RECRUITING IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.* THE tremendous war which
is now raging has stirred up many recollections of the Civil War in the United States, and has thus been the means of adding a most interesting volume to the extensive library of works on that subject. Mrs. Brainard, who has just published a detailed account of the experiences of a single regiment in the Civil War, says:— " The groups of girls sewing and knitting for the war refugees across the water remind me of my girlhood days. The church in a little country village of Central New York, where I lived, formed a ' Ladies' Aid Society to work for the soldiers. All the old linen., that had been saved for years by our mothers was brought out, and the girls scraped the lint from it for use in the hospitals. We made quilts, knit mittens, and packed boxes that were distributed through the Christian Commission. That was fifty years ago, but it is still fresh in memory."
The 146th Regiment of New York State Volunteers, of which Mrs. Brainard has compiled the adventurous and creditable history, was also known as the 5th Oneida, Halleek's Infantry, and—after its dashing valour had been proved on several hard-fought fields—Garrard's Tigers. It was raised in the summer of 1862 in response to Lincoln's third call for volunteers. New York State was divided into districts, to each of which was assigned the task of raising its quota of men. A bounty of 200 dollars was offered to every volunteer ; but this was the least of the incentives to recruiting :— " A wave of patriotic enthusiasm swept over the county, which bade fair to complete the enrolment within an unusually short period of time. Those were indeed stirring days. Each town vied with its neighbour, each ward with the adjacent ward, and every man and woman constituted himself and. herself a com- mittee of one to secure volunteers for this, the latest Oneida regiment. Bonfires, torchlight processions, brass bands, and the like usually associated with political campaigns were every- where in evidence. War meetings were held in churches, schoolhouses, and other public buildings in towns and at the country cross-roads. Soldiers on leave of absence from the front encouraged the work by their appearance at these meetings in full regimental regalia, or travelled through the country dis- tricts in wagons, accompanied by a band and a speaker whose persuasive powers were calculated to fire the most dimly smoulder- ing spark of patriotism in the heart of man or boy. . . . It was • Campaigns of the One hundred and Forty.akth Regiment. Compiled by Nary Genevis Green Brainard. London: Putnam's Sons. [12e. ca. not.j during this period of unparalleled enthusiasm and patriotic zeal, accompanied by the sound of martial music and the sight of thousands of gay banners streaming from every house and public building, that the recruiting of the 5th Oneida was carried on. The number of enrolments. increased daily. Recruits were gathered from every walk of life. The pulpit and college con- tributed their share, and likewise the workshop, the loom, and the harvest-field. The mon and boys of Oneida County cheerfully volunteered their services and, if need be, their lives, for the work of preserving the unity of the nation."
It would be interesting to know what would have been thought in the United States, at that time of national stress and high national effort, if any mother had said that she " didn't raise her boy to be a soldier " We have no space to deal with the stirring narrative of the exploits of the 146th at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and the other famous battles in which it played a distinguished part. But Mrs. Brainard's book is a worthy memorial of a fine regiment.
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