es. The brigades were from three to seven or eight
thousand strong, and all arms of the service were represented in them;
they included regiments of infantry and cavalry and batteries of
artillery. It was in a measure necessary that this organization should
be adopted, from the fact that for some months, each brigade commander
was entrusted with supervision and defense of a large tract of
territory, and it was impossible to dispense with either of the three
arms. Divisions were not organized until late in the fall of 1861--the
strength of the brigades was then, to some extent, equalized by the
reduction of the larger ones; Army Corps were of still later creation.

A significant custom prevailed of denoting the companies of the first
regiments which were raised, not by letter, but by some company
denomination which they had borne in the militia organization, or had
assumed as soon as mustered as an indispensable _nom-de-guerre_. They
seemed to vie with each other in inventing titles of thrilling interest:
"The Yellow Jackets," "The Dead Shots," "The Earthquakes," "The
Chickasaha Desperadoes," "The Hell-roarers," are a few which made the
newspapers of that day, in recording their movements, read like the
pages of popular romance. So fondly did the professors of these
appellations cling to them, that it was found almost as difficult to
compel their exchange for the proper designations, as to effect far more
harassing and laborious reforms. The spirit which prompted these
particular organizations to adopt this method of distinguishing and
identifying themselves, remained to the last characteristic of the
Southern troops. Regiments, especially in the cavalry service, were
quite as often styled by the names of their commanders, as by the
numbers which they properly bore, and, if the commanders were popular,
the former method was always the most agreeable.

In the latter part of the war, after every effort had been made to do
away with this feeling, it was at length adjudged expedient to enjoin
such a designation of brigades, by the names of their commanders, by
order from the War Department. This peculiar affectation was but one
form in which the temper of the Southern people was manifested--a temper
which revolted against complete loss of individuality, and was prone to
self-assertion. It is a temper which ought to be characteristic of a
free and high spirited people, which, while for prudential reasons it
will consent to s