Martial music is heard everywhere, day and night, and all
the trappings and paraphernalia of war's decorations are in great demand. The
ladies are sewing everywhere, even in the churches. But the gay uniforms we see
to-day will change their hue before the advent of another year. All history
shows that fighting is not only the most perilous pursuit in the world, but the
hardest and the roughest work one can engage in. And many a young man
bred in luxury, will be killed by exposure in the night air, lying on the damp
ground, before meeting the enemy. But the same thing may be said of the
Northmen. And the arbitrament of war, and war's desolation, is a foregone
conclusion. How much better it would have been if the North had permitted the
South to depart in peace! With political separation, there might still have
remained commercial union. But they would not.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 27
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