UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Larry Lsughlin
 
 WILLIAM T. 
 SHERMAN 
 ATLANTA 
 
 ULYSSES 3. 
 
 GRANT 
 VICKSBURG 
 
 WILLIAM R. 
 SHAFTER 
 SANTIAGO 
 
 LEONARD 
 WOOD 
 
 SAN JUAN 
 
 
 4RY 
 OR 
 
 3RBY CHANCELLORSVILLE FREDE RICKS BU RG 
 
 NELSON A. 
 
 MILES 
 PORTO RICO 
 
 JOSEPH 
 WHEELER 
 
 EL CANEY
 
 INSTRUCTION AROUND CAMP FIRE
 
 N AT I ON A L 
 SERVICE 
 
 MAJOR CHARLES E. KILBOURNE 
 
 Qtneral Staff C^ United Sta '" 
 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 
 
 Volume Three 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF MILITARY 
 TRAINING 
 
 MAJOR FRANK R.^McCOY 
 
 CAVALRY, UNITED STATES ARMY 
 
 _________ . 
 
 qT>e (oilier (lassies
 
 Copyright 1917 
 BY P. F. COLLIB* & SON
 
 wno 
 M /s 
 
 r 
 
 Tie (oilier (lassies 
 
 LITERATURE *" SCIENCE * HISTORY 
 CONTEMPORARY BELLES-LETTRES 
 
 edited by 
 WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON, PH.D. 
 
 Prtfttttr of English, Harvard University 
 
 CJ3 
 
 3 
 
 346647
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION TREND OF MILITARY TRAINING IN 
 
 AMERICA n 
 
 Early Colonists ; Military Adventurers ; 
 How One War Trained the Leaders of the 
 Next; Lethargy after the Civil War; The 
 Renaissance of Military Training. 
 
 PART I THE ENLISTED MAN 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. RULES GOVERNING DISCIPLINE 17 
 
 Kitchener's Mob; Rookies; Effect of the 
 Training; Application to Our Situation; 
 The Oath of Enlistment and What It 
 Means ; Military Authority ; Honors and 
 Courtesies ; Orderlies ; Insignia of Rank ; 
 The True meaning of Military Courtesies ; 
 "Militarism." 
 
 II. CARE OF HEALTH IN GARRISON AND FIELD . . 38 
 General Principles ; Exercises ; Regular 
 Habits ; Preventives of Disease ; Contagious 
 Diseases ; Sanitation and Personal Hygiene ; 
 Care of the Feet ; Intoxicating Beverages ; 
 First- Aid Rules ; Resuscitation of the 
 Apparently Drowned. 
 
 III. THE RIFLE 65 
 
 Importance of Markmanship ; Description 
 of the Service Rifle and Its Development; 
 Rules for Safety ; Care of the Rifle ; Shoot- 
 ing Straight; The Use of the Bayonet. 
 
 5
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 IV. MARCH DISCIPLINE 79 
 
 Principles ; Straggling ; Leaving Ranks ; 
 Water; Rests; Obstacles. 
 
 V. CLOTHING 93 
 
 Clothing Allowance; Importance of 
 Good Footgear. 
 
 VI. GUARD DUTY 99 
 
 The Sentinel ; General Orders ; The Out- 
 post ; Scouting and Patrolling ; What a 
 Soldier on Outpost Duty Must Know. 
 
 VII. PATROLLING 108 
 
 Handy Information for Patrol Leaders ; 
 Combat Patrol Leaders; The Border 
 Patrols; Night Patrolling; Messages 
 from Patrols ; Cavalry Patrols ; Bivouacs ; 
 Map Reading; Individual Instruction for 
 Patrol Duties. 
 
 VIII. CAMP EXPEDIENTS 134 
 
 Making Yourself Comfortable; Camp 
 Fires ; If Lost from Camp or Comrades ; 
 Cooking. 
 
 PART II THE COMMISSIONED 
 OFFICER 
 
 I. THE NEWLY COMMISSIONED OFFICER . . 139 
 The Oath of Service; Uniform and 
 Equipment; Reporting for Duty; Cour- 
 tesies Between Officers; Relations with 
 Enlisted Men. 
 
 6
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 II. ROUTINE DUTIES OF OFFICERS 163 
 
 Administration (Maintenance and Gov- 
 ernment) ; The So-Called "Red Tape"; 
 Company Administration ; Selection and 
 Appointment of Noncommissioned Officers 
 and Special Grades ; Company Records ; 
 Company Property; Growth of the System 
 of Accounting ; Carelessness ; Councils ; 
 Interior Economy of Companies ; Messing 
 and Cooking. 
 
 III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MILITARY POLICY . 177 
 
 Lack of Policy in the Past; The Awaken- 
 ing Under Secretary Root; The Problem 
 of Training; Solution by the General 
 Staff.. 
 
 IV. SUGGESTIONS FOR TACTICAL TRAINING . . . 192 
 
 The Old Method of Instruction ; New De- 
 velopments ; Map and Terrain Problems ; 
 Extracts from Notes by Major H. B. 
 Fisher, U. S. Army. 
 
 V. SPECIAL TRAINING 203 
 
 The Firing Regulations ; Machine Guns ; 
 Bombs and Hand Grenades ; An English- 
 man's Views of Modern Implements ; 
 Training in the Trenches ; Application to 
 the American Soldier ; Marches and Troop 
 Movements. 
 
 VI. A SYSTEM OF INTENSIVE TRAINING . . . 227 
 The Problem on the Border; Organiza- 
 tion for Training the National Guard ; 
 Camp Location and Discipline ; References 
 to Appendixes as Guides to the System. 
 
 7
 
 APP1HDIX 
 
 Contents 
 
 APPENDIXES PAGE 
 
 I. INDIVIDUAL FIELD EQUIPMENT FOR DIS- 
 MOUNTED COMPANY OFFICERS . . . 240 
 II. UNIFORM AND EQUIPMENT OF OFFICERS' 
 
 RESERVE CORPS 242 
 
 III. CORRESPONDENCE MODEL SHOWING LETTER 
 
 MARKS 249 
 
 IV. INDIVIDUAL EQUIPMENT FOR ENLISTED 
 
 MEN OF A COMPANY 255 
 
 V. CONTENTS OF THE COMPANY FIELD DESK 
 
 FOR A PERIOD OF THREE MONTHS . . 259 
 VI. A FORM FOR INSURING A COMPLETE IN- 
 SPECTION OF AN ORGANIZATION . . . 261 
 VII. FORM OF AN ORDER GOVERNING DETAILS 
 
 OF INSTRUCTION 263 
 
 VIII. SUGGESTIONS FOR AN INSPECTION OF 
 EQUIPMENT "A" AND SURPLXJS KITS 
 PRESCRIBED IN EQUIPMENT "B" . . 276 
 IX. FORM OF AN ORDER FOR ATHLETIC COM- 
 PETITION AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS . 284 
 X. INSTRUCTIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF FIRE 
 
 CONTROL 286 
 
 XI. PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL INSTRUCTION 
 IN MACHINE-GUN COMPANIES AND 
 TROOPS AND TESTS FOR THE EFFICIENCY 
 
 OF THE ORGANIZATION 312 
 
 XII. PRACTICE WITH DUMMY HAND GRENADES 319 
 
 XIII. TRENCH DIGGING 321 
 
 XIV. MARCH OF INFANTRY 324 
 
 XV. RULES FOR CONDUCT OF TROOPS TRAVEL- 
 ING BY RAILWAY 327 
 
 XVI. SUGGESTIONS FOR TRAINING IN EQUITA- 
 TION 338 
 
 XVII. NOTES ON THE TRAINING OF TROOPS IN 
 THE GREAT EUROPEAN WAR WITH DE- 
 DUCTIONS DRAWN THEREFROM . . . 352 
 
 (From War Department Documents. ) 
 
 XVIII. TRAINING FOR TRENCH WARFARE . . . 363 
 8
 
 Introduction 
 TREND OF MILITARY TRAINING IN AMERICA 
 
 THE fight between Cain and Abel was the 
 broth of war, the control of land whether by the 
 practical agriculturist or the peripatetic sheep- 
 man, the first and a continuing cause of war, 
 while the chronicles of the Old Testament make 
 the Bible the first of military works and the only 
 one known to most of the early colonists and 
 conquerors of America. There was the comfort- 
 ing and convenient authority for possessing the 
 land and smiting their enemies hip and thigh. 
 
 It must be of interest to follow military habits 
 from the early days of our country, when self- 
 defense was that of the individual and his nearest 
 neighbors, to these days of the Great War, and 
 the training of whole nations on the right lines 
 of progressive systems, in vivid contrast to the 
 old routine circle of the professional soldier in 
 the barrack yard. 
 
 The early colonists had few professional sol- 
 diers among them, and amid the adventures of 
 conquering new homes the few, such as Miles 
 Standish, Captain John Smith, and Sir Henry 
 Vane, were welcomed and made much of, and 
 9
 
 Introduction 
 
 with a soldier's instinct each one tried to or- 
 ganize and train the young Colonials, who, how- 
 ever, soon learned more from their Indian ene- 
 mies than from the cut-and-dried methods of 
 the Old World. The frequent minor wars with 
 the Indians and along the French and Spanish 
 frontiers kept alive a certain amount of military 
 knowledge and training, without, however, any 
 adequate preparation for even the affairs imme- 
 diately ahead. The more extensive campaigns 
 of the French and Indian War, in the West, in 
 Cuba and Canada, trained most of our leaders 
 for the fight for freedom ; and as the Revolu- 
 tionary War dragged on its leaders practically all 
 recognized the vital necessity of organization 
 and training. 
 
 The military adventurers from Europe were 
 welcomed with open arms and their experience 
 made the most of. Even then the Prussian thor- 
 oughness was appreciated, and Von Steuben, 
 De Kalb, and a number of other professional 
 soldiers, evolved the first system of drill and 
 training for the American army. 
 
 The Germans not only gave, but they took 
 away, and one of them, Gneisenau (afterward 
 Bliicher's great chief of staff), one of the 
 founders of the modern German army, served 
 under Washington, and was so impressed by the 
 open-order fighting of the Americans taken in 
 turn by them from the Indians that he evolved 
 10
 
 Introduction 
 
 much more elastic handling of the German sol- 
 diers in the field. The marked individuality of 
 American soldiers has been both their strength 
 and weakness. Not even Von Steuben's de- 
 termined efforts resulted in any mechanical body, 
 but they did infuse a certain amount of training, 
 and the habits of discipline which have since 
 persisted in the regular army. 
 
 His influence and that of his drillmasters was 
 dominant until Napoleonic times, when the in- 
 fluence of the French engineers and other offi- 
 cers who were received into our army began to 
 have a marked effect, principally through West 
 Point, where many became instructors and pro- 
 fessors. For many years, too, the honor men at 
 West Point were sent to the French technical 
 and professional schools, and the highly trained 
 body of officers, notably, Grant, Lee, Sherman, 
 Longstreet, Jackson, McClellan, Meade, Davis, 
 Bragg, and others who made the Mexican War 
 our most successful one from the military and 
 professional standpoint, received their inspira- 
 tion and training from them. Scott and Taylor 
 and a few of the old-timers had been in the War 
 of 1812. 
 
 And so, as each minor campaign trained sol- 
 diers for the succeeding one, the Mexican War 
 developed most of the great leaders in the Civil 
 War. The Civil War, although it trained mil- 
 lions of men, and nearly all young ones, actually 
 II
 
 Introduction 
 
 prepared them for an abler return to civil life 
 and for the continued opening up of our country 
 the building of the transcontinental railways 
 and its great industrial development. The sad 
 lessons of unpreparedness were forgotten and 
 the vital value of training and teamwork on a 
 grand scale ceased to be available at a stroke for 
 military purposes, for what was left of an army 
 was scattered all over the Western frontier for 
 minor operations to protect the pioneers and 
 operate against the Indians. 
 
 The failures and successes of the war, though 
 made available as after all our wars by congres- 
 sional investigations, were neither digested nor 
 interpreted. The country has been full of books 
 about the Civil War, telling about what happened 
 from the writer's point of view. Moot points 
 were fought over; strategy was discussed in 
 Jomini-like formula; but just how the armies 
 were organized, how they were trained, and the 
 wonderfully successful problems of supply that 
 had been solved, were neglected and forgotten. 
 Military history was studied like the dead lan- 
 guages. After the terrible years of strain many 
 soldiers lived on their laurels, and the chief con- 
 cern of the nation was how to reward its heroes. 
 The country was tired of war. The vital ques- 
 tion which had caused it seemed to be settled 
 and no thought of future wars was allowed to 
 disturb. 
 
 12
 
 Introduction 
 
 The rennaissance of intelligent professional 
 study and training in America came when a 
 certain coterie of live officers organized and de- 
 veloped the Leavenworth Schools. West Point 
 still held to its standards of honor and duty and 
 training of mind and character, and has fur- 
 nished most of the officers, who in the Service 
 Schools at Leavenworth, free from traditions 
 and prejudices, have sought for the best wher- 
 ever to be found, whether in Germany or France, 
 to interpret our own military history and to 
 make practical use of it. 
 
