which is favor- 
 able to the North in this crisis, and seems to devote 
 all its sympathies to the South ? It is for a very sim- 
 ple reason. Let me be permitted to say it frankly, 
 without being accused of going in quest of sound- 
 ing words : it is because Europe, covered for the 
 most part with oligarchic and despotic institutions, 
 hates democracies in general, and the great Ameri- 
 can Eepublic in particular. 
 
 ^Ye Swiss, although we may be but a small State, 
 although we may believe ourselves weak, and that 
 we should willingly respect our obligations of Euro- 
 pean neutrality, which are in other respects such as 
 are agreeable to us, already know something of tliis 
 matter. 
 
 But the union of the United States occasions 
 greater umbrage. It is, or rather it was, a great de- 
 
14 DISCOURSE TO THE 
 
 mocracy, rich, prosperous, improvising on the instant 
 armies of a million of men; possessing a military 
 marine which at this time, thanks to its improve 
 ments, is the first of the world ; proclaiming its polit- 
 ical liberties to all ; preaching them by her example ; 
 not recognizing any slavish obligation of nentrality, 
 and putting herself in alliance or in war with whom- 
 soever it may seem good to her, without rendering 
 any account of her conduct to any one. This country 
 gives oflence because she is not only strong, but every 
 day a little less removed from Europe. Fifty years 
 ago the passage was reckoned in months ; twenty 
 years ago it was counted only by weeks ; to-day 
 it is by days, — ten days. In twenty years, without 
 doubt, it will be less still. And then it is a disa- 
 greeable country as a neighbor ; blacksmiths there 
 become Presidents of the republic ; printers' laborers 
 become ministers ; carpenters and boys of the coffee- 
 house, become senators and generals, and good gen- 
 erals too. The poor fugitive, embarked from Europe 
 wdtli his wallet and love of liberty as his whole for- 
 tune, finds there a sure asylum — more than an asy- 
 lum ; a country Avhich gives him a good reception if 
 he is honest and courageous ; which facilitates his 
 labors in the interior ; which protects him at a dis. 
 tance, as at Smyrna, against arbitrary power ; which 
 enriches him if he is active and enterprising ; which 
 raises him in consideration, and even sends him back 
 to Europe, who drove him from her, as the Ambassa- 
 
FEDERAL MILITARY SOCIETY. 15 
 
 dor of a great people. Ah ! yes, it is perhaps disagree- 
 able for some persons in Europe to see their ports 
 approach such a nation, which not only represents an 
 opposite principle, but presents herself sometimes as 
 a living reproach. And then, say they, these Ameri- 
 cans are so rude, so abrupt, haughty, boastful, im- 
 pertinent, insolent, egotistic, thinking only of making 
 money. It is true that it is added also to these griefs, 
 that they speak through the nose ; that they chew 
 their tobacco with their mouths full ; that they spit 
 on the boots of their neighbor ; that they place their 
 feet upon the table, and that they forget often to take 
 out the handkerchief to blow the nose. But if they 
 have not, as the ancient aristocracy of our Europe, 
 the monopoly of all the graces, they have, on the 
 other hand, solid qualities. 
 
 They are free of heart ; they are firm of character ; 
 they are good parents ; they are proud citizens ; they 
 have a consciousness of their republican dignity ; they 
 are pious; they are laborious ; and to them it belongs 
 more than to any others to say, \\ath our beautiful 
 national song : " We have no master but God."* 
 
 Then, besides, they are inventive, ingenious, they 
 have a fever for business, a passion for progress ; they 
 have covered their soil with canals, with railroads and 
 telegraphs, reaping a harvest for the United States 
 as do the ordinary roads for Europe. They have 
 
 * Excepte Dieu, nous n'avons point de maitres. 
 
16 DISCOURSE TO THE 
 
 pushed tlie boldness of their marine to the limits of 
 the impossible; they have opened immense territories 
 to colonization ; snatched from the earth its most 
 hidden mineral treasures, and spanned the arms of 
 the sea by gigantic bridges. They follow and outstrip 
 everywhere, the English in their commercial explora- 
 tions ; they have created a thousand sources of pros- 
 perity for individuals, all the while advancing the 
 arts of civilization and the reign of Christianity. 
 They had demonstrated the possibility of a great de- 
 mocracy, the creative power of libert}', whatever an 
 august voice may have said, which pretended, not 
 long ago, that liberty was good only to serve as an 
 ornament to an edifice founded without it. 
 
 This was enough to draw upon her the rancor of 
 despotic and oligarchic Europe. She has, however, 
 herself not been at fault. For fifty years these blows 
 have been falling upon tJie United States, and they 
 are attacked to-day with more fury than ever. 
 
 With what were they reproached not long since ? 
 It was particularly with habits of lawlessness and of 
 turbulence; the troubles of Kansas; the licentious 
 band of fillibusters against Mexico, against Cuba, &g. 
 
 And to-day, when the Union, beholding the rise of 
 a monstrous violation of law, sets herself, as in duty 
 bound, to re-establish the authority of the national 
 law, Europe takes part for the rebels ! Eebellion, 
 which is a crime on this side of tlie ocean, in Hungary, 
 in Yenice, in the Ionian Isles, in the streets of Paris, 
 
feijeral military society. 17 
 
 in tlie East Indies, and that under governments which 
 do not boast of their clemency, becomes a right in 
 the West Indies, a holy thing against the government 
 of the United States, which asks only of those subject 
 to her authority to refrain from pillaging her posts, 
 her custom-houses, and her arsenals ! Strange con- 
 tradiction, which is, however, not the greatest. 
 
 With the shameful plague of slavery, the immense 
 success obtained by " Uncle Tom's Cabin" was 
 brought to mind ; the ovations to its author ; then 
 the complaints of the English against the American 
 traders in contraband ; the reproaches addressed to 
 the United States in 1854, because they chose to re- 
 main absolute neutrals between the allies and Kussia. 
 It w^as well worthy of the slave republic, said they, 
 to ally herself with the Muscovite empire and her 
 serfs. Kussia, under the impulse of her liberal em- 
 peror of the day, pi'oceeds boldly to the establishment 
 of equality, and Europe applauds the act. The 
 United States do the same ; they do more ; they are 
 thrown into a war which should decide the future of 
 slavery, and Europe turns upon them her back, to 
 avow her sympathies for the States of the South. 
 
 She pretends that her interest imposes upon her this 
 policy. What ! a great country suifers from a crisis 
 whose effects are recognized to extend also to Europe : 
 the question is to know, not only whether cotton shall 
 be more or less abundant, but whether four millions of 
 human beings who produce it, shall be condemned to 
 
18 DISCOURSE TO THE FEDERAL anLITARY SOCIETY. 
 
 a degradation as durable as their descendants, and 
 Europe, an accomplice in these struggles by her abo- 
 lition agitations, should concern herself with the 
 consequences, only in so far as regards the cotton 
 ports and her manufactures! In opposition to the 
 cross of the Gospel, which the North places upon her 
 banner, it is Europe which would elevate the golden 
 calf! 1 refuse to believe it. 
 
 I do not wish to examine, in order not to abuse 
 your attention, what are the pretended interests, so 
 superior, which are invoked here, and which come so 
 •seasonably to support the political rancor which I 
 have indicated ; for when I see before me great prin- 
 ciples of Christian equality applying themselves to 
 four millions of men in one scale of the balance, I 
 have no idea of any mercantile interest whatever, 
 daring to place itself in the other.* 
 
 * Lieutenant-Colonel Le Comte then reads some fragments of his re- 
 port to the Military Department, and the assembly, on the proposition 
 of M. the Federal Colonel Kurz, decide to have it published. It is to 
 respond to this desire that the " Swiss Military Eeview" commences to- 
 day the present publication. 
 
R,EF»OR,T 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 M. THE Federal Counsellor: 
 
 Returned happily to Switzerland from tlie cam- 
 paign which you had authorized me to make in the 
 United States of America, by your honored letter of 
 the 11th December, 1861, I have the honor of sub- 
 mitting to you the following report : 
 
 I ought to state in the first place, that, thanks to 
 my quality of a Swiss federal officer, and to the re- 
 commendations of the Federal Military Department ; 
 to those of General Dufour ; of M. Fogg, Ambassador 
 of the United States at Berne ; and of some other 
 persons, I was very well received by Mr. Seward, 
 Secretary of State, by Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, 
 by General McClellan, at that time commanding 
 in chief all the Federal forces, as also by our consuls 
 at Xew York and Washington, De Luze and liitz. 
 
 General McClellan, whose head-quarters were then 
 
20 REPORT TO THE 
 
 at "Wasliiiigton, deigned to attach me to liis staff as 
 voluntary aide de-cainp, retaining my Swiss rank of 
 Major, and with the condition of being able to return 
 at any time to my country, should I be called thither 
 by my government. I met, on the staff of General 
 McClellan, wdtli several European officers, who w^ere 
 held in that position w^ith the same title as myself. 
 
 I have already had the honor, M. Federal Counsel- 
 lor, of presenting to you at Berne the letters of leave 
 which were delivered to me by General McClellan 
 and by the Secretary of War. 
 
 THEATRE OF WAR. — GENERAL STATISTICAL AND GEO- 
 GRA.PHICAL NOTIONS. 
 
 For the understanding of the observations which I 
 desire to present under this head, it is necessary that 
 I recall briefly some of the principal features of the 
 country. 
 
 The United States of America, the theatre of the 
 existing civil war, constitute a vast federative republic, 
 of thirty-four States and nine Territories. Bounded 
 on the north by the British Possessions ; on the west 
 by the Pacific Ocean ; on the south by the republic 
 and the Gulf of Mexico; and on the east by the 
 Atlantic Ocean, — she comprises an extent of three 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 21 
 
 millions two liiindred and fifty thousand square miles, 
 that is to say, an area almost eqnal to that of all Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 In respect to its physical structure, the country 
 comprises five great regions: 
 
 1st. The basin of the Atlantic, extending the whole 
 length of the coast of this sea, — a low plain, reckoning 
 a great number of water-courses ; 
 
 2d. The region of the Alleghanies, an undulating 
 table-land of fifty leagues in width, on the average, 
 and of small elevation ; 
 
 3d. The immense basin of the Mississippi and its 
 afiluents, comprising therein the prairies of the West; 
 
 4th. The chains and the plateaus of the Eocky 
 Mountains, — an arid and almost desert country; 
 
 6th. The Pacific basin, at the extreme west of the 
 continent. 
 
 It is in the basins of the Mississippi and of the At- 
 lantic, that are found the two principal theatres of the 
 present war. 
 
 It is not useless to remark that these five divisions 
 extend from north to south, over the whole terri- 
 tory of the United States, between 25° and 29 ' of 
 latitude, without any great transverse intersection 
 o-Turrinir to divide the country geographically into 
 North and South. 
 
 The total population of the United States is about 
 thirty-one millions and a half of inhabitants, of which 
 nearly four millions are bla k slaves, and four hun- 
 
22 EEPORT TO THE 
 
 (Ired tliousand red skin Indians. The census of 1860 
 proves, during the last ten years, an increase of popu- 
 lation of about eiglit million souls, of which nearly 
 one million are blacks. 
 
 The immense majority of the inhabitants of the 
 North and of the South are of the same race — the 
 Anglo-Saxon ; of the same language — the English ; 
 and of the same religion — the Protestant. 
 
 The ways of communication are numerous in the 
 inhabited countries. The great development of the 
 coasts, and of the navigable interior waters, the 
 canals, the railroads, present vast means of circula- 
 tion. The soil of the North and of the Northwest of 
 the United States, is interlaced with iron ways ; and 
 it may be said that there are as many of them as of 
 ordinary roads, in many parts of Europe far ad- 
 vanced in government. 
 
 One may convince himself of this by the subjoined 
 table of railroads in 1862.'^ I sho ild not pretend to 
 present an exact statement, which would not have 
 possessed great importance in a military point of 
 view, since one may go almost everywhere by rail- 
 way, — having myself been already conveyed over ten 
 thousand leagues of tliis kind of road, distributed 
 amongst more than seventy companies. 
 
 There are ten grand arteries connecting the Atlantic 
 with the Mississippi, and as many descending from the 
 Lakes towards the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlan- 
 
 ^- Not printed. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 23 
 
 tic. A short time lieiice, a railroad will connect the 
 Mississippi with the Pacific, across the Rocky Moun- 
 tains. 
 
 The principal centres of the networks, or rather ol 
 the skeins, of railroad are : the cities of New York, 
 Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, E-ichmond, Cincin- 
 nati, St. Lonis, Louisville, Nashville, Indianapolis, 
 Milwaukie, Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland, &c. The 
 principal gaps are observed to be in the South. 
 
 On the other hand, at the South, as well as the 
 JN^orth, ordinary routes and neighborhood roads are 
 rather rare than abundant. 
 
 The parties to the struggle are, on the one side, the 
 regnlar and lawful government of the Union, sup- 
 ported by twenty-one States of the North ; and on 
 the other, a certain number of States, all of the South, 
 and all slave States, which have successively increased 
 to the number of eleven, and joined in one Confed- 
 eracy. 
 
 The different denominations in vogue for the dis- 
 tinction of the parties in the strife, are, on the one 
 hand : 
 
 The States of the North — Unionists, Federals, 
 Loyals, Free State men, Pepublicans, Yankees. 
 
 And on the other side : 
 
 States of the South — Slave States, Confederates, 
 Secessionists, Separatists, Pebels. 
 
 The first are : 
 
 California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, 
 
24 REPORT TO THE 
 
 Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massacliusettr, 
 Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampsliire, ]N"ew Jerse}, 
 New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Eliode 
 Island, Yermont, Wisconsin. 
 
 Total, twenty-one States ; of which two only (Dela- 
 ware and Maryland) are slave States. 
 
 The secession, or rebel States, according to the ap- 
 pellation of the North, which refuses them the name 
 of belligerents, are : 
 
 Alabama, jirkansas. North Carolina, South Caro- 
 lina, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennes- 
 see, Texas, Yirginia. 
 
 Total, eleven States, — all slave States. 
 
 Kentucky, a slave State, solicited by tw^o pai'ties of 
 almost equal strength, sought to remain neutral, 
 and was tossed about according to the caprices of the 
 fortune of arms. It is at present in the hands of the 
 Federals. Missouri and Yirginia parcelled them- 
 selves out. The Federal District of Columbia re- 
 mained to the Government of the Union ; and the 
 territories of the West, without taking a determinate 
 position, were rather with the Union than against 
 her. 
 
 The popnlation of the twenty-one Northern States 
 is about twenty-one millions of souls, of which nearly 
 a million are slaves, for the most part in Maryland. 
 That of the Southern States rises to ten millions of 
 souls, of which more than three and a half millions 
 are slaves. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 25 
 
 II. 
 
 CAUSES OF THE WAR. 
 
 I It is not easy to give in a few lines, as I must limit 
 myself to do here, a just and complete idea of the 
 causes of the war. 
 
 To do this, it would be necessary to go back to the 
 very origin of the nation, to the British colonies, and 
 to follow their development down to our days, 
 through the struggles for independence and the era 
 of the foundation of the republic. 
 
 It may be said, in a general way, that the antago 
 nism of the South and the l^orth, which has produced 
 the present hostilities, had its first origin in the great 
 difference of climate of a country extending over 25° 
 of latitude, — a difference developing in its turn, 
 according to the principles already recognized by 
 Montesquieu, very different manners and institutions. 
 
 The causes of the war existed already in embryo in 
 the first acts of the colonists who founded the great 
 Kepublic. The oppositions of climate caused them to 
 blossom and grow. 
 
 These first colonists introduced, on the one side, 
 slavery of the blacks as a domestic institution legally 
 guaranteed ; and, on the other side, the Christian en- 
 thusiasm, the ardent faith, of the English Puritans of 
 the seventeenth century, flying from Europe tlirough 
 love of their convictions. 
 2 
 
26 REPORT TO THE 
 
 At first, slavery prevailed in ail tlie Britisli colonies, 
 as well as in the adjacent territories of the South. But 
 under the influence of favorable geographical circum- 
 stances, it developed itself especially in the South, 
 where the blacks are employed in the culture of 
 products of the torrid zone, viz. : sugar, cotton, in. 
 digo, rice, and tobacco. 
 
 The usefulness of the blacks ; their material well- 
 being, sufficiently general, in comparison with the 
 lot of the low class of European populations; the 
 moral and intellectual progress of their situation over 
 that which they would have had in their native coun- 
 try, still devoted to idolatry and to barbarism, — in- 
 cluding therein slavery ; by slow degrees brought the 
 planters of the South to an accommodation with the 
 Christian dogmas of human equality. " If God," say 
 they, " had wished that our African laborers should be 
 our equals. He would not have made them black ; 
 they bear, in their color, and ought to bear in their 
 inferior social position, the weight of the sin of their 
 first father, the accursed Ham." 
 
 Under the shield of this surrender of conscience, 
 slavery prospered in the South of the United States, 
 becoming there not only a useful agricultural agent, 
 but an important branch of commerce, and of indus- 
 trv. The rearing of the blacks, the traffic in them, 
 and their sale occupied more persons every year. This 
 entirely special a/Hide of merchandise^ which could be 
 diminished or increased from itself, demanded special 
 
SWISS MILn^ARY DEPARTMENT. 27 
 
 protections. Soon the laws and the codes manifested 
 a preference for it, and slavery of the blacks, as a fact 
 and as a doctrine, pervaded every institution. It 
 came to form the basis of domestic society, at the 
 same time that it became more and more, by the con- 
 tests of parties, the motive and the object of all po- 
 litical action. From the moment that it appeared 
 menaced by its adversaries, it was surrounded with pre- 
 servatives of every kind ; and the more it was attacked 
 from without, the more dear it became within. From 
 a simple agricultural fact, more or less injurious, 
 wdiich it was at its origin, it is to-day exalted in the 
 South, to the height of a dogma, at the same time 
 political, religious, economical, which ought to com- 
 mand the respect of the whole world, and, above all, 
 that of the members of the common republic. 
 
 In the ^North, on the contrary, the black was not 
 found in favorable climatic conditions. 
 
 Agriculture did not there require the rude labors, 
 and did not yield the rich products of that of the 
 South ; manufactures, which there supplied its place, 
 did not aiford advantageous employment to African 
 laborers. It was found more profitable, and proba- 
 bly also more Christian, to get rid of them ; some were 
 emancipated, others were sold to the South. 
 
 Besides, it is at the I^orth that the great flood of 
 European emigration discharges itself. The poor 
 Irish, traditionally devoted to domestic life ; the 
 patient Germans ; all nations enterprising and robust, 
 
28 REPORT TO THE 
 
 came and mingled among the blacks, without think- 
 ing that they kept up the current of religious princi- 
 .plesj opposed to the brutal servitude of one race to 
 another. 
 
 I Under this triple influence, slavery gradually re- 
 'tired from the North ; then it was banished from 
 points where some accidental circumstances might 
 have been able to fasten it; then, at last, it was 
 shamed as a detestable institution. 
 
 The great powers of Europe, which adopted a like 
 course of action for their colonies, contributed to for- 
 tify the sentiments of the Abolitionists of America. 
 There were soon but two slave States north of the 
 Potomac, and there are but tw^o now, — Maryland and 
 Delaware, and still each year the blacks diminish there. 
 
 For a sufficiently long time the struggle between 
 these two opposite tendencies of the E"orth and South, 
 rested in the domain of philosophy and religion. The 
 churches and the philanthropic societies of Boston, 
 and of New York, preached human equality to those 
 of Richmond and Charleston, which replied by ser- 
 mons on the spirit of envy, jealousy, and political 
 oppression. 
 
 i The States beins^ themselves sovereio-n within the 
 limits of the Federal Constitution, which guaranteed 
 the property of all, it was necessary that some time 
 'should pass by before this struggle should transfer 
 itself to the domain of national politics ; and the an- 
 tagonism between the defenders and the adversaries 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 29 
 
 of slavery appeared in tlie Federal elections, only as 
 a reserved plan, and subordinate to other divisions of 
 parties. 
 
 But two orders of facts, chiefly, came by small de- 
 grees, to enlarge the field of this question. 
 
 There were, in the first place, contests to which 
 fugitive slaves gave rise, the extradition of whom by 
 one State to another, is imposed as a duty in the 
 Federal Constitution itself. It is a fact that many 
 persons of tlie ISTorth used their best endeavors to 
 thwart the reclamations of the proprietors of slaves ; 
 and that, in place of aiding in the restoration of the 
 ftigitives^ they have often used all their efforts to pro- 
 tect their fiight. It resulted from this state of things, 
 that frequent difficulties developed themselves before 
 tlie tribunals of the States or of the Union, and the 
 judgments of these converted the local question of 
 slavery into one of Federal concern. 
 
 Matters went farther. The South made lively 
 complaint of the insufficiency of the constitutional 
 provisions to prevent the escape of their property, 
 and, in 1850, it obtained from Congress, by an adroit 
 manoeuvre of a coalition of parties, a Draconian law 
 on the escape and the recovery of slaves. This inhu- 
 man law remained, for the most part, a dead letter in 
 several States of the l^orth. They did not deny 
 its authority, as South Carolina had before done 
 the law of the tariff, but its execution was paralyzed, 
 and its provisions eluded a hundred times. The sub- 
 
30 REPORT TO THE 
 
 ject matter of dispute was wonderfully favorable to 
 that course of treatment, and, ordinarily, the reclaim- 
 ed slave succeeded in proving that he was the victim 
 of a bargain, or in escaping further off. Tlius, with 
 . the view of streno^thenin^: or weakenino^ the execu- 
 tion of this law, tlie parties which took their position 
 on the question of slavery were naturally led to take 
 a more important part in the different Federal and 
 State elections. 
 
 The other order of facts, was the creation of new 
 Territories, and their admission as States into the 
 Union. 
 
 Should slavery be protected there, or not ? 
 
 Thel^orth pretended generally that slavery ought 
 not to be extended, and supported herself by the ex- 
 ample of the founders of the Kepublic, who had re- 
 fused to sanction it in the only Territory of that time. 
 The South sustained the opposite proposition, relying 
 also ii]fon the authority of the founders of the Re- 
 pul)lic, who had guaranteed the equality of rights and 
 of property in the Constitution itself, comprising 
 therein that of slaves. 
 
 In this respect a double struggle ordinarily takes 
 place ; first, in the Territory itself, — especially when 
 located near the two sections, — whether its constitu- 
 tion shall or shall not protect slavery; and then 
 in the Union, whether the new State shall be ad- 
 mitted or rejected, according as it is with or with- 
 out slaves. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 31 
 
 The admission of Louisiana in 1812, previously 
 purchased of France, was the occasion of lively com- 
 plaints on the part of the North. This State was 
 nevertheless admitted with its slave constitution. 
 
 The same dispute recurred eight years later, on the 
 occasion of the admission of Missouri. The ]Rorth 
 still yielded to a compromise, called the Missouri 
 Compromise, which forever excluded slavery from the 
 Territories situated north of a line passing by the 
 northern frontier of Missouri — that is to say, by 
 36° and 30' of latitude. This decision was equiva 
 lent, for the South, to a guarantee of slavery in all the 
 Territories of its own neighborhood, which it hoped 
 to colonize, or one day to acquire, and was consid 
 ered by it a great triumph. 
 
 The admission of Arkansas as a slave State in 
 1836 ; that of Florida in 1815, which had also been 
 purchased by the Union in 1819 ; then that of Texas, 
 detached from Mexico ; then, finally, the prospective 
 riches which were opened up by the victorious war 
 against Mexico, and the peace which was imposed on 
 it in 1817 — were new successes for the South, which 
 saw approaching the moment when it should rule in 
 Congress. 
 
 But, on the other hand, movements for colonization 
 on the part of the Xorth were accelerated by the con- 
 struction of railways, and by the discovery of the 
 auriferous treasures of California. This Territoiy, 
 detached from Mexico, entered the Union in 1850 as 
 
32 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 a State, without slaves. Some years before, the 
 States of Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota 
 had been admitted by the same title, without reckon- 
 ing other territories in these countries offering to the 
 North an easy colonization. 
 
 Two other Territories, situated on the limits of the 
 Missouri Compromise, were likely to render the situa- 
 tion more difficult. These were Kansas and Ne- 
 braska, colonized at first by the Missourians, who 
 peopled Kansas with sufficient rapidity, and who 
 reckoned on easily making the neighboring States 
 slave States. 
 
 But in order to do that, it was necessary first to 
 overcome the Missouri Compromise, and the barrier 
 of 36° 30' of latitude. 
 
 After very active controversies, and parliamentary 
 struggles, the South obtained this concession also from 
 Congress, ' by a coalition of sordid interests. Tlie 
 Union in 1850 abandoned its power over the question 
 of slavery, in favor of the Territories themselves. 
 These were declared open to colonization by both 
 sections, and free to adapt the question of slavery to 
 their own circumstances and convenience. The peo- 
 ple of the North did not admit themselves beaten. 
 They organized and excited the emigration of their 
 people to Kansas ; struggled with persistence against 
 the invasion of the Missourians ; opposed, on the 
 occasion, force to force, and, after a period of agita- 
 tion and of violence, they succeeded at last in obtain- 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 33 
 
 ing the majority. Kansas prepared a Constitution 
 proscribing slavery, under which she demanded her 
 admission into the Union. 
 
 Great was the rage of the South, which then 
 ah-eady threatened a resort to arms, and which suc- 
 ceeded by magnifying the incidents in connection 
 with Kansas in causing the postponement of the ad- 
 mission of the new State. It was admitted only in 
 January, 1861 — that is to say, after the secession 
 had taken place. 
 
 Nebraska remained still, as a Territory, an open 
 arena ; bnt the South has succeeded in transporting 
 thither only thirty slaves, at most. 
 
 At the same time, in 1859, Oregon was a new 
 recruit for the North. 
 
 Another cause of the war, having relation to the 
 same geographical circumstances which have pro- 
 duced that of slavery, is the difference of social 
 activity; of the means of acquiring riches; and, by 
 consequence, of the material interests actually exist- 
 ing between the North and the South. 
 
 The first is principally manufacturing and com- 
 mercial; the second is chiefly agricultural. The 
 latter grows rich while furnishing its products, — its 
 cotton among others, — to Europe, which has need of 
 them ; the former takes charge of the exportation of 
 those products. 
 
 The States of the South are, besides, a market for 
 the manufacturers of the North, and the latter is very 
 2* 
 
34 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 glad to exclude from it foreign competition. Hence 
 her predilection for a system of tariffs, wliicli aid her 
 in straggling against English industry, but of which 
 the South, as consumer, pretends herself the principal 
 victim. 
 
 The theories and their definitions thus clashing, the 
 IS'orth and the South are seen to divide, in respect to 
 commerce, into "protectionists" and "free traders." 
 By a strange and ridiculous mode of expression, the 
 South, all whose institutions look towards the protec- 
 tion of its special and only object of industry, slavery, 
 and all whose efforts have reference to obtaining for 
 it the protection of the Union, calls itself free trade ! 
 But the partisans of tariffs have a long time had the 
 majority in Congress, not only on account of tlie prin- 
 ciple itself, but also because the customs have the ad- 
 vantage of returning large revenues to the state, which, 
 without them, it would be necessary to supply other- 
 wise. It is the South, besides, which was one of tlie 
 introducers of tariffs in 1816, after the war against 
 the English ; and she has discovered that, in so doing, 
 she has served the [N^orth more than herself. An at- 
 tempt made in 1840 to reduce the tariff led to an in- 
 dustrial crisis, which ceased only by a return to pro- 
 tection in 181:2. Since then it has been increased 
 still more. 
 
 In tliis same order of ideas, the marine and the 
 tonnage of the United States have been protected 
 against foreign competition by a law styled a naviga 
 
SWISS MILITARY depaet:ment. 35 
 
 tion law, or ratlier a tonnage law, w^hicli lias the 
 appearance of increasing the cost of transportation, 
 and of raising the price of commodities for exportation. 
 The South, careful, above all, in regard to its cotton, 
 — King Cotton, as tliej call it, — complains bitterly of 
 this law, although it may be proven that spite of this 
 pretended restraint, the South cannot even furnish 
 cotton enough to satisfy the demand. 
 
