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

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[99] during the war. A few requisitions for negro help made upon the large slaveholders supplied this want, and, by sparing the free men a certain amount of hard work, enabled them to devote more time to their military training. They were not, however, relieved entirely from these labors; the authority of their chiefs succeeded in conquering their repugnance, and in cases of great urgency they constructed with their own hands the works which indicate to this day the progress of their campaigns.

The character of the soldiers and the composition of the Confederate armies had much to do with the manner in which the war was waged by the latter, and the part which the various arms played in it.

The Confederate foot-soldier, easier to manage and more excitable than his adversary, would rush to the charge with savage yells, and, in this way, he frequently carried positions which the latter, with equal courage, could not have captured. But on the other hand, possessing neither his patience nor his tenacity under a murderous fire, he was much less able to defend them. So that, in the course of the war, we shall always find the Southern officers trying to surprise some point or another of the Federal lines with heavy masses. This infantry, which would not have cut a very brilliant figure at a review by the precision of its movements, possessed the art of marching through the densest forests in good order, deployed in such a manner as to avoid trees, and yet without becoming separated. This art rendered those surprises easy of achievement, by enabling a body of infantry to hide within the depths of the forest without being preceded by any line of skirmishers, and to approach the enemy with sufficient rapidity to attack him suddenly in the clearing where he was encamped. The history of the war will show how useful this kind of tactics was to the Confederate generals—how they availed themselves of it to compel the enemy to extend his lines so as to cover all his positions at once; in this manner they frequently obtained advantages upon the point of attack with inferior forces; and if their columns were repulsed, they were quickly withdrawn and led elsewhere to attack some other position. We shall also find, however, that they did not apply these tactics to advantage when they found themselves among the unwooded hills