 The development in England has been almost 
 parallel, up to the beginning of the Great War. 
 For more than two years she has been in the 
 fire, and it behooves us to take advantage of her 
 experience. She has trained great armies, as 
 we would have to do, developing suddenly and 
 intensely great volunteer forces, with com- 
 paratively few trained officers and noncommis- 
 sioned officers. This book gives our own train- 
 ing methods, with an attempt to take advantage 
 of everything known of the European and Eng- 
 lish experiences. The danger in accepting any 
 radical changes resulting from the present war 
 is from the hasty generalizations of attaches, ob- 
 servers, and correspondents. The scale of this 
 war is so great that every kind of warfare since 
 the world began is in progress. Every weapon, 
 from those of the men of the old Stone Age to 
 13
 
 Introduction 
 
 the modern machine gun, is in use. Classical and 
 historical projectiles and machines are in the 
 war pictures. Everything is made use of. Mu- 
 seums have been emptied of their so-called ob- 
 solete weapons. The picturesque near-armored 
 knight is seen in the newspaper supplements 
 beside the flying man in his gear. Every cam- 
 paign of classic and historic times is being par- 
 alleled on the same ground ; but the fundamental 
 training of the soldiers is the same. To become 
 disciplined, to keep himself fit, to march, and to 
 shoot, are what we first train for.
 
 Part I The Enlisted Man 
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 "KITCHENER'S MOB/' they were called in the 
 early days of August, 1914, and it was thor- 
 oughly descriptive of the array of would-be sol- 
 diers which volunteered to save England. One 
 of them says : 
 
 We herded together like so many sheep. We had 
 lost our individuality, and it was to be months before 
 we regained it in a new aspect, a collective individuality 
 of which we became increasingly proud. My own 
 battalion sergeant, in his address of welcome, sized 
 us up accurately : " 'Lissen 'ere, you men. I've never 
 saw such a raw, round-shouldered batch o' rookies in 
 fifteen years' service. Yer pasty-faced and yer thin- 
 chested. Gawd 'elp 'is Majesty if it ever lays with you 
 to save 'im. 'Owever, we're 'ere to do wot we can with 
 wot we got !" 
 
 Indeed, the same could be said of any bunch 
 of rookies, and also what the same American 
 soldier in Kitchener's first 100,000 feelingly 
 states after he was a veteran of Flanders : 
 
 It was interesting to note the physical improvement in 
 the men wrought by a life of healthy, well-ordered 
 
 15
 
 National Service Library 
 
 routine. My battalion was recruited largely from what 
 is known in England as the lower middle classes ; there 
 were shop assistants, clerks, railway and city employees, 
 tradesmen, and a general sprinkling of common la- 
 borers. Many of them had been used to an indoor life, 
 practically all of them to city life, and needed months 
 of the hardest kind of training before they could be 
 made physically fit, before they could be seasoned and 
 toughened to withstand the hardships of active service. 
 Plenty of hard work in the open air wrought great and 
 welcome changes. The men talked of their food, 
 anticipated it with a zest which came from realizing 
 for the first time the joy of being genuinely hungry. 
 They watched their muscles harden with the satis- 
 faction known to every normal man when he is becom- 
 ing physically efficient. Food, exercise, and rest, taken 
 in wholesome quantities and at regular intervals, were 
 having the usual excellent results. 
 
 For my own part, I had never before been in such 
 splendid health. I wish that it might at all times be 
 possible for democracies to exercise a beneficent 
 paternalism over the lives of their citizenry, at least in 
 matters of health. It seems a great pity that the 
 principle of personal freedom should be responsible for 
 so many ill-shaped and ill-assorted incompetents. My 
 fellow Tommies were living, really living, for the first 
 time ; they had never before known what it was to be 
 radiantly, buoyantly healthy. The restraints of disci- 
 pline and the very exacting character of military life and 
 training gave them self-control and mental alertness. 
 
 At the beginning they were individuals, no more 
 cohesive than so many grains of wet sand. After nine 
 months of training they acted as a unit, obeying orders 
 with that distinctive promptness of action that is so 
 essential on the field of battle, when men think scarcely 
 at all. Discipline was an all-important factor in the 
 daily grind. At the beginning of their training the men 
 of the new armies were gently dealt with. Allowances 
 were made for civilian frailties and shortcomings, but 
 as they adapted themselves to changed conditions, re- 
 16
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 strictions became increasingly severe. Once Tommy 
 understood the reasonableness of severe discipline, he 
 took his punishment for his offenses without complaint. 
 He realized, too, the futility of kicking against the 
 pricks. In the army he belonged to the government 
 body and soul. 
 
 With the disappearance of the malcontents and in- 
 corrigibles the battalion soon reached a high grade of 
 efficiency. Physical incompetents were likewise ruth- 
 lessly weeded out. If the standard of conduct of my 
 battalion is any criterion, then I can say truthfully that 
 there is very little crime in Lord Kitchener's armies, 
 either in England or abroad. There were many of- 
 fenders against minor points of discipline, such as 
 untidy appearance on parade, inattention in ranks, tardi- 
 ness at roll call, etc. The punishment meted out varied 
 according to the seriousness of the offense and the 
 past-conduct roll of the offender. It usually consisted 
 of from one to ten days' confinement to barracks. Only 
 twice did we have a general court-martial, the offense 
 in each case being assault by a private upon a non- 
 commissioned officer, and the penalty awarded was 
 three months in a military prison. Tommy was quiet 
 and law-abiding in England, his chief lapses being due 
 to an exaggerated estimate of his capacity for beer. 
 
 In France his conduct has been, as far as my ob- 
 servation goes, splendid throughout. During six months 
 in the trenches I saw but two instances of drunken- 
 ness. Never did I see or hear of a woman treated 
 otherwise than courteously. Neither did I see or hear 
 of any instances of looting or petty pilfering from the 
 civilian inhabitants. It is true that the men had fewer 
 opportunities for misconduct and they were fighting in 
 a friendly country. Even so, active service as we 
 found it was by no means free from temptations, and 
 the admirable restraint of most of the men in face of 
 them was a fine thing to see. 
 
 "Blood is thicker than water," and a common 
 tongue is a heart- warmer ; hence the foregoing 
 
 17
 
 National Service Library 
 
 picture by an American of the discipline and 
 rules of conduct in the British army applies ab- 
 solutely to our own. The Articles of War, which 
 is the statutory military code of the American 
 army, was taken almost bodily from the British 
 articles of war, and the armies have developed 
 on parallel lines. 
 
 The standard of conduct which England ex- 
 pected of her righting men was well set forth in 
 Lord Kitchener's letter to the troops ordered 
 abroad : 
 
 You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King, 
 to help our French comrades against the invasion of a 
 common enemy. You have to perform a task which 
 will need your courage, your energy, your patience. 
 Remember that the honor of the British army depends 
 upon your individual conduct. It will be your duty 
 not only to set an example of discipline and perfect 
 steadiness under fire, but also to maintain the most 
 friendly relations with those whom you are helping in 
 this struggle. The operations in which you are en- 
 gaged will for the most part take place in a friendly 
 country, and you can do your own country no better 
 service than in showing yourself in France and Bel- 
 gium in the true character of a British soldier. Be in- 
 variably courteous, considerate, and kind. Never do 
 anything likely to injure or destroy property, and al- 
 ways look upon looting as a disgraceful act. You are 
 sure to meet with a welcome and to be trusted, and 
 your conduct must justify that welcome and that trust. 
 Your duty cannot be done unless your health is sound, 
 so keep constantly on your guard against any excesses. 
 In this new experience you may find temptations both 
 in wine and women. You must resist both temptations ; 
 and while treating all women with perfect courtesy, 
 
 18
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 you should avoid any intimacy. Do your duty bravely. 
 Fear God. Honor the King. 
 
 KITCHENER, Field Marshal. 
 
 The American soldier on enlistment takes this 
 oath: 
 
 I, , do hereby acknowledge to have voluntarily 
 
 enlisted this day of , 19 , as a soldier in the 
 
 army of the United States of America, for the period 
 of seven years in active service and in the Army Re- 
 serves for the periods and under the conditions pre- 
 scribed by law, unless sooner discharged by proper 
 authority ; and do also agree to accept from the United 
 States such bounty, pay, rations, and clothing as are or 
 may be established by law. And I do solemnly swear 
 (or affirm) that I will bear true faith and allegiance to 
 the United States of America ; that I will serve them 
 honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whom- 
 soever ; and that I will obey the orders of the President 
 of the United States, and the orders of the officers 
 appointed over me, according to the Rules and Articles 
 of War. 
 
 By so doing he surrenders a certain amount of 
 freedom and gives himself to his country for 
 weal or woe, but by the same token he is en- 
 dowed with a dignity and honorable self-respect, 
 and his personal rights and privileges are ac- 
 curately defined and strictly safeguarded. All 
 persons in the military service are required to 
 obey strictly and to execute promptly all lawful 
 orders of their superiors. There is no official 
 equality in any army; everyone is responsible to 
 a superior in the military hierarchy, but there 
 is a fine spirit of comradeship and personal 
 19
 
 National Service Library 
 
 equality among the officers and men of the serv- 
 ice, and under our laws and customs there is the 
 truly American chance and hope of rising to the 
 top. As every American boy may aspire to be 
 president, so every private soldier in the ranks 
 may rise by his own efforts to the highest rank 
 in the army. In recent years two chiefs of staff 
 of the army, Generals Chaffee and Young, have 
 risen from the ranks. Ambitious and apt young- 
 sters may obtain commissions by appointment to 
 West Point, or, after a year's service, by passing 
 an examination, or may obtain a commission 
 directly, or become an officer of the Reserve 
 Corps from civil life. Many of our ablest officers 
 to-day have come from the ranks. Soldiers lack- 
 ing in advanced education still have the chance 
 for noncommissioned officers, and many oppor- 
 tunities at the various service schools for ad- 
 vancing their education. 
 
 Military authority is exercised with firmness, 
 kindness and justice. Punishment must conform 
 to law and follow offenses as promptly as cir- 
 cumstances will permit. Soldiers have absolute 
 right of appeal, and the measures for their pro- 
 tection are carefully set forth. Superiors are 
 forbidden to injure those under their authority 
 by tyrannical or capricious conduct or by abusive 
 language. 
 
 Courtesy among military men is indispensable 
 to discipline. Observance of the forms of mili- 
 20
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 tary courtesy is a measure of discipline and sol- 
 dierliness. All the armies of the civilized world 
 from time immemorial have found it advan- 
 tageous and fitting to observe strict military 
 etiquette and ceremonial ; and these forms are 
 much the same in all services. 
 
 The military salute is universal. It is at foun- 
 dation but a courteous recognition between two 
 individuals of their common fellowship in the 
 same honorable profession, the profession of 
 arms. Regulations require that it be rendered 
 by both the senior and the junior, as bare cour- 
 tesy requires between gentlemen in civil life. It 
 is in reality rather a privilege than an obligation, 
 it betokens good standing in a common cause; a 
 prisoner, not being in good standing, is forbidden 
 by regulations to render the salute. This is the 
 right conception of saluting ; and in this light you 
 will see that the question should not be "Shall 
 I salute?" but rather "May I salute?" And if 
 you are an individual out of ranks you can rarely 
 go wrong by saluting. The salute is rendered to 
 all officers, active or retired, of the army, navy, 
 Marine Corps, and organized militia. Officers of 
 foreign military and naval services should be 
 saluted as those of our own. 
 
 Whenever the national anthem is played at 
 any place when persons belonging to the military 
 service are present, all officers and enlisted men 
 not in formation shall stand at attention facing 
 
 21
 
 National Service Library 
 
 toward the music (except at retreat when they 
 shall face toward the flag). If in uniform, cov- 
 ered or uncovered, or in civilian clothes, un- 
 covered, they shall salute at the first note of the 
 anthem, retaining the position of salute until the 
 last note of the anthem. If not in uniform 
 and covered, they shall uncover at the first note 
 of the anthem, holding the headdress opposite 
 the left shoulder and so remain until its close, 
 except that in inclement weather the headdress 
 may be held slightly raised. 
 
 The same rules apply when "To the Color" or 
 "To the Standard" is sounded as when the na- 
 tional anthem is played. 
 
 When played by an army band, the national 
 anthem shall be played through without repeti- 
 tion of any part not required to be repeated to 
 make it complete. 
 
 The same marks of respect prescribed for ob- 
 servance during the playing of the national 
 anthem of the United States shall be shown 
 toward the national anthem of any other coun- 
 try when played upon official occasions. 
 
 Officers and enlisted men passing the uncased 
 color will render honors as follows: If in uni- 
 form they will salute as they would a senior 
 officer; if in civilian dress and covered they will 
 uncover, holding the headdress opposite the left 
 shoulder with the right hand; if uncovered they 
 will salute with th right-hand salute. 
 
 22
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 By uncased colors is meant those that are not 
 in their waterproof cases. By "colors" is meant 
 the national and regimental flags that are carried 
 by troops. 
 
 In Army Regulations the word "colors" 
 is used in referring to regiments of infantry, 
 battalions of engineers, and coast artillery, 
 while "standard" refers to cavalry and field 
 artillery. By "flag" is meant the national em- 
 blem that waves from flagpoles and other sta- 
 tionary poles. They are not saluted, except at 
 the ceremony of raising or lowering when the 
 "Star-Spangled Banner" or "To the Color" is 
 being played. 
 
 In uniform, covered or uncovered, but not in 
 formation, officers and enlisted men salute mili- 
 tary persons as follows: With arms in hand, 
 the salute prescribed for that arm (sentinels on 
 interior guard duty excepted) ; without arms, the 
 right-hand salute. 
 
 In civilian dress, covered or uncovered, officers 
 and enlisted men salute military persons with the 
 right-hand salute. 
 
 Officers and enlisted men will render the pre- 
 scribed salutes in a military manner, the officer 
 junior in rank or the enlisted man saluting first. 
 .When several officers in company are saluted all 
 entitled to the salute shall return it. 
 
 Except in the field under campaign or simu- 
 lated campaign conditions, a mounted officer (or 
 23
 
 National Service Library 
 
 soldier) dismounts before addressing a superior 
 officer not mounted. 
 
 A man in formation shall not salute when di- 
 rectly addressed, but shall come to attention if 
 at rest or at ease. 
 