 Under these three aspects : danger to its slave 
 property, which cannot prosper to a degree which 
 would satisfy her ambition ; protective tariffs ; en- 
 couragement to the coastwise trade, — the South pre- 
 tends herself duped and practised upon by the Xortli. 
 The familiar mode of expressing her complaints is to 
 style herself, the milch cow of the North. 
 
 As a compensation, and as a guarantee, the South 
 wishes at least to have the possession of the principal 
 positions in the Federal government. If she did not 
 succeed in obtaining the complete triumph of her 
 views and her interests, she permitted herself to reckon 
 on some moderation in the execution of measures to 
 her disadvantage ; while, at the same time, obtaining 
 for herself certain lucrative employments and positions. 
 It seems, indeed, that the North, tired of the strife, 
 had for a long time acquiesced in these pretensions, by 
 a kind of tacit agreement, and that it had not at- 
 tached great importance to having the Federal gov^- 
 ernment in its hands. 
 
 It was during these transactions, and under other 
 
36 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 influences besides, that the providential election of 
 1860 took place. 
 
 The varions political fractions of the Korth, which 
 hitherto had almost always allowed themselves to 
 separate, came, by reaction against the audacity of 
 the slave pretensions of the South, to unite in a 
 great Republican party, wdiich formed itself definitely 
 at Chicago, and wdiich decided to carry into the 
 Presidency Mr. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. 
 
 The South divided itself ofl Mr. Breckinridge, of 
 Kentucky, and Mr. Douglas, a citizen of Illinois, but 
 a slave proprietor in Virginia, and belonging to the 
 Southern or Democratic party. A fourth candidate, 
 a moderate Unionist, Mr. Bell, was put forward to 
 counteract the candidacy of Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 An election of unaccustomed excitement followed 
 amongst the people of the States, and in which the 
 South seemed rather to have for her object, to embit- 
 ter the passions, than to secure the triumph of her 
 candidate. . Her part was already taken, to make a 
 rupture, and she persisted in dividing her votes, 
 while at the North the current set in quite an opposite 
 direction. 
 
 The sixth of November 1861, Mr. Lincoln was 
 elected by 1,857,610 votes against 1,365,976 cast for 
 Mr. Douglas, 847,953 for Mr. Breckinridge, and 590,- 
 631 for Mr. Bell, — a majority which was also con- 
 firmed by the electoral vote of the States. 
 
 This defeat of the South, which, however, in unit- 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAETMENT. 37 
 
 ing the votes of the two democratic candidates, found 
 itself in a majority over Mr. Lincohi, was the signal 
 for the tempest. 
 
 For a long time already, at each crisis, the orators 
 of the Southern States had threatened a separation, if 
 their wislies should not be complied with. South 
 Carolina, in regard to the tariff law, had even made 
 an attempt in that direction in 1S32, but w^as vigor- 
 ously repressed by the President, General Jackson. 
 Then, already, the State pretended to the right of 
 nullifying Federal decisions contrary to its interests ; 
 and this doctrine, which was anarchic, but skilfully 
 sustained by a man of great talent, Mr. Calhoun, 
 had made sufficiently numerous partisans in the slave 
 States. 
 
 Then after the last electoral crisis, many journals 
 and popular orators of the Carolinas, of Virginia, of 
 Georgia, of Lousiana, and of other States besides, had 
 formally declared, that if they might consent to sub- 
 mit to the election of Mr. Douglas, or of Mr. Bell, 
 they certainly never could recognize that of Mr. Lin- 
 coln as the act of the nation. 
 
 It is in fact the very thing, which, contrary to all 
 the principles of law^ hitherto practically recognized, 
 has actually occurred. 
 
 South Carolina, the furnace of the slave party, first 
 put herself forward. 
 
 Hardly had the triumph of Mr. Lincoln been an- 
 nounced by the telegraph, before the legislature of 
 
88 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 that State, sitting at Charleston, decided upon tlie 
 calling of a national convention'^' for the 17th of De- 
 cember, which should have to pronounce upon the 
 question of the separation of South Carolina from the 
 Union ; or, in other words, on a secession. At the 
 same time the greater part of the Federal functionaries 
 of the State or in the State, — at the customs, in the 
 post-offices and at the arsenals, &c., — resigned their 
 functions, or declared themselves independent. The 
 Virginia senators at Washington quitted their seats. 
 
 Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, followed the example 
 of Charleston ; and the question of secession, its right, 
 its advantages, its inconveniences became the subject 
 of every discussion. A strong emotion prevailed 
 throughout the South, while the North, confident in 
 her victory, awaited calmly the return of those van- 
 quished by the ballot, to more reasonable sentiments, 
 and the entry of the new President on his duties. 
 
 But it was necessary that four months should yet 
 pass by, under the administration of Mr. Buchanan. 
 Of this administration, some of the members by open 
 complicity, others by their weakness alone, allowed, 
 during all this time, the efforts of secession to grow at 
 their pleasure, and assume an organized form. 
 
 Treason took part in passing events, and the Minis- 
 ter of War, General Floyd, a proprietor of slaves in 
 Virginia, hastened amongst others, to use the remain- 
 
 * The author means a convention of the people of South Carohua. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 39 
 
 der of liis power to take adroitly a multitude of mili- 
 tary measures, favorable to the cause of whicli he was 
 one of the ardent champions.* By his cares, the 
 arsenals of the ^orth were stripped of their arms for 
 the benefit of those of the South ; the little army of 
 regulars was almost all sent to Texas ; the navy was 
 scattered in every corner of the seas. When the new 
 power entered upon its functions, it found neither 
 soldiers, nor marines, nor materiel at hand. In a 
 word, the first steps of the rebellion were assured by 
 the protection of the government itself, which had 
 sworn the maintenance of the Constitution. The 
 populations of the Korth, whose attention this cul- 
 pable game did not escape, gave a fine example of 
 their habitual regard for law, in respecting, under 
 such circumstances, a government already smitten 
 b}^ the ballot, and so perfidiously betraying its man 
 date. 
 
 In the month of December, Congress met and heard 
 a very carefully studied message from President 
 Buchanan, but which was without conclusions rising 
 to the exigency of the circumstances. Congress did 
 not accomplish the preservation of the reign of the 
 , Constitution ; and the eff'orts towards a compromise, 
 made by some moderate and conciliatory men, com- 
 pletely failed. 
 
 The 20th of December the Convention of South 
 
 * General Floyd commands at tliis time a division in the army at the 
 South. 
 
40 REPORT TO THE 
 
 Carolina passed, by unanimous vote, its ordinance of 
 secession ; and in all the States of the South warlike 
 preparations were pushed with studied vigor. 
 
 At the close of December the w^ar appeared almost 
 inevitable ; although it seemed, on both sides, that in- 
 timidation was sought to be produced by blustering 
 threats, rather than a precipitation of actual hostili- 
 ties. Innumerable meetings were held all over the 
 country, at which the effort w^as made to prove, in 
 the South, the full right of secession, and, in the 
 ^N^orth, its monstrous breach of law. 
 
 The intermediate or lorder States, Maryland, Vir- 
 ginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, sufficiently agreed in 
 the opinion that South Carolina was going to work 
 a little too quickly ; and while declaring their sym- 
 pathies for her cause, they thought that tlie time had 
 not yet arrived for rending the Federal Constitution. 
 It was necessarj^, they said, to see the new govern- 
 ment at work, and to see it make the first attempt 
 upon the Constitution, by carrying into act its famous 
 Chicago platform on the question of slavery, before 
 departing from the paths of strict right. 
 
 But, as it ordinarily happens when the passions are 
 unchained, these words of sound reason, which were 
 at the same time the notions of the better policy, 
 were not heard ; and certain incidents sufficed to set 
 fire to the powder. 
 
 The port of Charleston is defended, amongst others, 
 by two Federal forts — Fort Moultrie, on a peninsula 
 
SWISS MILITAEY DEPAETMENT. 41 
 
 of tlie coast nortli of the city, and Fort Sumter, on 
 an isle in the middle of the pass. A small Federal 
 garrison under Major Anderson held Fort Moultrie; 
 and, while the secessionists of South Carolina were 
 raising the pretension that this garrison should not be 
 reinforced in any manner. Major Anderson, deriving 
 inspiration only from his military duties, abandoned 
 Fort Moultrie, and transferred himself with all his 
 command to Fort Sumter, which furnished him a 
 less threatened position. 
 
 There was a great burst of rage in the South against 
 this act of provocation, so called ; the North, on the 
 other hand, resounded with applause for the "brave 
 and loyal" Anderson. 
 
 By way of reprisal, the government of N"orth Caro- 
 lina took possession of Fort Macon, of Wilmington, 
 and of the Arsenal of Fayetteville, which were w^ith- 
 out Unionist defenders. At this juncture it was 
 necessary that General Floyd should retire from 
 power ; and he did so only after having pushed his 
 boldness so far as to hold the weak President, Bu- 
 chanan, responsible for the civil war which was about 
 to break out, if he should not immediately recall the 
 garrison from Fort Sumter. 
 
 In January, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and 
 Louisiana also voted to secede. Virginia prudently 
 stopped at the second step, and convoked, in her 
 turn, a Convention to consider the same object. 
 Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, followed the example 
 
4r2 REPORT TO THE 
 
 of Yirginia, and prepared to pronounce their vote on 
 the first favorable occasion. 
 
 On the 14th of January, the Convention of South 
 Carolina decreed that every attempt to reinforce the 
 garrison at Fort Sumter, should be considered an 
 act of war; and they pushed the construction of 
 batteries desio^ned to breach the Federal fortifica- 
 tions. The government of Mr. Buchanan, which, 
 besides, had only a few weeks to live, recoiled before 
 this menace. 
 
 On the 14th of February, 1862, the States which 
 had already declared their secession, opened a Con- 
 gress of delegates at Montgomerj^, in Alabama, 
 which voted, four days after, a provisional Federal 
 Constitution fur the seceded States. They were then 
 seven in number, to wit: South Carolina, Georgia, 
 Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. 
 They were certain of soon seeing their number 
 increased by Yirginia and Xorth Carolina, by Arkan- 
 sas, by Tennessee, and by Missouri ; and, according 
 to the energy w^ith which they should proceed, they 
 reckoned still on the adhesion of the other slave 
 States — Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, where the Democratic party had 
 numerous members. 
 
 The Constitution of the Confederates is very similar 
 to that of the Union. Slavery is better protected in 
 it ; the separation of the powers is a little less plain ; 
 the duration of the Presidential functions longer — six 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAETMENT. 43 
 
 years instead of four. The right of secession is also 
 reserved. 
 
 The 18th of February, Mr. Jefferson Davis, Fed- 
 eral Minister of War before Floyd, and Mr. Stephens, 
 one of the most distinguished orators of America, 
 were inaugurated as President and Vice-President 
 of the new Confederacy. 
 
 During this time Mr. Lincoln quitted his modest 
 abode in Illinois ; received numerous ovations through- 
 out his w^hole route in the Korth ; adroitly baffled a 
 conspiracy against his person at Baltimore; and 
 arrived at Washington, where his administration was 
 inaugurated the 4:th of March. 
 
 One of his first cares was to take military meas- 
 ures, to guard against the effects of the weakness or the 
 treason of the preceding administration. He caused 
 several forts to be occupied ; the arsenals to be refur- 
 nished with munitions ; troops and vessels to be assem- 
 bled ; and, on the 8th of April, he notified South Car- 
 olina that supplies would be sent to Fort Sumter, by 
 force, if necessary. Two vessels, in fact, left New 
 York for that purpose. 
 
 It w^as still generally thought in the N"orth that 
 before this act of firmness the South w^ould yield. 
 They were deceived. 
 
44 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 III. 
 
 FIRST HOSTILITIES. 
 
 After long conferences, it is true, hostilities broke 
 out at Charleston. The secession troops, taking meas- 
 ures in advance of those of Mr. Lincoln, opened the 
 fire of their batteries a2;ainst Fort Sumter on the 
 12th of April, and, two days after, Major Anderson 
 obtained an honorable capitulation. 
 
 A cry of joy seemed, at the news of this first deed 
 of arms, to escape simultaneously from every South- 
 ern heart, to which responded a terrible burst of rage 
 in the l^orth. The struggle was decidedly inevitable. 
 The cannon was about to speak, and to restrain for 
 some time the object of public discussions to the 
 single question, of knowing to what side should fall 
 the intermediate States, w^hich had not yet categori- 
 cally declared themselves. 
 
 The 15th of April, President Lincoln issued a pro- 
 clamation, calling to arms seventy-five thousand 
 men,"^ and summoning the rebel States to return 
 
 * These seventy-five thousand men were distributed among the 
 States accordins; to tlie followinp^ scale : 
 
 Maine, 
 
 Ireg 
 
 •iraent, 
 
 of 780 men. 
 
 New Hampshire, 
 
 
 
 
 Vermont, 
 
 
 
 
 Massachusetts, 
 
 
 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 
 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 
 
 
 New York, 
 
 17 
 
 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 45 
 
 Within twenty days under the flag of the Union. 
 Congress was convoked in special session, as well as 
 the Legislatures of the States, and, for some days, the 
 journals were filled with proclamations, wath orders 
 of the day, and appeals for men and money. 
 
 At the South, response was made to these measures 
 with not less ardor. Yirginia proclaimed her seces- 
 sion the ITth of April, and Mr. Jefferson Davis an- 
 nounced the issue of letters of marque to privateers. 
 
 The 19th of April the Government replied with 
 declaring the blockade of the coasts of the seceded 
 States, and the 1st day of May, President Lincoln 
 called to arms forty-two thousand volunteers for three 
 years, and eighteen thousand marines.* Troops were 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 4 1 
 
 regiments of 78 
 
 men. 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 16 
 
 (1 
 
 " 
 
 a 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 1 
 
 '* 
 
 a 
 
 u 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 4 
 
 u 
 
 t; 
 
 u 
 
 Yirginia, 
 
 3 
 
 1( 
 
 (1 
 
 u 
 
 North Carolina, 
 
 2 
 
 '• 
 
 li 
 
 u 
 
 Tennessee, 
 
 2 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 (C 
 
 Kentucky, 
 
 4 
 
 (t 
 
 a 
 
 " 
 
 Arkansas, 
 
 1 
 
 " 
 
 it 
 
 (( 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 4 
 
 (( 
 
 " 
 
 li 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 Tnrli Tno 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 u 
 <( 
 
 J^nUlcilltij 
 
 Ohio, 
 
 (< 
 
 « 
 
 l( 
 
 Michigan, 
 
 1 
 
 (( 
 
 « 
 
 " 
 
 "Wisconsin, 
 
 1 
 
 (( 
 
 u 
 
 u 
 
 Iowa, 
 
 1 
 
 (1 
 
 u 
 
 i( 
 
 Minnesota, 
 
 1 
 
 " 
 
 (( 
 
 (I 
 
 * The first appeal had been addressed to the militia, raised for three 
 months only; besides, several States refused their contingent. This 
 second levy was distributed as foUows : 
 
46 REPORT TO THE 
 
 concentrated at Washington on the one part, and at 
 Riclimond on the other ; and the Potomac was thence, 
 on this zone,"^ the limit between the belligerent parties. 
 
 The 20th of April, the Federals, not being able to 
 extricate their vessels from the maritime arsenal at 
 Norfolk, in Virginia, endeavored at least to destroy 
 them ; and sank, or set fire to the eleven vessels, 
 among which were several frigates of great value. 
 The secessionists succeeded in saving some of them. 
 . It was not, however, nntil the end of May that the 
 campaign was really opened. The Federals crossed 
 the Potomac and proceeded to take possession, on the 
 right bank of the river, of the city of Alexandria, 
 and the neighboring heights of Arlington. 
 
 The troops of the North, nnder the general com- 
 mand of the venerable General Scott, were distrib- 
 uted at first into six corps : one at Fortress Monroe, 
 
 New York, 
 
 11 
 
 regiments. 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 2 regiments. 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 10 
 
 « 
 
 Maine, 
 
 
 " 
 
 Ohio, - 
 
 9 
 
 (( 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 
 (( 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 6 
 
 (( 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 
 u 
 
 Massachusetts, 
 
 5 
 
 (( 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 
 u 
 
 Indiana, 
 
 4 
 
 u 
 
 Vermont, 
 
 
 u 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 4 
 
 u 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 
 (( 
 
 Michisran, 
 
 3 
 
 (( 
 
 Minnesota, 
 
 
 ** 
 
 New Jersey, 
 
 3 
 
 " 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 
 l< 
 
 Kentucky, 
 
 2 
 
 " 
 
 Kansas, 
 
 
 l( 
 
 Wisconsin, 
 
 2 
 
 (( 
 
 Nebraska, 
 
 
 li 
 
 Iowa, 
 
 2 
 
 " 
 
 In all, seventy-five 
 
 reginicr 
 
 N. B.— The regiments are numbered by States. They say the 4th 
 Ohio, the 8tli New York, &c. 
 
 * The author divides the country into five zones, running North 
 and South. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 47 
 
 m Yirgiiiia ; one opposite Washington, on the Poto- 
 mac ; one in Western Virginia; one in Kentucky; 
 one in Missouri ; and one in Maryland. 
 
 lY. 
 
 SUMIVIARY OF THE PRINCIPAL MILITARY ACTS. 
 
 Not being able to give here a history of the mili- 
 tary transactions, I shall limit myself to a brief indi- 
 cation of the principal ones. 
 
 The first affair of some importance took place the 
 10th of June, at Big Bethel, in Yirginia, on the route 
 from Fortress Monroe to Yorktown. About three 
 thousand Federals, proceeding from Fortress Monroe 
 and from Kewport, attempted to carry the intrench- 
 ments before Big Bethel, and were repulsed after a 
 sharp engagement, and with a loss of sixty men in 
 killed and wounded. 
 
 Other actions also took place in Western Yirginia 
 during the months of June and July. One Federal 
 division, among others, commanded by General Mc- 
 Clellan, had notable successes in that quarter. 
 
 A more serious affair was the battle of Bull Run, 
 or Manassas Junction, fought the 21st day of July. 
 About twenty thousand Federals, under General Mc- 
 
48 REPORT TO THE 
 
 Dowell, advanced against Richmond by tlie ronte 
 direct from Washington, by Fairfax Court Honse, 
 Centreville, and Manassas. Between the last two lo- 
 calities, on the borders of the stream Bull Run, they 
 engaged with the enemy, about twenty thousand 
 strong. A combat, at first sufficiently sharp, turned 
 subsequently into a panic on both sides, as often hap- 
 pens with troops for the first time under fire. But 
 the panic was stronger on the side of the Federals, 
 who ended by flyii^g in great disorder as far as Fair- 
 fax, and even to "Washington. They were not, how- 
 ever, long pursued ; and they had, in all, four hun- 
 dred and seventy-nine killed, one thousand and eleven 
 wounded, and lost more than fifteen hundred prison- 
 ers. The secessionists had three hundred and ninety- 
 three killed, and twelve hundred wounded. 
 
 The troops of the l^orth, composed in good part of 
 corps levied for three months, and the end of whose 
 term of service had now arrived, could with difii- 
 culty be collected, and a considerable number of the 
 militia returned to their homes. The Secessionists 
 advanced anew to the border of the Potomac, but 
 did not, whether from military prudence, or a system 
 of policy, attempt to cross it. They believed their 
 cause already gained. 
 
 The emotion which was excited in the E'orth on 
 this news, was, on the other hand, any thing but 
 an indication of peace. Congress, called to take 
 measures, decided upon a new levy, and this time up- 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 49 
 
 on five hundred tlionsand men engaged for tkree 
 years. "^ 
 
 General Scott, who had, contrary to his inclination, 
 and under the pressure of Congress, given the order for 
 the march upon Richmond, chose to resign his com- 
 mand, and was replaced by one of the youngest gene- 
 rals of the army, General McClellan, who, while his 
 colleagues were beaten at Manassas, was running to 
 their aid across Western Yirginia, and had made a 
 brilliant and rapid march, with several successful en- 
 gagements. 
 
 The victory of Manassas gave to the South its 
 apogee of strength. Tennessee and Kentucky passed 
 in majority to it. On the other hand, Western Yir- 
 ginia made a secession within the seceded territory, 
 in order to remain faithful to the Union. 
 
 The campaign dragged along through the whole of 
 the rest of the year 1861. 
 
 We may mention, however, as a remarkable occur- 
 rence, the battle of Wilson'' s Creeh, in Missouri, the 
 10th of August, where the Federals had a thousand 
 men hors de comhat^ of whom their chief. General 
 Lyon, was killed, while the Secessionists had twelve 
 hundred in the same condition. The result was un- 
 decided. 
 
 Another striking affair was that called the mas- 
 sacre of BaWs Bluffs the 21st of October, which pro- 
 
 * Distributed on a scale similar to that of the preceding levy, with 
 the addition of the States of California and Oregon. 
 
 3 
 
50 REPORT TO THE 
 
 yoked, witli reason, an investigation, and was the snb- 
 ject of long controversy. About eighteen hundred 
 Federals, under General Stone, crossed the Potomac 
 at Edwards' Ferry, above Washington, on boats. 
 Attacked on the other bank by superior forces, they 
 w^ere driven towards the river, were not able to re-em- 
 bark, and were in great part killed or drowned. This 
 design was so unskilfully conducted on the part of 
 the Federals, that treason was charged to have had a 
 part in the affair, and General Stone is still at this 
 hour in prison."^ 
 
 With the first days of 1862, the campaign reopened 
 with new vigor, and everywhere simultaneously. 
 .The Federal army, about 600,000 strong, was, besides, 
 seconded by a powerful marine, and the combined 
 action of land and naval forces was seen to j)resent 
 itself at almost every point. 
 
 General Ilalleck, successor, in the West, of General 
 Fremont, received the command of a large army, 
 which was broken into, six corps, and with which, 
 seconded by a fleet of gunboats, he reconquered to 
 the Union Kentucky, the greater part of Tennessee, 
 a portion of the State of Missouri, almost the wdiole 
 course of the Mississippi, and penetrated even into 
 Alabama. 
 
 Sharp actions took place, amongst others, at the 
 capture of Forts Donelson and Henry, in Tennessee ; 
 
 * No charges were ever preferred against General Stone, and he has 
 been liberated and assigned to duty. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 51 
 
 at Mill Spring, in Kentucky, and finally, at Pittsburg 
 Landing, near Corinth. At the last aifair, the 6th or 
 7th of April, against the Confederate General Bean- 
 regard, there were about ten thousand men hors de 
 combat on each side. The result was indecisive. 
 
 In the eastern part of the theatre of war, four mari- 
 time expeditions, besides the blockade, were directed 
 against different points of the Southern coast, and 
 afforded as results, the capture, amongst other places, 
 of Roanoke Island and E"ewbern, in North Carolina ; 
 of Port Royal, in South Carolina ; of some points in 
 Florida, and of I^ew Orleans. 
 
 The army called the Army of the Potomac, under 
 the special command of General McClellan, advanced 
 in its turn, at the commencement of March, from 
 Washington on Richmond, as far as Bull Run. Then 
 a curtain was let fall upon this front, while the mass 
 of the army, passing by the left, embarked on the 
 Potomac at Alexandria, for the purpose of landing at 
 Fortress Monroe, and proceeding against Richmond 
 by the peninsula of Yorktown. 
 
 On this new line of operations the Federals had 
 advanced, after several successes, but with some degree 
 of slowness, as far as wdthin three or four leagues from 
 Richmond. Bj the middle of June they might have 
 been believed near capturing the secession capital, and 
 there terminating the great war at a stroke, when the 
 skilful movements of the Confederate generals, Jack- 
 son and Lee — who knew how to profit by their cen- 
 
52 KEPOET TO THE 
 
 tral position, and who had been crowned with success 
 on the Shenandoah and the Chickahominy — succeeded 
 in forcing the Federals to replace themselves on the de- 
 [fensive, and in wholly changing the situation. 
 
 While the Unionists had advanced in triumph 
 everywhere simultaneously, keeping their corps hun- 
 dreds of leagues apart, and getting in raptures over 
 the conquest of certain points of very secondary im- 
 portance, the Secessionists, whether by the force of 
 circumstances, or by a good understanding of the 
 principles of war, had concentrated themselves at 
 Kichmond. 
 
 They had thus been able to attack, in superior 
 force, the army of McClellan, and to repulse it with 
 great loss in different parts, during the Seven Days' 
 fight. A furious action took place, from the 25th of 
 June to the 1st of July, on the borders of the Chicka- 
 hominy and of the James River, and did not termi- 
 nate unlil the army of McClellan had been able to 
 take a new base, and a strong defensive position on 
 the James Eiver, under the cannon of the Federal 
 flotilla. 
 
 I These events forced the E"orth, still more persistent 
 (than ever in its determination to re-establish the reign 
 I of the Constitution, to a new levy, the fourth, and 
 I 300,000 men are in course of being recruited at this 
 time. 
 
 From this brief chronicle of the principal military 
 acts, one may already draw instruction perfectly in 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 63 
 
 accordance with theoretic principles. It is, that if it 
 is doubtless good for a country to defend with courage 
 its very frontier, this country is still not lost for 
 having allowed some points of that frontier to escape. 
 That if, in a defence of Switzerland, for example, it 
 should happen to us to have to evacuate, before su- 
 perior forces, or menacing marches, cities as important 
 for us as are to American Secessionists, Alexandria, 
 Yorktown, Korfolk, Kewbern, Port Royal, New Or- 
 leans, Yicksburg, Memphis, IS'ashville, Springfield, &c., 
 this would not be a reason for our despairing, more 
 than they, of being able to re-establish our power be- 
 fore our Richmond, which might be Berne, or some 
 other of our central capitals. 
 
 CONCERNING THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES OF THE 
 NORTH. — STATISTICAL NOTIONS. — RECRUITING. PAY. 
 
 ALLOWANCES. 
 
 I shall pass now to some indications more particularly 
 statistical, on the subject of the military system of the 
 United States of the JS'orth. • 
 
 One of the finest operations which the Americans 
 have effected, is, without contradiction, the creation, 
 in so short a time, of their immense armies, which, in 
 the last actions, have shown military capacities equal 
 
54 HEPOKT TO THE 
 
 to those of the best troops in the world. The North, 
 after the defeat of Bull Run, created an army of six 
 hundred thousand men in from three to four months. 
 
 -The United States had, before, only a small regular 
 army of twenty thousand men, composed of the 
 soldiery recruited by the Union, and employed essen- 
 tially in the protection of the frontiers against the 
 Indians. Aside from that, there were very numerous 
 corps of local militia, but without organization, and 
 existing rather on paper than as real effectives. 
 
 The new army was formed differently ; and it is 
 of it that I shall speak in what follows, taking 
 more particularly, as an object of study, the army 
 of five hundred thousand men formed by General 
 McClellan. 
 
 The recruiting is entirely voluntary, and furnishes 
 corps of two categories ; the 7'egv.lars^ who have been 
 increased by some regiments, to fill up the gaps created 
 by defections, and raised only by the Federal authori- 
 ties ; and the volunteers^ who engage fr-eely for three 
 years, or for the duration of the war, and which are 
 furnished by the States. The volunteers are also 
 divided into two classes : the State militia, which are 
 the old local battalions, taken in mass and arranged 
 on a war footing ; and the regiments of the new for- 
 mation, created for the occasion. 
 
 The regiilars would correspond, then, to our ^tat- 
 MajoT Federal^ and more particularly to its sections 
 in the permanent service, and to our Federal corps 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 55 
 
 of instructors and sub-instructors. Tlie volunteers 
 correspond to our troops wearing the cantonal cock- 
 ades. 
 
