From the Richmond Whig, 7/2/1861
FROM CAMP LEE. - We subjoin the last epistle which we are
to receive from our lofty correspondent of the Richmond Zouaves at Camp Lee,
near this city. His future letters will be written from a cooler climate:
CAMP LEE, June 30, 1861
SIR: Of all the places ever did
spend two weeks at, Camp Lee, I am sure, produced the fewest agreeable
impressions; and this is, I think, an expression of the sense of the company.
Now don’t think by this remark that we are tired of service. We are only
impatient of garrison life. We are possessed with the feeling of the Numidian
lion when restrained from the arena, or the mountain tiger when waiting for the
nearer approach of his victim. However, we won’t quarrel as we so soon leave
the unpleasant place.
Yesterday I was making out our muster roll, and was struck
with the various pursuits which our men had left to follow the drum. When I had
finished I could hardly understand that the jargon of the Zouaves was technical
language instead of slang phraseology. Theologists, lawyers, M. D.’s, artists,
actors, privateersmen, clerks, laborers, and artisans all find a place side by
side in the ranks. But this is a digression which Corporal Trim would object to.
The remarkable muster-roll of which I spoke was being prepared for presentation
to-day at our monthly muster. This was the prime preliminary to our departure. A
nine o’clock we were turned out for general inspection, and (as we thought)
for pay. The Zouaves appeared in full appointment. Their arms were the
Springfield muskets with the spring bayonets attached. Soon after the regiment
had deployed into column, a gentle, refreshing rain began to baptize our GOOD
CLOTHES. The regiment seemed lugubrious; but the “Zou Zaus,” equal to any
emergency, hastily unslung the Reith knapsack, restrapped the interior bundle to
the shoulder, donned the oil cloth, and prevented an exterior defiant to Iris,
the goddess of cloud and shower. The Lieutenant Colonel (James Hubbard, Esq.)
making his appearance upon the scene, the whole regiment came to attention.
Contieuers omries intentique ora tenebant. (You see I haven’t forgotten all my
ductyls and spondees yet.) Fully expecting to hear of our pay, we stood eager to
devour every word of our Pater Ćneas; but the slightest allusion to pay was not
made. Inspection, however was hinted at, and after an hour more in the rain, we
were ordered to our quarters to avoid the damp weather. This is our last muster
previous to departure. To-morrow at four o’clock we take up the line of march
for Phillips. “Westward the star of empire takes its way” - prophecy made
with special reference to the Zouaves. Now, you must not accuse us of a want of
modesty, for we say this in all humility, we do intend to make our company the
star of Richmond, and if the star of the Capital of the Southern Confederacy
isn’t the star of the empire, then there is no logic in Whately and Blair. We
are all sanguine as to the result of the expedition in which we are engaged -
Under the tutelage of General Garnett we are confident of success. Like Jacob at
Bethel, “God answered us in the day of our distress, and was with us in the
way in which we went.” Like the true church at Alexandria, our loyal friends
struck a vital blow at the head of falsehood and error. And it now remains to
see what will be the fate of “the thirty and two thousand at Manassas,” and
whether, as St. Paul says, there will be distinction to hose at Phillips
“whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, and who mind earthly
things.”
Truly,
LE ZOUAVE
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