 When an officer entitled to the salute passes in 
 rear of a body of troops it is brought to atten- 
 tion while he is opposite the post of the com- 
 mander. 
 
 In public conveyances, such as railway trains 
 and street cars, and in public places, such as 
 theaters, honors and personal salutes may be 
 omitted when palpably inappropriate or apt to 
 disturb or annoy civilians present. 
 
 Salutes are rendered within such distances as 
 allow individuals and insignia of rank to be 
 readily recognized at about thirty paces. You 
 would salute an officer where you would ex- 
 change greetings with a casual acquaintance. The 
 soldier is "at attention" when he salutes; either 
 at a halt standing at attention, or if walking, 
 marching at attention. This requires military 
 bearing, clothing properly adjusted, and forbids 
 smoking while saluting. If moving at a trot or 
 double time, he must first come to the walk or 
 quick time. An officer would continue at double 
 time or the trot, but ^hould be saluted just the 
 same. 
 
 An enlisted man without arms, mounted or dis- 
 mounted, salutes with the right hand. If officer 
 24
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 and soldier are approaching each other, the 
 salute is commenced when six paces from the 
 officer. If the approach does not continue to 
 within six paces the salute is rendered at the 
 nearest point. In passing each other in the same 
 direction, the salute is rendered just as they pass. 
 It is a common fault to begin the salute six feet 
 rather than six paces away. Count your steps 
 some time and see that you are prompt enough, 
 otherwise the officer may not have opportunity 
 to return it other than in a perfunctory manner. 
 
 In saluting look at the person saluted ancj 
 maintain the salute until it has been acknowl- 
 edged or the officer has passed. The precision 
 and snap with which you salute marks the type 
 of soldier you are and the pride you take in your 
 profession. It is a pleasure to return a snappy 
 salute, and a strange officer is apt to inquire to 
 what organization you belong. There are so- 
 called salutes so indifferently made that an officer 
 would be ashamed to acknowledge them. He 
 could feel no brotherhood with such a soldier. 
 
 Where an officer is recognized, he is saluted 
 the same whether in civilian clothes or uniform. 
 The enlisted man may be in uniform or in civilian 
 clothes. The presence of ladies with either party 
 makes no difference. 
 
 An enlisted man out of ranks armed with a 
 saber salutes with the saber if drawn, otherwise 
 with the hand; armed with the rifle, he makes 
 25
 
 National Service Library 
 
 the prescribed rifle salute, the rifle on either 
 shoulder. If indoors he salutes at the "order," 
 or if moving, at the "trail." The same regulation 
 obtains as to distances, and looking at the person 
 to be saluted. 
 
 The soldier salutes with the "present arms" 
 only when posted as a sentinel, except on field 
 service, when a mounted man, officer or soldier, 
 wishes to address or is addressed by his military 
 superior, he first dismounts. 
 
 An enlisted man accompanying an officer, 
 should walk about two paces to the officer's left 
 and rear; if riding, this distance is doubled. 
 
 A noncommissioned officer in command of a 
 detachment should call them to attention and 
 himself render the salute to an officer as above 
 explained for a single individual. If the officer 
 passed in rear the detachment would be brought 
 to attention and so held until he has passed, but 
 no salute would be rendered. 
 
 When an officer approaches a group of enlisted 
 men not in ranks, the first one to perceive him 
 should call "attention" so that all will hear, when 
 all stand at attention, and, at the proper point, 
 all salute. If walking together the same rules 
 obtain, except that the salutes would be rendered 
 without halting. If indoors the same rules ob- 
 tain except that if unarmed they uncover and 
 that no one salutes unless spoken to ; if armed all 
 would salute. One exception to this rule if 
 26
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 seated at meals the soldiers do not rise at the 
 call "attention" but cease eating and remain sit- 
 ting at attention. Of course, any individual ad- 
 dressed by the officer would rise. By "indoors" 
 is meant military offices, barracks, quarters, and 
 similar places it does not refer to storehouses, 
 riding halls, stables, post-exchange buildings, 
 hotels, etc. 
 
 Upon the approach of an officer indoors, the 
 enlisted man, if unarmed, uncovers and stands 
 at attention, and does not salute. If armed with 
 a rifle he salutes from the position of the order 
 or the trail ; if armed and uncovered, he should 
 cover before saluting if practicable. A soldier 
 with belt, side arms, pistol, saber, or bayonet, is 
 considered armed. 
 
 Whenever holding conversation with a supe- 
 rior, a soldier should stand strictly at attention, 
 the conversation being preceded by the military 
 salute; and it is only by strictly observing the 
 position of attention that you may be really at 
 ease, any halfway measures will tend to make 
 you self-conscious and ill at ease. And do not 
 keep assuming that the officer has finished his 
 remarks and thus have to repeat your salute at 
 leaving. It is much more military to stand pat 
 until he has dismissed you with such words as 
 "that will do," then you make a dignified salute 
 on departure. 
 
 The soldier actually at work does not stop his 
 27
 
 National Service Library 
 
 work to render a salute, unless addressed by the 
 officer. Driving or riding in a carriage or other 
 vehicle, the soldier would salute an officer as 
 though walking, but without rising, unless a 
 senior be present in the vehicle. Circumstances 
 which would render the salute unnecessary, such 
 as endangering passengers or pedestrians if at- 
 tention be relaxed may arise. Such cases must 
 be met with good judgment; there is no breach 
 of discipline when intentional discourtesy is not 
 present. 
 
 In camp a mounted man should not take his 
 horse up in front of an officer's tent where he 
 may soil the ground. Leave him tied or held at 
 a little distance. Even when he brings up the 
 officer's horse, he may hold him a little way off, 
 until the officer directs him to come closer. 
 
 In holding the horse for an officer to mount, 
 the orderly should invariably stand on the off side 
 facing the horse's shoulder, both reins held firmly 
 in the right hand just behind the bit, the left 
 hand holding the right stirrup and bearing down 
 to keep the saddle from being displaced as the 
 officer mounts. He then adjusts the stirrup 
 neatly to the officer's foot as his leg comes down 
 in the mount. If the orderly has his own horse 
 with him, he must hold that horse out of the 
 way on the off side of the officer's horse. 
 
 An enlisted man in conversation with a military 
 superior will properly use the third person, i. e., 
 28
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 he will ask, "Does the sergeant intend so and so ?" 
 Or, "Does the lieutenant want his horse?" Not 
 "Do you intend so and so," etc. 
 
 Where a verbal message is carried between 
 officers the messenger prefaces his message with 
 "The adjutant presents his compliments" (the 
 commanding officer, Captain so and so, whoever 
 sends it) "and directs, asks, says, requests, etc.," 
 followed by the message. 
 
 To report for duty as orderly, the man pro- 
 ceeds to the officer to whom detailed, stands at 
 attention before him and, when the officer gives 
 him opportunity, salutes and reports in these 
 
 words : "Sir, Private , Company I, Tenth 
 
 Infantry, reports as orderly." 
 
 At all times and places outside his quarters an 
 enlisted man should be neat and orderly in his 
 appearance. His hat and clothing should be 
 properly adjusted and buttoned up. Even fatigue 
 uniform should be properly worn. In the field 
 in hot weather it is allowable in ordinary circum- 
 stances to have the top button of the shirt un- 
 buttoned but never the shirt sleeves rolled up. 
 At formations, such as retreat, everything should 
 be the neatest possible. There is something 
 wrong with tHe organization whose members 
 are habitually indifferent to their soldierly ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 Every soldier should know the various insignia 
 worn by officers to indicate their grade. 
 29
 
 National Service Library 
 
 They are found on the collar of the O. D. shirt, 
 on the shoulder straps and loops of coats, and on 
 sleeves of overcoat, and are as follows on the col- 
 lars and shoulders: 
 
 Major general two stars. 
 
 Brigadier general one star. 
 
 Colonel eagle. 
 
 Lieutenant colonel oak leaf, silver. 
 
 Major oak leaf, gold. 
 
 Captain two silver bars. 
 
 First lieutenant one silver bar. 
 
 Second lieutenant has no insignia of rank, 
 but may be recognized as an officer by the other 
 insignia. 
 
 On overcoat and full-dress coat sleeves a knot 
 of three loops of braid for officers below the 
 grade of general. 
 
 Colonel the knot contains five rows of braid. 
 
 Lieutenant colonel four rows. 
 
 Major three rows. 
 
 Captain two rows. 
 
 First lieutenant one row. 
 
 In addition to the insignia of rank all com- 
 missioned officers may be distinguished by special 
 ornaments, for example with the olive-drab 
 blouse the commissioned officers have a band of 
 braid around the cuff; with the dress uniform 
 and full-dress uniform respectively shoulder 
 straps and shoulder knots are worn; with the 
 olive-drab shirt a commissioned officer has the 
 
 30
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 letters "U. S.," "U. S. V.," or "U. S. R.," on the 
 right side in the middle of the collar one inch 
 from the end, and on the left side similarly 
 placed the insignia of the corps, department, or 
 arm of the service to which he belongs. 
 
 No honors are paid by troops when on the 
 march, in trenches or on outpost, unless a special 
 individual be addressed or the command be 
 called to attention. 
 
 No salute is rendered when marching in double 
 time. 
 
 Arms are not presented by troops, except in 
 the ceremonies. 
 
 The commander of a body of troops salutes all 
 general officers and the commander of his post, 
 regiment, squadron, or immediate organization, 
 by bringing his command to attention and salut- 
 ing in person. He salutes all others without 
 bringing it to attention. 
 
 When two officers exchange salutes, each com- 
 manding a body of troops, the troops are brought 
 to attention during the exchange. 
 
 An officer in command of troops is saluted by 
 all junior officers and by men out of ranks. Ex- 
 cept during ceremonies, when especially pre- 
 scribed to the contrary, an officer will at all times 
 acknowledge the courtesies of his juniors by 
 returning the salute. 
 
 Respect to superiors will not be confined to 
 acts on duty, but will be extended on all oc-
 
 National Service Library 
 
 casions. The conventional courtesies common 
 among soldiers of all nations have descended 
 from the days of chivalry. Saluting, standing at 
 attention, rising in the presence of superiors, and 
 other marks of respect are necessary to the effi- 
 ciency of soldiers, as well as marks of mutual 
 respect. Manly deference to superiors, which in 
 military life is merely recognition of constituted 
 authority, does not imply inferiority any more 
 than respect for law implies cowardice. These 
 habits and courtesies are just as obligatory for 
 officers as for soldiers. The highest ranking gen- 
 eral in the army returns the salute of the green- 
 est recruit. All officers and soldiers salute, ex- 
 cepting the soldier not in good standing, who is 
 not allowed to salute. 
 
 From a recent letter of a former German sol- 
 dier, published in a daily paper, I take his very 
 descriptive account of the daily routine of a 
 German soldier. Of course, it is that of almost 
 every other soldier, but the average American so 
 seldom sees the American soldier in arms, and 
 when he does see him it is usually on pass or 
 otherwise off duty, or if on duty, at some parade 
 or ceremony, that in many mild American minds 
 the life of the soldier is a lazy, and apparently 
 useless, one. I remember last summer, during 
 the raiding on the border, when every trooper 
 was riding on night patrols protecting the scat- 
 tered farms and ranches near the Rio Grande, 
 
 3 2 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L. i 

 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 that one big ranchman came into my camp and 
 demanded that a detachment be stationed at his 
 ranch house. I tried to explain to him that my 
 command was so small that I could not furnish 
 such a detachment but would give him protection 
 in my own way by patrolling and keeping in 
 touch over the telephone. In disdain he turned 
 toward the tents of the troopers and called atten- 
 tion to the large number lying asleep on their 
 bunks, not realizing that every one of the troop- 
 ers had spent all the night before patrolling and 
 protecting in the best possible way. Much of the 
 work of the soldier is done at night or so early 
 in the morning that the visiting civilian at an 
 army post may not see much sign of activity. 
 But the men who have attended training camps 
 or been with the National Guard on the border 
 know that the soldier's life is a hard and active 
 one, and they have a respect born of experience 
 and feeling of comradeship that the regular sol- 
 dier is glad to welcome. The very enthusiasm of 
 the civilian soldier who has had association with 
 the regular soldiers is partly due to the surprised 
 interest in that fine body of men who have done 
 him many a good turn in the field and shown 
 him the little wrinkles of the old soldier. 
 
 "German militarism" as I know it having seen years 
 of service in the German army is, in my opinion, the 
 foundation of Germany's success in all other fields, 
 such as manufacture, commerce, education, and the 
 
 33 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L. 2
 
 National Service Library 
 
 solving of economical and social questions in general. 
 "German militarism" is, in my opinion, the greatest 
 university in the world, the university of the masses, 
 where the healthy body of the young man is made per- 
 fect, where discipline teaches him that he is not the 
 "only pebble on the beach," but that strict obedience to 
 orders issued by superiors is an absolute necessity to 
 accomplish in union what cannot be accomplished 
 singly. 
 
 Military laws and orders governing the German army 
 are of the highest moral order. All that is bad is 
 eliminated ; all that is good adopted. The life of the 
 German soldier is almost ideal. Between five and six 
 in the morning he rises; he makes his bed, washes, 
 dresses, cleans once more the things needed for the 
 day's service, then gets his coffee. Generally at eight 
 the three-hours' service, whatever it consists of, begins ; 
 shortly after eleven he is back in his room. Around 
 twelve o'clock the only hot meal given in the army, and 
 consisting of meat, potatoes, and vegetables, mostly 
 cooked in a stew, is eaten. About two o'clock the after- 
 noon service begins, and ends at four ; from five to six 
 an hour's instruction generally ends the day's work, 
 unless it be that the soldier is ambitious and avails 
 himself of the many places of learning either provided 
 directly by the regiment or else provided through the 
 regiment by private teachers. 
 
