into song as
they marched to kill their fellow men?

To find the answer we must go back to the dawn of human history and see
man, as yet a savage beast, with but one impulse the dominant force in
life, the archaic impulse to slay.

All wars are not begun in this elemental fashion. There are wars of
defense forced on innocent nations by brutal aggressors. But the joy
that thrills the soul of the crowd on the declaration of war is always
the simple thing. It is the roar of the lion as he springs on his prey.

In this Song to the Soul of John Brown there was no thought of freeing
a slave. War was not declared on that ground. The President who called
them had no such purpose. The men who marched had no such idea. They
sang "Glory, Glory Hallelujah! Glory, Glory Hallelujah!" because they
saw Red.

The restraints of Law, Religion and Tradition had been lifted. The
primitive beast that had been held in check by civilization, rose with
a shout and leaped to its ancient task. The homicidal wish--fancy
with which the human mind had toyed in times of peace in dreams and
reveries--was now a living reality.

Not one in a thousand knew what the war was about. And this one in a
thousand who thought he knew was mistaken. It had been made legal to
kill. They were marching to kill. They shouted. They sang.

They were marching to the most utterly senseless and unnecessary
struggle in the history of our race. The North in the hours of sanity
which preceded the outburst did not wish war. The South in her sane
moments never believed it possible. Yet the hell-lit tragedy of brothers
marching to slay their brothers had come. Nothing could dampen the
enthusiasm of this first joyous mob.

On the night of the twentieth of July the Army of the North was encamped
about seven miles from Beaureguard's lines at Bull Run. The volunteers
were singing, shouting, girding their loins for the fray. They had heard
the firing on the first skirmish line. Fifteen or twenty men had been
killed it was reported.

The Red Thought leaped!

At two o'clock before day on Sunday morning, the order came to advance
against the foe. The deep thrill of the elemental man swept the crowd.
They had come loaded down with baggage. They hurled it aside and got
their guns.

What many of them were afraid of was that the whole rebel army would
escape before they could get into the thick of it. Many had brought
handcuffs and ropes along with which to manacle their prison