Military Order of the Loyal Legion
OF THE
United States.
COMMANDERY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
WAR PAPER
93
The Hoe Cake of Appomattox.
BY
Companion Brevet Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers.
READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF MAY 7, 1913.
PUBLICATION DIRECTED BY THE LITERARY COMMITTEE UNDER AUTHORITY
OF ORDER OF THE COMMANDERY.
In considering the unity of that great brotherhood of men whocomposed the armies of the United States in the war for sustainingthe government, and perpetuating the form of it made by thefounders, we have been giving attention to every phase of themany common conditions which formed our common experienceand bound us so firmly together, excepting those of a social andphysical character. The great and firm basis of this lifelongcomradeship is, of course, the common devotion and the commonsacrifice in the service of the country on the existence of which,latent in peace but manifest in war, the very existence of everygovernment is founded. This common devotion to the serviceof humanity is in the political and social world what the attractionof cohesion and the attraction of gravitation are in the physicalworld. We shared alike in that sacrifice and devotion andwere fortunate in that we were born and reached an age whenthat struggle came on which allowed us to have a share in thatgreat action, an epoch in history. We do not envy those bornsince, although we shall die sooner.
But I think you may properly also consider subordinate conditionsof a physical character as not unworthy of mention andnot without effect in the comradeship which binds us together.We wore common uniform, and in those four years the fashionsdid not change. Each fellow looked like every other fellow.The resemblance went even so far as that quality of personalappearance which depends upon the use of soap and water, notalways abundant in those years. We lived for the greater partin the same home, the spacious, well ventilated, scantily furnishedand unroofed out-of-doors. We all had the same kind[4]of bringing up an