 In my regiment there were chances to learn penman- 
 ship, stenography, bookkeeping, telegraphy, surveying, 
 and many other things which the average common sol- 
 dier never would have a chance to get acquainted with 
 in his civilian life. Of course, to gain this kind of 
 knowledge he uses his own free time, as the hours are 
 generally set so that he can be back in his quarters at 
 nine in winter and ten in summer. Supper the soldier 
 provides himself, and if he is very poor and has no 
 relatives his black bread is the menu, but, as a rule, all 
 soldiers get enough eatables or money from home to be 
 able to provide plenty of good things to go with the 
 wholesome bread, and, as the ties of comradeship are 
 
 34
 
 Rules Governing Discipline 
 
 very close among the boys, those that have no relatives 
 very seldom need eat their bread dry, because when 
 packages arrive from home there is generally a division 
 and every one gets his portion even though some of 
 them cannot reciprocate. 
 
 35
 
 II 
 
 Care of Health in Garrison 
 and Field 
 
 "WAR is hell-th" is the play on Sherman's oft- 
 quoted words of a happily thoughtful Platts- 
 burg man and which should be still more often 
 quoted. 
 
 It is not enough for a soldier to be healthy. 
 His life and work demand that he should have 
 more than the average amount of muscular 
 strength and endurance in addition to good 
 health. 
 
 His enlistment practically insures good health 
 to start. He must not only keep that good 
 health by intelligent care and pride, but he must 
 learn how to increase his general health and 
 bodily vigor, his muscular strength and endur- 
 ance, self-reliance, smartness, activity and pre- 
 cision. All are essential soldierly qualities. The 
 Greeks considered them all as physical qual- 
 ities, but most of them are directly dependent 
 on the inner virtues, and together make a 
 man bold and ready for the utmost, so that he 
 may know how both to live and to die like a 
 soldier. 
 
 36
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 IN GARRISON 
 
 On enlistment, and afterward at frequent in- 
 tervals, soldiers are carefully examined by sur- 
 geons. At these times surgeons should be asked 
 to indicate the weak points in one's physique and 
 how harmonious strength can best be developed. 
 Exercises which require activity and agility 
 rather than those demanding strength only should 
 be used daily. As far as possible, select the par- 
 ticular exercise which seems most attractive. 
 Short and frequent exercises should be preferred, 
 beginning with the least violent ones and gradu- 
 ally working up to those that are more so, then 
 carefully working back to the simpler ones, so 
 that on finishing the condition will be as nearly 
 normal as possible. All exercises should be car- 
 ried on as far as possible in the open air. By 
 constant practice learn to breathe slowly through 
 the nostrils during all work, especially while run- 
 ning. Never exercise immediately after a meal, 
 nor eat or drink immediately after exercise. Do 
 not hesitate to drink good cool water in small 
 quantities, but the exercise should be continued, 
 particularly if perspiring freely. Cool off gradu- 
 ally and wear some sweater or extra clothing 
 while overheated. Follow the exercise whenever 
 practicable by bathing. After very violent exer- 
 cise try to get a hot bath, and if there is time fol- 
 low with a cold or a cool one. Light flannel is 
 37
 
 National Service Library 
 
 best to wear next the body during violent work 
 and play. 
 
 SCOPE 
 
 Setting-up exercises are the foundation upon 
 which the entire course of training in the service 
 is based. Their importance cannot be overesti- 
 mated, as by means of them alone it is possible 
 to effect an all-round development impossible of 
 attainment by any other method. They should 
 therefore form a very important part of every 
 drill. 
 
 Marching in quick time and exercises calling 
 into action the various parts of the body while 
 marching tend to develop coordination, upon 
 which to a great extent poise, posture, carriage 
 and rhythm are dependent. Marching in double 
 time is a heart and lung developing exercise of 
 moderate severity. Running, on the other hand, 
 especially when continued for long periods, or at 
 a high rate of speed, or when taken in conjunc- 
 tion with leg exercises, affects those organs in a 
 very marked degree. Both double timing and 
 running are invaluable in the development of en- 
 durance and organic vigor. 
 
 Dumb-bell exercises are closely allied to the 
 setting-up exercises and differ from these only 
 by the extra weight that is imposed by the 
 bells, which should, however, never exceed two 
 pounds. 
 
 38
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 Club exercises are of use principally as a 
 means for the development of coordination and 
 grace in the upper extremities ; their weight, since 
 muscular development is not aimed at, should not 
 exceed two pounds. 
 
 Rifle exercises have for their object the de- 
 velopment of "handiness" with the piece. Owing 
 to the weight of the rifle they are powerful fac- 
 tors in the development of the muscles of the 
 arms, upper back, shoulders, and chest, and when 
 taken in conjunction with trunk and leg exercises 
 they are excellent agents for the all-round de- 
 velopment of those who possess the strength to 
 wield the piece to advantage. 
 
 Climbing, on poles or ropes, when both arms 
 and legs are used, brings into action nearly every 
 muscle of the body and exerts considerable in- 
 fluence upon the heart. Where poles or ropes of 
 sufficient length are used this exercise will de- 
 velop self-reliance also. 
 
 Jumping, when indulged in as a gymnastic ex- 
 ercise, where a series of from eight to ten jumps 
 of moderate length are executed successively, is 
 essentially a leg and heart developing exercise. 
 When form is insisted upon and the nature of 
 the jump is varied by introducing various leg, 
 arm, and trunk movements, it becomes a strong 
 factor in the development of coordination. 
 
 Apparatus work should be supplementary to 
 all other forms of training. The chief object of 
 39
 
 National Service Library 
 
 this work in the service should be to use it as a 
 means for the development of the ability of the 
 soldier to control his body while its weight is sup- 
 ported by or suspended from the arms and hands, 
 in order to enable him successfully to overcome 
 and surmount such obstacles as may present 
 themselves during field service. The exercises 
 composing this part of the training should, there- 
 fore, be confined to those that will develop the 
 muscular strength of the entire body in general 
 and that of the arms and legs in particular, and 
 at the same time make the soldier agile and active 
 and teach him decision and self-reliance. 
 
 Gymnastic contests are the simpler forms of 
 antagonistic gymnastics in which the participants 
 are pitted against each other, and which never 
 fail to induce the usual rivalry for superiority 
 attending personal contests. Their chief value 
 lies in the development of agility and quickness 
 of thought and action. They are quite the most 
 interesting of those exercises in which the effort 
 is lost sight of in the desire to win. 
 
 Athletics, when employed for the sake of their 
 value as a means for the development of large 
 numbers, which should be the case in the service, 
 have nothing in common with competitive ath- 
 letics. In other words, their value lies entirely 
 in their usefulness in the development of physical 
 strength, endurance, and skill, and not in the 
 making or breaking of records. 
 40
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 Swimming is of vital importance to everyone 
 connected with the service, and it should be made 
 obligatory upon all officers and enlisted men to 
 make themselves proficient in it. Aside from its 
 usefulness it is without doubt the best single 
 means to all-round physical development. 
 
 Boxing and wrestling should be encouraged at 
 all times, not only on account of their value as a 
 means to bodily development, but on account of 
 the self-reliance and confidence they give to those 
 who are proficient in them. 
 
 Not much needs to be said as to competitive 
 athletics in garrison, for all soldiers take part in 
 football or baseball and track athletics, en- 
 couraged by their officers. 
 
 Every opportunity should be taken to ride, for 
 sooner or later most soldiers, whether of the 
 mounted branch or of the infantry, have the 
 chance and should make the most of it. If serv- 
 ing with mounted commands, the troopers take 
 pride in suggestions and passing the results of 
 their own experience as horsemen. Infantrymen 
 who like horses always have the chance, too, for 
 detail to the mounted orderly detachment at 
 headquarters. 
 
 In garrison the life of the soldier is one of 
 regular habits and the finest of opportunities for 
 healthful and enjoyable physical development. 
 For a young man of vim and vigor it is the 
 finest life on earth if he will only make it so. He
 
 National Service Library 
 
 has for regular daily diet what his brother in 
 civil life gets only on holidays. As a rule the 
 exercises which the civilian has little time for 
 are part of the regular work of the soldier. Much 
 of his exercise is chosen for him, and the close 
 association with his comrades keeps him up to 
 the mark. To play the game and be part of the 
 great team is more or less forced upon him. He 
 must be fit, and he must be clean, and he must 
 be decent, and the more of it the better. Many 
 soldiers suffer from one irregular habit which, 
 causes constipation, discomfort and disease, ow- 
 ing to the fact that so often they are called for 
 duty immediately after breakfast. This is espe- 
 cially so in the cavalry and in the field. Many 
 experienced soldiers have overcome this by 
 adopting the Indian habit of going to the rear 
 immediately after reveille, or in some cases before 
 reveille. This habit can always be acquired; it 
 can then always be regular, and if a bath or par- 
 tial bath can be had then, there is complete clean- 
 liness and comfort and prevention from many 
 attendant troubles. 
 
 Being young and healthy, and so often care- 
 less, it is well for the soldier to know and mark 
 these plain, flat rules, the observance of which 
 have made the modern soldier a model man, 
 ready for anything and everything. The garri- 
 son life is the training for the field, and those 
 who have not experienced the life and dangers 
 
 42
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 of serving with thousands of others in the field 
 should take to heart the results of the experience 
 which have changed armies from hotbeds of dis- 
 ease to the fit, free men of to-day. In all the 
 wars of ancient times, many more soldiers were 
 put out by disease than by battle ; this is true as 
 recently as the Spanish War. The American 
 army learned its lesson then. The American sol- 
 dier can now campaign in any part of the world 
 in Alaska, in the Philippines, in Cuba, or on 
 the Mexican border and remain active and 
 healthy. The game of the soldier is to do his 
 part in preventing disease by following the rules 
 of sanitation laid down. He doesn't need to 
 bother about what will happen to him should he 
 be unlucky or suffer from his own carelessness. 
 The army is well supplied with excellent surgeons 
 always at hand to give the best of treatment to 
 the sick or injured. Vaccination and innocula- 
 tion for typhoid have done away with the old- 
 time dread diseases of smallpox and enteric 
 fevers. The red-flag dangers to-day are flies and 
 vermin, mosquitoes and venereal diseases. For- 
 tunately most of the dangerous mosquitoes are 
 night birds, so that by the use of mosquito nets 
 when sleeping and head nets when on guard and, 
 when practicable, on other night duty, the danger 
 from the mosquito is reduced to the minimum. 
 Flies have an apt alliteration with filth. 
 
 The dangers and results of venereal disease 
 43
 
 National Service Library 
 
 have been impressed on all of us, but some sol- 
 diers are careless and many recruits ignorant. 
 The War Department has recognized this, and all 
 soldiers are carefully instructed on the prophy- 
 lactic treatment, to save them from the terrible 
 diseases that may follow their misconduct. At 
 all army stations prompt treatment is available, 
 and even the most reckless soldiers now know 
 that they can keep themselves clean and free 
 from all venereal diseases. Should any, however, 
 become evident, or the slightest suspicion be felt, 
 consult the surgeon at once. Young soldiers 
 often from a sense of shame hide their troubles 
 or consult quacks, thereby suffering the dread 
 results, whereas by quick action at the hospital 
 and consulting the surgeon the next morning, the 
 soldier can keep clean and well. Instructions are 
 fully set forth in War Department General 
 Orders No. 17 of 1912 and No. 71 of 1913, and 
 the carrying out of these measures has largely 
 wiped away the shameful record of the old awny. 
 
 LEALTH 
 
 f CARE OF 
 
 / History shows that in most past wars rhanj 
 
 more men have died from disease than from 
 wounds received in battle, and that many a cam 
 \ paign has been brought to naught because sick 
 \ ness had incapacitated the men to complete it 
 V Much of this disease is preventable, and is du 
 \ 44 
 
 V
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 either to the ignorance or to the carelessness of 
 the person who has the disease, or of other per- 
 sons about him. It is a terrible truth that one 
 man who violates any of the great rules of health 
 may be the means of killing many more of his 
 comrades than are killed by the bullets of the 
 enemy. 
 
 Here is a subject for the direct personal atten- 
 tion of every man in the service. It is as much 
 your military duty to be well and strong as to be 
 skilled in use of your arms. A sick man is of no 
 more value in campaign and battle than a 
 wounded man, or a prisoner, and he is much 
 more of a nuisance. Negligently or ignorantly to 
 allow yourself or your men to become sick is as 
 disastrous to battle efficiency as to allow them 
 needlessly to be killed and wounded or taken 
 prisoner. When men and leaders realize this, 
 they will more cheerfully and conscientiously 
 give heed to the rules of health. 
 
 It is therefore important that every soldier be 
 impressed with the necessity of keeping healthy, 
 and not only that leaders be trained to guard the 
 health of their men, but that every man be taught 
 how to care for his own health, which will include 
 seeing to it that his comrades also observe the 
 prescribed rules for this purpose. 
 
 Catching or contagious diseases are the ones 
 mostly to be feared among troops. All of them 
 due to germs, which are either little animal, 
 45
 
 National Service Library 
 
 or little plants so very small that they can only 
 be seen by the aid of the microscope. One billion 
 dead typhoid germs are given in the fifteen drops 
 of the second and third doses of typhoid vaccine. 
 All diseases caused by germs are "catching." All 
 other diseases are "not catching." 
 
 icre are only five ways of catching^ disease : 
 
 (o\ Getting certain germs on the body, or 
 touching some one or something which has them 
 on it. Vhus, one may catch venereal diseases, 
 smallpoxXmeasles, scarlet feve/, chicken pox, 
 mumps, bods, lice (body), rmgworm, barbers' 
 itch, dhobie\ itch, and sonrfe other diseases. 
 Wounds are infected in this/manner. 
 
