Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[19] receive, on the contrary, a considerable salary. Consequently, the Federal government is somewhat entitled to their loyalty, and had the right to prefer charges of ingratitude against those who, in 1861, placed at the service of its enemies the knowledge they had thus acquired under the auspices of the Federal flag.

Thanks to their long and serious studies, which kept them aloof from their fellow-citizens, always in a hurry to act and to enjoy—thanks to the bonds of fellowship which the associations of youth implant in the heart of man, and especially to those attacks of which both the academy and the army had been the subject—the West Pointers very soon formed an almost aristocratic and exclusive body, all the members of which mutually sustained each other. At the period of which we are speaking, those who remained under the flag were animated by a genuine passion for the profession of arms; for such a feeling alone could have induced men of capacity and energy to lead a rugged and unremunerating life, without even finding the reward of their labors in public sympathy. Those who, tired out by the slowness of promotion, and attracted by more brilliant prospects, quitted the service after a few years (and they were numerous, especially among the young men of the North), did not forget their early education on that account; it was, therefore, among these that the Federal cause recruited its most brilliant defenders. These changes in the pursuits of life did not break the bonds which united all West Pointers together. If this coterie—for it was one—could, with all its defects and partialities, maintain itself and cause itself to be respected in the midst of a society so fluctuating, it is because it was governed by the noblest sentiments of honor and military duty. Preserving the most valuable traditions by the side of successive administrations essentially changeable in their character, it was found ready, notwithstanding many desertions, to organize the scattered forces of the nation on the day when the Southern leaders gave the signal of civil war.

That great task accomplished, the coterie disappeared, even in the midst of the triumph to which it had so powerfully contributed. After such a struggle, it will not be asked of the general who has commanded in twenty battles whether he is or is not a