Denis,"--and the
woes of "Jean Valjean," the old galley-slave, found an echo in the
hearts of these brave soldiers, immured in the trenches and fettered by
duty to their muskets or their cannon.
Singular fortune of a writer! Happy M. Hugo! Your fancies crossed the
ocean, and, transmitted into a new tongue, whiled away the dreary hours
of the old soldiers of Lee, at Petersburg! Thus, that history of "The
Wretched," was the pabulum of the South in 1864; and as the French
title had been retained on the backs of the pamphlets, the soldiers,
little familiar with the Gallic pronunciation, called the book "Lees
Miserables!" Then another step was taken. It was no longer the book,
but themselves whom they referred to by that name. The old veterans of
the army thenceforth laughed at their miseries, and dubbed themselves
grimly "_Lee's_ Miserables!"[1]
[Footnote 1: It is unnecessary to say that this is not a jest or fancy
on the part of Colonel Surrey. It is a statement of fact.--ED.]
[Illustration: THE TRENCHES.]
The sobriquet was gloomy, and there was something tragic in the
employment of it; but it was applicable. Like most popular terms, it
expressed the exact thought in the mind of every one--coined the
situation into a phrase. Truly, they were "The Wretched,"--the
soldiers of the army of Northern Virginia, in the fall and winter of
1864.
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