 (fc) Breathing in certain germs which float in 
 the air. In this Vay on/ may catch pneumonia, 
 consumption, infmenz/ diphtheria, whooping 
 cough, tonsilitis, spinal meningitis, measles, and 
 certain other disease 
 
 (c) Taking certain, germs in through the 
 mouth in eating o/ drinfting. Dysentery, cholera, 
 typhoid fever, caiarrhea, ynd intestinal worms 
 may be caught An this mamaer. 
 
 (rf) Having certain germs injected into the 
 body by bitesy&f insects or by otposit on the body 
 of their exdreta, such as mosq\itoes, fleas, lice 
 and bedbugs. Malaria, yellow \fever, dengue 
 fever, typhus, and bubonic plague may be caught 
 in this way. 
 
 (e) Inheriting the germ from one's parents. 
 46
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 Persons may have these germs sometimes 
 out apparently being sick with any disease. Sucl 
 persons and those who are sick with the diseases 
 are a great source of danger to others about them. 
 Germs which multiply in such persons are found 
 in their urine and excretions from the bowels ; 
 in discharges from ulcers and abscesses ; in the 
 spit or particles coughed or sneezed into the air ; 
 in the perspiration or scales from the skin; and 
 in the blood sucked up by biting insects. 
 
 Those who have taken care of their health, and 
 who have not become weakened l?y bad habits, 
 exposure, and fatigue, are not oniy less liable to 
 catch disease, but are more apt. to recover whet 
 taken sick. 
 
 Knowing all these things, 
 understand djjie^2a|ons for th 
 ano^nowimportant it is^that they be carried out 1 
 by each person : 
 
 Stay away from persons having "catching^ 
 diseases. 
 
 If you have any disease, do not try to cure it 
 yourself, but go to the surgeon. Insist that your 
 comrades do likewise. 
 
 Cooked germs are dead and therefore harmless, 
 Water, even when clear, may be alive with deadly 
 germs. Therefore, when the conditions are such 
 that the commanding officer orders all drinking 
 water to be boiled, be careful to live up to this 
 order. 
 
 47
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Use the latrines and do not go elsewhere to 
 relieve yourself. In open latrines cover your 
 deposit with dirt, as it breeds flies, and may also 
 be full of germs. 
 
 Flies carry germs from one place to another. 
 Therefore, see that your food and mess kit are 
 protected from them. 
 
 All slops and scraps of food scattered about 
 camp soon produce bad odors and draw flies. 
 Therefore, do your part toward keeping the camp 
 free from disease by carefully depositing such 
 refuse in the pits or cans used for this purpose. 
 
 Urinate only in the latrines, or in arrange- 
 ments provided for this purpose, never on the 
 ground around camp, because it not only causes 
 unpleasant odors, but urine sometimes contains 
 germs of "catching" diseases. 
 
 Soapy water thrown on the ground soon pro- 
 duces bad odors. Therefore, in camps of several 
 days' duration, this water should be thrown in 
 covered pits or in cans used for this purpose. 
 
 As certain mosquitoes can transmit malaria 
 and yellow fever, use your mosquito bar for this 
 reason as well as for personal comfort. 
 
 Keep your mouth clean by brushing your teeth 
 once or twice a day. It helps to prevent the teeth 
 from decaying. Decayed teeth cause toothache. 
 They also lead to swallowing food without prop- 
 erly chewing it, and this leads to stomach trouble 
 of various kinds. Food left around and between 
 48
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 the teeth is bad for the teeth and forms good 
 breeding places for germs. 
 
 Keep the skin clean. Through the pores of 
 the skin the body gets rid of much waste and 
 poisonous matter. Therefore remove this, and 
 keep the pores open by bathing once every day, 
 if possible. If water is scarce, rub the body over 
 with a wet towel. If no water is at hand, take a 
 dry rub. Wash carefully the armpits, between 
 the legs, and under the foreskin, as this will pre- 
 vent chafing. 
 
 The skin prevents the sensitive parts under- 
 neath from injury and helps to keep out germs. 
 Therefore, when blisters are formed do not tear 
 off the skin. Insert a needle under the skin a 
 little distance back from the blister and push it 
 through to the opposite side. Press out the liquid 
 through the holes thus formed. Heat the needle 
 red hot first with a match or candle to kill the 
 germs. 
 
 When the skin is broken (in cuts or wounds), 
 keep the opening covered with a bandage to keep 
 out germs and dirt ; otherwise the sore may 
 fester. Pus is always caused by germs. 
 
 Take care of your feet. A soldier cannot 
 march with sore feet, and marching is the main 
 part of a soldier's duty. Even the cavalrymen 
 must be able to work on foot. The exigencies of 
 service may require it at any time. The Germans 
 treat sore feet as a military offense, as it is gen- 
 49
 
 National Service Library 
 
 erally due to carelessness or neglect on the part 
 of the soldier. Wash and dry the feet carefully 
 at the end of every day's march. This removes 
 the dirt and perspiration and makes the skin 
 healthy. It soothes tired feet and greatly lessens 
 the chances of sores and chafing. Do not wander 
 about camp through the grass barefooted, as the 
 skin may be scratched or the feet bruised, or 
 poisonous weeds may be encountered. If the 
 skin is tender or the feet perspire freely, wash 
 with warm salt water or alum water. For raw 
 or chafed spots use foot powder, which can be 
 obtained at the hospital. Grease or soap or foot 
 powder applied to the foot or stocking before 
 starting on the march prevents rubbing. Cut the 
 toenails square (fairly close in the middle, but 
 leaving the sides somewhat longer), as this pre- 
 vents ingrowing nails. If corns or bunions or 
 ingrowing nails give trouble, or any rawness or 
 rubbing causes pain, go to the surgeon promptly 
 for advice. Do not wait several days till you can 
 no longer march. Do not wear stockings full of 
 holes if you can possibly get others. Wear a clean 
 pair every day, washing them at night if neces- 
 sary. The light woolen stockings issued by the 
 government are probably the best to use even in 
 the summer. Should a hole or seam in the stock- 
 ing begin to cause rubbing, turn it inside out or 
 change it to the other foot. Be careful in draw- 
 ing shoes to get a good fit. Remember that the 
 50
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 feet lengthen in a hard march and that the shoes 
 should allow for this. Get them two-thirds of an 
 inch longer than the foot. Do not be so foolish 
 or green as to start out to march wearing new 
 shoes or the light shoes ordinarily used by civil- 
 ians, or low shoes, or patent leather shoes. Keep 
 the marching shoes well oiled to keep them soft 
 and pliable. If they get full of sand on the march 
 wash out the inside on reaching camp and then 
 hang on a couple of pegs overnight to drain. 
 They may feel cool and clammy in the morning, 
 but they will be clean and soft. Never place the 
 shoes near a fire, or in the sun, to dry as it makes 
 them hard and stiff. 
 
 Keep your hair short. Long hair and a long 
 beard in the field usually means a dirty head and 
 a dirty face, and favors skin diseases, lice and 
 dandruff. 
 
 Do not let others spit on the floor of your tent 
 or quarters. 
 
 Be careful of any discharges from the horses' 
 nostrils, eyes, etc. Always wash your hands 
 carefully after grooming and before eating. 
 
 Do not let any part of the body become chilled, 
 as this very often is the direct cause of diarrhea, 
 dysentery, pneumonia, rheumatism, and other 
 diseases. 
 
 If unavoidably chilled, take deep breathing ex- 
 ercises at once ; it will prevent taking cold. 
 
 Wet clothes may be worn while marching or
 
 National Service Library 
 
 exercising without bad results, but there is great 
 danger if one rests in wet clothing, as the body 
 may become chilled. 
 
 Do not sit or lie or sleep directly on damp 
 ground, as this is sure to chill the body. 
 
 When hot or perspiring or when wearing damp 
 clothes, do not remain where a breeze can strike 
 you. You are sure to become chilled. 
 
 Every day, if possible, hang your blanket and 
 clothing out to air in the sun ; shake or beat them 
 with a small stick. Germs and vermin do not like 
 this treatment, but damp, musty clothing suits 
 them very well. Wash your shirts, underwear 
 and socks frequently. The danger of blood poi- 
 soning from a wound is greatly increased if the 
 bullet first passes through dirty clothes. 
 
 Always prepare your bed before dark. Level 
 off the ground and scrape out a little hollow for 
 your hips. Get some straw or dry grass, if pos- 
 sible. Green grass or branches from trees are 
 better than nothing. Sleep on your poncho. This 
 keeps the dampness from coming up from the 
 ground and chilling the body. Every minute 
 spent in making a good bed means about an 
 hour's good rest later on. 
 
 Avoid the food and drink found for sale in the 
 cheap stands about camp. The quality is gen- 
 erally bad, and it is often prepared in filthy 
 places by very dirty persons. 
 
 Do not drink water from any source until it 
 52
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 has been declared safe by the company com- 
 mander. If there is any doubt, boil it twenty 
 minutes first. Keep everything out of your mouth 
 that may be unclean, straws, toothpicks, etc. 
 
 The use of intoxicating liquor is particularly 
 dangerous in the field. Its excessive use, even at 
 long intervals, break down one's system. Drink- 
 ing men are more apt to get sick, and less liable 
 to get well, than are their more abstemious com- 
 rades. If alcohol is taken at all, it is best after 
 the work of the day is over. It should never be 
 taken when the body is exposed to severe cold, 
 as it diminishes the resistance of the body. Hot 
 tea or coffee is much preferable under these 
 circumstances. 
 
 A FEW FIRST-AID RULES 
 
 The bandages and dressings contained in the 
 first-aid packet have been so treated as to destroy 
 any germs thereon. Therefore when dressing a 
 wound be careful not to touch or handle or ex- 
 pose unnecessarily that part of the dressing which 
 is to be applied to the wound. 
 
 A sick or injured person should always be 
 made to lie down on his back, if practicable, as 
 this is the most comfortable position, and all 
 muscles may be relaxed. 
 
 All tight articles of clothing and equipment 
 should be loosened so as not to interfere with 
 breathing or the circulation of the blood. Belts, 
 53
 
 National Service Library 
 
 collars, and the trousers at the waist should be 
 opened. 
 
 Do not let mere onlookers crowd about the 
 patient. They prevent him from getting fresh 
 air, and also make him nervous and excited. 
 
 In case of injury the heart action is gen- 
 erally weak from shock, and the body therefore 
 grows somewhat cold. So do not remove 
 any more clothing than is necessary to expose 
 the injury. 
 
 Cut or rip the clothing, but do not pull it. Try 
 to disturb the patient as little as possible. 
 
 Do not touch a wound with your fingers, or a 
 handkerchief, or with anything else but the first- 
 aid dressing. Do not wash the wound with water. 
 Otherwise you may infect the wound. 
 
 Do not administer stimulants (whisky, brandy, 
 wine, etc.) unless ordered to do so by a doctor. 
 While in a few cases stimulants are of benefit, in 
 a great many cases they do positive harm, espe- 
 cially where there has been any bleeding. 
 
 The heart may be considered as a pump and the 
 arteries as a rubber hose which carry the blood 
 from the heart to every part of the body. The 
 veins are the hose which carry the blood back to 
 the heart. Every wound bleeds some, but unless 
 a large artery or a large vein is cut, the bleeding 
 will stop after a short while if the patient is kept 
 quiet and the first-aid dressing is bound over the 
 wound so as to make pressure on it. 
 54
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 When a large artery is cut the blood gushes out 
 in spurts every time the heart beats. In this case 
 it is necessary to stop the flow of blood by press- 
 ing upon the hose somewhere between the heart 
 and the leak. 
 
 If a vein be cut the blood is darker colored and 
 flozvs steadily, and the flow will be stopped by 
 pressing between the cut and the extremity, that 
 is somewhere beyond the leak away from the 
 heart. 
 
 This pressure may be applied temporarily by 
 the thumbs pressing through the flesh down 
 against the bone, and thus closing the artery or 
 vein. 
 
 Another way, and more permanent, is to apply 
 pressure by means of a tourniquet. Place a pad 
 of tightly rolled cloth or paper, or any suitable 
 object, over the artery between the heart and the 
 wound. Tie a bandage loosely about the limb 
 over this pad, and then insert your bayonet or a 
 stick, and twist up the bandage until the pressure 
 of the pad on the artery stops the leak. Twist 
 the bandage slowly and stop as soon as the blood 
 ceases to flow in order not to bruise the flesh or 
 muscles unnecessarily. 
 
 A tourniquet may cause pain and swelling of 
 the limb, and if left on too long may cause the 
 limb to die. Therefore, about every half hour or 
 so loosen the bandage very carefully, but if the 
 bleeding continues, pressure must be applied 
 55
 
 National Service Library 
 
 again. In this case apply the pressure with the 
 thumb for five or ten minutes, as this cuts off 
 only the main artery and leaves some of the 
 smaller arteries and the veins free to restore 
 part of the circulation. When a tourniquet is 
 painful, it is too tight, and should be carefully 
 loosened a little. 
 
 A broken bone is called a fracture. The great 
 danger in the case of a fracture is that the sharp, 
 jagged edges of the bones may stick through the 
 flesh and skin, or tear and bruise the arteries, 
 veins, and muscles. If the skin is not broken, a 
 fracture is not serious, as no germs can get in. 
 Therefore, never move a person with a broken 
 bone until the fracture has been so fixed that the 
 broken ends of the bone cannot move. 
 