 The mode of forming the volunteer corps is curious 
 enough. They are at first the object of a sort of 
 special enterprise. A patriotic committee assumes 
 the undertaking, or an officer, holding a superior 
 grade, raises a regiment at his own expense, and on 
 his own responsibility. In order to do that, he opens 
 recruiting offices, ordinarily for companies ; he makes 
 proposals, and stirring appeals in the journals ; places 
 placards at the corners of the streets; raises fiags ; 
 puts inscriptions over the office, and sometimes has 
 music. Then, when the recruits have reached the 
 minimum prescribed by the official order, he passes 
 them for pay, and to the service of the State, against 
 the fixed allowances. The State, in its turn, passes 
 the organized redment to the service of the Union. 
 
 As in some old Swiss corps in the foreign service, 
 the recruiting of a certain number of men insures a 
 grade : thirty men for a commission of under-lieu- 
 tenant, eighty for one of a captain. 
 
 This voluntary mode of recruiting, applied to the 
 raising of considerable effective forces, is facilitated 
 by democratic institutions and the habitudes of public 
 life, without speaking of the mercantile spirit, which 
 also mingles a little in the business. An excitement 
 is raised by great popular meetings,— and there were, 
 among others, two at New York which numbered not 
 
56 REPOET TO THE 
 
 less than fifty thousand men, grouped around ^ve 
 stands ; also by lectures in clubs ; by the press, and 
 by pecuniary advantages held out to the soldiers. 
 Each soldier, besides his pay, has a right to a bounty 
 of a hundred dollars. Lands will also be distributed, 
 at the end of the campaign, as national re- 
 wards. The wives and the children of the soldiers 
 receive an allowance during the time of the active 
 service of the soldier : it is twelve dollars a month for 
 a woman with two children. Lastly, the States, the 
 cities, the corporations, add supplements to these 
 bounties, even to the extent of doubling them.* 
 
 The pay is high in comparison with that of other 
 armies, particularly that of the private soldier ; that 
 of the officer — especially of the mounted officer — who 
 is at more expense in his charge, is not in the same 
 proportion. 
 
 The following is a summary, comprising the allow- 
 ance for subsistence, clothing, &c., for the officers, 
 and not including the rations for the non-commis- 
 sioned officers and for the soldiers : 
 
 Lieutenant-General, . . . 778 dollars per month. 
 Major-General, .... 477 " " 
 
 Brigadier-General, ... 329 " " 
 
 * For the last levy the bounty was increased by two dollars, and 
 by an advance in the soldier's pay and allowance. The State of New 
 York adds to that fifty dollars ; Boston, a hundred dollars. In some 
 States there would be a question as to substituting thia mode of re- 
 cruiting by a conscription. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 5T 
 
 Colonels of Staff, of Engineer 
 
 Corps, and of Cavalry, . 237 dollars per montli. 
 Colonels of Artillery and of 
 
 Infantry, 222 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonels, . . . 198 
 
 Majors, 179 
 
 Captains, 120.50 
 
 1st Lieutenant, .... 110.50 
 2d Lieutenant, .... 105.50 
 !N'on-commissioned Officers, 
 
 from 21 dollars to . . . 15 
 Privates, 13 
 
 The officers of the staff have from ten to twenty 
 dollars per month more than the officers of infantry 
 of the same grade. The Engineer Corps has also a 
 higher pay than the other arms : it is, for soldiers of 
 the first class, seventeen dollars per month: a ser- 
 geant receives thirty-four dollars per month. 
 
 The ration of subsistence is ; 
 
 In money : thirty cents. 
 
 In kind : to the man, and by the day, three-quar- 
 ters of a pound of pork or of bacon, or one pound of 
 fresh or of salted beef; twenty-two ounces of bread or 
 flour, or one pound of biscuit, or one pound and a 
 quarter of corn-meal. Also a pound of potatoes to 
 a man, three times a week. Also for each hundred 
 rations, eight quarts of beans, or ten pounds of rice. 
 Also ten pounds of coffee or one pound and a half of 
 3^^ 
 
58 REPORT TO THE 
 
 tea ; fifteen pounds of sugar ; four quarts of salt ; four 
 quarts of vinegar ; four pounds of soap ; a pound and 
 a half of candles. 
 
 The subsistence not received in kind is in the na- 
 ture of allowances. The isolated soldier not drawing 
 rations receives an allowance of seventy-five cents per 
 day. 
 
 The ration of forage is : 
 
 In money : eight dollars per month. 
 
 In kind : fourteen pounds of hay, or twelve pounds 
 of oats per day, or twelve pounds of corn or barley. 
 Half rations of each are served. 
 
 The ration of straw is twelve pounds per month for 
 a man, and a hundred pounds per month for a horse. 
 In the field straw was not distributed. Hay w^as also 
 more scarce than oats or corn. Bread was also gen- 
 erally replaced by biscuit, as more easy of transporta- 
 tion. With biscuit, the basis of the soldier's aliment 
 is : bacon, beans, rice, coQ'ee, and sugar. 
 
 The ofiicers of the staff, even in the field, did not 
 draw in kind, except the forage rations ; they received 
 the subsistence rations in money. Each staff formed 
 one or more messes, transporting, themselves, their 
 subsistence, or purchasing it on the route, when that 
 was possible. The brigade commissaries furnished 
 them at a fixed price. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 YI. 
 
 59 
 
 EFFECTTYE FORCES. DIFFERENT ARMS OF THE SERVICE. 
 
 CLOTHING. ^ARMAMENT. EQUIPMENT. MATERIEL. 
 
 SUBDIVISION. 
 
 On the fii'st of January, 1862, tlie Federal effective 
 forces were reckoned as follows : 
 
 Begular Anmj.—^i^ regiments of cavalry, five 
 regiments of artillery, nineteen regiments of infantry. 
 —Total, with the corps of engineers, and the various 
 staffs, 39,273 men."^ 
 
 Vohmteer ^r?;??/.— Thirty-five regiments of cavalry 
 (40,880 men) ; thirty-five regiments of artillery (65,- 
 065 men) ; four hundred and thirty regiments of in- 
 fantry (449,350 men) ; which, with the various staffs, 
 give a total of 556,252 men. 
 
 The regiment of infantry is formed on the English 
 system. It reckons only a battalion, or rather ten 
 companies, which are left, at pleasure, in a single bat- 
 talion, or are divided into two. In the latter case 
 the lieutenant-colonel commands one battalion, and 
 the major, the other. 
 
 The regiments of the regular army were organized 
 originally in two battalions, of eight companies each, 
 with two majors to the regiment. They have now 
 been placed on the same footing as the volunteers. 
 The strength of the company, by the regulations, is 
 
 * Reduced to 25,000 raea by defections on the part of the South. 
 
60 REPORT TO THE 
 
 from eighty-three to a hundred and one men. There 
 were three officers to a company ; but it has just been 
 decided that there shall be a fourth. 
 
 The average effective force of the regiments on 
 going into the field was about seven hundred men 
 under arms. 
 
 The regiment is provided with music, which is 
 ordinarily execrable. 
 
 The regiment of cavalry is composed of three 
 squadrons, commanded each by a major. The squad- 
 ron has four companies, the company ninety-five men 
 at the maximum. Few of them exceeded sixty men 
 on entering the field. 
 
 The regiment of artillery is divided into three 
 battalions, commanded, each one, by a major; the 
 battalion has four companies; the batteries six 
 pieces.* 
 
 Among the special corps, a staff corps cannot be 
 precisely stated, inasmuch as, properly speaking, it 
 does not exist. It was not represented in the old 
 army at all except by the topographical engineers, by 
 the professors of the school of West Point, and by the 
 inspectors-general. The functions of the officers of 
 the staff are now filled by officers taken ad hoc from 
 the corps or from civil life, and appointed, like the 
 generals, by the Government. The greater part of 
 
 * Tlie artillery is not organized by battalions, but by regiments of 
 twelve companies, each company constituting a battery of four or six 
 pi8ces.~(£/: S, Ar^'Uery Officer,) 
 
SWISS MILITAEY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 61 
 
 the European officers who have taken service under 
 the United States have been employed as staff 
 officers. 
 
 The engineer corps is furnished by the regular army. 
 One company of pioneers, chosen from the different 
 corps, is formed in each division. The corps of en- 
 gineers of the regular army reckons only seven to 
 eight hundred men, comprising therein the officers, of 
 whom there are two colonels, seven lieutenant- 
 colonels, sixteen majors, twenty-two captains, &c.* 
 
 The commissariat is formed of officers taken from 
 the corps, or of civil functionaries. This service is a 
 little at a disadvantage {en sonffrance\ and suffers 
 from the fact, among others, that commissaries filling 
 very important functions, commissaries of divisions 
 and of army corps, have only subaltern grades. Hav- 
 ing all the care of the supplies and their transportation, 
 their task is very important in a country often without 
 roads and without subsistence, and where the armies 
 have to draw after them immense trains. From 
 thence easily arise abuses, and I might properly re- 
 mark, on this occasion, that there is a great excess of 
 military baggage in the army of the Korth. 
 
 The ordnance corresponds almost to the staff pecu- 
 liar to the artillery. It is a department which is 
 charged with the work of the arsenals and the found- 
 ries. It reckons a regular corps of about five hun- 
 
 * The corps of topographical engineers having been merged into 
 this cor-ps, its organization has been changed. 
 
62 REPORT TO THE 
 
 dred men, at tlie head of wliicli is a colonel, and to 
 wliicli have been added a great number of volunteers 
 and laborers from civil life, to supply the pressing 
 needs at the entrance on the campaign. 
 
 The medical corps is com.posed of military surgeons 
 and those in charge of the hospitals, assisted by civil 
 surgeons, by volunteers, by nurses, &c. This service 
 is also at a disadvantage, although the Government 
 devotes to it the greatest anxiety. The churches are 
 generally used as hospitals ; besides, at Washington, 
 there have been constructed for the same use exten- 
 sive frame buildings, furnished with every desirable 
 comfort. Several large and sumiptuous vessels serve 
 as hospital boats ; the ambulances {cacoldb) are after 
 the French system. 
 
 The signal corps is a department of the staff pecu- 
 liar to the United States, and v/hich has assumed 
 considerable importance there. By means of flags by 
 day, and of colored fires by night, it communicates 
 simultaneously with the marine and with the several 
 corps. It is an application of the usages of fleets to 
 the land service ; and has even acquired sufiicient de- 
 velopment to furnish scope for productive industry. 
 A large manufactory of night-signals of this kind, the 
 Coston manufactory, of New York, even exports its 
 products to Europe. By night the patrols recognize 
 one another by lanterns and rockets with colored fires ; 
 and by their changes of shade they form the words of 
 the countersign. For the same purpose, each division 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMI':NT. 63 
 
 of the army has its distinctive colors, marked by a 
 special flag remaining with the staff of division. 
 
 There are also attached to the staff, balloonists, tel- 
 egraphists, printers, topographers ; mechanics and 
 engineers for the use of railroads ; photographers and 
 estafettes^ without reckoning multitudes of journalists 
 and private historians, who obtain, very improperly, 
 the authority to follow these operations, and who re^ 
 ceive forage rations. 
 
 The dress of the army is simple and practical, as is 
 suitable for an army created solely for the campaign. 
 It varies according to the States, but it does not differ 
 widely from that of the regulars, which has served as 
 a standard. It is a deep blue frock-coat ; has one row 
 of yellow buttons ; is loose ; is worn ordinarily, when 
 out of service, open, with a vest ; pantaloons of the 
 same color ; cap of the same color, and of form simi- 
 lar to ours, but higher. A long sack-coat serves as 
 the garb in quarters. Each man has, besides, a heavy 
 great-coat, with a large ca.pe falling back on the 
 coat. Some corps, amongst others, of the Western 
 States, have the hat of black felt, with wide brim, in 
 place of the cap. 
 
 Other regiments, particularly of ISTew York and 
 Pennsylvania, have costumes a little more fanciful. 
 There are red Zouaves, blue Zouaves, gray chasseurs, 
 green sharpshooters, with variations of cut and of 
 color more or less picturesque, and with sounding 
 names. A !N"ew York regiment, the Lafayette Guard, 
 
64 REPORT TO THE 
 
 lias the classic uniform of tlie Frencli line ; another, 
 of the chasseurs d pied of the imperial guard. The 
 mounted corps of artillery do not differ sensibly from 
 the others, except that they have the jacket very short. 
 
 The distinctive marks are the gimp on the arms, 
 for the non-commissioned officers. As to the commis- 
 sioned officers, they had formerly the epaulette, suffi- 
 ciently massive ; to-day it has been replaced by wide 
 bars, crosswise on the shoulders, with border and orna- 
 ment in silver and gold. 
 
 The ground of these straps (in English, shoulder- 
 straps), by its color indicates the arm ; the embroid- 
 eries indicate the grade, to wit ; a bar of gold at each 
 extremity for the lieutenants ; two for the captains ; 
 a gold leaf for the majors ; a silver leaf 'for the lieu- 
 tenant-colonels ; a silver eagle, in the middle of the 
 straps, for the colonels ; a star for the brigadier-gen- 
 erals ; two for the major-generals (generals of divi- 
 sions); and three for the lieutenant-general (gen- 
 eral-in-chief). 
 
 Besides, the coat of the subaltern officers has one 
 row of buttons ; that of the superior officers and gen- 
 erals, two rows ; in pairs of two for the brigadier-gen- 
 erals, and of three for the generals of division. 
 
 There is also w^orn in actual service the crimson 
 scarf, en saidoir, or crosswise. 
 
 The pantaloon of the officer has a cord on the exte- 
 rior seam, of color corresponding to the arm of ser- 
 vice. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 65 
 
 The pantaloon of the non-commissioned officer, a 
 stripe the color of that of the respective corps. 
 
 The arming and equipment suffered at the outset 
 from the deficiency of the arsenals and the magazines, 
 plundered by the men of the South. But the manu- 
 facturing power of the States of the North soon rem- 
 edied the evil. 
 
 The arm of the infantry is the rifled musket. 
 There are all models of them, but the pattern styled 
 the English now prevails. European commerce has 
 furnished a good part of them ; the rest are made in 
 the United States. One arm peculiar to this army, is 
 a five-shooter rifled revolver (Colt's) which has been 
 given to some regiments, and which has been much 
 praised. 
 
 The cavalry is armed in part with the carbine; 
 others with a revolver, which is worn in a leather hol- 
 ster fixed to the sabre-belt, a little behind the right hip. 
 
 The equipment is, for the greater part of the corps, 
 the belt wdth the cartridge-box and bayonet. Many 
 regiments have, however, the sabre bayonet at the belt, 
 and the cartridge-box attached to the shoulder-belt 
 passing crosswise under the waist-belt. 
 
 All the straps are black, and the general aspect of 
 the troops is gloomy. Each soldier has a knapsack 
 with the articles of dress, and a small equipment, va- 
 riously composed ; as a blanket, a bag for bread, a 
 metal bottle covered with cloth, a pair of boots, and 
 a tin cup. 
 
00 REPORT TO THE 
 
 The officers wear liigh boots over the pantaloons, 
 which is less a prescription than a necessity, in a 
 conntrj often mucldj, and where they do not often 
 take the trouble, even in the approaches to the large 
 cities, to pave the ways. 
 
 Some regiments have the large tents for eight or 
 ten men, which follow with the baggage of the regi- 
 ment ; others have the shelter tent, on the French 
 system, more or less modified. One of the principal 
 modifications consists, for example, in the white sheets 
 being replaced by black ones, of India-rubber cloth, 
 which ofiers the double advantage of being lighter 
 and superior against rain, and of not being perceived 
 so far by the reconnoitring parties of the enemy. 
 In America it is not much dearer than white canvas. 
 Tlie mounted men have a large piece of gum-cloth, 
 with an opening in the middle, serving at once as 
 cloak and blanket, — very convenient for rainy weath- 
 er. Each artillery carriage has also its cover of India- 
 rubber cloth. 
 
 The saddlery has a particular character. The new 
 regiments, and the greater part of the mounted ofiScers, 
 have a saddle invented by General McClellan, as the 
 result of careful study in Europe and in America, and 
 which, in tlie opinion of experts, unites all the excel- 
 lencies of the difierent systems for a campaign saddle. 
 Among other things it is very convenient for packing, 
 and does little injury to the horses. It is composed, 
 altogether, of two side panels of wood joined, leaving 
 
SWISS jiTLrr^UiY depaetment. 67 
 
 tlie back free, bj means of a peculiar arrangement of 
 hoops and straps. The stirrups, on the Mexican 
 model, are of wood, and covered in front with a band 
 of leather, which rests against the end of the foot with- 
 out engaging it, and protects the lower part of the leg 
 against rain and the spatterings of the mnd. There 
 are no pistol holsters, the revolver being worn, as I 
 have already said, at the belt, but instead tw^o pockets 
 for various supplies. 
 
 The materiel of the artillery has also suffered dis- 
 advantage from the spoliation of the arsenals. A 
 special manufactory has been provided for a good 
 part of it, and has made, amongst others, all sorts of 
 cannon, more or less monstrous, for pieces of position. 
 The calibres are now without limit ; and the styles 
 are so numerous that it would be very difficult at 
 once to make an exact classification of them. 
 
 For the navy, have been constructed rifled pieces of 
 one hundred and of two hundred pounds, modifica- 
 tions more or less fundamental of the Whitworth and 
 Armstrong guns. 
 
 The field-pieces are : 
 
 1st. Old French eight-pound howitzer guns, called 
 Louis Napoleons, in bronze, and of smooth bore. 
 
 2d. Twelve-pound pieces, and twenty-four-pound 
 howitzers, of bronze, smooth bore. 
 
 3d. Four-pound pieces, and rifled eight-pounders, 
 on the systems of Parrott and Rodman, of iron. 
 
 In the reserve artillery are used rifled eight-pound- 
 
68 EEPOKT TO TUE 
 
 ers, twelve-pound cannon, smooth bore, and twenty- 
 fonr-pound howitzers. 
 
 The artillery of division is composed ordinarily of 
 three rifled batteries of small calibre, and one battery 
 of eight-pomid howitzer cannon. A battery of regu- 
 lars is attached to each division, and the commandant 
 of this battery commands also the artillery brigade of-, 
 the division. 
 
 The Rodman rifled cannon is a piece of wrought 
 iron, in hoops, with five grooves, with conic projec- 
 tile, having the lower end of lead, of eight or nine 
 pounds for the field calibre, and of thirty-six pounds 
 for the siege pieces. 
 
 The Parrott cannon, more improved, is a cast-iron 
 piece, widened at the breech, of from three to ten 
 grooves, according to the calibre. The small calibre 
 of the piece called the four, because it corresponds to 
 that number of the smooth bore, has a projectile of 
 eight pounds. There are some of them of the weight 
 of two hundred pounds, requiring a charge of from 
 fifteen to eighteen pounds of powder. The Parrott 
 projectile is furnished with a copper covering. 
 
 There are also Dahlgren cannon, Lincoln mortars, 
 James' howitzers &c., &c. ; but I should not under- 
 take to enter on a detailed description, not being suffi- 
 ciently sure to avoid confusion and errors. Among ^ 
 the carious innovations which free competition has 
 brought to light, I have seen a rifled field cannon, de- 
 signed to be pushed instead of being drawn, by its 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 69 
 
 team. The axle of tlie carriage is furnislied with a 
 double plate of sheet iron, serving as a parapet to the 
 artillerists, and with a range of pikes in front to oper- 
 ate as bayonets.* 
 
 The Federal forces are subject to the orders of the 
 President of the United States, who exercises the 
 chief command through the medium of the Secretary 
 of "War, or of a lieutenant-general, or sometimes 
 directly. I am obliged to say or, for, in the actual 
 state of things, it is difficult to know upon whom rests 
 the superior direction of operations. 
 
 General Scott, after Bull Eun, was replaced by 
 General McClellan, and the latter, once confined 
 in the peninsula of Yorktown, was not replaced by 
 any one. After the recent reverses on the Shenan- 
 doah and the Chickahominy, General Halleck was 
 called from the West to the post of General-in-chief 
 at Washington ; and it appears to be he who now 
 
 * It would be scarcely possible to collect more errors in so small 
 
 The materiel of the artillery has sufifered no disadvantage from the 
 spoliation of the arsenals ; no special manufactory has been provided 
 for a good part of it ; calibres are nx)t without Umit ; and the styles 
 are neither very numerous nor difficult to classify. 
 
 The one-hundred-pounder and two-hundred-pounder rifled guns 
 for the navy are Parrott guns, such as are used in the army, and are 
 not fundamental modifications either of Whitworth or Armstrong 
 guns. 
 
 The artillery of division is not ordinarily composed as stated. The 
 number of batteries attached to a division of infantry depends en- 
 tirely upon the numerical strength of the division ; one, two, or three 
 pieces to one thousand men, as depends upon circumstances. The 
 proportion of rifled to smooth-bore batteries depends also on circum- 
 
70 
 
 REPORT TO THE 
 
 commands, or rather directs in chief the operations, 
 in concert with the Chief and the Secretaries of the 
 Government, who, in their turn, are controlled by the 
 military committee of the Senate, and by Congress, 
 whose intervention in the conduct of the war is daily. 
 !Rumerons political tribunes, besides, as well as the 
 imperious declamations of clubs, and of a licentious 
 |)ress, have often also too considerable an influence 
 over the employment of the military forces. It fol- 
 lows that the chief command is in truth the weak 
 part of the army, and this duty the most at a dis- 
 advantage, while, however, no one in particular can 
 be accused — this vice appertaining to the very insti- 
 tutions of the country. It is, however, aggravated in 
 the present case by the accidental circumstance that 
 
 stances — the smooth-bore, instead of the rifled, being generally ia 
 excess. 
 
 There is no " Rodman" system of artillery in the United States 
 service. Major Rodman, of the United States Ordnance, invented 
 and perfected a method of casting guns of large calibre, which is ap- 
 plied to existing "s?/,s/em5." 
 
 There are neither '"'■ four-pounders,'*^ '■^Lincoln Mortars,'*^ nor ^^ James' 
 Ilowiizers''^ in the service of the United States Artillery: nor is every 
 artillery carriage furnished with a cover of India-rubber cloth. 
 
 The field-pieces of the United States service are the light twelve- 
 pounder (smooth bore), and the wrought iron rifled gun of three 
 inches diameter of bore, the latter weighing about eight hundred 
 pounds, and throwing a projectile weighing about ten pounds. 
 
 Twenty-pounder and ten-pounder Parrott guns are temporarily used 
 in small numbers ; as are also occasionally the twelve, twenty-four, 
 and thirty-two-pounder howitzers — relics of a former system. 
 
 A cast iron gun of four and a half inches diameter of bore, throw- 
 ing a projectile weighing about thirty-two pounds, is the ordinary 
 regulation siege gun. — {U. S. Artillery Officer.) 
 
SWISS Ml'LlTARY DEPAKTMP:NT. 71 
 
 neither tlie President nor the Secretary of "War is a 
 military man ; that the Secretary of the ITavy is not 
 a seaman ; that there are no officers in the military 
 committee of the Senate, and that the two great 
 political parties of the E'orth wage an incessant war 
 against the most conspicuous generals. 
 
 The Federal forces have been distributed into 
 several armies. There were formerly two principal 
 ones — that of McClellan in Virginia, and that of 
 Ilalleck in Tennessee ; and a secondary one under 
 Fremont in Western Virginia. Besides, there are 
 also three strong detachments on the Atlantic coast, 
 and five or six others here and there. 
 
 Since the first days of July, there have been, be- 
 sides the detachments, which are a little less numer- 
 ous, it is true, three principal armies. 
 
 1st. That of the Potomac, which would now be 
 better called that of the James River, under General 
 McClellan, to the southeast of Richmond, 90,000 men. 
 
 2d. That of General Pope, before "Washington, in 
 the direction to Richmond, about 50,000 men. 
 
 8d. That of General Grant, formerly of Halleck, at 
 Corinth, in the south of Tennessee, about 50,000 men. 
 
 These difi'erent armies are divided into army corps 
 of two to three divisions of infantry and one of 
 cavalry. 
 
 The division reckons ordinarily three brigades of 
 infantry and one of artillery. 
 
 The brigade of infantry reckons ordinarily four 
 
72 REPORT TO THE 
 
 regiments, performing the service of tlie line and of 
 chasseurs. 
 
 The regulations for manoeuvring the different arms, 
 and of the field service, are generally imitated from 
 the French rules, of which they are often a literal 
 translation. 
 
 The regulations for the internal service, the admin- 
 istration, and the manual of arms, are reproduced 
 rather from the English system. 
 
 Amongst the military publications outside of the 
 regulations, may be cited, amongst others, a work of 
 General Halleck on the military art, which has merit 
 in regard to judgments upon strategy and grand 
 tactics. General Scott and General Casey have pub- 
 lished elementary books upon the subject of infantry. 
 General McClellan has published a work on the cav- 
 alry service, and two volumes of studies on the 
 European armies, which he visited at the epoch of the 
 war of the Crimea, being then captain of engineers. 
 Major Delafield, also delegated to the Crimea, has 
 published a book on engineering, and on the art of 
 war in Europe, very rich in statistical information. 
 The greater part of the most useful French military 
 works are reproduced in extracts, or translations 
 entire into the English language, and sferve for the 
 instruction of the officers : as the Art of War of 
 Jomini ; the Staff Manual of De Rouvre ; the Memo- 
 rial of Laisne ; the Institutions of Marmont, etc. 
 
 The maps and plans prepared by the topographical 
 
SWISS MILITAKT DEPARTMENT. 73 
 
 engineers are generally fine works, which, besides, 
 are executed with rapidity. Topography, it may be 
 observed further, is a science much appreciated and 
 widely diffused in the United States. The periodical 
 reviews, and even the daily journals, accompany all 
 their narratives of military events with plans and 
 sketches, some of which are occasionally valuable, and 
 all have a merit of seasonableness, of which the army 
 often takes advantage. 
 
 By spring, the divisions of the Army of the Poto- 
 mac were properly instructed and disciplined in 
 the manoeuvres. It is true that they had been eight 
 months receiving instruction, and tjiat in circum- 
 stances calculated to develop the aptitude of soldiers. 
 The cavalry, amongst other arms, considering the fine 
 race of horses and the natural boldness of the men, is 
 excellent as light cavalry and for foraging. To make 
 a reconnoissance, or an adventurous raid, it would not 
 yield in any thing to the best cossacks of the Russian 
 army. Expeditions, sustained for twenty leagues 
 over frightful roads, or across woods, rivers, and 
 marshes, by day and by night, constitute the ordinary 
 service of a good number of the regiments. 
 
 The general information of the men in all which 
 concerns encampments, and the establishment of 
 routes, bridges, and abatis, their patience and their 
 sangfroid under disappointments, their force of will, 
 and their persistence against obstacles, are truly 
 remarkable. On the other hand, the etiquette of dis- 
 4 
 
74 EEPORT TO THE 
 
 cipllne, tlie respect for authority, and the good order 
 of the internal service, fall short of what is desirable. 
 
 There is wanting also the spirit of cheerfulness and 
 gayetj which sustains so happily the morale of the 
 weak at trying moments. The conduct and the char- 
 acter of the American soldier have something of sad- 
 ness, of reserve, and of silence, which is precisely the 
 opposite of that which is met with in the European 
 armies. The song and the langh there are the excep- 
 tions. It is true that the soldier is at the same time 
 a citizen. He thinks of his country and of his party ; 
 he talks politics ; he read^^ almost every day the 
 gazettes brought to the camps by intrepid little 
 carriers ; he has family cares ; he receives and 
 writes many letters ; he often sends a correspondence 
 to the journals ; he communicates military impres- 
 sions to the Senators of his State, and his plans of 
 campaign to chiefs the most elevated in grade. Few 
 knapsacks of the private soldier would be found un- 
 provided with a complete apparatus of secretary, 
 paper and envelopes of different sizes, collections of 
 postage-stamps, blotting-paper, etc. I have often 
 borrowed from the first comer the materials for my 
 correspondence. 
 
