All our pride and valor had gone, and we were sick of war and the Southern Confederacy.
A law was made by the Confederate States Congress about this time allowing every person who owned twenty negroes to go home.

It gave us the blues; we wanted twenty negroes.

Negro property suddenly became very valuable, and there was raised the howl of "rich man's war, poor man's fight." The glory of the war, the glory of the South, the glory and the pride of our volunteers had no charms for the conscript.
We were directed to re-elect our officers, and the country was surprised to see the sample of a conscript's choice.

The conscript had no choice.
He was callous, and indifferent whether he had a captain or not.

Those who were at first officers had resigned and gone home, because they were officers.