had espoused. At Wilmington, N.C., we crossed the Cape Fear River on a
little river steamer, the roads not being connected with a bridge.
At Petersburg and Richmond we had to march through portions of those
cities in going from one depot to another, union sheds, not being in
vogue at that time, and on our entry into these cities the population
turned out en masse to welcome and extend to us their greeting. Every
private house stood open to the soldiers and the greatest good will
was everywhere manifested.

Much has been said in after years, since misfortune and ruin overtook
the South, since the sad reverses of the army and the overthrow of
our principles, about leaders plunging the nation into a bloody
and uncalled for war. This, is all the height of folly. No man
or combination of men could have stayed or avoided war. No human
persuasion or earthly power could have stayed the great wave of
revolution that had struck the land; and while, like a storm widening
and gathering strength and fury as it goes, to have attempted it would
have been but to court ruin and destruction. Few men living in
that period of our country's history would have had the boldness or
hardihood to counsel submission or inactivity. Differences there may
have been and were as to methods, but to Secession, none. The voices
of the women of the land were alone enough to have forced the measures
upon the men in some shape or other. Then, as to the leaders being
"shirkers" when the actual contest came, the history of the times
gives contradictions sufficient without examples. Where the duties
of the service called, they willingly obeyed. All could not fill
departments or sit in the councils of the nation, but none shirked
the responsibility the conditions called them to. Where fathers filled
easy places their sons were in the ranks, and many of our leaders of
Secession headed troops in the field. General Bonham, our Brigadier,