 If the American soldiers are not gay in their dispo- 
 sition, it is not, however, through contempt of alco- 
 holic stimulants. Intoxication is a vice too common, 
 and so excessive in their ranks that many indulge in 
 it even to the extent of falling on the spot by the side 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 75 
 
 of tlieir guns. Whence arises this injurious consew 
 qiience, that from fear of the abuse of spirituous 
 liquors, it becomes necessary to prohibit even the 
 moderate nse, and that their sale at retail is inter- 
 dicted to the sutlers, as well as at the stores of the 
 garrisons. 
 
 Amongst the qualities which are also wanting, 
 ought to be mentioned that sentiment of fellowship 
 and of fraternity in arms which contributes so much 
 to ffive confidence and soliditv to the character of an 
 army. Individuals and corps live there a little too 
 much for themselves, seeing, often, only a rival where 
 it would have been proper to see a friend and a 
 brother in arms. This defect can be easily compre- 
 hended and excused in a country making but the 
 commencement of its apprenticeship to a military 
 career, and where all the institutions and the habi- 
 tudes of civil life have hitherto reposed on the largest 
 allowance possible of individual liberty. 
 
 On the other hand, this same spirit of liberty, of indi- 
 viduality, and of constant rivalry, which has so strong- 
 ly developed artificial contrivances adapted to aid 
 man in his daily struggles against nature,— mechanic 
 industry, among others, and machinery of every spe- 
 cies,— contributes also its advantages to the army. 
 
 In no other army, for example, are the railroads of 
 a use so important and so frequent. 
 
 They have used them in the South for skilful 
 strategic combinations, and, on both sides, they have 
 
76 EEPORT TO THE 
 
 daily employed them for tactical movements of the 
 greatest boldness, sometimes for transportation nnder 
 fire of the enemy, for estafettes^ and even for recon- 
 noissances and scouting expeditions. 
 ^ At the time of the recent evacuation of the White 
 Honse, the 28th of June, the Federal General Stone- 
 man, commandant-in-chief of the cavalry, advanced 
 by way of exploration and as a scont on a locomotive, 
 in the direction of Kichmond, in order that he might 
 be able to communicate directly and promptly the 
 signal to fire the provisions which there was no longer 
 time to carry away. 
 
 In another reconnoissance of the most adventurous 
 character, some time before, two officers, as brave 
 as intelligent, of the staff of General McClel- 
 lan, the Count de Paris and the Duke de Chartres, 
 requested, on the route, a locomotive, and, climbing 
 upon it, they were able to explore promptly the coun- 
 try, and to bring back, in one morning, news of the 
 enemy acting at the distance of fifteen leagues from 
 head-quarters. 
 
 The construction of new railroads, their destruction 
 and their repair, play a very grand part in this war. 
 
 The telegraphs are managed with not less boldness 
 ^and activity. In the army of the Potomac, for ex- 
 ample, the stafi" of the general in command rarely 
 'stops more than two or three days without being 
 connected with all its divisions, and with the Govern- 
 ment at Washington. Whether it were on the boats 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 77 
 
 at anchor in the bays, or in the midst of the marshes 
 of the Peninsula of Yorktown, or in the bosoms of 
 thick forests, while the routes were not even traced 
 for the wagons, one could see rising all around him 
 the network of wires with wondi'ous rapidity. More 
 than one officer of the staff has recovered his direction 
 in the forests of Virginia by means of the posts, or 
 the trees truncated for this purpose, of the telegraph- 
 ists, — and the latter have often unrolled their wires as 
 rapidly as the army marched. 
 
 The telegraph connected not only the various 
 fractions of one and the same army, but also the dif- 
 ferent armies themselves together, through the me- 
 dium of the central office at Washington. The Gov- 
 ernment had thus at each instant, and at pleasure, 
 news of the operations over many hundred leagues of 
 extent. 
 
 The balloons were frequently employed with success 
 for reconnoissances ; and during their station above 
 the forests masking the ground, they were sometimes 
 put in communication with the head-quarters by a 
 telegraphic wire. A scout of this novel kind ren- 
 dered, amongst others, signal services to General 
 JVIcClellan during the battle of Fair Oaks, the 31st 
 of May. 
 
 Field printing-presses, operating' with great celerity, 
 are also attached to various staffs. As for any thing 
 further on this head, the printing-press is more con- 
 nected with the manners and customs of the Ameri- 
 
Y8 REPORT TO THE 
 
 can people than with those of any other. There is 
 not a village which has not its printing-press and its 
 journal. A head-quarters, as populous as many a vil- 
 lage, might well pretend to the same privilege. I 
 subjoin here, Mr. Counsellor, a specimen of the ele- 
 gant pamphlets which our printers executed for us in 
 the marshy woods of the environs of Yorktown. I 
 should add that these pamphlets, and the telegrams, 
 simplify greatly the labor of the staff department. 
 
 But all these improved engines are, after all, but 
 accessories ; and if the directing thought of the ope- 
 rations is not up to the height of its task, they only 
 complicate it for him. The facilities of execution ag- 
 gravate the faults of conception more frequently than 
 they aid in correcting them. In many circumstances, 
 it would have been very desirable for the army to 
 have fewer telegrams at its command, and to be more 
 independent of the political fluctuations of Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 YIII. 
 
 AEMOEED VESSELS. 
 
 Since I am to speak of machinery utilized for the 
 war, I shall be pardoned for saying, also, a few words 
 of one of the most remarkable facts of this war, viz. : 
 the transformation in naval constructions. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 79 
 
 We may well w^ait for what the mechanical genius 
 of this people may realize, having reference to the 
 means of the struggle, as w^ell as the remarkable inno- 
 vations in other more pacific domains. The results have 
 still surpassed the anticipations. The old w^ooden 
 navy, those colossi of 120 guns, w^hich made the pride 
 of England and of France, are now only decayed 
 powers in the presence of the heavy calibres and the 
 armored vessels created by the Americans. 
 
 The two belligerent parties had from the com- 
 mencement of the war constructed vessels covered 
 w^ith iron, of various forms, and on each side they 
 hoped to surprise one another. On both sides they 
 found themselves gradually entering the lists with 
 equal arms. 
 
 The 6th of March, in Hampton Roads, near Fort- 
 ress Monroe, one of the strangest naval combats took 
 place — one with which the whole world has resounded. 
 The secession frigate, the Merrimac, proceeding from 
 Norfolk, had just attacked, and disabled in a few 
 hours, two powerful frigates of war of the United 
 States, the Cumberland and the Congress. The next 
 day a vessel equally singular in construction, the Mon- 
 itor, in its turn entered the contest on the side of the 
 Federals, and forced the terrible vanquisher to a retreat. 
 
 Having had the advantage of seeing these two ves- 
 sels, and of visiting the Monitor in the very roadstead 
 of the combat, I shall endeavor to give here a brief 
 description of it. 
 
80 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 The Merrimac has nothing particnlarly remarkable 
 in fact, except her iron armor and ram. She is an old 
 frigate of the first class, of the United States. She 
 was of very small cost, and made in 1857 her first 
 voyage to England. Anchored at Southampton, she 
 was then remarked npon by critics for her proportions 
 and for the cut of her hnll, and provoked controversy 
 amongst seamen and builders. 
 
 Simk by the Federals at the time that they were 
 engaged in evacuating their maritime arsenal at ]^or- 
 folk, where she was, she was afterwards put afloat 
 again by the Secessionists. They razeed her, and 
 covered her with iron plating, rising by plates super- 
 posed one upon the other, in the form of a roof above 
 the deck. They furnished her with ten Armstrong 
 guns : four at each side, one on the prow, and one on 
 the poop. In front was fixed an enormous iron ram ; 
 by the ports, and by two openings near the chim- 
 ney, were arranged pipes for throwing boiling water 
 and steam, as a defence against attempts at board- 
 ing. 
 
 When the Merrimac wished to go out, thus armed, 
 for the first time, she could not float, and was obliged 
 to be lightened ; but she remained always slow in her 
 movements. Only once was she able to use her ram 
 at pleasure ; this was on the occasion of her demon- 
 stration against the Cumberland, which once ex- 
 perienced her destructive power. Since then, her ad- 
 versaries have always been able to avoid her blows. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 81 
 
 The strength of this vessel, as the engagements at 
 Hampton have demonstrated, consisted chiefly in the 
 resistance wliich her armor opposed to the enemy's 
 fire, and which permitted her, without fear, to moor 
 herself with broadside presented, at short range. She 
 confronted thus three complete broadsides of the 
 Cumberland, a sustained fire from the Congress at 
 short distance, and another of the Monitor. This last 
 succeeded only in inflicting upon her an injury in 
 front, which caused her to abandon the struggle. To 
 supply the rapidity of movement w^hich she lacked, 
 the Merrimac went escorted by two or three steamers 
 and gunboats, performing about her the service of 
 scouts and sharp-shooters. 
 
 At a distance, the heavy-looking Merrimac, without 
 mast, and with her low chimney, gliding slowly over 
 the sea, had a strange and monstrous aspect, which 
 struck the inhabitants of the coast with superstitious 
 terror. 
 
 It is known that this vessel was destroyed the 18th 
 of May, at the time of the capture of Norfolk by the 
 Federals. The Secessionists not being willing to let 
 her fall into the hands of her former proprietors, and 
 not being able to carry her away, inasmuch as she 
 was then receiving repairs, blew her up while evacu- 
 ating the place. On the other hand, they towed to 
 Kichmond the carcass of another Merrimac, w^hose 
 early appearance on the James Kiver has been an- 
 nounced. 
 4* 
 
82 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 The Monitor, created bj Captain Ericcson, is of a 
 wholly different character. It was constructed after a 
 plan well considered, and with the idea of offering the 
 least possible surface to the blows of the enemy ; of 
 giving to this exposed surface a solidity proof against 
 every thing ; and of causing the density of the water 
 to operate as a shield for the most delicate parts. 
 
 Entirely answering to this plan, the Monitor makes 
 but little show, and it was some time before I was 
 able to discover her at E[ampton Eoads, in the midst 
 of the vessels of every dimension confided to her pro- 
 tection. 
 
 IJpon the whole, this vessel is a raft, like a body on 
 a level with the water, under which is found a hull, 
 less long and less wide, enclosing the machinery, and 
 with the spiral line of the hull, the anchor, and the 
 helm all below. On the raft is raised a tower, shel- 
 tering two Dahlgren cannon of two hundred pounds 
 each. The tower can be moved on a circular frame- 
 work, and this movement is directed from the interior 
 of the tower. By this means the cannon, while re- 
 maining all the while under cover, can be brought to 
 bear in every direction of the horizon. 
 
 The raft has a length of about one hundred and 
 seventy feet by a width of forty, and a depth of five, 
 of which three and a half are under water. Her water- 
 line is elliptical. 
 
 The lower hull is about one hundred and twenty 
 feet in length, thirty-five in width, and seven in depth. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAKTMENT. 83 
 
 It is perceived tlien tliat slie is curtailed at the points 
 of the ellipse by fifty feet, and on the sides by five 
 feet, on the full length of the raft. These two parts 
 are of oak, covered with sheets and plates of iron. 
 The tower, wholly of iron, is nine feet high by twenty 
 in diameter, and presents a thickness of metal of nine 
 inches, in eight concentric walls. The two ports 
 are three feet above the deck. Her mechanism for 
 effecting the rotation of the tower is very ingenious, 
 but would demand, in order to give a complete idea 
 of it, a detailed description with drawings, Avhich I 
 have not the means of presenting here. Two men 
 alone suflice to handle the guns. The smoke escapes 
 by traps in the roof of the towxr, and also by means 
 of a ventilating apparatus which conducts it to other 
 grated traps under the deck. Apart from the tower, 
 the raft offers no other prominent point except the 
 pilot-house, also of iron, which rises tw^elve inches above 
 the deck, and has inchned sides. Holes, covered with 
 glass, allow the pilot to direct the vessel, while being 
 fully under cover. 
 
 It is thus seen that this battery is theoretically 
 adapted to its object ; its delicate portions are covered 
 by a great thickness of w^ater, and its exterior portions, 
 of small surface, strongly protected, and circular, of- 
 fer little hold for the action of the projectiles. Prac- 
 tical experiment corroborated these calculations of 
 theory. In the combat of the 7th of March the two 
 guns of the Monitor contended for two hours against 
 
84: EEPORT TO THE 
 
 the ten of tlie Merrimac, without other damage than 
 a blow at the look-out of the pilot-house. Several 
 times did the Monitor, manoeuvring with ease, avoid, 
 without ceasing her fire, the charges of the ram of her 
 antagonist. 
 
 Since then the Monitor has not been engaged but 
 once, against Fort Darling, below Richmond, and it 
 was admitted that she required still some improve- 
 ments, among others the following : 
 
 1st. The arrangement of the guns in the tower does 
 not permit a sufficient inclination of range ; 
 
 2d. Her slight elevation above the water-line causes 
 it to be doubted whether she can bear the open sea. 
 Koom would also fail her for supplies for a long voyage ; 
 
 3d. The tower has the ordinary inconvenience of 
 casemates ; the smoke, and especially the heat, are not 
 dissipated there with sufficient readiness, and soon 
 become very annoying to the gunners. 
 
 These observations, the first two in particular, will 
 appear the better founded, as Captain Ericcson had 
 not had the intention of making the Monitor any thing 
 else than a coast battery, designed originally, during 
 the incident of the Trent, to defend the entrance to 
 the harbor of JN'ew York. The constructor having 
 afterwards solicited the opportunity of proving his 
 battery against the enemy, she was sent in haste to 
 Fortress Monroe, when the real existence and the 
 approaching sortie of the Merrimac were learned. The 
 guns which were used in the fight were not of the 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAETMENT. 85 
 
 intended calibre ; and Commodore Dalilgren tliinks 
 that if liis gun, of large calibre, bad been in action, 
 the Merrimac would have been pierced and sunk. 
 
 The fight of the 7th of March produced a great sen- 
 sation in the United States. The two vessels engaged 
 in the tilt, which until then had been considered as 
 chimerical constructions, and on which many a jester 
 had exercised his wit, were surrounded wdth respect, 
 and on all sides mechanicians, ship-owners, and en- 
 gineers put themselves to work to create and improve 
 vessels of this kind. They used old vessels which they 
 improved ; they constructed new ones ; they invented 
 others, of forms more and more odd ; and to-day the 
 navy of the United States possesses a whole fleet of 
 these formidable engines. The Naugatuck and the 
 Galena were the first to join the Monitor in the James 
 River. The waters of the Mississippi bear also a fleet 
 of them, and, very recently, the Secessionists have put 
 one afloat, the Arkansas, which made her debut in 
 passing by force the Federal gunboats, in order to 
 strengthen the defences of Yicksburg. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to recognize, that these so 
 improved products of the mechanic arts bear in them 
 defects, arising from their very excellencies. The 
 smallest error in time, a slight accident to the ma- 
 chinery, is sufiicient, sometimes, to paralyze the action 
 of an immense force, and to cause disappointments 
 which are so much the more lively as the hoj)es ex- 
 cited have been great. It is thus that, at the attack 
 
86 REPORT TO THE 
 
 on Fort Darling, tlie 15tli of May, the I'ederal flo- 
 tilla was unable to obtain any result. The Galena, 
 which had been grounded in ascending the James 
 River, had to be lightened, and was soon deficient in 
 munitions. The J^augatuck saw her hundred-pound 
 gun burst at the first fire ; and the Monitor had to re- 
 main at long range to get her angle of aim. 
 
 At the saftie time that it was sought to appropriate 
 these new means of destruction, each party aimed with 
 not less eagerness at obtaining the corresponding means 
 of preservation. After the poison, the antidote ; after 
 the projectile, the plate : thus is the career of inven- 
 tion pursued. This second search is also not less 
 interesting than the other. 
 
 I give below the facts of the contest which I have 
 heard the most appreciated, in view of new combats 
 between the Merrimac and the Monitor. 
 
 Against the Merrimac, the ISTorth proposed to em- 
 ploy the shock, as being the most eflectual mode of 
 action. Certain enormous steamers, of great swift- 
 ness, and heavily ballasted, amongst others the Yan- 
 derbilt and the Constitution, were to rush, under a 
 full head of steam, upon the Merrimac. The latter, 
 less capable of moving, could not avoid the shock of 
 one of these steamers, and, according to the calcula- 
 tions and the laws of dynamics, would necessarily be 
 sunk. With this object, a flotilla of this naval cavalry 
 was for a long while in station below Fortress Mon- 
 roe, always under steam. While it should have pre- 
 
SWISS MILITAKY DEPARTMENT. 87 
 
 pared and executed its cliarges, tlie Merrimac would 
 have been entertained by the fire of the Monitor and 
 other armored vessels. 
 
 Great success was not expected from boarding, 
 considering the difficulty of throwing men on the 
 inclined sides of the armor, who, besides, could be 
 driven back by jets of boiling water and steam. 
 
 Against the Monitor, I have heard it said that the 
 seamen of the South thought, amongst others, of three 
 means, which appear in fact susceptible of some effi- 
 ciency. 
 
 They w^onld attempt to board her, and bold men 
 would throw shell into the tower through the ports. 
 But the Monitor put herself on guard against this 
 danger by the arrangement of pumps of boiling w^ater 
 discharging at the ports. 
 
 Or, they would open the deck and sink her, by a 
 bomb-shot of heavy calibre, and as vertical as possi- 
 ble. But such a shot it is difficult to make. 
 
 Or, to capture her with a chain, — to throw it in the 
 manner of a lasso around the tower, and to ground 
 her on the coast. 
 
 It is unfortunate that these different means, suffi" 
 ciently curious, of contest, cannot, perhaps, be put to 
 the proof, in new actions between these same two ves- 
 sels. But they will be so, withont doubt, in others, 
 under conditions very similar. 
 
 Upon the w^hole, the navy of the United States, 
 whether it be by its creations or by its operations, has 
 
88 REPORT TO THE 
 
 acquired, and is acquiring still, the greatest honor in 
 this war. It may well console her for the disappoint- 
 ments which the land army has experienced. 
 
 The blockade of so great an extent of coast, a 
 blockade which, whatever may be said of it, is as 
 real and as effective as a blockade has ever been, 
 testifies the power and the vigilance of the Federal 
 fleet. 
 
 The actions of Fort Pulaski, of Forts Donelson 
 and Henry, of Port Poyal, of Hampton, of Yicks- 
 burg, of New Orleans, and of other points of the 
 Mississippi ; also of Pittsburg Landing, and of Har- 
 rison's Landing, show what resources of energy, of 
 precision, and of intrepidity, there are among these 
 brave seamen. 
 
 In fine, the frequent transportation of troops, suc- 
 cessfully efiected at the distance of hundreds of 
 leagues along the coast, the embarkation and disem- 
 barkation of the Army of the Potomac, of those of 
 Bnrnside, Butler, and Sherman, with all their sup- 
 plies and materiel of the heaviest calibre, prove that 
 the most difficult and extensive operations can be 
 seriously undertaken by an army, as well as seconded 
 on all the navigable waters. 
 
 At this time an entire fleet of vessels, identical, 
 with the Monitor, is in course of construction in the 
 various ship-yards of the !N"orth, without reckoning a 
 great number of others on diflerent models."^ "When 
 
 * Amongst other variations from the system of Capt. Ericcson, is 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 89 
 
 tliese different vessels shall have taken the sea, that is 
 to say, in a few months only, the United States will 
 possess, for the moment, the greatest military naval 
 force in the world, and will be able to exercise sover- 
 eign control over their waters. I have it from a very 
 experienced and impartial seaman, that the famous 
 Warrior, or her rival Za Gloire, would find them- 
 selves at a disadvantage against a single Monitor. In 
 return, those vessels are more suitable, it is true, for 
 distant navigation. 
 
 In the course of this year, nine new Monitors, con- 
 structed under the direction of Capt. Ericcson, ought 
 to be launched, to wit: the Montauk, the Catskill, 
 and the Passaic, in course of construc^on at Green 
 Point, 'New York ; the Sangamon and Lehigh, in con- 
 struction at Chester, Pennsylvania ; the l^antucket 
 and the JSTahant, in construction at Boston ; the Wee- 
 hawken, in construction at Jersey City ; and the Pa- 
 tapsco, in construction at Wilmington, Delaware. 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1863, the mili- 
 tary marine of the l!Torth should reckon fifty mailed 
 vessels, on different systems and of different strength. 
 
 The South, really very inferior in this respect, and 
 everywhere closely blockaded in her ports, is also 
 making great efforts to establish for herself a navy. 
 
 mentioned the system of Wliitnej, of which a specimen, the Keokuk, 
 is at this time being built at New York. As capable of resistance as 
 the Monitors, it will be lighter, inasmuch as wood enters, for a great 
 part, into its construction, and be more manageable. It will have a 
 speed of ten knots an hour. 
 
90 REPORT TO THE 
 
 It is said that two new Merrimacs are already in ad- 
 vanced construction at Richmond, and that they 
 ought soon to make their appearance in the waters of 
 the James River. Another is expected to contribute 
 to the defence of Yicksburg, on the Mississippi. Oth- 
 ers are in construction at Charleston, and still others 
 are receiving tljeir armament in England, designed 
 to give chase to the commercial vessels of the North. 
 
 IX. 
 
 SOME PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS IN REGARD TO THE AMERI- 
 
 « CAN AND SWISS ARMIES. 
 
 I shall now take the liberty, in terminating this re- 
 port, to sum up, under the form of observations or 
 desiderata^ some of my personal impressions on the 
 defects of the American Federal Army, and then to 
 indicate some comparisons which I could hardly pre- 
 vent myself from making between that army and our 
 own. 
 
 The two armies have, indeed, in many respects, a 
 great resemblance, and are a little deficient, it is neces- 
 sary to avow, in the same particulars. They are both 
 more or less composed of armed militia of confeder- 
 ated States, of citizen soldiers accustomed to liberty, 
 embarrassed with civil business as well as family 
 cares, and living under republican governments. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAKTMENT. 91 
 
 Owing to a great number of causes, but particularly 
 to the traditions of the middle ages, to engaging in 
 foreign services, and to a permanent danger, resulting 
 from disagreeable and too powerful neighbors, Swit- 
 zerland possesses, if not a strength, at least a military 
 spirit substantial and active, a sentiment completely 
 unknow^n hitherto to Americans^ who have prided 
 themselves rather in not being military in any thing. 
 But apart from this fact, there are, unfortunately, too 
 many defects common to the two countries, and to the 
 two armies. 
 
 As to what concerns the American Federal Army, 
 the principal causes of inferiority are, in my opinion, 
 the following : 
 
 1st. From lack of authority in the generals, in con- 
 sequence of the exigencies and the vices of democratic 
 institutions, which protect all the restraints upon the 
 vigorous and wise conduct of the war, — intrigues of 
 parties in the government and about it; excessive 
 personal ambition; sordid flattery of the soldier- 
 voters ; the systematic aspersion or commendation by 
 the press, of the several generals, according to the 
 party to which they belong ; exaggerated fears on the 
 part of the government of seeing the rise of future 
 military dictators; the superabundance of clubs, of 
 journals, of tribunes, which, without wishing it, fur- 
 nish valuable information to the enemy, and facilitate, 
 in a singular manner, the business of spies.* 
 
 * Without wishing to replace the liberal system of government of 
 
92 KEPOKT TO THE 
 
 2d. The defective mode of forming the army. The 
 system of voluntary recruiting by the inducements of 
 the pay, or by the stimulation of political passions^ 
 furnishes a ffreat number of individuals more or less 
 depraved, or inept for the valuable service of the field, 
 but who are admitted, to make up the number. 
 The rest of the nation, thinking they are doing 
 enough in aiding to raise pay for these mercenaries^ 
 find themselves too little interested in events, do not 
 feel sufficiently their burden, and do not take in the 
 war an interestas serious as the circumstances would 
 demand. In the great cities, at ISTew York, Philadel 
 phia, Boston, and even in the face of the enemy at 
 Washington, amusements go on as in time of entire 
 peace ; — they dance, they dine, carry on festivities, 
 boast loudly, and, what is more serious, they know 
 
 the United States by a despotic regime, it might yet be required in time 
 of war, that military exigencies should be more seriously regarded, 
 and that the very object of the war should not be rendered more diffi- 
 cult, if not even impossible to be attained, by an exaggerated political 
 dodrinarianism^ which consists in wishing to respect every institution, 
 and every individual right, created for times of peace. I could cito 
 here, with advantage, the example of Switzerland, as jealous, certainly, 
 of its democratic prerogatives as are the United States. In IS-lY, at the 
 time of the campaign of the Sunderbund, General Du Four, Commander- 
 in-chief of the Federal army, began by demanding of the journals an 
 entire abstinence from remarks on the subject of military affairs. 
 Through the medium of the diet and the cantonal governments, the 
 press was seriously invited to be silent on the events of the campaign, 
 and not to reproduce any thing but official acts which should be trans- 
 mitted to it by the governments, publishing bulletins for this purpose. 
 The army and the country found the advantage of this measure, which 
 could be put in execution in the United States as easily as in Switzer- 
 land, 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 93 
 
 not how to sacrifice on the altar of the conntry in dan- 
 ger, any rancor, or any political pnrpose. The con- 
 test of parties and of cliques pnrsnes its ordinary 
 course, and even more intensely than in ordinary; 
 many a Kepiiblican abolitionist of the North rejoices 
 more over the reverses of a Democratic general, of Mc- 
 Clellan, for example, than over his success. The De- 
 mocrats do the same in regard to the abolition generals, 
 as, for example, Fremont. If the army were recruited 
 by conscription, or if each citizen, subject to service, 
 were held to military duty, as in Switzerland, the 
 various classes of society would be more equally and 
 more directly identified with the war, and would 
 better comprehend the necessity of the sacrifices 
 which it demands. 
 
 3d. The mode of recruiting furnishes a great num- 
 ber of bad ofiicers, having sometimes no other title to 
 their commissions than having known how to entice a 
 few recruits to inns or clubs. It is particularly inju- 
 rious when that happens, as it too often does, alas! 
 in regard to the positions of the superior officers. 
 For two good officers taken thus from the ranks of the 
 orators, or from the magistracy, there are five or six 
 of them completely incapable in the face of the enemy. 
 Eeing from that time let into the secret that military 
 knowledge is not the first condition to obtain an offi- 
 cer's commission, every influence is brought to bear to 
 efi'ect the nominations. The ties of relationship, of 
 friendship, of party, considerations of speculation 
 
94 EEPORT TO THE 
 
 even, cause to be named for very important posi- 
 tions men totally incapable of filling them. When 
 that happens in the staifs, where the service, necessa- 
 rily indeterminate and not susceptible of being regu- 
 lated as in regiments, does not betray the incapacity 
 of the officer until after the act, the hurtful conse- 
 quences which may ensue may be easily understood. 
 I do not wish to cite here proper names, for that 
 would not serve my end ; but it would be easy for me 
 to prove what I advance, by facts too palpable. I 
 should add that, owing to tl^e intrigues of parties, 
 and the compliance of the press, it is often difficult 
 for the public, even for the Government and the 
 superior officers, to ascertain whether such an officer 
 is a pretender, an adroit actor, or a man of merit. 
 The conscription would give better men for the 
 troops, and would allow a choice exclusively military 
 for the officers. 
 
 4th. This state of things has still a bad conse- 
 quence : it is, that the officers of the same corps, 
 divided often by politics, have not always the moral 
 confidence which they ought to have in one another. 
 That state of things presenting itself in the staffs, 
 generals are seen to distrust their own aides-de-camjp^ 
 and the latter to distrust one another ; whence a sys- 
 tem of petty mysteries, very injurious to the service. 
 It may be said that, owing to this cause, added to 
 others, there does not exist a staff really organized. 
 Thus marches and operations are too often made in 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 95 
 
 almost complete ignorance of the movements and of 
 the strengtli of the enemy, or much too slowly. 
 
