But each matched his good health, his good breeding, and knowledge against a broken piece of shell or steel bullet, and the shell or bullet won.

They always will win.
Stephen Crane called a wound "the red badge of courage." It is all of that.

And the man who wears that badge has all my admiration.

But I cannot help feeling also the waste of it.

I would have a standing army for the same excellent reason that I insure my house; but, except in self-defence, no war.