t; but it must be through a course
of study similar to that there pursued. No natural ability can supply
the want of the scientific training in the military, more than in any
other profession. Military science is only the result of all the
experience of the past, embodied in the most comprehensive and practical
form. Napoleon was a profound student of military history. In his
Memoirs he observes: 'Alexander made 8 campaigns, Hannibal 17 (of which
1 was in Spain, 15 in Italy, and 1 in Africa), Caesar made 15 (of which 8
were against the Gauls, and 5 against the legions of Pompey), Gustavus
Adolphus 5, Turenne 18, the Prince Eugene of Savoy 18, and Frederic 11
(in Bohemia, Silesia, and upon the Elbe.) The history of these 87
campaigns, made with care, would be a complete treatise on the art of
war. The principles one should follow, in both offensive and defensive
war, flow from them as a source.'

To one familiar with the gradual progress in the organization of our
armies, it is interesting to recur to the time when the first levies of
volunteers were raised. Regiments were hurried into Washington half
accoutred and indifferently armed. Officers and men were for the most
part equally ignorant of the details, a knowledge of which enables a
soldier to take care of himself in all circumstances. Staff officers
knew nothing of the various departments and the methods of obtaining
supplies. The Government had not been able to provide barrack
accommodations for the immense irruption of 'Northern barbarians,' and
the men were stowed like sheep in any unoccupied buildings that could be
obtained. These were generally storehouses, without any cooking
arrangements, so that when provisions were procured, no one knew what to
do with them. Hundreds of men, who previously scarcely knew but that
beef-steaks and potatoes grew already cooked and seasoned, could be seen
every day sitting disconsolately on the curbstones cooking their pork on
ramrods over little fires made with twigs gathered from the trees. Those
who happened to be the lucky possessors of a few spare dimes, straggled
off to restaurants. Washington, in those days, was only a great
country-town, and not the immense city which the war has made it. The
vague and laughable attempts of officers to assume military dignity and
enforce discipline, with the careless insubordination of the men,
furnished many amusing scenes. It was not easy for officer and man, who
had gone to the same