 5th. The regiments are too numerous, and too weak 
 in effective force — a defect proceeding from specula- 
 tion, and from the mercantile spirit mingling in the 
 matter of the recruiting. To obtain recruits, recruit- 
 ing officers are necessary; and to dispose of the 
 latter, there must be numerous corps. It is not only 
 a great expense, involving a pure loss of superior 
 officers, and of staffs of regiments, but also a waste of 
 men taken from subaltern functions, where they 
 could be more useful. In consequence of the same 
 principle, or rather of the same abuse, there are (will 
 it be believed ?) no depots for regiments ! When 
 reinforcements are needed, new regiments are ordina- 
 rily raised ; and thus they have always either entirely 
 conscripts or decimated veterans. How much more 
 advantageous would it not be in all respects to intro- 
 duce, on the other hand, the new recruits into the 
 fractions of the regiments which have already had ex- 
 perience ! But there would be fewer places for 
 officers to bestow, fewer favors to be distributed, less 
 aliment for political intrigue ! That would not be 
 the interest of the greater number, and, unfortunately, 
 men of mark also, thirsting for popularity, conform 
 their sentiments to those of the multitude. 
 
 6th. The corps, like the staffs, have far too much 
 baggage. The punishment is often produced, without 
 doubt, in the fact that it is left on the way ; but 
 
96 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 there ouglit to be a general rule to reduce it in a 
 uniform manner for the success of operations, often 
 shackled by this immense train of impedimenta. 
 There are regiments of infantry of 600 or 700 men, 
 which draw after them as many as twenty wagons. 
 The staff alone of General McClellan had not less 
 than thirty wagons. Some contained, it is a fact, arm- 
 chairs, beds, and a crowd of useless articles. I hasten 
 to add, that the honorable general did not require so 
 many for himself, and that he gave, on the contrary, 
 in his w^hole person, the example of a modesty and a 
 severity unfortunately little followed. 
 
 Ytli. The military zeal of the army is not excited 
 by any advantage proportioned to the dangers. J^o 
 honorable distinctions, no decorations or pensions, not 
 even retiring pensions, are assured to the wounded, or 
 to the widows and orphans.* Then the music is 
 wretched ; the uniforms gloomy ; no distribution of 
 brandy ; and a severe prohibition against making 
 booty. There is only patriotism and the pay to 
 stimulate the boldness of the combatants. But this 
 is not enough in the present case to lead men reso- 
 
 * A pension law has always existed for the American army. Many 
 have been enacted at diiferent times, the most recent being the " Act 
 of Congress approved July 14th, 1862." Appropriations for " Medals 
 of Honor," to be given to "those who distinguish themselves in ac- 
 tion," have been authorized by the " Eesolution of July 12th, 1862," 
 and the "Act approved, March 3d, 1862." 
 
 Appointments to the vacancies in the regular army are made only 
 from the graduates of West Point, and the distinguished regular non- 
 commissioned officers and privates. — Translator. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAKTMENT. 97 
 
 lutely to death. As for tlie pay, tliat is gained 
 in advance, and if one is thrown out of service, 
 the paj is lost for himself and his heirs. As to 
 patriotism, it is that of a civil war, and the sad 
 struggle of the parties w^hich w^e have mentioned in 
 the very camp of the ITorth, blunts, or gives it a false 
 direction. If it has its moments of dash, it has more 
 often still its fainting-fits. 
 
 8th. The very organization of the discipline is 
 fundamentally defective, in that it transfers too much 
 to the military service, where obedience above every 
 thing ought to reign, the individual privileges of the 
 citizen, who prides himself essentially on being free. 
 Courts of inquiry and courts-martial, for example, 
 are multiplied to infinity, diverting, at every turn, a 
 good number of soldiers from active service, with- 
 out aiming, most frequently, at any result. Veri- 
 table law^suits, bristling with incidents of every kind, 
 are always pending by the dozen in each division, 
 in w^hich the question, in the greater part of the 
 European armies, would be one of the simple com- 
 petence of superior or general oflScers. Heaps of 
 pamphlets, besides, result from them, wdiich there is 
 a custom of sending to all the corps, and the trans- 
 portation and dispatch of which by the officers, is 
 done sometimes to the detriment of important busi- 
 ness. 
 
 The officers have too little the habit of using their 
 disciplinary power, and make too many concessions to 
 5 
 
98 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 the wliinis of the soldiers. There are many provosts 
 charged specially with the police, but they have no 
 armed police or special corps under their orders, and 
 the surveillance is very difficult. The abuse, or 
 fraudulent use of leaves of absence is not either suf- 
 ficiently prevented, or severely enough punished. 
 A troop which is near the great centres of population, 
 and to railroads, and which does not believe the 
 situation critical, has often even a third part of its 
 effective force absent, by abuse of leave or without 
 leave, some on parties of pleasure, others on clandes- 
 tine visits to their families. 
 
 This same spirit of individual independence, so 
 laudable in civil life, but whose excess is so fatal to 
 military discipline, is found in every thing, and at all 
 times. In the cabinet of the generals, and in the 
 matter of the operations, it introduces itself into dis- 
 cussions, conferences, too frequent councils of war, 
 and assumes the initiative and the decision of the re- 
 sponsible chief The orders have not habitually the 
 character of precision and of authority which they 
 ought to have ; one does not perceive in them suffi- 
 ciently the nerve of command ; they are often also 
 followed, in place of execution, by replies, by observa- 
 tions, and sometimes even by protestations on the 
 part of the officer who receives them. The official 
 instructions and orders might be taken for^diplomatic 
 notes. They negotiate, much more than order and 
 obey. Upon the whole, they do not sufficiently 
 
SWISS ^nLITARY DEPARTMEN^f. 99 
 
 believe in tlie riglits of superior authority, and in the 
 fact that a penal military code can be seriously 
 applied. It will be so, probably, so long as there 
 shall not have been made some examples of the 
 guilty in high places. 
 
 9th. Finally, the K'orth is still affected by a cause of 
 inferiority in a certain peculiarity of its strategic check- 
 erboard ; its Capital, Washington, the capital of the 
 Union, which it wishes to restore, is located on the 
 very frontier ; and the care and the defence of this 
 important and eccentric point attach to it great, 
 very great considerations of preference. 
 
 This city is, in fact, so well covered against Vir- 
 ginia by the Potomac, — ^liere about three-quarters of 
 a league wide, and accessible to the Federal gunboats, 
 — that it is in as great safety as if it were ten leagues 
 in the interior, and is not really threatened ex- 
 cept on the side of Harper's Ferry. It is, then, be- 
 hind this last point that there ought to have been 
 constructed a great intrenched camp. It would have 
 served to flank the capital, to watch the passages of 
 the Potomac, and to keep the army in a central posi- 
 tion, whence it might be able to debouch at pleasure, 
 in front by the Shenandoah, to the right by Western 
 Virginia, or to the left by Washington. In place of 
 that, the capital has been made the military centre ; 
 it has been surrounded by an immense belt of works 
 on both banks of the river, extending even beyond 
 Alexandria, works, the guard alone of which absorbs 
 
100 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 and throws out of action a very considerable number 
 of troops, and whence it is impossible to debonch by 
 land except on a single line of operations, and without 
 secrecy. Thus, each time that the Northern troops 
 have been put en route from this point they have 
 ■been anticipated — whether at Manassas, in the penin- 
 sula of Yorktown, or in the valley of the Shenandoah, 
 — ^by the concentrations of the enemy. 
 
 l^othing proves better than the military events 
 which have occurred in Yirginia during this war, how 
 much the choice of a bad base' can weigh with a iiital 
 burden on all the operations of the campaign. The 
 principal faults, and the most acute disappointments 
 of the Federals, have been, for the most part, only 
 the natural consequences of this first error of having 
 taken for a base a point so eccentric as Washington, 
 and which ought not to have been considered any 
 thing but a good tete de jpont of advanced posts. 
 
 Approaching, now, some points of comparison be- 
 tween the American Federal army and our own, I 
 shall present eight observations : 
 
 1st. The army of the United States asserts the prin- 
 ciple, that the soldier ought to be able to subsist on 
 his rations, without being obliged to disburse a frac- 
 tion besides. I believe this a very good principle, 
 and, whether it be in regard to the justice of the mat- 
 ter or in regard to health, it ought also to be prac- 
 tised in our army. To maintain the health of the 
 soldier, it is necessary besides, that his food be not 
 
SWISS MILITAKT DEPARTMENT. 101 
 
 too different from that of the civilian. I think, then, 
 that it would be well to add to onr present rations a 
 ration of coffee and of sugar ; a little more bread, and 
 regular rations of different vegetables, for the evening 
 meal. The porringer of the soldier should be of sheet 
 iron, capable of withstanding the fire, and seiwing in 
 extremity as a coffee-pot. 
 
 2d. If we should ever be under the necessity of 
 arming our frontier lakes, — as it was proposed to do 
 in public discussions at the time of the purchase of the 
 Radetzky, and in the instance of the annexation of 
 Savoy to France, — or should we only have to fortify 
 their banks, we ought not to forget that vessels of 
 wood, and light walls, can no longer hold out against 
 the heavy calibres and iron plates of the American 
 system, which are already imitated by the European 
 powers.^ 
 
 3d. With a climate as variable as ours, it appears 
 to me as urgent here as it does everywhere else to 
 renounce the bivouac, and to furnish the troop with a 
 tent. I shall make reference, on this point, to the 
 ^Report which I have already had the honor of ad- 
 dressing to the Swiss Military Department in August, 
 1859, on my return from Lombardy, limiting myself 
 
 * The principal States of Europe have sent instructed and intelligent 
 officers to the United States, to study there the innovations on the 
 military domain called out by tliis war. I am persuaded that, in many 
 respects, and especially in regard to rifled arms, carbines, and cannon, to 
 the armor of ships, and various machinery, Europe will bring back 
 good fruits from the experience of America, 
 
102 REPORT TO THE 
 
 to recommend anew its conclusion, that our elite troops 
 should, at least, be furnished with the shelter tent on 
 the French system. With the view of making this 
 provision, it would, perhaps, be advantageous to make 
 some experiments with India rubber, or with some 
 imperme'able fabric, but of deep color. The shelter 
 tent aj^pears to me so much the more urgent in our 
 army, as our soldiers have not, as others have, any 
 covering for the ordnance. 
 
 4th. The late experience which I have had in 
 America of the wants of the troops in the field, have 
 confirmed me in the conviction which I had already, 
 after the Italian war, that spades, axes, and mattocks 
 are articles of the first necessity, and of daily nse 
 in all the corps. It would, then, be very desirable 
 that means should be taken in advance, of having a 
 sufficient provision of those articles, in case of our army 
 being pnt into the field. 
 
 5th. The saddle called the McClellan saddle, with 
 the method of replacing the pistols and their holsters 
 by a revolver at the belt, would be worthy of an at- 
 tentive consideration, at this moment particularly, 
 when this question is nnder discussion, and when a 
 new saddle is proposed for onr cavalry. I should 
 remark, in passing, that our castings comj^licate the 
 saddlery, take np valuable room, load the horse, and 
 that when one is not in the saddle, he finds himself 
 im armed. 
 
 I mnch hesitated whether I should not brins: to 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAETMENT. 103 
 
 Switzerland a specimen of the McClellan saddle. 
 Unfortunately, the trouble and the expense of trans- 
 portation prevented me, — so much the more, as, had 
 I commenced to make purchases, there are many 
 other models of military results which I should have 
 desired to be able to submit to the Department. 
 
 6th. Switzerland has always been distinguished by 
 the speciality of the aim. The address of our rifle- 
 men, become proverbial and justly celebrated through- 
 out the entire world, constitutes a notable portion of 
 our strength, although there is some abuse, perhaps, 
 whether amongst ourselves or abroad, in regard to the 
 real importance of very fine marksmen in the field. 
 It is, however, proper not to allow oui'selves to be 
 outstripped by other countries, or at least not to have 
 the reputation of being so, and, consequently, to fol- 
 low the improvements which are made elsewhere. 
 America has much contributed heretofore to the im- 
 provement of the rifle. To-day she has gone farther, 
 and has armed many regiments with a rifled revolver 
 of five shots, of which I have heard many favorable 
 remarks, and to which I believe I should draw the 
 attention of the Department. 
 
 I should be perhaps inclined to doubt the advan- 
 tages of this arm for precision of aim, the certainty of 
 which demands more calmness than rapidity. But 
 for choice battalions, or for a select company in a bat- 
 talion, for the head of a column in case of a brisk 
 attack, or for a defence against cavalry, it is necessary 
 
104: REPORT TO THE 
 
 to recognize tliat tlie fire of a battalion or company, 
 being capable of being delivered five times in succes- 
 sion, and promptly repeated, will certainly be of great 
 advantage. At all events, the fact of the existence of 
 this arm, with which three regiments of the iN^orth are 
 furnished (and in one, the Burdan regiment, is one 
 Swiss company, formerly commanded by M. Trepp of 
 the Grisons, at present a major in the same corps), has 
 appeared to me to merit being remarked upon, at 
 least as an interesting curiosity. The price of this 
 rifie is from two hundred and fifty to two hundred and 
 sixty francs. 
 
 Yth. As to what concerns distinctive marks, w^hat I 
 have seen in America has not failed to remind me of 
 the discussions which have taken place in Switzerland 
 on the retention or the abolition of the epaulets. 
 Personally, I was then in favor of retaining this badge 
 for oflacers. To-day I am forced to recognize the fact 
 that the epaulet becomes almost untenable in the 
 field. I doubt whether, in conditions similar to those 
 in which we found ourselves in the United States, 
 epaulets would have lasted three weeks. Thus, 
 whatever might still be the regulations for the old 
 army, nobody wore them. At the end of some weeks, 
 we w^ere forced by the difiiculties of transportation 
 to diminish our baggage and appendages, and it is 
 probable that, if epaulets had been worn, they 
 would have been got rid of on that occasion. Per- 
 haps one day it will be so in Switzerland ! I am 
 
SWISS MILITANT DEPARTMENT. 105 
 
 therefore of the opinion that this occurrence should 
 be foreseen, and that, if the discussion on this point 
 should break out again, we should think of proper 
 insignia for the war footing, while keeping the 
 epaulets, since we have them, for the peace footing 
 and for schools. 
 
 8th. I have also experienced that a certain variety 
 in the costume of the infantry corps, as is seen in the 
 volunteer regiments of the different States, does not 
 injure the good style of a division or of a brigade, 
 and, besides, facilitates the service, provided that there 
 is uniformity within the regiments, and general uni- 
 formity of arms and equipment. 
 
 The varieties of uniform allow a corps, a wing, a 
 disposition of troops, to be more easily recognized, and 
 by their means one can more easily put himself right 
 than by the numbers on the caps. They facilitate the 
 recognition of the corps after an engagement ; aid in 
 the discipline and the police ; and contribute, also, to 
 excite emulation among the different corps. 
 
 I conclude, hence, that it is more hurtful than for- 
 tunate, that we should have made such great efforts 
 in Switzerland to arrive at so complete a Federal 
 uniformity in the matter of dress, and that the fear of 
 oddity should have engendered an excessive compe- 
 tition among the cantons in this respect, causing us 
 to fall into the contrary excess ; that if the question 
 should again come under discussion, and some cantons 
 should wish to introduce modifications in the cos- 
 5* 
 
106 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 tumes of tlieir battalions of infantry, we ought to be 
 yerj careful how we prevent tliem. 
 
 For tlie special arms, on tlie other hand, instructed 
 by the confederation, and by small cantonal detach- 
 ments, the subject would possess inconveniences, with- 
 out presenting the same advantages as for the infantry 
 at the time of large concentrations of troops. 
 
 Such, Mr. Federal Counsellor, is the information, 
 and such are the observations, which I have thought 
 proper to submit to you. I shall be happy should 
 you deign to find in them something useful for our 
 Swiss soldiery ; and I am wholly at your disposal, to 
 add to them further indications which may be judged 
 necessary, and which I may be in a position to give. 
 
 I have the honor to be, Mr. Federal Counsellor, 
 with the most profound respect. 
 
 Your very obedient and very devoted servant, 
 Ferdinand Le Comte, 
 
 Federal Lieutenant-Colonel. 
 
 Lausanne, August 9th, 1862. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 107 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAEY EEPORT. 
 
 Mr. Federal Counsellor : 
 
 I should add to tlie above report some snpplemen- 
 tarj remarks, drawn from the important events which 
 have transpired in America while these pages were 
 passing through the press. 
 
 Dm'ing the second half of the year 1862, the war 
 was continued wdth a vigor more and more marked, 
 but with chances so divided, that matters are almost 
 in the same situation as at the opening of the cam- 
 paign last spring. If the North, on the whole, has 
 made some progress in the recovery of territory, if 
 it has succeeded in holding some of the points con- 
 quered by its arms, it has, in return, lost a notable 
 portion of its prestige and of its moral power ; for 
 this progress is far from answering to the display of 
 force, and to the importance of the sacrifices which it 
 has been necessary to make. 
 
 Great battles, great in the numbers of the forces 
 engaged, and in the losses, if not by the combinations. 
 
108 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 have been fought, without ever giving to either side 
 great military results. That is owing, in part, to the 
 temperament of the troops, who have more tenacity 
 than dash. The conqueror ordinarily becomes weary 
 after the conquest, which prevents him from giving a 
 decisive blow. Besides, the numerous watercourses, 
 and the accidents of the ground, almost always ofi'er 
 to the vanquished, in these conditions, a means of 
 putting himself under protection against a sanguinary 
 pursuit. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to recognize the fact that 
 the operations of the generals of the South indicate 
 more strategic sagacity amongst them than among 
 their adversaries, or, at least, that their strategic com- 
 binations can be better brought to a successful execu- 
 tion than can those of the generals of the North. In 
 the South, the country, more united, inasmuch as it 
 is defending its firesides, more ardent for the struggle, 
 has arrived, by the logic of the situation, and by the 
 community of inflamed passions, at a sort of dictator- 
 ship, which seconds the action of the superior o:fficers. 
 Success in arms is the first law. The North has, on 
 the contrary, all the embarrassments of a Constitution, 
 and of a formal regard for law to maintain. While 
 the South can order and require at need, the North 
 must discuss and negotiate. 
 
 For the naval expeditions, and for the transporta- 
 tion of the troops along the coasts, the North requires 
 long parleys with the constructors of vessels ; and the 
 
SWISS MILrrAKT DEPAETMENT. 109 
 
 same is tlie case with the railroad companies, with 
 the bridge-builders, and with the furnishers of sub- 
 sistence. These preliminary negotiations, all the de- 
 lays of which are never calculated beforehand, always 
 hinder the execution of the best conceived plans of 
 the generals of the ]S"orth, and have caused the fail- 
 ure, amongst others, of the two principal strategic 
 movements combined by them in Yirginia. 
 
 On this portion of the theatre of the war, by far the 
 most important, matters are almost in the same 
 state as last spring, indicating, however, slight ad- 
 vantages on the side of the Federals, who have ad- 
 vanced, altogether, from the Potomac beyond Bull 
 Run, and to the Eappahannock, and from Fort Mon- 
 roe to Yorktown, which they still hold, although 
 having been compelled to evacuate the greater part 
 of the Peninsula. 
 
 After the long battle of the Seven Days, at the end 
 of June and the commencement of July, General 
 McClellan remained some time in his position on the 
 James River, while they were discussing, at Wash- 
 ington, the best mode of opening the arrested cam- 
 paign, and of resuming the offensive. 
 
 The first measure, of a new levy of 300,000 men, 
 ordered the 2d of July, by President Lincoln (al- 
 ready mentioned above), was followed by the call 
 of General Halleck to the post of general-in-chief of 
 the armies of the Union. That officer came to Wash- 
 ington to take the direction, by the telegraph, of the 
 
110 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 numerous armies and fractions of armies scattered 
 over the whole territory of the Union. 
 
 Halleck had had incontestable successes in the 
 West. His army had brilliantly reconquered Ken- 
 tucky and Tennessee ; he had gained the battle of 
 Corinth, the 6th and 7th of April ; but it is just to 
 reproach him, after that, with having taken too pas- 
 sive a position ; with not knowing how to entertain 
 the rebel army of Beauregard ; and with having, 
 finally, allowed the latter to escape, a great part of 
 which, having arrived at Richmond, was in time to 
 aid the Secessionists on the Chickahominy against 
 McClellan. If the latter had reverses, Halleck w^as in 
 some degree the indirect cause of them.* 
 
 The first care of the new general-in-chief was to 
 reunite the difierent armies operating in Virginia, 
 and this idea was assuredly very laudable. The con- 
 centration could be effected in several ways : either 
 by withdrawing the army from the peninsula of York- 
 towm to the front of Washington, or by reinforcing it. 
 On each of these fronts there were equally three lines 
 of operations to choose, whether it were wished to ad- 
 
 * The author has naturally fallen into this error from the general 
 opinion entertained at that time. It is now known that no reinforce- 
 ment except a few fragments was sent to Richmond from this army, 
 after its evacuation of Corinth, which the wooded and marshy nature 
 of the country rendered it impossible to prevent. Corinth was occu- 
 pied by the Federal troops immediately upon the heels of the rebels, 
 who were as hotly pursued as the nature of the roads and wooden 
 bridges would permit. 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAETMENT. Ill 
 
 vance by tlie right, in front, or by the left, — -that is to 
 say, along the Blue Mountains, by Manassas, and by 
 Aquia Creek ; or yet, by York River, or by either 
 bank of the James River. 
 
 These six alternatives presented in reality almost 
 equal chances of success. The question was solely in 
 knowing how to adopt promptly one of them, and to 
 execute it with vigor ; to carry upon one of these lines 
 a mass of from 130,000 to 150,000 men, while leaving 
 upon the others detachments sufficiently troublesome 
 to drive the enemy to dispersion. Upon the whole, 
 the best of these alternatives was that which offered 
 the simplest and readiest means of execution, and, in 
 so far as I am able to judge of the matter, I incline to 
 believe that the concentration by Aquia Creek, and 
 by land towards the Rappahannock, was the prefer- 
 able. Unfortunately, the time, that most precious 
 element yet in war, as In commercial affairs — in which, 
 however, the Americans know how to recognize its 
 full value^ — this time was consumed in long parleys, 
 and in veritable diplomatic conferences on the part of 
 the ISTorth. The concentration was decided to be made 
 in front, from Washington towards the Rappahan- 
 nock and Culpepper, which was in my opinion very 
 wise. General Pope assembled there, the middle of 
 
 * In the United States the maxim, Time is money, has passed into 
 a proverb. It is seen inscribed over the front of many counting-houses, 
 and over the doors of offices. With more reason still, should be put 
 on all the standards of the staff, as well as on the front of the oflQce 
 of the Minister of War, the variation : Time is victory. 
 
112 REPORT TO THE 
 
 July, tlie three corps of Banks, McDowell, and Sigel ; 
 but it was only towards tlie middle of August that 
 these forces began to be reunited to those of the Pen- 
 insula, by the evacuation of Harrison's Landing and 
 the re-embarkation of McClellan. 
 
 The generals of the South were not so tardy in de- 
 ciding, although they did not, any more than the 
 others, act with all the celerity possible. Leaving 
 McClellan under the surveillance of one portion of 
 their forces, they conveyed successively the rest of 
 their army to the rencounter with Pope. Already, the 
 9th of August, Jackson had checked Banks at Cedar 
 Mountain. The follow^ing day's engagement took 
 place in the environs of Culpepper, where the Rebel 
 cavalry of Stuart displayed much boldness. On the 
 18th, Pope put himself in retreat; the 22d, a turning 
 movement of Stuart attacked his rear at Catlett's 
 Station, while Jackson threw himself out by the 
 Blue Mountains as far as the environs of Manassas, 
 where his sharpshooters appeared the 2-l:th, in the 
 evening. 
 
 It might have been thought that General Pope, 
 who, on assuming his command of the Army of the 
 Potomac, had issued very eccentric orders of the day, 
 in which, among other things, he aifected a sovereign ' 
 contempt for lines of retreat and hases of ojperations^ 
 v/ishing, he said, to establish his head-quarters in the 
 saddle, — it might have been thought, I say, that Gen- 
 eral Pope would not be much alarmed at the enter- 
 
SWISS ^nLITARY DEPARTMENT. 113 
 
 prises of Jackson and Stuart on liis flanks and rear, 
 whicli were more audacious tlian really dangerous. 
 He was wrong, doubtless, not to liave sufficiently 
 strengthened his right, and to have neglected to oc- 
 cupy the defiles of the mountains ; but there was a 
 good remedy for that by means of the troops which 
 were still on the Potomac, and by means of those 
 whom he could have sent thither himself Having, 
 besides, a second base at his disposal, at Aquia Creek, 
 on the Potomac, where the corps of Burnside was then 
 disembarking, and where it was necessary that the 
 army of McClellan should disembark, he had no 
 cause for great uneasiness. On the contrary, he 
 ought to hnve been rejoiced to see the enemy ofl*er- 
 ing suddenly such fine opportunities for his advantage, 
 manifesting the rash project of placing themselves, by 
 the route of the mountains, in the ciil-de-sac formed 
 by the army of the Federals on one side, and by the 
 elbow of the Potomac on the other. The prospect of 
 a l^apoleonic victory offered itself to General Pope, 
 had he allowed these movements to be developed, and 
 had he kept a little to the system of war and sang- 
 froid^ of which his proclamation had excited the hope. 
 In place of that, he thought only of one thing, not to 
 lose his connection with Washington. He sacrificed 
 every thing to this puerile fear, and caused the mass of 
 his forces to make a retrograde movement towards 
 Manassas, thus driving away the troops which, having 
 disembarked at Aquia Creek, desired to join him, and 
 
114 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 had marclied witli this object towards the upper Kap- 
 pahannock. 
 
 The 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th of August were 
 employed in a succession of engagements, as disorder- 
 ly as bloody, about Manassas and Centreville, in 
 which several corps deported themselves very bravely, 
 but in which it is impossible to find amongst the Fed- 
 erals any directing thought, any united action, any 
 other object than that of regaining as quickly as 
 possible their route to the bridges of Washington, 
 threatened by the bold partisans of Jackson and of 
 Stewart. 
 
 It was altogether different on the side of the Con- 
 federates. They had found a mine of success, which 
 they worked with incredible good fortune even to the 
 last vein. They had seen, on the 9th of August, 
 Pope becoming excessively alarmed at the movements 
 on his right ; they continued to act in this direction, 
 and found no reason for departing from a system 
 w^hich succeeded so well for them. Four times, at 
 intervals of twenty-four hours, they broke out from 
 the mountains on the army of Pope, precipitating his 
 march, deranging his front, and providing themselves 
 wath no retreat except in the fear which they inspired 
 in the Federals on theirs. In this way the latter 
 were forced back, still fi«:htino:, even in sio;ht of the 
 Potomac, which they reached the 1st of September, 
 still engaging that very day in a very spirited fight 
 between Fairfax Court House and the river. 
 
SWISS ISriLITAilY DEPARTMENT. 115 
 
 During this time tlie troops of McClellan, compris- 
 ing therein the corps of Burnside, had disembarked at 
 Aquia Creek ; some had been conveyed to Freder- 
 icksburg, and still held the Rappahannock during the 
 fights at Manassas ; others had sought to rejoin Pope 
 towards Bull Run by land, and had, in part, arrived 
 there ; others had been re-embarked to convey them- 
 selves more in the rear of Alexandria. From this 
 city, to which McClellan had also directed hinjself, 
 the corps were thrown out as rapidly as they de- 
 barked, towards Centreville and Fairfax, to the suc- 
 cor of Pope ; and it was they which, arriving very 
 seasonably, sustained the last efforts of the retreat 
 commenced after Cedar Mountain. 
 
 For a moment, the 29th of August, General Mc- 
 Clellan had only a few regiments about him at Alex- 
 andria, and the government at "Washington, making 
 complaint against him for not having arrived sooner 
 for the desired junction, reduced him officiall}^ to the 
 sole command of the troops immediately in hand, 
 while all the rest were put under the command of 
 General Pope. But in three days the wheel of for- 
 tune made a complete turn. The 2d of September 
 McClellan was named commander of the defences of 
 "Washington, and as all the troops rallied in this di- 
 rection, he was re-established, four days after, at the 
 head of the entire active force. General Halleck 
 remaining all the while general-in-chief of all the 
 armies of the Union. Pope was immediately sent to 
 
116 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 Minnesota, where a terrible insurrection of tlie Sionx 
 Indians liad broken out. 
 