 If the leg or arm is broken, straighten the 
 limb gently, and if necessary, pull upon the end 
 firmly to get the bones in place. Then bind the 
 limb firmly to a splint to hold it in place. A 
 splint may be made of any straight, stiff material 
 a shingle or piece of board, a bayonet, a rifle. 
 a straight branch of a tree, etc. Whatever ma- 
 terial you use must be well padded on the side 
 next to the limb. Be careful never to place the 
 bandages over the fracture, but always above and 
 below. 
 
 Many surgeons think that the method of bind- 
 ing a broken leg to the well one, and of binding 
 the arm to the body is the best plan in the field, 
 56
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 as being the quickest, and one that serves the 
 immediate purpose. 
 
 When a fracture is accompanied by an arterial 
 wound do not attempt to reduce the fracture. 
 Stop the bleeding which will result in death other- 
 wise, and leave the fracture for later treatment. 
 
 With wounds about body, chest and abdomen, 
 you must not meddle, except to protect them 
 when possible without much handling with ma- 
 terials of the packet. 
 
 The symptoms of fainting, shock, and heat ex- 
 haustion are very similar. The face is pale, the 
 skin cool and moist, the pulse is weak, and gen- 
 erally the patient is unconscious. Keep the pa- 
 tient quiet, resting on his back, with his head low. 
 This last is especially important. Loosen the 
 clothing, but keep the patient warm, and give 
 stimulants (whisky, hot coffee, tea, etc.) 
 
 In case of sunstroke the face is flushed, the 
 skin is dry and very hot, and the pulse is full and 
 strong. In this case place the patient in a cool 
 spot, remove the clothing, and make every effort 
 to lessen the heat in the body by cold applica- 
 tions to the head and surface generally. The 
 head should be comfortably raised. Do not, under 
 any circumstances, give any stimulants or hot 
 drinks. 
 
 In case of freezing and frostbite the part 
 frozen, which looks white or bluish white and is 
 cold, should be very slowly raised in temperature 
 57
 
 National Service Library 
 
 by brisk but careful rubbing in a cool place and 
 never near a fire. Stimulants are to be given 
 cautiously when the patient can swallow, and fol- 
 lowed by small amounts of warm liquid nourish- 
 ment. The object is to restore the circulation of 
 the blood and the natural warmth gradually and 
 not violently. Care and patience are necessary 
 to do this. 
 
 Being under water for four or five minutes is 
 generally fatal, but an effort to revive the ap- 
 parently drowned should always be made, unless 
 it is known that the body has been under water 
 for a very long time. The attempt to revive the 
 patient should not be delayed for the purpose of 
 removing his clothes or placing him in the am- 
 bulance. Begin the procedure as soon as he is 
 out of the water, on the shore, or in the boat. The 
 first and most important thing is to start artificial 
 respiration without delay. 
 
 The Schaefer method is preferred because it 
 can be carried out by one person without assist- 
 ance, and because its procedure is not exhausting 
 to the operator, thus permitting him, if required, 
 to continue it for one or two hours. Where it is 
 known that a person has been under water for 
 but a few minutes, continue the artificial respira- 
 tion for at least one and a half to two hours 
 before considering the case hopeless. Once the 
 patient has begun to breathe, watch carefully to 
 see that he does not stop again. Should the 
 58
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 breathing be very faint, or should he stop breath- 
 ing, assist him again with artificial respiration. 
 After he starts breathing, do not lift him, nor per- 
 mit him to stand, until the breathing has become 
 full and regular. 
 
 As soon as the patient is removed from the 
 water, turn him face to the ground, clasp your 
 hands under his waist, and raise the body so that 
 any water may drain out of the air passages while 
 the head remains low. 
 
 Schaefer Method. The patient is laid on his 
 stomach, arms extended from his body beyond his 
 head, face turned to one side so that the mouth 
 and nose do not touch the ground. This position 
 causes the tongue to fall forward of its own 
 weight and so prevents its falling back into the 
 air passages. Turning the head to one side pre- 
 vents the face coming into contact with mud or 
 water during the operation. This position also 
 facilitates the removal from the mouth of foreign 
 bodies such as tobacco, chewing gum, false teeth, 
 etc., and favors the expulsion of mucus, blood, 
 vomitus, serum, or any liquid that may be in the 
 air passages. 
 
 The operator kneels, straddling one or both of 
 the patient's thighs, and faces his head. Locating 
 the lowest rib, the operator, with his thumbs 
 nearly parallel to his fingers places his hands so 
 that the little finger curls over the twelfth rib. 
 If the hands are on the pelvic bones, the object 
 59
 
 National Service Library 
 
 of the work is defeated ; hence the bones of the 
 pelvis are first located in order to avoid them. 
 The hands must be free from the pelvis and rest- 
 ing on the lowest rib. By operating on the bare 
 back it is easier to locate the lower ribs and 
 avoid the pelvis. The nearer the ends of the ribs 
 the hands are placed without sliding off the bet- 
 ter. The hands are thus removed from the spine, 
 the fingers being nearly out of sight. 
 
 The fingers help some, but the chief pressure is 
 exerted by the heels (thenar and hypothenar 
 eminences) of the hands, with the weight coming 
 straight from the shoulders. It is a waste of 
 energy to bend the arms at the elbows and shove 
 in from the sides, because the muscles of the 
 back are stronger than the muscles of the arms 
 
 The operator's arms are held straight, and his 
 weight is brought from his shoulders by bringing 
 his body and shoulders forward. This weight 
 is gradually increased until at the end of the 
 three seconds of vertical pressure upon the lower 
 ribs of the patient the force is felt to be heavy 
 enough to compress the parts ; then the weight is 
 suddenly removed ; if there is danger of not 
 returning the hands to the right position again 
 they can remain lightly in place, but it is 
 usually better to remove the hands entirely. If 
 the operator is light, and the patient is heavy, 
 the operator can utilize over 80 per cent of his 
 weight by raising his knees from the ground, and 
 60
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 supporting himself entirely on his toes and the 
 heels of his hands the latter properly placed on 
 the ends of the floating ribs of the patient. In 
 this manner he can work as effectively as a heavy 
 man. 
 
 A light feather or a piece of absorbent cotton 
 drawn out thin and held near the nose by some 
 one will indicate by its movements whether or 
 not there is a current of air going and coming 
 with each forced expiration and spontaneous 
 inspiration. 
 
 The rate of operation is 12 to 15 times per 
 minute, and should not exceed this ; the lungs 
 must be thoroughly emptied by three seconds of 
 pressure, then refilling takes care of itself. Pres- 
 sure and release of pressure one complete res- 
 piration- occupies about five seconds. If the 
 operator is alone he can be guided in each act by 
 his own deep, regular respiration, or by counting, 
 or by his watch lying by his side; if comrades 
 are present, he can be advised by them. 
 
 The duration of the efforts at artificial respira- 
 tion should ordinarily exceed an hour ; indefi- 
 nitely longer if there are any evidences of return- 
 ing animation, by way of breathing, speaking, or 
 movements. There are liable to be evidences of 
 life within 25 minutes in patients who will 
 recover from electric shock, but where there is 
 doubt the patient should have the benefit of the 
 doubt. In drowning, especially, recoveries are 
 61
 
 National Service Library 
 
 on record after two hours or more of uncon- 
 sciousness; hence, the Schaefer method, being 
 easy of operation, is more likely to be persisted 
 in. 
 
 Aromatic spirits of ammonia may be poured on 
 a handkerchief and held continuously within 3 
 inches of the face and nose; if other ammonia 
 preparations are used, they should be diluted or 
 held farther away. Try it on your own nose 
 first. 
 
 When the operator is a heavy man, it is nec- 
 essary to caution him not to bring force too 
 violently upon the ribs, as one of them might be 
 broken. 
 
 Do not attempt to give liquids of any kind to 
 the patient while unconscious. Apply warm 
 blankets and hot-water bottles as soon as they 
 can be obtained. 
 
 As a rule, soldiers do not need much encour- 
 agement to learn to swim. It is great sport for 
 them and in the field, after long and hot marches, 
 practically all of them want to get into the water. 
 Being mostly young and venturesome, they are 
 always taking chances diving into streams with- 
 out first having determined the depth or whether 
 there are any rocks or logs close to the surface. 
 In my own regiment there have been a number 
 of valuable officers and men who have been 
 drowned or broken their necks by diving into 
 shallow water. Many soldiers venture into strong 
 62
 
 Health in Garrison and Field 
 
 currents without being strong swimmers, so that 
 a proper precaution always to be taken by sol- 
 diers, whether swimming together or as individ- 
 uals, is to look around and see how they would 
 help each other or themselves in difficulty. As 
 they usually swim near camps, it is well to take 
 a lariat or rope with them to use in case of emer- 
 gency. In crossing streams in boats soldiers 
 should take off their ammunition and equipment. 
 In wading or fording streams the same should 
 apply.
 
 Ill 
 
 The Rifle 
 
 WHEN joining his organization, the soldier is 
 issued at once his uniform, arms and equipment, 
 and from that moment he becomes responsible 
 for their safe keeping, their care, and so hand- 
 ling them as to feel like a new man and soldier. 
 Their appearance and use with them his life is 
 bound up. He should have a feeling regard for 
 his best friend, the rifle, and should see that it 
 receives his constant care and gain the confi- 
 dence that comes from handling it like an old 
 soldier. Even to one accustomed to the use of 
 arms in civil life, excepting in rare cases, the 
 handling and use of the army rifle is a new game, 
 unless he has been a member of the National Rifle 
 Association or served in the National Guard. 
 Every soldier should know all about his weapon 
 the nomenclature, safe handling, and accu- 
 rate and rapid use, not only as a lone rifle- 
 man, but as one controlled, directed and dis- 
 ciplined with his comrades. One of his first 
 duties is to learn to shoot straight as an individ- 
 ual, and to protect himself in the charge and in 
 hand-to-hand fighting with the bayonet. Later 
 64
 
 The Rifle 
 
 on he may have the opportunity of serving in 
 the machine-gun company and handling and 
 throwing bombs and grenades without being more 
 dangerous to himself and his friends than to the 
 enemy. 
 
 NOMENCLATURE 
 
 The rifle used throughout the United States 
 service is officially known as the United States 
 rifle, caliber .30, model of 1903, commonly spoken 
 of as the "Army Springfield" because it was first 
 manufactured at the Arsenal, Springfield, Mass. 
 It is the lineal descendant of the long old squir- 
 rel rifle of our forefathers, famous as the weapon 
 of Morgan's riflemen and their Southern com- 
 rades at King's Mountain; the best friend of 
 Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and a 
 long line of our pioneers, scouts and trappers. 
 Flintlock at first, succeeded by the percussion cap, 
 until the radical change in the latter years of the 
 Civil War when the Berdan rifle and the Spencer 
 carbine surprised the Confederates and made the 
 select troops in the Union forces so efficient in 
 the last years of the war. It was rapidly followed 
 by the Sharpe, and the first Springfield model 
 which persisted through the Indian wars until '92, 
 when the first magazine rifle, the Krag-Jorgensen, 
 was imported and gave us our first experience 
 with smokeless powder and really rapid fire. The 
 Spanish Mauser plainly showed its superiority 
 
 65 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L. 3
 
 National Service Library 
 
 during the campaign in Cuba, so that, with it 
 as a model, our Ordnance Department developed 
 the present most effective weapon which has been 
 used since 1903. For hand-to-hand fighting and 
 to give confidence in the charge there is the 
 long, sharp bayonet, which is always loaded and 
 with which the soldier goes at his enemy with 
 blood in his eye. 
 
 Complete without the bayonet the rifle weighs 
 about Sy 2 pounds, and the bayonet about i 
 pound. The four grooves cut in the bore spirally 
 like a corkscrew grip the bullet as it passes 
 through, making it spin on its axis, increasing 
 the range and accuracy by making it keep point 
 foremost in flight. This is called "rifling," and 
 the gun is so called because of these grooves. The 
 raised portions between grooves are "lands." 
 Caliber means the diameter of the barrel meas- 
 ured from land to land. The caliber of the rifle 
 is .30 (30-100 of an inch). The bullet of the 
 ball cartridge has a muzzle or initial velocity of 
 about 2,700 feet per second. This means that 
 when the bullet leaves the muzzle it is going at 
 that rate of speed. The bullet will go farthest 
 when the barrel is pointed upwards at an angle of 
 nearly 45 degrees above the horizontal. It will 
 then strike level ground 4,982 yards (about 2^4 
 miles) away. This is called the maximum range 
 of the rifle, but the greatest range for which the 
 sight is marked is 2,850 yards. 
 66
 
 The Rifle 
 
 Every soldier should know the names and uses 
 of the parts of his rifle. Memorize at once the 
 number of your rifle. The Ordnance Department 
 publishes a pamphlet, "Description and Rules for 
 the Management of the United States Rifle," 
 copies of which are in every organization. Every- 
 thing is there explained in detail. The enlisted 
 man is not allowed to take his rifle apart, except 
 the bolt and magazine mechanisms, without 
 first getting permission from a commissioned 
 officer. 
 
 The rifle must be used just as it is issued by 
 the Ordnance Department, without any change 
 except that the wood of the upper band may be 
 worked down under the supervision of a com- 
 missioned officer. Don't try to polish any part of 
 the rifle that is blued. Don't put any part of a 
 rifle in a fire, or file any part, or use sandpaper, 
 emery paper, or powder, or anything else that 
 cuts or scratches. If the trigger pull doesn't suit 
 you, consult your company commander. Never 
 use abrasives to clean the bore, nor clean with a 
 rod from the muzzle end. This last wears down 
 the lands at the muzzle and is a cause of inac- 
 curacy. Many rifles have been ruined by this 
 practice. 
 
 HANDLING THE RIFLE 
 
 The following rules from paragraph 75, In- 
 fantry Drill Regulations, are important: 
 6?
 
