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What kind of soldier do we honor?
"The Typical Confederate
Soldier"
By G. H. Baskette, Nashville, TN
(Published in 1893 Confederate Veteran magazine)
Nearly thirty-three years have passed since the alarm of
war called from their peaceful pursuits the citizens who were to
make name and fame as Confederate soldiers. The stirring scenes
and the dreadful carnage of a memorable conflict have been
removed by the lapse of time into the hazy past, and a new
generation, however ready it may be to honor those who fought the
battles of the South, is likely to form its idea of their
appearance from the conventional military type. The Confederate
soldier was not an ordinary soldier, either in appearance or
character. With your permission I will undertake to draw a
portrait of him as he really appeared in the hard service of
privation and danger.
A face browned by exposure and heavily bearded or for some weeks
unshaven, begrimed with dust and sweat, and marked here and there
with the darker stains of powder-a face whose stolid and even
melancholy composure is easily broken into ripples of good humor
or quickly flushed in the fervor and abandon of the charge; a
frame tough and sinewy, and trained by hardship to surprising
powers of endurance; a form, the shapeliness of which is hidden
by its encumberments, suggesting in its careless and unaffected
pose a languorous indisposition to exertion, yet a latent;
lion-like strength and a terrible energy of action when aroused.
Around the upper part of the face is a fringe of unkempt hair,
and above this is an old wool hat, worn and weather-beaten, the
flaccid brim of which falls limp upon the shoulders behind, and
is filded back in front against the elongated and crumpled crown.
Over a soiled shirt, which is unbuttoned and buttonless at the
collar, is a ragged gray jacket that does not reach to the hips,
with sleeves some inches too short. Below this trousers of a
nondescript color, without form and almost void, are held in
place by a leather belt, to which is attached the cartridge box
that rests behind the right hip, aud the bayonet scabbard which
dangles on the left.
Just above the ankles each trouser leg is tied closely to the
limb-a la Zouave-and beneath reaches of dirty socks disappear a
pair of badly used and curiously, contorted shoes. Between the
jacket and the waistband of the trousers, or the supporting belt,
there appears a puffy display of cotton shirt which works out
further with every hitch made by Johnny in his effort to keep his
pantaloons in place. Across his body from his left shoulder there
is a roll of threadbare blanket, the ends tied together resting
on or falling below the right hip. This blanket is Jobnny's bed.
Whenever he arises he takes up his bed and walks. Within this
roll is a shirt, his only extra article or clothing. In action
the blanket roll is thrown further back and the cartridge box is
drawn forward, frequently in front of the body. From the right
shoulder, across the body, pass two straps, one cloth the other
leather, making a cross with blanket roll on breast and back.
These straps support respectively a greasy cloth haver sack and a
flannel-covered canteen, captured from the yankees. Attached to
the haversack strap is a tin cup, while in addition to some other
odds and ends of camp trumpery, there hangs over his back a
frying pan, an invaluable utensil with which the soldier would be
loth to part.
With his trusty gun in hand-an Enfield rifle, also captured from
the enemy and suhstituted for the old flint-lock musket or the
shot-gun with which he was originally armed-Johnny Reb, thus
imperfectly sketched, stands In his shreds and patches a
marvelous ensemble- picturesque, grotesque, unique--- the model
citizen soldier, the military hero of the nineteenth century.
There is none of the tinsel or the trappings of the professional
about him. From anesthetic in military point of view he must
appear a sorry looking soldier. But Johnny is not one of your
dress parade soldiers. He doesn't care a copper whether anybody
likes his looks or not. He is the most independent soldier that
ever belonged to an organized army. He has respect for authority,
and he cheerfully submits to discipline, because he sees the
necessity of organization to effect the best results, but he
maintains his individual autonomy, as it were and never
surrenders his sense of personal pride and responsibility. He is
thoroughly tractable if properly officered, and is always ready
to obey necessary orders, but he is quick to resent any official
incivility, and is a high private who feels, and is, every inch
as good as a General.
He may appear ludicrous enough on a display occasion of the
holiday pomp and splendor of war, but place him where duty calls,
in the imminent deadly breach or the perilous charge, and none in
all the armies of the earth can claim a higher rank or prouder
record. He may be outre and ill-fashioned in dress, but he has
sublimated his poverty and rags. The worn and faded gray jacket,
glorified hy valor and stained with the life blood of its wearer,
becomes, in its immortality of association, a more splendid
vestment than mail of medieval knight or the rarest robe of
royalty. That old, weather-heaten slouched hat, seen as the ages
will see it, with its halo of fire, through the smoke of battle,
is a kinglier covering than a crown.Half clad, half armed, often
half fed, without money and without price, the Confederate
soldier fought against the resources of the world. When at last
his flag was furled and his arms were grounded in defeat, the
cause for which he had strnggled was lost, but he had won the
fadeless victory of soldiership.