The Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No. V, May, 1863 | Page 6

country shall be one, and it shall
be free in all its broad boundaries, from Maine to the gulf, and from
ocean to ocean.

'In any event, may we be able to act a worthy part in the trying scenes
through which we are passing; and should the star of our destiny sink to
rise no more, may we feel for ourselves and may history preserve our
record clear before heaven and earth, and hand down the testimony to
our children, that we have done all, perilled and endured all, to
perpetuate the priceless heritage of Liberty and Union, unimpaired to
our posterity.'
And in this fervid utterance of our warm-hearted Governor, the free
choice of a free people, let us consider Illinois as expressing her honest
sentiments.

A WINTER IN CAMP.
I was painfully infusing my own 'small Latin and less Greek' into the
young Shakspeares of a Western college, when the appointment of a
friend to the command of the ----th Iowa regiment opened to me a place
upon his staff. Three days afterward, in one of the rough board-shanties
of Camp McClellan, I was making preparations for my first dress
parade. The less said of the dress of that parade, the better. There was
no lack of comfortable clothing, but every man had evidently worn the
suit he was most willing to throw away when his Uncle Samuel
presented him with a new one; and a regiment of such suits drawn up in
line, made but a sorry figure in comparison with the smartly uniformed
----th, which had just left the ground. Their colonel, in the first glory of
his sword and shoulder straps, was replaced by a very rough-looking
individual, with a shabby slouched hat pushed far back on his head, and
a rusty overcoat, open just far enough to show the place where a cravat
might have been. It was very plain, as he stood there with his arms
folded, thin lips compressed, and gray eyes hardly visible under their
shaggy brows, that whether he looked the colonel or not was the last
thought likely to trouble him. I fancied that he did, in spite of all, and
that he saw a great deal of good stuff in the party-colored rows before
him, which he would know how to use when the right moment came:
subsequent events proved that I was not mistaken. The regiment had no
reason to be ashamed of their rough colonel, even when the two

hundred that were left of them laid down their arms late in the
afternoon of that bloody Sabbath at Shiloh, on the very spot where the
swelling tide of rebels had beaten upon them like a rock all day long.
But these after achievements are no part of my present story. The more
striking passages of this great war for freedom will be well and fully
told. Victories like Donelson, death-struggles like that on the plains of
Shiloh, will take their place in ample proportions on the page of history.
As years roll on they will stand out in strong relief, and be the
mountain tops which receding posterity will still recognize when all the
rest has sunk beneath the horizon. It were well that some record should
also be made of the long and dull days and weeks and months that
intervened between these stirring incidents: at least that enough should
be told of them to remind our children that they existed, and in this as
in all other wars, made up the great bulk of its toils. This indeed seems
the hardest lesson for every one but soldiers to learn. Few but those
who have had actual experience know how small a part fighting plays
in war; how little of the soldier's hardships and privations, how little of
his dangers even are met upon the battle field. Tame as stories of
barrack life must seem when we are thrilling with the great events for
which that life furnishes the substratum, it is worth our while, for the
sake of this lesson, to give them also their page upon the record, to
spread these neutral tints in due proportion upon the broad canvas. It is
partly for this reason that I turn back to sketch the trivial and
monotonous scenes of a winter in barracks. It is well to remind you,
dear young friends, feminine and otherwise, at home, that a great many
days and nights of patient labor go to one brilliant battle. When your
loudest huzzas and your sweetest smiles are showered on the lucky
ones who have achieved great deeds and walked through the red
baptism of fire, remember also how much true courage and fortitude
have been shown in bearing the daily hardships of the camp, without
the excitement of hand-to-hand conflict.