 National Service Library 
 
 The piece is not carried with cartridges in either the 
 chamber or the magazine except when specifically 
 ordered. When so loaded, or supposed to be loaded, it 
 is habitually carried locked ; that is, with the safety 
 lock turned to the "safe." At all other times it is car- 
 ried unlocked with the trigger pulled. 
 
 Whenever troops are formed under arms pieces are 
 immediately inspected. A similar inspection is made 
 immediately before dismissal. If cartridges are found 
 in the chamber or magazine they are removed and 
 placed in the belt. 
 
 The cut-off is kept turned "off" except when car- 
 tridges are actually used. 
 
 The bayonet is not fixed except in bayonet exercises, 
 on guard or for combat. 
 
 Be sure that when the piece is locked the safety 
 lock is turned fully to the right. If it is turned 
 not quite far enough and the trigger is pulled, the 
 piece may be discharged when the safety lock is 
 next turned to the "ready" position. 
 
 After any duty out of ranks draw back the bolt, 
 look at the chamber and magazine, and see that 
 your rifle is empty. Never put your rifle away 
 loaded except when ordered to do so. 
 
 Always guard your rifle carefully against 
 injury. If it is in good order and shoots accu- 
 rately, it may some day save your life. Do not 
 drop it or place it so that it is apt to fall. Spe- 
 cial care must be taken not to strike or bend the 
 sights. 
 
 It is best to keep the cover on to protect 
 the front sight. Be sure to lay down the rear 
 sight after finishing firing. In coming to "order 
 68
 
 The Rifle 
 
 arms" at drill lower the piece gently to the 
 ground. 
 
 Do not lay the rifle on the ground unless you 
 have to. Dampness will warp the stock and spoil 
 the accuracy. 
 
 Be especially careful to keep the muzzle off 
 of the ground. Dirt inside the barrel is liable to 
 make it burst when fired. 
 
 You cannot eject the empty shell or loaded 
 cartridges from the magazine unless you draw 
 the bolt fully to the rear; you should be careful 
 about this, especially in rapid fire. Draw the 
 bolt back quick and hard. 
 
 If there is a misfire it is not safe to draw back 
 the bolt at once, as it may be a hang-fire. Instead 
 of drawing back the bolt, cock the piece by draw- 
 ing back the cocking piece and try again. A 
 misfire is often caused by not pressing the bolt 
 handle fully down or by raising it with the hand 
 when aiming. Be sure the handle is pressed fully 
 down before firing. 
 
 Keep the receiver free from unburned grains 
 of powder which, when many rounds are fired, 
 sometimes interfere with closing the bolt. 
 
 Do not get in the habit of leaning on the muzzle 
 of your rifle with elbow or hands. It is a rookie 
 trick. Of course there is no danger of an 
 unloaded rifle going off, but many accidents 
 have been the result of "not knowing it was 
 loaded.''' 
 
 69
 
 National Service Library 
 
 CLEANING THE RIFLE 
 
 The bore of the rifle must be kept clean and 
 free from rust. Clean it as soon as the firing is 
 over. Never postpone this. 
 
 How to Clean. Take out the bolt. Swab out 
 thoroughly from the breech end with the clean- 
 ing rod and a patch of canton flannel about i& 
 inches square, wet with Hoppe's Powder Solvent 
 No. 9. After it is thoroughly clean, dry it out 
 by running through with clean dry rags. Then 
 grease thoroughly with a clean rag soaked in 
 "Three-in-One" oil to prevent rust. If no clean- 
 ing rod is at hand, use the pull-through in the 
 butt of the rifle, drawing the brush and rag from 
 the muzzle toward the breech. Clean and lightly 
 oil the bolt and all cams and bearing surfaces, 
 preferably with "Three-in-One" oil, or the sperm 
 oil in the small arms oiler in the butt of the 
 piece. If the rifle is not to be used, repeat this 
 operation after twenty-four hours. 
 
 SHOOTING STRAIGHT 
 
 Every soldier is keen about shooting, and his 
 interest lasts through any amount of work and 
 training as long as he can see the results of his 
 work ; but he must know that to be a good, con- 
 sistent, steady shot, both on the range and in 
 battle, every one of the wrinkles of the expert 
 must come involuntarily, as the result of long 
 70
 
 The Rifle 
 
 practice and following the progressive course of 
 instruction laid down in the Small Arms Firing 
 Regulations. After learning the habits of his 
 rifle, he must cultivate instinctive habits of hand- 
 ling it and using it, like a third arm, first by 
 position and aiming drills. 
 
 Thus, when a novice on a battle field is shoot- 
 ing at a target, this target being a man, he has 
 to think as to whether he is paying proper atten- 
 tion to the following things : the position of the 
 feet if standing, of the body if lying down ; of the 
 butt of the gun against the shoulder or arm ; 
 whether or not the gun is canted ; the position of 
 the left arm for the body rest; the position of 
 the right arm to get the greatest degree of steadi- 
 ness ; holding the head to keep the nose out of 
 reach of the recoil; whether the eye is shut or 
 not; the taking of a long breath; holding the 
 breath while pulling the trigger; whether a full 
 or only a half sight be taken ; bringing the front 
 sight tangent to a certain portion of the target; 
 selection of the point of aim; proper use of the 
 notch of the rear sight; squeeze of the trigger, 
 and observation of the strike of the bullet after 
 firing. All these are habits of the expert shot, 
 without his thinking about them. On the other 
 hand, the novice, in the midst of excitement, is 
 trying to think of all these things, and so fails to 
 function properly gets rattled, jerks the trigger, 
 or otherwise fires wildly. A thorough course in 
 71
 
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 the position and aiming drills is absolutely nec- 
 essary, and by their means a man may be made a 
 good shot before he has ever fired at a target. 
 Throughout the target season soldiers should 
 practice these drills constantly. The most impor- 
 tant of the position and aiming drills are the lying 
 down and kneeling positions, as they are almost 
 always used on the field of battle. They are also 
 more difficult, and they should be practiced the 
 more. These drills should be followed by gal- 
 lery practice and then the course on the target 
 range as laid down in the Firing Regulations, 
 followed by firing problems and combat exercises 
 for the teamwork. 
 
 The apparent dimensions of a visible target 
 vary inversely as the distance ; that is, the appar- 
 ent dimensions of a target at a distance of 1,000 
 yards are one-tenth the apparent dimensions of 
 the same target at 100 yards. The visual area, 
 therefore, of a target at 1,000 yards is one one- 
 hundredth of the visual area of the same target 
 at loo yards; that is, a man at 1,000 yards' dis- 
 tance is loo times as hard to hit as a man at 100 
 yards. This explains why, in certain battles, a 
 hit is made for every 100 rounds of ammunition 
 fired, while in others it seems to require 1,000 
 rounds of ammunition to hit a man. 
 
 In the close range fighting on the western front 
 in France, where there is little time or chance 
 for long-range firing, the great importance of 
 72
 
 The Rifle 
 
 rapid fire at short ranges has been impressed on 
 everybody, and quick and sure handling of the 
 piece, whether standing, kneeling, lying down, 
 running or crawling. 
 
 Every soldier should learn to fire with some 
 degree of accuracy at least 20 shots per minute, 
 and aspire to getting off 25. 
 
 To shoot well a man must be in good physical 
 condition. The eye, the muscles of the body, and 
 the nervous system must work in unison with 
 one another and with the mind. The best expert 
 shots keep so by constant practice. Take advan- 
 tage of every opportunity to practice aiming and 
 squeezing the trigger, and always aim at some 
 particular object. Put a black paster on the wall 
 of your quarters, or on a stake near your tent 
 and frequently aim at it and squeeze the trigger. 
 When in the field or on the range, pick out small, 
 clear-cut targets in every direction, estimating 
 the distances and setting your sights to them, and 
 squeeze your trigger again, holding on the tar- 
 get, Every man who is not badly defective in 
 vision can become a good shot if he puts his mind 
 to it and keeps practicing on the lines of exper- 
 ience as laid down by the Small Arms Firing 
 Regulations. 
 
 The soldier who is keen about shooting and 
 
 becomes an expert, not only enjoys it as a game, 
 
 but is privileged to go to the National and Army 
 
 shoots and compete with the best shots of this 
 
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 and other countries. Sooner or later he is also 
 picked out as a noncom., for most good shots 
 are good all-round soldiers. Details as sergeant- 
 instructor are open to him with the National 
 Guard, and he has the opportunity of attending 
 the Army School of Musketry where the experts 
 are trained as instructors and learn the final 
 finesse of the game. Every soldier too should 
 keep his record throughout his service. The best 
 of the score books furnished soldiers is the 
 "Bull's-eye" score book, published by "Arms and 
 the Man," Washington, D. C, from which much 
 of the foregoing advice has been taken or been 
 suggested. 
 
 BAYONET TRAINING AND COMBAT 
 
 A bayonet fixed on the Springfield rifle makes 
 the infantryman a descendant of the ancient 
 spearman and pikeman and gives him a murder- 
 ous^reach of about five feet. It has played an 
 important part in the Great War, especially in 
 the hands of the French and Russians. Like the 
 saber in the hands of the cavalryman, it may not 
 result in causing many deaths or wounds, but it 
 has a moral effect for the man who handles it 
 of making him ready and eager to reach his 
 enemy in a charge, and a very demoralizing effect 
 on the enemy. With the bayonet fixed a gun is 
 always loaded. The infantry soldier should be 
 taught bayonet fencing to make him active and 
 74
 
 The Rifle 
 
 quick in hand-to-hand combat, train his eye and 
 steady his hand, and to give him absolute con- 
 fidence in himself. The movements in training 
 for bayonet exercises are given in Infantry Drill 
 Regulations (fourth volume). 
 
 In training for the assault, soldiers should be 
 made to run, jump and rush in open spaces, carry- 
 ing the bayonet at the charge. Bayonet fencing 
 alone is in itself not an aggressive training. 
 The hesitation that arises in hand-to-hand fight- 
 ing from fencing alone is somewhat demoraliz- 
 ing; it tends to caution which should be over- 
 come by charging over distances at an assumed 
 enemy. The Frenchmen find that a charging line 
 by lowering the bayonets to the height of the 
 waist and determined advance together is most 
 demoralizing to the enemy and almost invariably 
 causes him to run. 
 
 The training exercises carried out by one com- 
 pany of Frenchmen to prepare for the attack 
 first were : 
 
 First : a brief review of the movements, then fencing 
 on the run. Then running, shout "Halt ! Thrust ! 
 Thrust again !" They started again, climbed the slopes, 
 lunged and relunged furiously. They got winded, so 
 much the worse but everyone ran, descended the 
 slope stabbing and stabbing again, getting excited and 
 feverish, the officers and noncoms. galloping more furi- 
 ously than the rest. Afterward there was fencing with 
 the dummy. Stuffed sacks full of straw, made smaller 
 each day to provide smaller target and oblige the men 
 to be more accurate in their blows. A course was laid 
 
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 out of about seventy-five yards in quite a tangled wood. 
 Obstacles were placed in the course by cutting down 
 bushes. Here and there were placed dummies. Thus 
 on a fairly short course the men were obliged to run, 
 jump, bend down, attack, and this in every manner, 
 because the dummies were placed in such a way that 
 the men had to combine his attack with right face, left 
 face, face to the rear, or crossing an obstacle. This 
 exercise particularly interested the men, and as we 
 measured the time taken by each one to run the course, 
 in a few days it had developed in an astonishing man- 
 ner their agility and suppleness and gave nerve to 
 those who lacked it. 
 
 Afterward there were attacks in groups and then 
 charges by platoon. Here we sought, while giving the 
 greatest impulsion and fury possible, to keep cohesion 
 and give to each one the confidence of being elbow to 
 elbow, and to the enemy the terrifying impression of 
 a wave that nothing could stop. We marched at charg- 
 ing pace, and as we charged, lowered the bayonets in 
 a single movement to the height of the waist. 
 
 7 6
 
 IV 
 
 March Discipline 
 
 A HORSE, no matter what his quality and con- 
 formation, is only as good as his four legs. So 
 an infantryman, no matter how strong and well 
 set-up he may be in appearance, will last just as 
 long as his feet. The best marching soldiers 
 probably in the world as a nation are the French. 
 The French poilu is not anything like as smart- 
 looking a soldier as his comrade of the British 
 army. He looks decidedly sloppy on the march. 
 But in large bodies they stump off twenty-five 
 miles a day without any apparent effort and carry 
 most of fifty pounds to boot. There is no stiff- 
 ness nor jolt to a Frenchman on the march; he 
 seems entirely relaxed, and his cheery spirit and 
 soldierly pride are just as much in evidence at the 
 end of a long day's hike as at the beginning. 
 The American soldier is well equipped in every 
 way, and he can learn and train himself to march 
 just as well as the Frenchman, but he must know 
 that the habit and wrinkles of marching like the 
 Frenchman like the best of his own regulars 
 come from hitting the trail properly shod and 
 properly packed. The wrinkles known to the 
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 tried and trained soldier he must pick up from 
 the regulars with whom he associates, especially 
 the noncoms. He must not straggle and he 
 must play the game as a member of the great 
 team. 
 
 There is a reason for every bit of march dis- 
 cipline and every habit insisted upon by his com- 
 manding officer. The best marching soldiers in 
 our annals were those of Stonewall Jackson's 
 famous Stonewall Brigade. It was a flying col- 
 umn and marched all around its opponents. "His 
 victories were won rather by sweat than by blood, 
 by skillful marching than by sheer hard fighting. 
 The enemy, surprised and outnumbered, was 
 practically beaten before a shot was fired and 
 success was obtained at a trifling cost." (Hen- 
 derson.) 
 