 The concentration whicli General Halleck had 
 wished to effect on the 12th of July, took place at 
 length, at the commencement of September, under 
 the walls of Washington, and after rude checks. 
 Some garrisons had been left by McClellan in the 
 Peninsula, amongst others, at Yorktown and Wil- 
 liamsburg, — a very wise measure, providing for the 
 future the means of more easily debouching on Rich- 
 mond in that direction, in case they should wish to 
 undertake it anew. 
 
 Arrived on the border of the Potomac, the Con- 
 federates, under the general orders of General Lee, 
 did not think proper to stop in the midst of so line a 
 career. They had two courses to take to continue the 
 offensive, which they had so favorably begun. Either 
 to carry the works which are regarded as protecting 
 Alexandria and the bridges of Washington, and there 
 capture a considerable portion of the Federal army, 
 hemmed in by the Potomac ; or to continue their 
 manoeuvres by the left, turn the Unionists, cross the 
 river up stream, and penetrate into Maryland. The 
 first course, which would have been much the more 
 advantageous, was not attempted by the Secessionists, 
 thus affording ground for the observation, already 
 often made, that young troops easily exaggerate the 
 strength of the works of fortification with which they 
 meet in their movements. The works on the heights 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAETMEKT. 117 
 
 of Arlington and of Alexandria, as little dangerous as 
 tliey miglit be to an enemy possessing tlie boldness 
 which the Confederates had just shown, produced an 
 effect much above their real importance, and stopped 
 short the Confederate army. Lee judged that his 
 troops were better for marching and for pushing 
 adventurous designs than for fighting in line and 
 in a manner somewhat regular, as it would have 
 been necessary for him to do in the face of the in- 
 trenchments. He preferred the trilling glory of an 
 invasion of Maryland to the attempt, w^hich might 
 have been so fruitful, of an attack upon the tete de 
 pont of Washington. He threw himself back by the 
 left towards Harper's Ferry, crossed the Potomac the 
 4th and 5th of September, between that point and 
 "Washington, on bridges and at various fords, and ad- 
 vanced on Frederick City in Maryland. He thence 
 threatened Baltimore at the same time as the Federal 
 city, but he also left on his right the whole army of 
 Washington, and, behind him, several Federal de- 
 tachments holding the garrison at Harper's Ferry and 
 other positions on the Potomac. 
 
 It is evident that such a design could not have any 
 real military advantage, but the recent successes of 
 the Confederates might well excite in them some illu- 
 sions; besides, they flattered themselves with being 
 able to bring to their cause, by this stroke of boldness, 
 the slave State of Maryland, and with seeing the 
 population rise in their favor. They were deceived in 
 
118 REPOET TO THE 
 
 this expectation, and, spite of tlieir gentle treatment 
 of the inhabitants, the latter received the Secession 
 flag with a coldness ahnost general. 
 
 On the other hand, General McClellan put himself 
 in pursuit of the invaders, or, to explain myself more 
 correctly, he proceeded to encounter them, judging, 
 without doubt, and with reason, that it would be suf- 
 ficient to attack this army with some degree of vigor 
 in front, to drive it back on the Potomac, and, there 
 engaging it during the passage of the river, the result 
 could not fail to be decisive. The chances presented 
 themselves so much the more favorably, as the Federal 
 garrison at Harper's Ferry, reinforced by the garri- 
 sons on the retreat from Winchester and environs, 
 amounted at this time to as many as twelve thousand 
 men. Such a force ought to be able not only to hold 
 with certainty the place, and prevent the rebels from 
 using its bridges, but also, in case of extremity, to de- 
 tach some thousands of men against Lee, to aid in his 
 capture or in his total defeat when he should be 
 hemmed in by the Potomac. 
 
 The event did not prove thus, whether owing to the 
 skill of the Secession generals, to a little too much 
 slowness on the part of McClellan, or to the remark- 
 able cowardice of the Federal chiefs at Harper's 
 Ferry. 
 
 It was not till the 10th or 11th of September that 
 the Federal army, disorganized by the reverses of 
 Pope, could make a decided movement from the en- 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 119 
 
 yiroiis of Washington ; and the five or six dajs 
 lamentably lost in the cares which were indispensa- 
 ble, perhaps, for the material condition of the troops, 
 were used to good advantage by Lee. His advanced 
 gnard, nnder Hill, after having proceeded as far as 
 'New Market, took position behind Frederick, in the 
 defiles of Sonth Mountain, while the corps of Jackson 
 carried on an active siege against Harper's Ferry, by 
 both banks of the Potomac, — a siege which com- 
 menced on the morning of the 13th. The 14th, Mc- 
 Clellan chased Hill from South Mountain, after a 
 hot engagement, which took place w^ithin hearing 
 of the cannonade of Harper's Ferry, at the distance 
 of four leagues. The Confederates fell back from 
 South Mountain in the direction of Sharpsburg, on 
 the Antietam creek, followed closely by the Federals, 
 and took position behind the hills of Antietam creek. 
 The 17th McClellan resolutely attacked them, and 
 on this day was fought the severest battle of the 
 w^ar. The circumstances for twenty-four hours had 
 greatly favored Lee. The chiefs of the garrison 
 of Harper's Ferry had ignominiously capitulated 
 on the 15th, surrendering to Jackson more than ten 
 thousand prisoners, and an immense materiel.^ 
 
 * It is consoling to mention here that one thousand cavalry, com- 
 manded by Captain B. F. Davis, recalled by this circumstance the fine 
 feat of the sergeant of Minden. Not wishing to surrender without 
 trying their fortune to the end, they made a sortie by Virginia, 
 bravely traversed all the enemy's lines, ascended the Potomac, and 
 proceeded to cross the river and re-enter Maryland in the very rear of 
 Lee ; capturing from him, besides, a part of his baggage. 
 
120 EEPOIiT TO THE 
 
 "Without losing a moment in estimating his booty, 
 Jackson had paroUed the prisoners and had brought 
 back to Lee two divisions, which, inflamed with success, 
 were in the highest degree useful on the day of the 
 lYth. McClellan had to act against a stronger force 
 than he had thought ; it was necessary for him to dis- 
 play all his resources to succeed only in gaining the 
 field of battle, and in forcing the Confederates to re- 
 treat. To proceed beyond that was not possible for 
 him ; he had himself suffered too much. The day of 
 the 18th was given to the care of the killed and 
 wounded, as well as of the materiel^ while it would 
 have been necessary, in order that the action of the 
 previous day should be truly fruitful, to be able to re- 
 commence the attack with fresh vigor. The 19th, 
 Lee quietly recrossed the Potomac, after having left 
 about twenty thousand men in Maryland, and having 
 caused his adversaries to lose still more. Harper's 
 Ferry was reoccupied by the Federals the same day, 
 and the river remained for some time the limit 
 between the two opposing armies. 
 
 About three or four weeks were passed in observa- 
 tion on the Potomac, enlivened only by skirmishes, 
 and with attempts without great importance on either 
 side. The Confederates, however, accomplished a 
 very prodigy of boldness. Two thousand men of 
 Stuart's cavalry, commanded by their intrepid chief 
 himself, crossed the Potomac the 10th of October, on 
 the extreme right of the Federal army, near Wil- 
 
SWISS MILITAEY DEPARTMENT. 121 
 
 liamsport ; advanced into Maryland, and thence into 
 Pennsylvania as far as Cliambersburg, where they 
 made a raid according to the most approved rnles ; 
 then turned to the southeast, and, making the com- 
 plete tour of the Federal encampments, recrossed the 
 Potomac at their extreme left, re-entering Virginia 
 by Edwards' Ferry. The whole was accomplished 
 wdth loss of only a few" men. 
 
 The Unionists, on their side, usefully employed this 
 time in the organization of the new levies. Besides 
 the three hundred thousand men imder command at 
 the beginning of July, the President had secured, on 
 the 4:th of August, a new levy of three hundred 
 thousand men for nine months, which should be fur- 
 nished, if found necessary, by a draft, by lot, or by a 
 regulated conscription. 
 
 On the invasion of Marjiand, a hundred thousand 
 men had been spontaneously put on foot by the States 
 of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and other States of the 
 North.* 
 
 Until the recruits could be organized into regiments 
 and disciplined, and the old regiments filled up and 
 reformed, the lost materiel replaced, the army, in a 
 w^ord, restored to a good war footing, there was no 
 
 * From the beginning, a strong repugnance was manifested in almost 
 all the States for the conscription. The greater part of them, as also 
 the cities and the various corporations, preferred to give extraordinary 
 bounties to volunteers. These bounties amounted to as much as three 
 hundred dollars, in addition to the one hundred dollars of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 6 
 
122 KEPOKT TO THE 
 
 hurry, in a purely military point of view, for resuming 
 the offensive. Without doubt, if the Federal army, 
 in its tnrn, had been able at this moment to throw 
 promptly a strong mass on the communications of the 
 Confederates, by Aquia Creek or by the peninsula of 
 Yorktown, and to advance on Richmond, while the 
 chief part of Lee's force was still facing the Potomac in 
 the valley of the Shenandoah, a fine operation would 
 have been realized, and without the loss of a minute. 
 T am not sure but it should have been attempted, and 
 that it would not have met with some success. But, 
 as has been seen, plans of campaign of some magni- 
 tude are slow to be elaborated in the army of the 
 I^Torth, and slower still to be put in execution. It is 
 probable that the project would have been so timed 
 that Lee would have been able to paralyze it, by a 
 concentration in front of the Capital. In renouncing, 
 therefore, an operation of this kind, and declining to 
 enter the lists by the very front of the enemy, — that 
 is to say, taking the bull by the horns, — the JSTorth 
 had nothing better to do than to await the reinforce- 
 ments of its new levies, and the j)utting in action of 
 all its resources. It is probably this view which de- 
 termined General McClellan to wait in expectation 
 about Harper's Ferry. Solicited, in the mean time, 
 by the thousand irresponsible voices of public oi)inion, 
 as also by the government at Washington, he de- 
 bouched on the fifteenth of October from Harper's 
 Ferry to the Shenandoah, moved immediately to the 
 
SWISS MILITAEY DEPARTMENT. 123 
 
 left bj tlie mountains, took possession of tlie defiles 
 which debouch upon Manassas and Centreville, and, 
 advancing prudently, established himself in the envi- 
 rons of Warrenton near the end of October. He 
 found himself in this position the 5th of November, 
 when the Executive power, weary of the delays which 
 it neither understood nor approved, and having, I 
 ought fully to admit, some right to complain of its 
 subordinate, in the matter of a formal obedience to 
 orders, replaced him in his command by General 
 Burnside. 
 
 It was not without a certain embarrassment that 
 General Burnside, although he had hitherto well ac- 
 quitted himself in the command of a corps d'armee, 
 took in hand the direction of the army of fifteen 
 divisions which was unexpectedly confided to him. 
 He, however, did his best to respond to the voice of 
 the government and to the impatience of popular pas- 
 sions. Being aware he had strong masses before him, 
 which obstructed his passage by positions well in- 
 trenched upon the upper Kappahannock and its afflu- 
 ents, between Culpepper and Gordonsville, he resolved 
 upon a strategic movement by his left, in order to 
 pass the Kappahannock at Fredericksburg, which had 
 also another advantage, of bringing him near enough 
 to Aquia Creek to make this point one of his bases 
 of operations. 
 
 I^othing was more wise than this plan, which may 
 be compared in some respects to that which the Em- 
 
124 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 peror Napoleon III. employed in 1859, in order to 
 cross the Ticino and penetrate into Lombardy. I 
 have already had occasion to say that this movement 
 of the allies, which preceded the battle of Magenta, 
 had not all the desirable celerity, inasmuch as, com- 
 menced the 30th of May, ]N"apoleon brought on the 
 field of battle of the 4th of June, hardly the half of 
 the disposable forces. But, such as it was, this move- 
 ment was executed with giant strides compared with 
 that of Burnside. The Union general threw some 
 troops towards Culpepper on the 15th of November, 
 in order to mask the march of the rest by the left ; 
 the 18th his advanced guard arrived at Falmouth, in 
 front of Fredericksburg ; and very soon after the re- 
 mainder of his army, except one division, left in ad- 
 vance of Warrenton, and the corps of occupation of 
 "Washington and Alexandria, as a support in the rear. 
 In order to pass the Rappahannock, bridges were 
 necessary. Of these Burnside had not sufficient. 
 They should have reached him from "Washington, bnt 
 the trains conveying them delayed on the route. It 
 was not till the 10th of December that he was able to 
 put his pontoniers at work, and not till the 13th that 
 he was in readiness to cross the river ! For three 
 weeks his movement had been unmasked, and it was 
 hardly necessary for Lee to make a great effort of 
 genius to concentrate himself in good positions in the 
 debouch from Fredericksburg, and to fortify himself 
 there with all ease. Connected with Gordonsville 
 
SWISS MILTTAEY DEPARTMENT. 125 
 
 and Eiclimond by a railroad, lie was able even to 
 bring heavy artillery to establish a good intrenched 
 camp, ready to receive the columns of Burnside when 
 they should have gotten through with their troubles of 
 the bridging. In addition to this misfortune, the gen- 
 eral in command neglected to feel the enemy, and to 
 throw out a strong reconnoissance upon the right bank, 
 which would have easily shown him the importance 
 of the position of his adversaries. The day of the 
 13th and the morning of the lith were, it is true, very 
 cloudy ; but this was still more a reason for him to 
 obtain better information. The thing was very capa- 
 ble of being realized. It was dark night, the 17th of 
 June, 1815, when, before Waterloo, Napoleon threw 
 out the cavalry of Milhaud upon the English, to as- 
 certain whether they were simply in bivouac or in 
 position ; and there was no need of the couj) d'oeU 
 of a great captain in order to judge, after only five 
 minutes of action, that the adversaries of Milhaud 
 were solidly established and intrenched. 
 
 In default of a reconnoissance, Burnside, by reason- 
 ing alone, ought to have had more prudence. He 
 had good grounds for expecting, in view of his forced 
 delays, and the little mystery with which his move- 
 ment had been surrounded, to find before him concen- 
 trated masses, which he could not take unawares. 
 In such a state of things he had nothing better to do 
 than to let his movement commence and end there, in 
 order to begin a new one, whether by proceeding on 
 
126 REPORT TO THE 
 
 Lis left or returning by his riglit, witli the hope oi 
 conducting it a little more, rapidly. But this course 
 he did not judge expedient. It may be from the fact 
 that he was mistaken in the force of the enemy whom 
 he was going to encounter, or that when once his 
 bridges were built he did not dare, from fear of the 
 criticism which would, without doubt, attach itself to 
 his marches and countermarches, to dispense with 
 their use and make a movement to the rear, that he 
 decided on advancing on the 14th. A great battle 
 followed, in which he sustained heavy losses, — about 
 15,000 men, against a loss of from 3,000 to 4,000 only 
 by the Secessionists. The 16th, Burnside recrossed 
 the Rappahannock without other misadventure, a 
 retreat which, in such circumstances, and against a se- 
 rious adversary, might have been more disastrous than 
 that of the Berezina, but which, owing to measures 
 extremely well taken, seconded by the inaction of Lee, 
 he effected very successfully. 
 
 From that time even to the present, all has been 
 quiet upon this portion of the theatre of the war. 
 The Rappahannock separates the advanced posts of 
 the combatants, which reach, with nearly equal ex- 
 tent, into the region of the mountains 
 
 During this time the forces of the West, in Ken- 
 tucky, in Tennessee, and along the Mississippi, did 
 not remain inactive. Although the operations in 
 these latitudes had been still more irregular than in 
 the East, and though they have had thus far only a 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 127 
 
 secondary importance, I will also say a few words of 
 tliem. 
 
 The opening of the campaign had been fortunate for 
 the arms of the North, and aiforded glimpses of bril- 
 liant success, Halleck, well seconded by his lieuten- 
 ants. Pope and Mitchel among others, had retaken 
 complete possession of Kentucky and of Tennessee, 
 and had advanced, with the assistance of the gunboats, 
 even into Alabama and to the frontiers of South Car- 
 olina. After him, in the month of August, his suc- 
 cessors, Generals Grant, Buell, and Rosecrans had a 
 much more difficult task. 
 
 Wliilst the Federals, thinking only of gaining 
 ground ahead, offered front on the side of the South 
 and of the West, seeking, on the one hand, to retake 
 the basin of the Mississippi, with the co-operation of 
 the flotilla, and, on the other, to advance into Alabama, 
 bands of rebel guerillas had formed themselves upon 
 their rear, and very soon gravely menaced their com- 
 munications. These guerillas, grouping themselves 
 little by little, had formed two principal masses: 
 one under the orders of the Generals Stephenson, 
 Armstrong, and Duncan, surrounding Is'ashville, and 
 seeking to retake the capital of Tennessee from the 
 Federals, who, happily, had solidly intrenched them- 
 selves there; another mass, under Generals Bragg 
 and Kirby Smith, reinforced by detachments arrived 
 from Western Virginia, moved into Kentucky against 
 the capital of that State. 
 
128 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 A strong party of rebel cavalry, under the orders 
 of General Morgan, liasfened with intrepidity between 
 tliese two corps, and made many fruitful raids upon 
 tbe Federal detachments. 
 
 At the commencement of the month of September, 
 ISTashville was very closely besieged by the Secession- 
 ists, while Kirby Smith obtained, the 30th of August, 
 over the Federals commanded by General Nelson, a 
 decided victory at Richmond, in Kentucky. This 
 victory opened to Kirby Smith the road to Frankfort, 
 the capital of the State. 
 
 General Buell moved to the succor of the Federal 
 forces, already hemmed in, in the north of Kentucky, 
 about the triangle formed by the course of the Ohio, 
 by the Louisville and Lexington railroad, and by the 
 Lexington and Cincinnati railroad. 
 
 The terror was great throughout all that country. 
 The government of Kentucky evacuated its capital the 
 1st of September in order to retire to Louisville. Lex- 
 ington, Paris, and other neighboring cities, were also 
 abandoned by the Federals, and the Secessionists ad- 
 vanced even in sight of Louisville and of Cincinnati, 
 threatening to cross the river towards these two 
 points, and to invade the States of Indiana and Ohio. 
 
 The 16th and 17th of September very sharp en- 
 gagements took place at Munfordsville, where Bragg 
 captured about four thousand Federals. 
 
 But after that, Buell having been able to reach 
 Louisville before Bragg, the Secessionists were obliged 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAETMENT. 129 
 
 to renounce their object, and retreated from the Ohio. 
 They nevertheless maintained a very bold front, and 
 harassed incessantly the Federal flanks by the inde- 
 fatigable Morgan, 
 
 Buell was only able to effect a slow pursuit, of very 
 little advantage. The 8th of October an action took 
 place at Perry ville ; the 11th, another at Danville, in 
 which Bragg was obliged to retreat, but without suf- 
 fering himself to be seriously annoyed. He went to 
 reinforce in part the guerillas investing N^ashville. 
 
 At this moment General Buell was replaced in his 
 command by General Eosecrans, who, during this 
 time, had bravely held in check the Secession Gener- 
 als Price and Yan Dorn, in Mississippi, and had had, 
 among others, a warm and successful affair at luka, 
 the 19th of September. 
 
 In the first days of E"ovember, Eosecrans succeed- 
 ing in raising the siege of Nashville, and, neglecting 
 the enterprises that Morgan was continuing in Ken- 
 tucky, he advanced against Bragg, w-ho reunited his 
 various corps while retreating, to the south of Nash- 
 ville, about the railroad, and very nearly half way 
 from Chattanooga. There General Bragg prepared 
 to give battle, should the pursuit be continued, and 
 to this end he had established himself in an advan- 
 tageous position, in advance of the city of Murfrees- 
 boro', along the little Stone Eiver. 
 
 Many weeks of preparations were passed on each 
 Bide without important acts to record, and it was not 
 6* 
 
130' REPORT TO THE 
 
 till the 26tli of December that the action recom- 
 menced. That very day the troops of Kosecrans ad- 
 vanced in the direction of Mnrfreesboro'. They were 
 abont forty-five thousand strong, with one hundred 
 cannon, and divided into three principal corps. Bragg 
 had fifty thousand men. Skirmishes took place dur- 
 ing several days, and the 30th, battle was engaged in 
 earnest. The Federals had at first the advantage ; 
 but the next day, the 31st, their right, under the com- 
 mand of General McCook, was completely overthrown. 
 It lost, besides, near four thousand prisoners and 
 thirty cannon. ^Nevertheless, Rosecrans held out, 
 and showed as much firmness as covp-cVmil. He 
 threw again his left towards the right, using oppor- 
 tunely his artillery, and, night fortunately coming on, 
 he avoided a defeat, at one time imminent. 
 
 The 1st and 2d of January the battle was renewed 
 with fury, and finally declared in favor of the Federals. 
 Bragg beat a retreat, the 4th, upon Tullahoma, with- 
 out allowing himself to be cut up, and carrying away 
 all his booty. The losses were ten thousand men on 
 each side. 
 
 More to the right, other operations had had for ob- 
 ject the occupation and the defence of the course of 
 the Mississippi itself Over all this zone had been 
 seen the combined action of the flotillas and the land 
 forces. Cairo, Columbus, Island No. 10, Memphis, 
 having successively been carried by the Unionists, 
 their efibrts were especially directed against the 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPAETMENT. 131 
 
 fortress of Yicksburg. Tliis city was attacked at sever fl 
 times by water and by land, but it was defended al- 
 ways with courage and with success ; it braves yet, 
 to-day, tlie assaults of tlie Federals, who are expecting 
 better success from a canal dug on the west side of the 
 river, and intended to turn off the waters in order to 
 leave the city dry. An army of fifty thousand men, 
 under Generals Grant and McClernand, went to 
 operate against Yicksburg, with the co-operation of a 
 flotilla under Commodore Porter from above, and one 
 under Commodore Farragut, coming from below. 
 
 The course of the Lower Mississippi is still occupied 
 by the Secessionists at Port Hudson, thirty leagues 
 above New Orleans. Apart from these points, which 
 obstruct the free navigation of the great river,* its 
 whole course is in the hands of the Federals. 
 
 Upon the Atlantic coasts, and upon the sea, the 
 condition of affairs is not notably changed. The Se- 
 cessionists have had some success as privateers, among 
 others, with a vessel constructed in England — the 
 Alabama. They have also retaken the port of Gal- 
 veston. But the blockade is still as rigorous as in 
 the beginning, and a recent attemj)t to break it before 
 Charleston has been so promptly repressed that it only 
 makes more evident the real maritime superiority of 
 the Union. 
 
 * The Secessionists have just captured tliere, two gunboats which 
 had cleared the pass at Vicksburg : the Queen of the West and the 
 Indianola. 
 
132 KEPOET TO THE 
 
 Tlie fleet of Monitors^ of wliicli I have already 
 Bpokeii, is actually at sea, and is expected at an early 
 attack against one of the important points of tlie 
 coast. 
 
 In conclusion, the military situation is at this time 
 the following : 
 
 The Army of the Potomac, under the orders of 
 General Hooker, successor to Burnside, is i7i echelon 
 to the right and to the left of Centreville, rendered 
 inactive by the muddy state of the country at this 
 season. 
 
 Twenty thousand men, under General Foster, 
 menace E-ichmond from Kewbern, in South Carolina. 
 
 An army of fifty thousand msn, under General 
 Hunter, landed recently at Port R-oyal, in South 
 Carolina, apparently destiued to cut the communica- 
 tions between Savannah and Charleston, in order to 
 operate, according to the circumstances, upon one of 
 these two capitals of the Secessionists. 
 
 At ITew Orleans, the Army of Louisiana, now com- 
 manded by General Banks, who has here replaced the 
 skilfal and energetic, but a little harsh. General But- 
 ler. This army has just retaken Baton Pouge, the 
 capital of Louisiana, and ought to furnish a corps for 
 the borders of Texas, and another to co-operate with 
 the fleet in the capture of Port Hudson and of Yicks- 
 burs;. 
 
 The Army of the Cumberland, or of Tennessee, 
 under the orders of General Posecrans, operating to 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 133 
 
 the south of [N'ashville, disposed in a manner to be 
 able, according to tlie necessity, to co-operate in tak- 
 ing the banks of the Mississippi, or to throw itself by 
 its left upon the Carolinas, so as to join itself to Fos- 
 ter or to Hunter. 
 
 Finally, the army of Grant, besieging Yicksburg, 
 and intending, as rapidly as its success will permit, to 
 descend the ri^er and approach Banks, in order, at 
 last, to effect its junction with the latter. 
 
 Besides, also, a great numbgr of detached corps, 
 more or less regular, comprising those of the extreme 
 West, in the States of Missouri and Arkansas. 
 
 In front of each of these armies the South has also 
 a principal one, under the command of generals 
 already known, that is to say: against Hooker, 
 General Lee ; at Charleston, General Beauregard ; 
 in the extreme South, Magriider ; in Tennessee, 
 Longstreet, having replaced Bragg; at Yicksburg, 
 Yan Dorn and Price ; and numberless guerilla parties 
 ao-ain formino; themselves in Tennessee and in Ken- 
 tucky, upon the rear of Rosecrans and of Grant. 
 
 If we compare the actual situation to that of a year 
 a':>"0, we see that the North has made incontestable 
 progress, and that, continuing at this rate, it will 
 arrive, before two or three years, at the end of its 
 principal task. Without doubt, the success has not 
 corresponded to the hopes which the first attempts 
 had excited. The resistance, so obstinate and even 
 brilliant, of the Secessionists in Yirginia ; their bold 
 
134: EEPOET TO THE 
 
 designs in Maryland, in Pennsylvania, and at tlie very 
 doors of Ohio and Indiana, constituted a sensible 
 moral check for the Union, which had for a moment 
 hoped, not without some appearance of reason, to be 
 able to finish the campaign in the course of 1862, and 
 to treat in the autumn, and at Richmond itself, for a 
 durable peace. But this check to its self-love once 
 admitted, the advantage of the arms of the IlTorth is 
 incontestable. The success is dearly purchased, it is 
 true, in every way, but it is not less palpable ; the 
 JS'orth makes live steps in advance, perhaps, and 
 retires three ; but there still remain two of advan- 
 tage. 
 
 Having infinitely more resources than the South, it 
 is to be believed, I repeat it, and to be hoped, that in 
 this proportion of sacritices the Union will triumph, 
 and will be finally restored by the force of arms. 
 
 We should be able not to limit ourselves to the 
 hope, but to predict with certainty snch a result, were 
 the IS'orth more united than it is ; were the real senti- 
 ment of its situation, as well as that of its histpric 
 responsibility, in face of the consequences of the actual 
 crisis, able to overcome, for some time, the deplorable" 
 passions of party spirit and of clique ; or if, in default 
 of this, the Government could assume strength 
 enouo-h to annihilate the miserable intrii2:ues which 
 daily hinder the conduct of the war. Alas ! far from 
 having the power to break the fetters on the military 
 operations, the government itself has not, sometimes, 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 135 
 
 the energy to resist certain currents, springing from 
 the very nature of its republican organization, wliicli 
 cause it to thwart the better measures of the generals. 
 Let us recognize, also, the fact that its task is one 
 of the most arduous: for it is upon it that the fury 
 excited by the disappointments and the accidents 
 necessarily incident to war always discharges itself. 
 While some successes easily raise it in the eyes of the 
 masses, which are in the United States the true 
 sovereign, the reverse which misfortune sends it, or 
 the gradual progress to which it is reduced, creates for 
 it numerous adversaries. The latter give vent to 
 their dissatisfaction in the frequent elections, which 
 proceed regularly during war as in peace, and the 
 official positions in the different States are soon occu- 
 pied by enemies, more or less ardent, of the Govern- 
 ment, who add new complications and new causes of 
 disorder to those of which there were already so many 
 to complain. It is thus that, in several States, as 
 New York, Pennsylvania, and lUinois, recent elec- 
 tions have brought into power declared enemies of 
 the administration of Mr. Lincoln. 
 ■ Important decisions, however, and which ought to 
 advance the crisis towards a solution, have been made 
 by the President and by Congress. In the beginning 
 of the war, the North, who believed herself stronger 
 than she really is, had for her principal aim the 
 restoration of the Union at every cost. In order to do 
 that, she sought as much as possible to continue m 
 
136 KEPOKT TO THE 
 
 tlie legal condition, without toucliing npon the irrita- 
 ting question of slavery, and to accompany her mili- 
 tary movements with every desirable restraint. The 
 residents in sympathy with the enemy, although 
 showing themselves profoundly hostile and disdainful, 
 w^ere treated with a mildness and tenderness which 
 bordered upon the ridiculous. The smallest supplies 
 furnished by them were paid for at an excessively 
 high rate, and in ready money, while everywhere else, 
 in Europe, requisitions would have been made upon 
 them. Their blacks, amongst other things, were as 
 much respected as the most sacred relics. And these 
 measures, I repeat it, were dictated by the thought 
 that, after some military successes which they should 
 easily obtain, the ambitious leaders of the South 
 would be discarded, and that peace w^ould be made 
 upon the same basis of the old Constitution of the 
 Union, guaranteeing to the States of the South their 
 slave property. Perhaps some advantage would be 
 taken of the circumstance, to establish some condi- 
 tions in favor of slow and gradual emancipation, but 
 on this point there was no certainty. 
 
