soldier had
neglected his own interests and rights, until his accumulated wrongs and
indignities forced him to one grand, prolonged effort to free himself
from the pain of them. He dared not refuse to hear the call to arms, so
plain was the duty and so urgent the call. His brethren and friends were
answering the bugle-call and the roll of the drum. To stay was dishonor
and shame!

He would not obey the dictates of tyranny. To disobey was death. He
disobeyed and fought for his life. The romance of war charmed him, and
he hurried from the embrace of his mother to the embrace of death. His
playmates, his friends, and his associates were gone; he was lonesome,
and he sought a reunion "in camp." He would not receive as gospel the
dogmas of fanatics, and so he became a "rebel." Being a rebel, he must
be punished. Being punished, he resisted. Resisting, he died.

The Confederate soldier opposed immense odds. In the "seven days
battles" around Richmond, 80,000 drove to the James River 115,000 of the
enemy. At Fredericksburg, in 1862, 78,000 of them routed 110,000
Federal troops. At Chancellorsville, in 1863, 57,000 under Lee and
Jackson whipped, and but for the death of Jackson would have
annihilated, an army of 132,000 men,--more than double their own number.
At Gettysburg, 62,000 of them assailed the heights manned by 112,000. At
the Wilderness, in 1864, 63,000 met and successfully resisted 141,000 of
the enemy. At Appomattox, in April, 1865, 8,000 of them surrendered to
the host commanded by Grant. The United States government, at the end of
the war, mustered out of service 1,000,000 of men, and had in the field,
from first to last, 2,600,000. If the Confederate soldier had then had
only this disparity of numbers to contend with, he would have driven
every invader from the soil of Virginia.

But the Confederate soldier fought, in addition to these odds, the
facilities for the transportation and concentration of troops and
supplies afforded by the network of railways in the country north of
him, all of which were subject to the control of the government, and
backed by a treasury which was turning out money by the ton, one dollar
of which was equal to sixty Confederate dollars.

It should be remembered also that, while the South was restricted to its
own territory for supplies, and its own people for men, the North drew
on the world for material, and on every nation of the earth for men.

The arms and ammunition of the F