12 THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. (lie spirit of discipline, of obedience, and that hierarchical re-peet. without Avltich there may be armed crowds, but there can be no army. Here is the reef upon which many gencr- oii> efforts have been dashed to pieces. Here is an original vice whose fatal inllucnee we shall everywhere encounter. We shall discover the germ of this vice by a rapid examination of the machinery which was used to improvise this first creation. According to American law the Federal Government maintains, in time of peace, a permanent regular army. It may, besides, in cases of necessity, war or insurrection, call io its standard as many regiments of volunteers as it may deem expedient. The regular army, formed by recruiting only, numbered 2O.000 men before the secession. The officers, educated exclusively at the military school, were remarkable. Well educated, versed practically in their profession, understanding the necessity of absolute command, they maintained in their small force lite most vigorous discipline. This was :m excellent nucleus for an army, but the rebellion, as I have before remarked, hail brought on its dissolution. The greater part of the officers—more than three hundred—passed over to the South. The soldiers—till Irish or German—lost in the solitudes of Texas, were dispersed. From two to three thousand men, at most, returned from California or Utah to take partin the war. This was chiefly important as bringing back a certain number of officers who might preside over the organization—such as it was-—of the army of volunteers about to be raised. In Europe, where we have learned to recognize the comparative value of the regular soldier, and of this ci tly and capricious amateur soldier, who is called a volunteer. the lo.-s of the aid of the regular army, small as it was, would have brought us to despair, and we should have set to umk to increase the army by enlarging its organization and ucorpomting recruits. An army of sixty thousand regulars
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