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

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[173] troops, which at a later period were to impart lustre to the numbers which they wore, were then only fit for parade-duty and utterly inexperienced in military matters. French wit, ever facetious, had seized the ludicrous side of these useless displays of epaulets and drums, and the officers of the Fifty-fifth New York, who in the hour of danger freely shed French blood in the cause of their adopted country, under the command of a brave and able chief, M. de Trobri and, had dubbed themselves at one of the regimental banquets which always followed such demonstrations, Gardes Lafourchettes, or Knife and Fork Guards. Charmed by a showy procession, the multitude mechanically rehearsed the official statistics, according to which the strength of the national troops might reach the total of three million and seventy thousand men. If some now and then called to mind the behavior of the militia of 1776 and 1812, this idea was as quickly dismissed under the conviction that the troops then marching past would never have to face the dangers of the field. Those who felt a natural desire for a military vocation were obliged, like Sherman, to seek, as professors in the special schools founded by the Southern States, an opportunity for placing their knowledge to account.

But when the events we have just related had opened the eyes of the least clear-sighted, the formation of an army for the defence of the Constitution was regarded as a national affair. Everybody set to work under the impression that the part of duty was to act, and not to wait for instructions.

The adminstrative system of America leaves a large part to the initiative of localities and individuals, seldom trammelled by governmental restrictions. .The central power has not at its command an army of public functionaries invested, in the eyes of a docile population, with an almost sacred character; it does not possess the thousands of arms which, among us, stretch forth at a given signal to knock simultaneously at every citizen's door, and, if need be, to push him forcibly by the shoulder. A levy being once sanctioned by Congress or proclaimed by the President in virtue of extraordinary powers, the Federal authorities interfere no further in the enlistments, and have only to receive the regiments formed in the several States according to the quota assigned to each. Nor is the administrative machinery