 The reverses of the Federals, in the course of the 
 summer, introduced other reflections and other senti- 
 ments. The IN^orth ought to have perceived, to the 
 detriment of her vanity, that she was not in a state 
 to treat the South in a forbearing manner, and that 
 all her means would not be too much to enable her 
 to carry on the contest wdth advantage. But in the 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 137 
 
 Soiitli, while tlie wliites fonglit, tlie negro slaves cul- 
 tivated the soil, looked after the farms, produced, in 
 a word, the resources which served to support the 
 war. Sometimes, even, they employed them as 
 laborers in the works of fortification. To guarantee 
 to the South, from pure scruples for the right of the 
 Constitution, such a facility, became the excess of 
 good-nature. As much would it have availed to 
 guarantee her gunpowder, under the pretext that it 
 is black. 
 
 On the other side, a party very noisy, and become, 
 as all extreme parties do, more and more powerful in 
 the proportion of the reverses, by the very logic of its 
 situation — the abolition party — lost no occasion to de- 
 mand imperiously the immediate emancipation of the 
 slaves. Her journals, her orators, the eloquent Sen- 
 ator Sumner among others, caused persuasive words 
 to resound through the land. 
 
 Under this double influence, the Federal govern- 
 ment, which had already decreed many partial acts of 
 confiscation of the slaves of the rebels in arms, and a 
 bill in favor of gradual emancipation, with indemnity 
 to the proprietors, and plans of colonization, had no 
 trouble in deciding to strike the grand blow. The 
 22d of September, President Lincoln issued a procla- 
 mation, in which he announced, as a war measure, 
 that all the slaves of the .proprietors in arms against 
 the Union, on the 1st day of January, 1863, should 
 be in fact free, and that the civil and military officers 
 
138 EEPORT TO THE 
 
 of the United States should render them assistance. 
 This great resolution, sanctioned by Congress, was 
 afterwards put in execution, as far as it was pos- 
 sible, by a second proclamation of President Lincoln, 
 on the 1st January, 1863, declaring free the slaves of 
 all the States and portions of States still at war 
 against the Union. It was followed by another bill, 
 dated the 16th of February, 1863, ordering the arm- 
 ing of the blacks, and their formation into regiments, 
 which bill was immediately put in execution. At 
 all the points of the Slave States where the Fed- 
 erals have succeeded in gaining a foot-hold, special 
 recruiting offices for the negroes have been opened, 
 and at this time eighty regiments of blacks are in 
 formation. N'ot only have the bhicks aided in sup- 
 porting the vitality of the South by their labors, but 
 they will second the military action of the North, and 
 by that means the latter has certainly acquired a 
 double advantage. 
 
 In return, it has excited a redundancy of rage in 
 the Secession States, of which the President, Mr. Jef- 
 ferson Davis, has allowed himself to proceed, by a 
 proclamation, to menaces of cruel reprisals, which, it 
 is hoped, will remain without application. In the 
 North, under the flag of which march, it is known, 
 several Slave States, the act of emancipation has cre- 
 ated also numerous malcontents. The party called 
 Democratic has made of it an electoral arm, and is 
 now still using it with skill and with success to de- 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 139 
 
 stroy the infliTence of the Eepublican party and the 
 power of the President. 
 
 Whatever may be the result of these secondary 
 strn^des, breakino; out in the midst of the torrent of 
 the gigantic contest of the ISTorth against the South, 
 the fact and the right of the emancipation prochiimed 
 will remain intact for those whom it has been able to 
 reach. The cause of the equality of the races will 
 have been equally advanced by the organization of 
 the black regiments, which will be a fortunate prece- 
 dent, and, in these two respects, the friends of Chris- 
 tian equality ought to hail with pleasure the acts of 
 Mr. Lincoln, even though they have been brought 
 about incidentally, and qualified as measures of war 
 rather than as acts of justice. 
 
 A bill instituting the conscription for the levies 
 which would be necessary in the future, and adopted 
 in the course of February by Congress, completes the 
 series of salutary measures with which the events 
 have inspired the administration. By means of an 
 army recruited by conscription, and provided with 
 officers who can be chosen outside of miserable politi- 
 cal influences, the reign of law can be more easily 
 assured against the attempts to support rather than 
 oppose, even in the very North itself, the work of 
 secession. 
 
 In conclusion, I will mention here some of the 
 principal sources from which can be derived informa- 
 tion upon the events more particularly military. 
 
140 REPORT TO THE 
 
 The journals and reviews^ so numerous in the 
 United States, are to be consulted in the front rank, 
 for all give detailed news of the operations. This ex- 
 amination, however, requires some sagacity, as well 
 as knowledge of the manner in which military affairs 
 are conducted in general, and in the United States in 
 particular, where politics and a thousand personal in- 
 trigues are continual. These journals are ordinarily 
 of large size. They abound in correspondence from 
 the camps, which occupies many columns, and often 
 contains very contradictory information. To read, 
 only, and to examine these primitive elements of liis- 
 tory in the papers, ordinarily badly printed and in 
 very small type, afterwards to compare and weigh the 
 facts received, in order to arrive at the truth, consti- 
 tute a toil of o^reat leno-th, and often discourasi-ino*. 
 
 The ojjiclal reports of the generals are seldom 
 printed, except by the care of the government, which 
 often abridges them, — a course fully justifiable in the 
 face of the enemy, — of the most striking passages. 
 These reports are ordinarily very long, diffuse, en- 
 tangled, interspersed with phrases according to the 
 need of particular occasions. One would take them 
 often for diplomatic notes, for the mandates of an at- 
 torney, or for polemic articles, as much as for reports 
 really military. In the simple reading of these diverse 
 official accounts, one can see how much the service of 
 the staff is under-estimated in the army. Some, how- 
 ever, of Generals Halleck, McClellan, and Butler, 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 141 
 
 among others, can be noticed as honorable exceptions 
 among the great number. 
 
 Tlie j)roce8 verhaiix of the courts-martial and of the 
 courts of inquiry constitute an element of publicity, 
 and of historical sources, peculiar to the United States, 
 and of the highest value. I have abeady spoken of 
 the institution of these innumerable courts of justice, 
 where the generals and the highest functionaries of 
 the government come to make their depositions, and 
 to be submitted to interrogatories like simple wit- 
 nesses in a court of correction. If this machinery 
 complicates sometimes the operations and gravely 
 disturbs the discipline, it is necessary, in return, to 
 recognize the fact that it signally facilitates the task of 
 history, and in this respect I should be the last to 
 complain of it. By the free practice of these courts, 
 almost all the important operations pass through the 
 sieve of public inquiry and of contradictory discus- 
 sion. Those of Generals Smith, McDow^ell, Porter, 
 Pope, Fremont, Burnside, Buell, &c., and the jproces- 
 'derhaiix which have resulted from them, furnish docu- 
 ments of the greatest value for the understanding of 
 the movements in w^hich these generals • have partici- 
 pated ; but they demand, on account of their pro- 
 lixity, a great allowance of patience on the ])art of 
 persons desirous of deriving profit from them. 
 
 The annual rej^orts of administration of the min- 
 isters, to the President and to Congress, are also docu- 
 ments of high value, which have the particular merit 
 
112 REPORT TO THE 
 
 of being more explicit and less extended tlian the 
 preceding. They demand, however, some reserve of 
 confidence, seeing that they are prepared particularly 
 with a view to justify the administration. It is neces- 
 sary to complete them by the observations made in 
 the chambers and in the different committees, among 
 others, in the military committee of the Senate. 
 
 The various annual almanacs have the custom of 
 publishing a chronological sketch of the military 
 events, where one can easily find certain dates or 
 proper names. But we ought to avoid their figures as 
 much as reflections, and to know how to rectify them 
 by taking into the account the political comj^lexion of 
 the editor. 
 
 An interesting publication, and which would be 
 still more so if it did not threaten to become too volu- 
 minous, is edited in IS'ew York, and has for its title : 
 Rebellion Hecord. It has already reached its twenty- 
 fourth volume, and will probably have, in the same 
 proportion, a sixtieth in order to arrive at the actual 
 period of the war. It comprises three parts: one, 
 much the most important, comprising official and 
 semi-official documents ; another containing a collec- 
 tion of divers incidents in the campaign, and which 
 ha^5 the pretension, a little exaggerated, of being a 
 journal of the operations; the third, a medley of 
 poetry, songs, anecdotes, and of occasional editorial 
 remarks. 
 
 A great number of pamphlets, controversial or bio- 
 
SWISS MILITAET DEPARTMENT. 143 
 
 graphical, have also been published in various cities 
 of the United States. Two among others, of Colonel 
 Ellet, Engineer, who organized the ram flotillas of the 
 Mississippi ; two of General Fremont, on the subject 
 of his different commands; one upon General McClel- 
 lan; many upon the capture of Kew Orleans, &c., are 
 instructive. It is not within mv knowled2:e that 
 there have appeared, thus far, books of some value, 
 treating specially of the military events in an histori- 
 cal point of view. A volume: The War in America^ 
 by the Kentuckian, Colonel Schafner, edited at Lon- 
 don, treats only of the political part. The same is true 
 of another by Count Gurowski. There is one an- 
 nounced by the General of Engineers, Barnard^ which 
 oufrht to be more instructiv^e. There is some infor- 
 mation offered in regard to the South, in a little 
 book which has just appeared in French, at Gen- 
 eva, and entitled: Treize Ilois dans Vx\.rinee des 
 
 Mmy literary msn have already undertaken vast 
 publications, and, very recently, one of them has com- 
 msnced by sending a circular to all the generals, to 
 announce to them his enterprise, and desiring them 
 at the same time to fill up a formula to contain the 
 extent of thsir civil and military services, and the de- 
 tail of their exploits. There will consequently be no 
 
 * Tliirteen ISIonths in the Army of the Eebels. Adventures of a 
 Vohinteer Enlisted in spite of Himself, by William G. Stevenson, of 
 New York. 1 vol. 12mo. Geneva, press of Ramboz & Schuchart. 
 
144 EEPOKT TO THE 
 
 want of light on tlie subject of tliis campaign, es- 
 pecially on the side of the North. But, of all these 
 sources, the most valuable will be, without doubt, the 
 publications which, according to custom, will be or- 
 dered by the Senate, joined to the commentaries of 
 the several commanding generals. 
 
 In Europe, England has furnished, besides a great 
 number of writings upon slavery, some books upon 
 the events in the United States, but all treating of the 
 political rather than of the military part. From the 
 Diary North and South of Mr. Eussell, correspondent 
 of the Times^ and from various letters addressed to 
 that journal, one can, however, draw interesting mili- 
 tary information. It is necessary, however, to notice 
 the political disfavor which the cause of the Union 
 finds among the English, and not to admit the humor- 
 some appreciations of their writers, otherwise than 
 on the condition of not being obliged to believe them. 
 
 In Grermany, the daily journals, the AUgemeine 
 Zeitung among others, have received, more than once, 
 excellent communications u|)on the war of the United 
 States. A number of the papers have reproduced, 
 among others, the impressions of a Prussian officer, 
 an actor in the ranks of the South, which deserve to 
 be noticed. We are able to learn from this officer 
 that in the campaign of the peninsula of Yorktown, 
 there was great disorder in the midst of the Secession 
 army after the battle of Fair Oaks, and that if 
 McClellan had had only some thousand men more, so 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 145 
 
 as to advance, lie would undoubtedly have entered 
 Kichmond. 
 
 A book, favorably a^nnounced, lias appeared at 
 Frankfort, at tlie end of 1861, going back even to the 
 opening of the campaign. The author, Mr. Aiieke, 
 analyzes very well all the preliminaries of the strug- 
 gle. He belongs to the extreme Republican party, 
 and should take service under the United States as an 
 artillery officer. If this work is finished, it will not 
 fail, to judge by what is already known of it, to offer 
 a genuine interest to the public. 
 
 In France there have been published two works, 
 particularly worthy of mention. 
 
 In the first phxce, Lettres but V Amerique^ by M. 
 Lieutenant-Colone] Ferri Pisani, aide-de-camp of 
 Prince IS^apoleon, who made, in 1861, a visit to the two 
 belligerent camps. These piquant letters, of an officer 
 as intelligent as experienced, form on the whole a 
 very faithful picture, though sometimes a little too 
 imaginative, of the military movements Vvdiich the 
 author has had under his eyes. They give little his- 
 torical detail, but they have an originality of percep- 
 tion and of comparison, a delicacy of glance, and a 
 charm of style, which make it to be much regretted 
 that they were not continued even to the period of the 
 important events which followed. They have, again, 
 been the first to furnish to Europe some little informa- 
 tion, characteristic and precise, upon the transatlantic 
 troubles. On this occasion, begging you, 3Ir. Coun- 
 7 
 
14:6 EEPOKT TO THE 
 
 sellor^ to excuse my speaking again of myself, I can 
 well avow that it was the perusal of these letters in the 
 Moniteur de V Armee^ in October, 1861, which deter- 
 mined me to make also a military excursion in 
 America ; and, in spite of some slurs, a little sarcas- 
 tic, flung at the Yankees by the witty French officer, 
 I have but to thank him to-day for having contributed 
 to give me a more ample acquaintance with the 
 country. 
 
 Another French book, elegantly drawn from notes 
 of an eye-witness, constitutes one of the most remark- 
 able publications upon this war. It is a small volume 
 entitled : Campagne de VArmee dio Potomac^ and 
 published at first in the Revue des Deux-Mondes. 
 They attribute it to the Prince de Joinville, and 
 with reason, I think. The Prince de Joinville con- 
 stantly accompanied the stall of General McClellan, 
 where figured, as captains and aides-de-camp, his two 
 nephews, the Count de Paris and the Duke de Cliar- 
 tres. He was then well situated to take note of the 
 events, and each evening, in the bivouac as under the 
 tent, his note-book received precious deposits for his- 
 tory. Joining to tliis advantage a great experience, 
 and sound princij)les in the matter of military opera- 
 tions, a correct and elevated judgment, and a quite 
 peculiar talent of observation, the author has been 
 able to give to this book, which it will not be neces- 
 sary to judge upon its size, the stamp of an excellent 
 work. It is one of the first sources upon which we 
 
SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 147 
 
 ought to draw, in order to possess a just idea of what 
 is actually taking place in the United States. It 
 brings the reader down to the end of the campaign of 
 the Peninsula of Yorktown — a campaign which com- 
 prises considerable military feats, also the famous bat- 
 tle of the Seven Days, upon the Chickahominy and the 
 James River, of which the account is given with the 
 greatest perspicuity. It is to be hoped that the emi- 
 nent author will not rest there, and that, among others, 
 he will assure the public of his estimation of the 
 novel marine of the United States — a subject at pres- 
 ent so important, and which few persons in Europe 
 would be able to approach with the same authority as 
 himself. 
 
 I have yet to mention, among the French publica- 
 tions, the Eplieinerides of the Moniteiir de V Armee^ 
 compiled generally with care and impartiality. They 
 have the same kind of usefulness as the American 
 almanacs, and would surpass them in merit if they 
 did not include sufficiently numerous errors, geo- 
 graphical and others. 
 
 The MomteuT Universel contains also, once or 
 twice a week, American correspondence, of which 
 some furnish useful military information, and all 
 denote a solid knowledge of the country, joined, un- 
 fortunately, to a severity, often excessive, on the 
 side of the cause of the Union, Two other papers of 
 Paris, the Siecle^ and especially the Journal des 
 DebaU^ sustain on the other hand, with zeal and 
 
148 REPORT TO THE SWISS MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 talent, tlie principles for wliicli the Federals make so 
 many sacriiices. Tlie Journal des Delats has always 
 given, by the side of good, substantial articles, more 
 of details tha.n its colleagues upon this struggle. 
 
 Among the occasional political pul)lications, the 
 Republique Americaine of M. Xavier Eyma, an 
 ardent volume of M. the Count of Gasparin, Un 
 Grand Peuple qui se releve^ and divers articles of the 
 Revue Chretienne^ among others, of M. the minister 
 Fisch,* ought not to be neglected. 
 
 In Switzerland, it is in the columns of the Journal 
 de Geneve^ in its important correspondence from New 
 York, among others, tliat we find the best oj^inions 
 upon the events in the United States. 
 
 I conclude here, Mr. Federal Counsellor, the sup- 
 plements which I thought ought to follow my report 
 of the 9th of August, 1862, and, while thanking you 
 anew for the kindness with which you have deigned 
 to accept it, I have the honor to reiterate to you the 
 assurance of my most respectful devotion. 
 
 Fd. Lecomte, 
 Federal Lieutenant- Colonel. 
 
 Lausanne, March, 16th, IS 63. 
 
 * The articles of M. Fisch have been collected iu one volume : Etats- 
 Unis en 1861. 1 vol. 12mo. Paris, 1861. 
 
 "^ 
 
 % 
 
FLANDEIK 91 
 
 Tbougli Nanette grieved over Antoine's absence, 
 slie felt proud of him as being a soldier ; and when, 
 soon after lie arrived at Lyons, le pere Quesnel 
 brought her a letter, announcing that he had obtained 
 hjs first stripes, and that he was actually a corporal, 
 she, in her innocence, felt as much delighted as 
 though he had become a marshal. 
 
 It Wits Flandrin who had brought her this welcome 
 letter; trotting up to her with the epistle in his 
 mouth, the old postman having taught him to do so. 
 
 The great dog looked full of conscious virtue, as 
 he raised his head, that she might take the letter from 
 him. From that day forth Flandrin was made to 
 deliver Antoine's letters to Nanette ; who, when le 
 pere Quesnel appeared in the distance, always looked 
 to see if the good old dog carried a white paper in his 
 mouth. 
 
 Arsene, in writing to his father and mother, never 
 failed to send a kind and friendly message to Nanette ; 
 saying that Antoine was well, that he was becoming 
 a good soldier, that she would not know him in his 
 uniform, with his large moustache, &c., &c. : but he 
 never gave any particulars as to his friend's amuse- 
 ments, infidelities, and mode of life. 
 
 July, 1794, gave a fresh turn to public affairs; 
 likewise bringing Daridolle in great haste to his 
 estate of " Lacedaemonia," as he was pleased to call 
 it ; so classical and enamored of liberty was Dari- 
 dolle. 
 
 On the 28th of July, called in the jargon of that 
 day ^^le7teuf Thermidor^''^ the execution of the craven 
 tyrant Kobespierre took place. 
 
92 EEPOET TO THE 
 
 2d. The defective mode of forming tlie army. The 
 system of voluntary recruiting by the inducements of 
 the pay, or by the stimulation of political passions, 
 furnishes a great number of individuals more or less 
 depraved, or inej)t for the valuable service of the field, 
 but who are admitted, to make up the number. 
 The rest of the nation, thinking they are doing 
 enough in aiding to raise pay for these mercenaries^ 
 find themselves too little interested in events, do not 
 feel sufficiently their burden, and do not take in the 
 war an interestas serious as the circumstances would 
 demand. In the great cities, at [N'ew York, Philadel- 
 phia, Boston, and even in the face of the enemy at 
 Washington, amusements go on as in time of entire 
 peace ; — -they dance, they dine, carry on festivities, 
 boast loudly, and, what is more serious, they know 
 
 the United States by a despotic regime, it might yet be required in time 
 of war, that military exigencies should be more seriously regarded, 
 and that the very object of the war should not be rendered more diffi- 
 cult, if not even impossible to be attained, by an exaggerated political 
 dodrinarianism, which consists in wishing to respect every institution, 
 and ev^ery individual right, created for times of peace. I could cite 
 here, with advantage, the example of Switzerland, as jealous, certainly, 
 of its democratic prerogatives as are the United States. In 1841, at the 
 time of the campaign of the Sunderbund, General Du Four, Commander- 
 in-chief of the Federal army, began by demanding of the journals an 
 entire abstinence from remarks on the subject of military affairs. 
 Through the medium of the diet and the cantonal governments, the 
 press was seriously invited to be silent on the events of the campaign, 
 and not to reproduce any thing but official acts which should be trans- 
 m'tted to it by the governments, publishing bulletins for this purpose. 
 The army and the country found the advantage of this measure, which 
 could be put in execution in the United States as easily as in Switzer- 
 land. 
 
D. Yan N'ostrand'^s Puhlications. 
 
 Evolutions of Field Batteries of 
 Artillery. 
 
 Translated from the French, and arranged for the Army and Militia 
 of the United States. By Gen. Robert Anderson, U. S. Army. 
 Published by order of the War Department. 1 vol. cloth, 32 
 plates. $1. 
 
 "War Depaktment, Nov. id, 1S59. 
 The System of "Evolutions of Field Batteries," tmnslated from the French, 
 and arranged for the service of the United states, by Major Kobert Andert^on, 
 of the 1st i;egiinenc of Artillery, having been approved by the President, is 
 published fur the information and government of the army. 
 
 All Evolutions of Field Batteries not embraced in this system are prohibited, 
 and those herein prescribed will be strictly observed. 
 
 J. B. FLOYD, Secretary of War. 
 "This system having been adopted by the War Department, is to the artil- 
 lerist what Hardee's Tactics is to the infantry soldier ; the want of a work like 
 this has been seriously felt, and will be eagerly welcomed.'"— Zoj*ii«iWe Journal. 
 
 Standing Orders of the Seventh 
 Regiment, National Guard. 
 
 For the Regulation and Government of the Regiment in the Field or 
 
 in Quarters. By A. Duryee, Colonel. New edition, flexible 
 
 cloth. 40 cents. 
 
 "This, which is a new edition of a popular work, cannot fail to be eagerly 
 sought after, as presenting clearly and succinctly the principles of organization 
 and discipline of a most favorite corps. An api)ropriate index facilitates refer- 
 ence to the mutter of the volume.'"— ^Veio Yorker 
 
 Light Infantry Company and Skir- 
 mish Drill. 
 
 The Company Drill of the Infantry of the Line, together with the Skir- 
 mish Drill of the Company and Battalion, after the Method of 
 General Le Louterel. Bayonet Fencing; v^^ith a Supplement 
 on the Handling and Service of Light Infantry. By J. Munroe, 
 Col. 22d Regiment, N. G., N. Y. S. M., formerly Capt. U S 
 Infantry. 1 vol., 32mo. 
 
D. 'Van JS!'ostra7id^s Publications, 
 
 Siege of Bomarfund (1854), 
 
 Journals of Operations of the Artillery and Engineers. Published 
 
 by permission of the Minister of War. Illustrated by maps and 
 
 plans. Translated from the French by an Army Officer. 
 
 1 vol. 12mp, cloth, '75 cents. 
 
 "To military men this little volume ie of special interest. It contains a 
 
 translation by an officer of the United States Army, of the journal of operations 
 
 by the artillery and engineers at the siege of Bomarssund in 1854, published by 
 
 permission of the French Minister of War in the Journal des Aronees specidleti 
 
 et deTEtat Major. The account of the same successful attack, given by Sir 
 
 Howard Douglas in the new edition of his work (jn Gunnery, is appended; and 
 
 the narrative is illustrated by elaborate maps and plans."— A^(SW York Paper. 
 
 Lefsons and Pradical Notes, on 
 Steam, 
 
 The Steam-Engine, Propellers, &c., &c., for Young Marine Engi- 
 neers, Students, and others. By the late W. R. King, U. S. N. 
 Revised by Chief-Engineer J. W. King, U. S, Navy. Sixth 
 edition, enlarged. 8vo, cloth. $2.00 
 
 "This Is the second edition of a valuable work of the late W. E. Kino, 
 U. S. N, It contains lessons and practical notes on Steam and the Steam- 
 Engine, Propellers, &c. It is calculated to be of great use to young marine en- 
 gineers, students, and others. The text is illustrated and explained by numerous 
 diagrams and representations of machinery. This new edition has been revised 
 and enlarged by Chief Engineer J. W, King. U. S. N., brother to the deceased 
 author of the work." — Boston Daily Advertiser. 
 
 " This is one of the best, because eminently plain and practical, treatises ou 
 the Steam-Engine ever pnhUshb<:V~/'Mladelphia Press. 
 
 " Its re-publication at this time, when so many young men are entering the 
 service as naval engineers, is most opportune. Each of them ought to have a 
 copy." — Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 
 
 Manual of Internal Rules and Reg- 
 ulations for Men-of-War. 
 
 By Commodore IJ. P. Levy, U. S. N., late Flag-officer command- 
 ing U. S. Naval Force in the Mediterranean, &c. Flexible 
 blue cloth. Second edition, revised and enlarged. 50 cents. 
 
 "Among the professional publications for which we are indebted to the war, 
 we willindy give a prominent place to this useful little Manual of Rules and 
 Eegulations to be observed on board of ships of war. Its authorship is a sutii- 
 cient guarantee for its accuracy and practical value ; and as a guide to young 
 officers in providing for the discipline, police, and sanitary government of the 
 vessels under their conmiand, w-e know of nothing superior."— iv. Y. Herald. 
 
 " Should be in the hands of every Naval otTicer, of whatever grade, and will 
 not come amiss to any intelligent xnax'xner.''''— Boston Traveller. 
 
 " A work which will prove of great utility, in both the Naval service and 
 the mercantile marine." — Baltimore American. 
 
D. Van JSfostrand's Publications. 
 
 Hand- Book of Artillery, 
 
 For the Service of the United States Army and Militia. New and 
 revised edition. By M;;j. Joseph Roberts, U. S. A. 1 vol. 
 ISmo, cloth. $1. 
 " A complete catechism of gun practice, covering the whole gi-o«nd of thia 
 branch of military science, and adapted to militia and volunteer drill, as well as 
 to the regular army. It has the merit of precise detail even to the technical 
 names ot'all parts of a gun, and how the smallest operations connected with us 
 u^e can be best performed. It has evidently been prepared with great care, 
 and with strict scientific accuracy. By the recommendation o a commi tee 
 appointed by the commanding oliicer of \hQ Artillery School at Fort Moc oe 
 Va it has been substituted for • Burns' Questions and Ans^vers an English 
 woi-k which has heretofore been the text-book of instruction in this country. 
 — .A'etM) York Century. 
 
