A few words in conclusion are ventured. From a military point of view it would appear that one of the lessons of the war, if not the most important one, teaches that we should not over-estimate our own valor, strength and resources, or under-estimate those of the enemy. Accordingly, when it becomes necessary to go to war, making full allowance for any possible inadequacy of estimate in these regards, we should strike with ample and overwhelming force. The force should be double or triple that which would seem to be enough, rather than of doubtful sufficiency. In fact, where there is uncertainty as to the possible magnitude of a war, it is best to be on the certain side, and to strike the first blow with utmost strength, rather than feebly—with the big end of the bludgeon of war, rather than with the little end; and not do as was done by the government in the late war, begin it with an inadequate force. The example of the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian War teaches a lesson in warfare. They struck in the beginning with overwhelming force, and made short work of the war.

Perhaps the most striking fact in connection with the conduct of our late war was the lack of appreciation of this guiding principle of precaution, or the disregard of it on each side of the contending powers. There are many examples illustrating this fact. The failure of the government to fully measure the task of the suppression of the Rebellion prolonged the war through four years, seriously jeopardized the result, and caused the sacrifice of a million of men, and the expenditure of many millions of money to finally suppress it, which otherwise might have been accomplished with one-tenth of the cost of men and money. Twenty thousand more men on the Union side at Bull Run, for instance, which additional number could easily have been had, would probably have gained the day there, and put an end to the war.

On the other hand, if the Rebels had not under-estimated the valor of their foes, thinking that one of them could whip five Yankees, and had they made their supreme effort at an earlier stage of the war instead of at the last of it, when they were "robbing the cradle and the grave" to recruit their armies—if for instance they had had at Antietam 110,000 men instead of 60,000 or 70,000, over which McClellan failed to gain a decisive victory, which larger number they could have had as easily as they could bring on the field of Gettysburg 100,000 men almost a year later, after meeting heavy losses at Chancellorsville and on other fields, it is no violent presumption to say that they might have won the day and gained their independence.

However, regarding the war from a moral and political standpoint, it sometimes seems as if the war did not last long enough. It took years of the terrible scourge of war, it would appear, to convince the people of the seceded states, and to wring from them the acknowledgement that they were better off without slavery than with it. And perhaps if the war had lasted a little longer, and the Rebels had felt still further the scourge of war, those who now have so much respectful regard for the flag of treason, and the Lost Cause and their defenders, might have finally become convinced that one flag and one cause and its defenders are enough to honor; and that there should be no place in the patriotic regard and affection of the people in this free land of ours for the Rebel flag, the Lost Cause or their defenders. Big as this country is it ought to be too little to give room for any display of honor to the Rebel flag, the Lost Cause, or their champions, dead or alive. Therefore, no soldier who would be faithful to his country and the cause for which he fought should join in any ceremony of decorating Rebel graves, of holding reunions with Rebels, or of putting up monuments to them.

A few years since Gen. Sherman, at a Soldiers' reunion, said that it was commendable to decorate Union soldiers' graves, to encourage reunions and to put up soldiers' monuments, as to do these things was to create and nurture a patriotic sentiment. Granting the truth of this, it follows then as the night follows the day that to take part in these or similar ceremonies, when done in honor of or with Rebels distinctively as such, in contradistinction to being Union soldiers or citizens, is to engender and to nurture disloyalty. No Union soldier should do it. The reason given by those of them who do so, is that they wish to remove the animosities of the war, and to cultivate a fraternal feeling between the sections. The motive is good, but is it not paying too dearly for kindly feeling and fraternal regard when they are obtained at the cost of the inculcation of disloyalty?

The people of the late seceded States claim to be now as loyal as those of the rest of the Union; but while there is a growing improvement in respect to the loyalty of the former, there is too much of the old disloyal spirit among them yet. Many instances might be given; but only that of the utterance of the following sentiment by Gen. Early at the unveiling of the monument erected in 1891 to the memory of "Stonewall" Jackson, and the manner in which it was received, is given: "If I am ever known to repudiate the cause for which Lee fought and Jackson died," said Early, "may the lightning of heaven blast me, and the scorn of all brave men and good women be my portion." According to the Charlottesville, (Va.) Chronicle, from which the above quotation is taken, this sentiment was cheered by twenty thousand throats. The fair inference is that Gen. Early and those cheering his sentiment are as much Rebels as they ever were.

The same newspaper above named says that there were ten thousand Union soldiers present at the unveiling of this monument. While the loyal sentiment of the land thus suffers the inculcation of treason, and itself to be insulted by demonstrations like that of the unveiling of the monument referred to, and others of similar character in honor of late Rebels or the cause for which they fought, by those who lately bore arms against the government—there is no obligation of good feeling or of fraternity that demands of Union soldiers the countenancing and aiding of these traitor-breeding demonstrations, by their presence at them. It is to be hoped that the country is to be spared the humiliating spectacle of many more such disgusting manifestations of falsity on the part of the Union soldiers to the cause for which they fought, as that it had to witness at the unveiling of the monument erected to the memory of "Stonewall" Jackson at Lexington, Va.