"* (* Memoirs, etc. page 619. Letter dated March 21, 1863.)
And here, with his usual perspicacity, he goes straight to the root
of the evil. When the men in the ranks understand all that discipline
involves, safety, health, efficiency, victory, it is easily
maintained; and it is because experience and tradition have taught
them this that veteran armies are so amenable to control. "Soldiers,"
says Sir Charles Napier, "must obey in all things. They may and do
laugh at foolish orders, but they nevertheless obey, not because they
are blindly obedient, but because they know that to disobey is to
break the backbone of their profession."
Such knowledge, however, is long in coming, even to the regular, and
it may be questioned whether it ever really came home to the
Confederates.
In fact, the Southern soldier, ignorant, at the outset, of what may
be accomplished by discipline, never quite got rid of the belief that
the enthusiasm of the individual, his goodwill and his native
courage, was a more than sufficient substitute. "The spirit which
animates our soldiers," wrote Lee, "and the natural courage with
which they are so liberally endowed, have led to a reliance upon
those good qualities, to the neglect of measures which would increase
their efficiency and contribute to their safety.
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