Courage of the enemy.
--We fully agree with a Southern contemporary that it is unjust and impolitic to depreciate the courage of the enemy, representing them as a race of cowards, ready to disperse upon the reading of the riot act. By such a representation we induce our own brave soldiers to relax their vigilance, and when victorious, as they almost always are, the laurels won from a pusillanimous foe can neither be very brilliant nor enduring.
The great mass of all races of men are endowed with physical courage, and the
Yankees form no exception.
It is equally true that they have achieved no military reverses in the present war, for they are fighting in a bad cause, and against a people who have not only more military spirit and aptitude, but who are defending their homes and all that makes life worth having.
Nor, were the enemy uniformly triumphant, instead of uniformly defeated, would the result have any considerable bearing on the question whether the
Yankees are or are not a brave people.
For it is not the
Yankees who compose the main body of the rank and file of the
Federal army, but the Germans and Irish, who have always made splendid soldiers, and whose courage and endurance are proverbial.
Even if the
Yankees are as great poltroons as many suppose, they have got men to fight for them who have always been regarded as among the best fighting materials in
Europe, and hence we ought not to despise the enemy, nor dim the laurels of our own heroic defenders by representing their victories as easily achieved.
It is no common glory, in our opinion, to conquer such men as fought at
Springfield,
Columbus,
Manassas,
Leesburg, and other great battles of this war. We should leave it to
Russell, and such caricaturists of both nations, in
America, to report this as a mere
Chinese civil war — a fight of
Shanghai roosters, or demented turkey gobblers.
For our own part, we regard the achievements of our Southern troops in this contest as among the most remarkable in the annals of war. They have defeated, in almost every battle, regular troops and well disciplined volunteers, made up in great part of the best fighting men of
Europe and the
North, and with the odds against us, in almost every battle, of three or four to one.--This is glory enough for any people.
It certainly cannot be increased by representing their enemies as cowards.
