http://www.armyofthepacific.com/

We are a motley crew, we of the Army of the Pacific. Farmers, mechanics, merchants, clerks, students, doctors, lawyers, LOUNGERS - tall, medium, short - rich, middle, poor - thin, full, fat - good, bad - indifferent. But what matters occupation, position, wealth, size, or stripe, when our country is at stake? Each and all had somewhere in the heart the germ of patriotism, and could say, with a kindling eye, "My country!" "My native land."

-Adapted from Camp Fires of the 23rd N.Y., by Pound Sterling (William Maxson), 1863.

-There is a warmth that springs up which unites us all as brothers. One common danger and one common impulse brings us very close together in friendship, and truer and more steadfast friends outside of one's own family would indeed be very hard to find.

-An Illinois Officer