9781787807341 by Anonymous

Author:Anonymous [Anonymous]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

They went away quietly—as quietly, it seemed, as their thoughtful-looking Colonel had ridden by my window—for the romantic glamour that in former wars made the departure of our troops a heroic pageantry was nowhere to be found.

Almost sixty years had passed since our regiment of Zouaves, on the way to war, marched down to the State House and knelt there, taking a solemn oath “to avenge Buena Vista” and a great soprano sang “The Star Spangled Banner” while their colours were presented to them, and the populace wept and cheered. In 1917 and 1918, when war was not only “at the front” but danger reached under the sea for the soldier, departure was made silently and destinations were secret. Then training camps and schools and the draft took the younger men away, as quietly, one by one and yet in millions, while “war work” of one kind or another occupied other millions. Our “war work” at home was necessary; many fine lives were exhausted by it and given for it, and the work was done. We accomplished prodigies, but, being inexperienced and anxious and excited, we wasted prodigious energy and wealth. Also, we were officious; we got in one another’s way and ordered everybody about ridiculously; we were so jumpy with strained nerves that now the memory of those two years is like the memory of a nightmare. For that time was indeed a nightmare, haunted every hour by the fear of what messages might reach us from a battlefield or from a hospital or from the sea.

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