 New Infantry Tactics, 
 
 For the Instruction, Exercise, and Manoeuvres of the Soldier, a Com- 
 panv, Line of Skirmishers, Battalion, Brigade, or Corps d'Armee. 
 By Brig.-Gen. Silas Casey, U. S. A. 3 vols. 24mo. Half roan, 
 lithographed plates. $2.50. 
 Vol. I.— School of the Soldier ; School of the Company ; In- 
 struction for Skirmishers. 
 Vol. II.— School of the Battalion. 
 Vol. III.— Evolutions of a Brigade; Evolutions of a Corps 
 
 d'Armee. 
 The manuscript of this new system of Infantry Tactics was carefully ex- 
 amined by General McClet.lan, and met with his unqual^ed appro^l, which 
 he has since maniiested by authorizing General Casey to ^^1^,^^ fo^. ^^^^f ^"^ 
 division The author has retained much that is valuable contaim^d in the sys- 
 tems of Scott and Hakdee. but has made many important changes and addi- 
 tions which experience and the exigencies of the service require. General 
 CrsEvVi^piSion as an accomplished soldier and skilful tact cian is a guar- 
 antee that the work he has undertaken has been thoroughly pertormed. 
 
 "These volumes are ba-ed on the French ordonnances of 1S31 and 1845 for 
 the inaiS vres of heav v infantry and cha.Heurs d pied ; both of these systems 
 Sive beeTi^ use in oui- service for some years, the former having been trans- 
 lated bv Ge5 Scott, and the latter by Col. Hardee. After the introduction of 
 IhelaUerdriilinour service, in connection with Gen. Scottjs Tactics, there 
 nrose the necessity of a uniform system for the manoeuvres oi all the intantrj 
 aim of the sen- ce^ These volumes are the resnilt of the author's endeavor to 
 S.nunicate the instruction, now used and adopted in the army, to achieve 
 th.\s,r(i»vAX.:^— Boston Journal. 
 
 " Based on the best precedents, adopted to the novel ^-^q^iyfments of the art 
 of war, and very full in its instructions, Casey s Tactics will be received as the 
 most useful and niost comprehensive work of is kind i" <•"[ l^^^f^^g^' ^^^^^ 
 the drill and discipline of the individua.1 soldier or tlii^«"f^,.^lVnf\ Corns 
 combinations, to the man(Buvres of a brigade f°d the cvol tions -^ a Coi s 
 D'Armre, the student is advanced by a clear method and steady P^^f ^s. ^u 
 rnermT^ cuts plans, and diasrams illustrate positions and movements, and de- 
 SSrate to\hecye the exact working out of the individual position, brigading, 
 SrS Sbattle! S&c. The work is a m..del of publishing success, being m 
 three neat pocket volumes."— iV'ew Yorker, 
 
D. Yan Nostrand^s Publications. 
 
 Sword-Play, 
 
 THE MILITIAMAN'S MANUAL AND SWORD-PLAY WITHOUT 
 A MASTER. — Rapier aud Broad-Swoid Exercises eO{)iouily 
 Explained and Illustrated ; Small-Ann Light Infantry Drill of 
 the United States Army; Infantry Manual of Percussion Mus- 
 kets ; Company Drill of the United States Cavalry. By Major 
 M. W. Berriman, engaged for the last thirty years in the prac- 
 tical instruction of Military Students. Second edition. 1 vol. 
 12mo, red cloth. $1. 
 
 " Captain Berriman has had thirty years' experience in teaching military 
 students, and his work is written in a simple, clear, and soldierly style. It is 
 illustrated with twelve plates, and is one of the cheapest and most complete 
 works of the kind published in this country. "' —Mew York World. 
 
 "This work will be found very valuable to all persons seekins military in- 
 strnction ; but it recommends itself most especially to officers, and those who 
 have to use the sword or sabre. We believe it is the only work on the use of 
 the sword published in this country." — Neio York Tablet. 
 
 " It is a work of obvious merit and value."— i?c>6/oft Traveller. 
 
 Official Army Regifter for i863 
 
 New edition. 8vo, paper. 50 cents. 
 
 The Artillerift's Manual: 
 
 Compiled from various Sources, and adapted to the Service of the 
 United States. Profusely illustrated with woodcuts and engrav- 
 ings on stone. Second edition, revised and corrected, with 
 
 valuable additions. By Capt. John Gibbon, U. S. Army. 
 
 1 voL 8vo, half roan, $5. 
 
 This book is now considered the standard anthoritv for that particular branch 
 of the Service in the United States Army. The War Dei)artment, at Washin^- 
 ton, has e.\hibited its thorough appreciation of the merits of this volume, the 
 -want of which has been hitherto much felt in the service, by subscribing for 700 
 copies. *" 
 
 "It is with great pleasure that we welcome the appearance of a new work on 
 this subject, entitled 'The Artillerists Manual,' by Capt. John Gibbon, a 
 highly scientific and meritorious officer of artillery in our resular service The 
 work, an octavo volume of 50l) pasces. in large, clear tvpe, appears to be well 
 adapte.l to supply just what has been heret(.fore needed to fill the mx) between 
 the simple Manual and the more abstruse demonstrations of the science of gun- 
 nery. The wliole work is profusely illustrated with woodcuts and en°-ravin<^s 
 on stone tending to give a more complete and exact idea of the various matters 
 described in the text. The book may well he considered as a valuable and im- 
 portant addition to the military science of the country."— iV^ew; York Herald 
 
D. Van J^ostraiuP s Puhllcations. 
 
 The Political and Military Hiftory 
 of the Campaign of Waterloo. 
 
 Translated from the French of General Baron de Jomini. By 
 
 Capt. S. V. Benet, U. S. Ordnance. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, second 
 
 edition. 75 cents. 
 
 "Baron Jomini has the reputation of beinsr one of the greatest military his- 
 torians and critics of the century. His merits have been recognized by the 
 higlu-st military authorities i i Europe, and were rewarded in a conspicuous 
 manner by the greatest military power in Christendom. He learned the art of 
 war in the .school of experience, the best and only finishing school of the soldier. 
 He served with distinction in nearly all the campaigns of ^apoleon, and it was 
 mainly from the gigantic military operations of this matchless master of the 
 art that he was enabled to discover its true principles, and to ascertain the best 
 means of their application in the infinity of combinations which actual war pre- 
 sents Jomini criiicizes the details of Waterloo with great science, and yet in a 
 manner that interests the general reader as well as the professional.' — Ntv) 
 York World. 
 
 "This book by Jomini, though forming the twenty -second chapter of his 
 »Life of Napoleon,' is really a unit in itself, and forms a comjdete summary of 
 the campaii:n. It is an interesting volume, and deserves a place in the aflfec- 
 jions of all who would be accomplished military^ men." — New York Times. 
 
 "The present volume is the concluding portion of hi;^ great work, ' Vie Poli- 
 tique et Militaire de Napoleon,'' published in 1826. Capt. Benet's translation of 
 it has been lor some time before the public, and has now reached a second edi- 
 tion; it is very ably executed, and forms a work which will always be interest- 
 ins, and especially so at a time when military afifairs are uppermost in the public 
 mind." — Philadelphia North Atnericari. 
 
 The "C. S. A." and the Battle of 
 Bull Run. 
 
 (A Letter to an English friend), by J. Gr. Barnard, Major of Engineers, 
 
 U. S. A., Brigadier-General and Chief Engineer, Army of the 
 
 Potomac. With five maps. 1 vol., 8vo., cloth. $1.50. 
 
 "This book was begun by the author as a letter to a friend in England, but as 
 he proceeded and his MSS. increa.sed in magnitude, he changed his original plan, 
 and the book is the result. General Barnard gives by far the best, most compre- 
 hensible anil compiete account of the Battle of Bull Run we have seen. It is illus- 
 trated by some beautifully drawn maps. f>repared for the War Department by the 
 to|»ographical engineers. He demonstrates to a certainty that but for the cause- 
 less "panic the day might not have been lost. The author writes with vigor and 
 earnestness, and has contributed one of the most valuable records yet published 
 of the histoi-v of the war," — Bo.ston Commercuil Bullettn. 
 
 " A spirited and reliable view of the true character of the secession movement, 
 Rnd a correct account of the Battle of Bull Run, by a military man whose qualifi- 
 cations for the task are equalled but by few persons." — Cinciumtti Guzette. 
 
 "The work is cleai-ly written, and' can but leave the impression upon every 
 reader's mind that it is truth. We commend it to the iierusal of every one who 
 wants an intelligent, truthful and graphic description of the ' C. S. A.,' and the 
 Battle of Bull Run." — Ntw 1 07k Obtserv6i\ 
 
D. Van NostrantPs Publications. 
 
 Maxims and Instructions on the 
 
 Art of War. 
 
 Maxims, Advice, and Instructions on the Art of War ; or, A Practi 
 cal Military Guide for the use of Soldiers of all Arms and of all 
 Countries. Translated from the French, by Captain Lendy, 
 Director of the Practical Military College, late of the French 
 Staff, etc., etc. 1 vol., iSmo., cloth. 75 cents. 
 
 " A book of maxims, that is not as dry as a cask of 'remainder biscuit,' is a 
 novelty ia literature. The little volume before us is an exception to the general 
 rule. It presents the suggestion of common sense in military affairs, with a cer- 
 tain brilliancy and point. One may read it purel}^ for entertainment, and not be 
 disappointed. At the same time, it is full of practical instructions of great value. 
 When found in the pocket of an officer of volunteers, it will be the right book in 
 the right place.'' — N. Y. Trihune. 
 
 " We do not pretend to much military science, but we have found this small 
 volume easy to understand and interesting to read. It is compiled from old 
 Works, but is adapted to new notions and improvements, and it gives in a nut- 
 shell a general idea of the whole business of war. Some men who have always 
 maintained 'Quaker' iirincijdes, and who have never studied the trade and 
 mystery of fighting, fin<l it ditlicult to compreheiul the various strategic move- 
 ments that are chroni'^hnl from day to day in the newspapers. These men shouUl 
 look into the subject of war, and we ad^'ise them, as a beginning, to read this 
 book. It will i)robably helj) their cloudy percei)tions, and enable them to see 
 clearly the meaning of military operations, which now they cannot understand." 
 —Prooidence Juarnal. 
 
 Nolan's System for Training Cavalry 
 Horses. 
 
 By Kenxeu GARrwVRD, Captain Fifth Cavalry, U. S. A. 1 vol., 12mo , 
 cloth. 2i Lithographed plates. $1.50. 
 
 * * * " We are glad when competent men bring forward works that are intended 
 to facilitate the formation, of an effective cavalry force. Of this class is A^c»^«7i's 
 Ulifittm for Training Cavalry IIorm.% prepared for use in this country, by ('aptain 
 Kenner Garrard, U. 8. A. Captain Nolan was distinguished in the British service 
 for his knowledge of the cavalry arm, and for his general talents. As the work 
 had become out of jtrint. Captain Garrard has done well in reproducing it: he 
 has added to it a chapter on Karey's Method of Training Horses, and another on 
 Horse Shcx^iug. The volume is well illustrated. It cauuot be toe warmly com- 
 mended to general use." — Bonton Dally Evening Traveller. 
 
 " It explains a perfectly successful method of gaining the mastery over the 
 most refractory horse, and is no less adapted for the use of the rider for exercise, 
 business, or i)leasui'e than of the cavalry officer. By the plan of the author, the 
 time of ti-aining is greatly shortened ; the progress is so grailual that it never 
 makes tlie horse unamiable, and the successive lessons tend to the development 
 of mutual love and admiration between the parties."— A''. Y. Trihune. 
 
D, Yan KostrcuuP s PuUicatlons. 
 
 School of the Guides. 
 
 Designed for the use of the Militia of the United States. Flexible 
 cloth. 50 cents, 
 
 "This excellent compilation condenses into a compass of less than sixty- 
 pages all the instruction necessary for the guides, and the information being 
 disconnected with other matters, is more readily referred to and more easily 
 acquired." — LouisviUe Journal. 
 
 " The work is carefully got up, and is illustrated by numerous figures, which 
 make the positions of theeuides plain to the commonest understanding. Tliose 
 of our sergeants who wish'tol>e 'posted' in their duties should procure a copy." 
 —Sunday Mercury, Philadelphia. 
 
 " It hns received high praise, and will prove of great service in perfecting 
 the drill of our Militia."—^ American and V. S. Gazette., Phil. 
 
 "This neat hand-book of the elementary movements on which the art of the 
 tactician is based, reflects great credit on Col. Le G-al, whose reputation is de- 
 servedly hi£ch among military men, No soldier should be without the School 
 of the Guides,"— iVez« York Daily News. 
 
 Gunnery in 1858 : 
 
 A Treatise on Rifles, Cannon, and Sporting Arms. By "\Vm. 
 Gkeener, C. E. 1 vol, 8vo, cloth. $3, 
 
 Manual of Heavy Artillery. 
 
 For the Use of Volunteers. 1 vol. 12mo. Red cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 '•Sliould be in the hands of every Artillerist."—^'". Y. Illustrated News. 
 
 "This is a concise and well-prepared Manual, adapted to the wants «f Vol- 
 unteers. The instruction, which is of an important nature, is presented Ih a 
 simple and clear style, such as will be easily understood. The volume is al.so 
 illustrated with explanatory cuts and drawings. It is a work of practical 
 value, and one needed at the present time in the service." — Boston Commercial 
 Bulletin. 
 
 "An indispensable Manual for all who wish easily and accurately to leara 
 the school of the Artillerist." — N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 Auftrian Infantry Tactics. 
 
 Evolutions of the Line as practised by the Austrian Infantry, and 
 adopted in 1853. Translated by Capt, C. M. Wilcox, Seventh 
 Regiment U. S, Infantry. 1 vol. 12mo. Three large plates, 
 cloth. $1. 
 "The movements of armies engaged in battle have often been compared to 
 those of the chess-board, and we cannot doubt that there are certain principles 
 of tactics in actual w^ar as in that game, w-hich may determine the result inde- 
 pendently, in a great measure, of the personal strength and courage of the men 
 engaged. The diiference between these principles as applied in the American 
 Army and in the Austrian, is so wide as to have susrirested the 'ranslation of 
 the work before us, which contains the whole result of the famous Field-Marshal 
 Eadetzky's experience for twenty-five years, while in supreme command in 
 Italy,"— .ATew York Century. 
 
D. Van KostramVs Publications, 
 
 Naval Light Artillery. 
 
 Instruction for N"aval Light Artillary, afloat aud ashore, prepared 
 and arranged for the U. S. Naval Academy, by Lieut, W. H. 
 Parker, U. S. K Seco-'-'d edition, revised by Lieut, S. B, Luce, 
 U. S. N., Assistant Instructor of Gunnery and Tactics at tli© 
 United States Naval Academy, 1 vol,, 8vo., cloth, with 22 plates, 
 $1.50. 
 
 "The service for which this is the text-book of instruction is of special import- 
 ance in the present war. The use of liirht boat-pieces is constant and important, 
 and young officers are frequently obliged to leave their boats, take their pieces 
 ashore, and manreuvre them as field artillery. Not unfrequently, also, they are 
 incorporated, when ashore, with troops, and must h;mdle their guns like the 
 artillery soldiers of a battery, 'The Exercise of t!ie Howitzer Afloat' was pre- 
 pared and arranged by Captain Dahlgren, whose name gives additional sanction 
 and value to the book. A Manual for the Sword and Pistol is also given. The 
 plates are numerous and exceedingly clear, and the whole typography excellent." 
 Philadelphia Iiu[iurer. 
 
 New Manual of Sword and Sabre 
 Exercife. 
 
 • By Colonel J, C, Kelton, U. S. A. Thirty plates. In Press. 
 
 History of the United States Naval 
 Academy, 
 
 With Biographical Sketches, and the names of all the Superintend- 
 ents, Professors and Graduates, to which is added a Record of 
 some of the earliest Votes by Congress, of Thanks, Medals, and 
 Swords to Naval Officers. By Edward Chauncey Marshall, 
 A, M. 1 vol., 12mo., cloth, plates. $1. 
 
 "The book before us affords a good account of the naval school from its first es- 
 tablisiunent under the ausiiices of Secretary Bancroft, with full statements of the 
 regulations, requisites for admission, course of studj', etc. It is a seasonable and 
 usetul contribution to the history of education in this country." — JV". Y. Inde- 
 ■perident. 
 
 '• Tliis is a most welcome volume. All that throws light on the history of our 
 army and navy now needs study, and the Naval xVcademy, thoujjh really so recent, 
 well deserves a histoi-y. Mr. Marshall has dei)ieted, in clear and graphic language, 
 the vain struggle for years to give our navy, what the navy of "every nation lias, 
 an aeiideiiiy to lorm the young officers for their iuiportant duties." — N. Y. Ilia- 
 torical Mitgazine. 
 
 "Every naval man will find it not only a pleasant companion, but an invaluable 
 book of reference. It is seldwrn that so much information is made accessible in 
 80 agreeable a uianner in so small a space." — I^ew York Times. 
 
D. Van Nostrand'^s Publications. 
 
 A Treatife on Ordnance and Naval 
 Gunnery. 
 
 Compiled and arranged as a Text-Book for the IT. S. Naval Acad- 
 emy, by Lieutenant Edward Simpson, U. S. N. Second odi- 
 tioQ, revised and enlarged. 1 vol. 8vo, plates and cuts, half 
 morocco. -$4^. 
 
 "As the compiler has charge of the instniction in Naval Gunnery at the 
 Naval Academy, his work, in the compilutiun of which he has consulted a larpe 
 number ol'eininent authorities, is probably well suited for thej)urj)()sedesii:ned 
 by it — namely, the circulation of information which many oilicers, owin<r to 
 constant service afloat, may not have been able to collect, 'in simple and plain 
 hiusuasri- it gives instruction as to cannon, gun carriages, gun powder, projectiles, 
 fuzes, locks, and primers; the theory of pointing guns, rifles, the practice of 
 gunnery, and a great vu'iety of other sim lar matters, interesting to fighting 
 men on oea and land." — l\a.shington Daily Globe. 
 
 " A vast amount of information is conveyed in a readable and familiar form. 
 The illustrations are e.xcellent, and many of them unique, being colored or 
 bronz d so a^ to represent various military arms, &c., with more than photo- 
 grapliic literalness." — Washington Star. 
 
 "It is scarcely necessary for ns to say that a work prepared bv a writer so 
 practically corivcrsant with all the subjects of which he treats, and who has such 
 a reputation for scientific ability, cannot fail to take at once a high ijIuc among 
 the text-books of our naval service. It has been approved by the Secretary of 
 the Navy, and will henceforth be one of th<' .standard authorities on all matters 
 connected with Naval Gunnery." — New Yot^k Herald. 
 
 "The book it^aelf is admirably arranged, characterized by great simplicity 
 and clearness, and certainly at this time will be a most valuable one to officers 
 of the Navy." — Bo-stoii Commercial Bulletin. 
 
 "Originally designed as a text-bof)k, it is now enlarged, and so far modified 
 in its plan as to make it an i.ivaluable hand-book for the naval officer. It is 
 comprehensive— preserving the cream of many of the best books on ordnance 
 and naval gunnery, nnd is printed and illustrated in the most admirable man- 
 ner."— A'eio York World. 
 
 Elementary Inftruction in Naval 
 Ordnance and Gunnery. 
 
 By James II. Ward, Commander U. S. Navy, Author of " Naval 
 Tactics," and "Steam for the Million." New edition, revised 
 and enlarged. 8vo. Cloth, $2. 
 
 " It conveys an amount of information in the same space to he found no- 
 where else, and given v>iih a clearne:>s which renders it useful as well to tha 
 general as the professional inquirer." — N. Y. Evening Post. 
 
 " This volume is a standard treatise upon the subject to which it is devoted. 
 Jt abounds in valu.able information upon all the points bearing upon Naval 
 G unnery."— iV; Y. Commercial Advert iner. 
 
 "The work is an exceedingly valuable one, and is opportunely issued." — 
 Boston Journal. 
 
D. Van N'ostrand'' s Puhllcations. 
 
 Totten's Naval Text-Book. 
 
 Naval Text-Book and Dictionary, compiled for the use of the Midship- 
 men of the U. S. Navy. By Commander B. J. Totten, U. S. N. 
 Second and revised edition. 1 vol. 12mo. $2.50. 
 
 "This work is prepared for the Midshipmen of the United States Navy. It is 
 a complete manual of instructions as to the duties which pertain to their office, 
 and appears to have been prepared with great care, avoiding errors and inac- 
 curacies which had crept into a former edition of the work, and embracing val- 
 uable additional matter. It is a book which should be in the hands of every 
 midshipman, and officers of high rank in the navy would often find it a useful 
 companion.'" — Boston Journal. 
 
 Gunnery Inftructions. 
 
 Simplified for the Volunteer Officers of the U. S. Navy, with hints to 
 
 Executive and other Officers. By Lieut. Edward Barrett, 
 
 U. S. N., Instructor of Gunnery, Navy Yard, Brooklyn. 1 vol. 
 
 12 mo, cloth. - . 
 
 "It is a thorough work, creating plainly on its sxibject, and contains also some 
 valuable hints to executive officers. No officer in the volunteer navy should 
 be without a copy." — Boston Evening Traveller. 
 
 " Lieutenant Barrett is the Instructor in Gunnery at the U. S. Naval Station, 
 New York. His book, which is plain, comprehensive, and abundantly illustrated, 
 is designed to be used by naval otticers as a book of reference and advice in the 
 performance of the duties of their respective positions, and as such it is a val- 
 uable manual." — rrovldenee Journal. 
 
 "I have looked through Lieut. Barrett's book, and think it will be very 
 valuable to the volunteer officers who are now in the naval service." — C. K. P. 
 EoDGERS, Co/)i)iianding U. S, Steam Frigate Wahash. 
 
 A Syftem of Target Praftice. 
 
 For the use of Troops when armed with the Musket, Rifle-Musket, 
 Rifle, or Carbine. Prepared, principally from the Erench, by 
 Captain Henry Heth, 10th Infantry, U. S. A. 
 
 " War Department, ) 
 
 "Washington, March 1st, 1858. f 
 "The System of Target Practice, prepared under direction of the War Depart- 
 ment by Captain Henry Heth, 10th Infantry, having been approved, is adopted 
 for the instruction of troops when armed with the musket, rifle-musket, rifle, 
 or carbine. 
 
 " John B. Floyd, Secretary of War.'''* 
 
D. Van Nostraiid^s Publications. 
 
 Rhymed Tactics, by "Gov." 
 
 1 vol. ISuio, paper. With portraits. 25 cents. 
 
 " Tt will strike the military man, familiar with the tedious n.utine of drill 
 bv thc-orv, practice, and memory, as a most unique and valuable mi-thod of 
 streijo-thenins the latter, with the lea.st mental exertion. The author is a 
 thoroTigh soldier, and his ability as a rhymester will be conceded by any intelli- 
 gent reader.'" — Nexo York Leader. 
 
 "Our author deserves great credit for the ingenuity ho has displayed in 
 putting into verse a Manual which would at first glance seem to dety the most 
 per.sistent efforts of the rhvmer. The book contains a number of lUustrat ons 
 representing s<mie of the rnore difiicult positions, in the figures of which por- 
 traits of several prominent officers of the :New York Volunteers may be recog- 
 nized."— ^Ve^o York Times. 
 
 Benet's Military Law. 
 
 A Treatise on Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial, by 
 Capt. S. Y. Bexet, Ordnance Department, U. S. A., late Assist- 
 ant Professor of Ethics, Law, &e., Military Academy, West 
 Point. 1 vol., 8vo., law sheep. $3.00. 
 
 "This book is manifestly well timed just at this particular period, and it is, 
 without doubt, quite as happily adapted to the purpose for which it was written. 
 It is arranged with admirable method, and wi-itten with such perspicuity and in 
 a style so easy and graceful, as to engage the attention of every reader who may 
 be s'o fortunate as to^open its pages. This treatise will make a valuable addition 
 to- the library of the lawyer or the civilian; while to the military man it seems 
 to be indispensable."— P/i/Za(?e^i?/itrt Evening Journal. 
 
 "Captain Ben et presents the army with a complete compilation of the pre- 
 cedents and decisions of rare value which have accumulated since the creation of 
 the office of Judge Advocate, thoroughly digested and judiciously arr.anged, with 
 an index of the most minute accuracy. Military Law and Courts-Martial are 
 treated from the composition of the latter to the Finding and toentence, with 
 the Revision and Execution of the same, all set forth in a clear, exhaustive style 
 that is a cardinal excellence in every work of legal reference. That portion of 
 the work devoted to Evidence is especially good. In fact, the whole performance 
 entitles the author to the thanks of the entire army, not a leading officer of 
 which should fail to supply himself at once with so serviceable a guide to the 
 intricacies of legal military government."— -A'] Y. Times. 
 
 American Military Bridges, 
 
 With India-Rubber and Galvanized Iron Pontons and Trestle Sup- 
 porters, prepared for the use of the Armies of the United 
 States. Bv Brig.-Gen. Geo. W. Cullum, Major Corps of En- 
 gineers U. S. A. ; Chief of the Staff of Maj.-Gen. Halleck; 
 Chief Engineer of the Army of the Mississippi. Second edition, 
 with notes and two additional chapters. 1 vol. 8vo, with plates. 
 In Press. 
 
D. V^an NostrancVs Puhlicatlon,i. 
 
 Notes on Sea-Coaft Defence : 
 
 Consisting of SeaCoust Foriilicatioii ; the Fifteoii-Iiich Gun ; and 
 CuiitMnate Einl)rasuies. By Ge-n. J. G. Barnakd, Corps of 
 Engineers, U. S. Army. 1 vol. 8vo, cloth, plates. $1 r»0. 
 
 "This small voluiiic by one of tlie most accomplished ofticcrs In tlx- T'nitcd 
 States service is csjjcciany v:ilii;il)le at this time. Concisiiy and thon>tiirhly 
 Alajiir Barnard discusses the snbjecus JDpliidid in tlii.s voiiime, ami trivcs iiifor- 
 111 tion that will be rend with frrcat prolit by military men, and liyull interested 
 in the art of war a.s a defensive force."— .AVw York VonnuerciaL 
 
 "It is no li<.'ht i'om[>lim'nt when we say that Major Barnard s book does no 
 discredit t<» the corps to which he belotiL's. He writes concisely, and with a 
 thorough knowledgu of his subjecL" — liurSneU's Army and Ami/ (Jazttie. 
 
 A Trearife on the Camp and March. 
 
 With which i.s coauecteJ the Con.stniction of Field Works and Military 
 Bridge.s; witli an Appendix of Artillery Ranges, &c. For tho 
 use of Volunteers and Militia in tho I'nited States. By Captain 
 Hekuy D. Grafton, U. S. A. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth. 73 cent.s. 
 
 Steam for the Million. 
 
 A Popular Treatise on Steam and it.s Apjilication to the F.<eful 
 
 Arts, especially to Navigation. By J. II Wakp, Commander 
 
 U. S. Navy. New and revised edition, 1 vol. 8vo, cloth. $1. 
 
 " .V most excellent work for the younc cnfrinecr nnd peneral reader. Many 
 fiicts relating to .he management ofthe boiler and eiitrine are .set forth with a 
 simplicity of ianiriiaire, and perfection of<letail, that brink's the subject home to 
 the reader, Mr. Ward is als>> peculiarly happy in his illustrations."— .dmeWcau 
 Engineer. 
 
 Screw Propulfion, 
 
 Notes on Screw Propulsion, its Rise and Ili.^tory. By Capt. W. H. 
 Walker, U. S. Navy. 1 voL 8vo., cloth. 75 cents, 
 
 "Some interestinir notes on screw propulsion, its rise and prosress, bnve jnst 
 been issued by ('oiumaiider W. H. \Valkkii, IT. S. N.. from whicli all that is 
 likely to be desired on the subject may be readily acquired. * * • * After 
 thoroughly demonstratinp the etliciency of the screw, Mr. Walker proceeds to 
 point out the various other points to b»> attended to in order to secure un effi- 
 cient man-of-war, and eulo«:izes throiiL'hout the rc.idiness of the British Admi- 
 raltv to test ev-rv novelty cal -ulated to jrive sati.sfact<»ry results. • • • ♦ 
 Conimander Walker's book contains an immense amount of conci.se practical 
 data, and everv item of information recorded fully proves that the various 
 points bearinir upon it have been well considered previously to expressing aa 
 opinion." — London Miuiug JouriHil. 
 
 " Every enjjineer should have it iu his library." — American Engineer. 
 

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