 Mr. Thomas Nelson Page told me of sit- 
 ting on the fence of his father's plantation 
 when the Stonewall Brigade marched down the 
 Niggerfoot Road . . . and struck the Union right 
 at Mechanicsville. He remembers particularly 
 when the halt was sounded that every soldier 
 promptly flopped down in the road, like a tired 
 dog, and relaxed into complete rest until the 
 onward march. On that very march Stonewall 
 Jackson threatened to shoot every straggler. 
 There was no straggling. Our cavalry in the 
 Indian wars never had any stragglers, for every 
 pony soldier knew if he were left behind the 
 78
 
 March Discipline 
 
 Indians would scalp him. So that the spirit and 
 march discipline has everything to do with getting 
 there all together. 
 
 No soldier should leave ranks at any time on 
 the march without permission. An army on the 
 march must swarm along like a column of insects. 
 Any straggling or undisciplined marching affects 
 the whole column. The careless habits of the 
 individual or the small party operating has no 
 place in the march of large bodies. 
 
 Private property must be absolutely respected. 
 Soldiers leaving ranks to loot, or to drop into 
 orchards or country stores, is disorganizing. Sev- 
 eral National Guard regiments on the border 
 recently became absolutely disorganized by a 
 severe storm. If the officers of a command 
 allowed their men to get out of hand when pelted 
 by rain, what a mess there would be under a 
 rain of bullets ! 
 
 A column on the march keeps to the right side 
 of the road, so that the left may be available for 
 mounted men, messengers and staff officers. At 
 rest, soldiers sit or lie on right hand side, officers 
 opposite their companies on the left side. 
 
 Treasure your canteen of water. Train your- 
 self not to drink on the march. If absolutely 
 necessary, simply rinse your mouth, or drink a 
 very little at a time. Remember what you would 
 do under exhausting circumstances in baseball 
 or football. 
 
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 The Twelfth New York, during the summer of 
 1916 in Texas was so trained that the regiment 
 could knock off twenty-five miles at a stretch 
 without stragglers, and learned to take great 
 pride in carrying their packs like old soldiers ; and 
 on Thanksgiving Day, in a point to point race of 
 three miles there were 104 entries, every soldier 
 fully packed and equipped for the march, with 
 loo rounds of ammunition, and nearly all fin- 
 ished, the winner doing the three miles in twenty- 
 one minutes plus, across a rough country, over 
 drainage ditches and through chaparral. Not a 
 man was hurt by the test. After four months 
 of such training two divisions under General 
 Parker operated against one another with long 
 marches and frequent deployments without any 
 distress or straggling, and enjoyed the game so 
 much that most of the soldiers were sorry when 
 the maneuvers were over. 
 
 The mob spirit is very close under the skins 
 of all but very seasoned troops. Every little 
 relaxation of road or camp discipline is a con- 
 cession to this spirit, lends encouragement to 
 it, and physical weariness, lack of sleep, excite- 
 ment, hunger, cold, or extreme heat drive men 
 rapidly in this dangerous direction. Absolute dis- 
 regard for the individual, even to rough meas- 
 ures, and the sternest discipline for stragglers on 
 the march, men who leave the ranks at rests or 
 their company streets in camp, will eventually 
 80
 
 March Discipline 
 
 crush the mob spirit and will eventually result 
 in a pride of discipline. 
 
 It is as easy to train troops to march fast as 
 slowly. The Twelfth Infantry averaged three 
 miles per hour including halts ; perhaps a little 
 less on exceptionally hot days, in a march of 
 nearly one hundred miles. Their pace was uni- 
 formly one hundred and twenty steps to the 
 minute in route march. They made camp in time 
 to settle themselves comfortably, wash and clean 
 their clothes, get a good meal before dark, gather 
 wood for big bonfires around which they gathered 
 to sing and swap yarns. 
 
 Rests should be frequent and short. The 
 Twelfth marched twenty-five minutes and rested 
 five in every half hour and on the hour and half 
 hour. All watches set together and every ele- 
 ment of the column halted and rested on the 
 hour and the half five minutes about the length 
 of time that men absolutely rest. They become 
 restless after this or stiffen. In resting, they 
 should lean back on the packs, drop the arms by 
 the side, chest up and unrestricted with a few 
 deep breaths, hat brim over the eyes, cartridge 
 belt thrown open, etc. On the whistle, there 
 should be a prompt getaway, no fiddling around. 
 When very hot, files may be opened to greater 
 intervals. Each soldier should see the road in 
 front of him and not be annoyed by muzzle of 
 rifle of man in front. Singing should be encour- 
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 aged mouth organs great help and ridicule in- 
 spired for men who are taken in ambulance or 
 attempt to shirk the full pack. 
 
 The business of every man is to get over the 
 road "kill it," as the soldier says. 
 
 Obstacles or bad places in the road must be 
 handled so as not to check the rate of march. 
 Instead of the head of the column slacking up 
 after passing an obstacle for the rear to close 
 up, the reverse should be practiced. Each head 
 of column and each element in the column down 
 to each set of fours fight their way across at 
 increased pace so that the element or man in the 
 rear never checks his pace. I have seen an 
 entire regiment meet a serious obstacle and the 
 last man in the column never check his stride 
 for a moment. The men soon learn to love it 
 and you can hear cheers and shouts as each part 
 of the line bucks the obstacle. Men hate checks 
 and delays, it puts them in bad humor, while the 
 foregoing method really enlivens the march and 
 adds incredibly to the pace. Streams, mudholes, 
 deep ditches or steep banks become hazards met 
 cheerfully instead of with growl. 
 
 Never lengthen the column by marching in 
 twos or files, except in extreme necessity. Such 
 formations result in immediate slackness. 
 
 March the little men in front most of the time, 
 but change units, battalions and companies in 
 column daily. 
 
 82
 
 March Discipline 
 
 The "getaway" from camp has a most impor- 
 tant bearing on the march. An orderly, well- 
 planned, and therefore cheerful breaking and 
 cleaning of camp puts the best foot of a com- 
 mand foremost and will keep them up to best 
 form all day. Likewise making camp is equally 
 important. The site should be selected in ample 
 time and the company flags collected in time to be 
 set long before troops arrive, so that lines are 
 formed immediately on arrival and packs unslung. 
 Their mood is very different when they must 
 stand around or are changed several times. 
 
 At night "taps" should be sounded early, de- 
 pending on hour of start the next morning. It 
 is urgently important that all commanders see 
 that men pitch their tents, make proper beds and 
 that all noise and talking cease at taps. There 
 are always a few men in every company who will 
 continue to laugh and talk for hours, thus dis- 
 turbing their comrades who seek and need rest. 
 
 A cheerful", even noisy reveille, sounds fine to 
 a commanding officer, with his ear tuned to camp 
 sounds which convey so much to him. Then a 
 good breakfast, time for the men to relieve them- 
 selves, a tense moment as every man stands to 
 his post at the "general" with a great shout at 
 the last note and keen rivalry in the race to be 
 ready first, with friendly chaffing of the slow 
 men or units all mean that a good day's work 
 will be done. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 In case of storm in camp, make men work. Do 
 not let them stop to think of their misery. Get 
 wood, build big bonfires, make hot coffee, dig 
 ditches and every officer in the middle of his 
 men, without a particle more clothing or protec- 
 tion than they have. 
 
 I have many times watched a column at rest 
 with watch in hand. Relaxation is complete for 
 about four and one-half minutes. Then a 
 restlessness becomes evident which steadily in- 
 creases until in about six minutes relaxation 
 has apparently ceased for a majority of the 
 column. 
 
 I have carefully watched from the rear flanks a 
 column regiment on the march. There was 
 always an officer whose sole duty was to set the 
 pace with watch in hand. I have started the 
 pace at 114 per minute; noted the grumble and 
 checking in the column, the sound of the column 
 was not satisfactory. Increased to 116 and 118 
 there was noted considerable improvement. At 
 1 20 the "rate" of the column settled to the steady 
 hum as you might say of a motor, which has 
 struck its most efficient rate of revolution, The 
 swing carries through the whip at the tail and 
 the check at the heads of units practically dis- 
 appeared and evidently all felt the machine was 
 working smoothly and efficiently. 
 
 The following notes are taken from Mercur's 
 "Art of War," one of the most interesting and 
 84
 
 March Discipline 
 
 well-thought-out volumes ever published on the 
 subject : 
 
 For large bodies of men marching continuously day 
 after day, the daily distances covered are at first sight 
 surprisingly small. Twelve miles a day is fair going, 
 fifteen miles is good and twenty miles a day continu- 
 ously is regarded as forced marching. 
 
 Roberts's march of 318 miles from Kabul to Kan- 
 dahar took twenty-three days, and Huidekoper tells in 
 his paper on the Great War that Friant's division cov- 
 ered seventy-eight miles in forty-six hours, in time to 
 arrive at Austerlitz, where on the following day he 
 fought so hard that he lost 40 per cent of the surviving 
 strength. The most interesting chapter in Napier's 
 "Peninsular Wars" tells of how the Light Division 
 forced itself to Talavera, making sixty-two miles in 
 twenty-six hours. Such marching can be achieved only 
 by trained soldiers and experienced officers, taking in- 
 finite pains and paying attention to a host of details, 
 each trivial in itself. 
 
 SPEED 
 
 The ordinary quick time is that of 120 thirty-inch 
 steps a minute. This gives us the round figure of 100 
 yards a minute, which is so important a datum in the 
 calculation of distances when the commander of a unit 
 has to get his force at a given point at a given time to 
 take its allotted place in a column of march. Allowing 
 for halts, this works out at about three miles an hour, 
 but the larger the force the more slowly it marches and 
 two and a half miles an hour for a brigade or two for 
 a division is a good average. 
 
 DURATION 
 
 It will be seen that the average fifteen-mile march 
 will take a brigade six hours and a division eight hours. 
 When you realize that a division, with all its impedi- 
 ments in column of march, covers a length of fifteen 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 miles of road, it is much easier to appreciate the dif- 
 ficulties which occur when a wagon breaks down and 
 blocks a narrow way near the head of the column. At 
 the best, the rear guard, at the end of the fifteen-mile 
 march, can only reach the point from which the advance 
 column moved off in the morning and the normal eight 
 hours which the rear guard should occupy on its day's 
 march will be increased by every delay which checks 
 the weary column ahead as it gradually breaks down the 
 road along which it slowly labors on its way. 
 
 RHYTHM 
 
 Rhythm of marching will place the tall and short 
 men at a mechanical disadvantage. On the other hand, 
 walking is so automatic an action that it is said to be 
 the only exercise which can be continued during sleep. 
 It must therefore be largely under subconscious con- 
 trol. Any factor which increases this subconscious con- 
 trol diminishes purposeful mental effort and thus 
 economizes mental strain. Marching in rhythm, and 
 especially to music or singing, is a valuable aid to sub- 
 conscious control in marching and probably more than 
 neutralizes the loss by mechanical disadvantage which 
 results from maintaining an uniform length stride for 
 men of different heights. Men should alternate between 
 marching in step, marching at ease, and marching to 
 song. In hot weather the chest should be bared and 
 sleeves rolled up. 
 
 EFFECTS OF WATER Loss 
 
 Water forms 66 per cent of the total body weight. 
 The loss of one gallon involves danger, the loss of one 
 and a half gallons causes death. One quart can be lost 
 without inefficiency resulting, so that at the end of seven 
 and a half miles marched without water the men should 
 be quite fit. During the loss of the next quart slight 
 inefficiency gradually appears, and at the end of fifteen 
 miles there is a genuine "necessity thirst," but still there 
 is but slight inefficiency. During the loss of the third 
 
 86
 
 March Discipline 
 
 quart inefficiency becomes marked, if no water has been 
 drunk, and after the loss of four quarts during a 
 thirty-mile waterless march the man's condition is be- 
 coming dangerous. 
 
 On a fifteen-mile march the contents of the water 
 bottle should not be touched until the halfway point is 
 reached. The contents of the canteen should then 
 suffice to take the men into camp without the bottle 
 being refilled, or inefficiency being experienced. 
 
 The precise data thus obtained afford invaluable aid 
 in the maintenance of water discipline, the enforcement 
 of which has been made less firm by the fear of the 
 combatant officer that strict discipline in this matter 
 might inflict genuine distress on the men. Owing to 
 uncertainty as to the precise point at which habit thirst 
 becomes necessity thirst, no definite orders have been 
 laid down. Allowance must be made for the increased 
 sweat occurring on hot days, but even so, there is a 
 margin of a quart of water always between the man's 
 needs and the onset of even slight inefficiency due to 
 loss of fluid. 
 
 The normal average requirements are that the men 
 should get one quart of water at the end of every seven 
 and a half miles marched, making allowance for high 
 speed, increased weight carried, and high atmospheric 
 temperature or humidity. 
 
 One of the most noticeable habits of the Ameri- 
 can soldier is. guzzling water on the march. It is 
 a habit which can easily be changed into one of 
 saving your canteen of water until after the 
 march, for the rest time, when it will do the most 
 good, and when you will often most need it in 
 a dry country. Under the hot sun, on the march, 
 if thirst overcomes the will, drink as little as pos- 
 sible, rinse out the mouth, or if necessary, take 
 small drinks frequently; but most old soldiers 
 87
 
 National Service Library 
 
 discover that they can go without water until in 
 camp or at rest. The sensation of thirst is due 
 to a loss of water from the blood. It can be 
 overcome only by restoring the proper amount 
 of fluid to the veins. When overheated, or 
 exhausted, or excited, the stomach's action is 
 checked and no amount of water poured in will 
 relieve the sensation, for the water remains in 
 the stomach. This condition is exaggerated if 
 the water be cold and the stomach be overloaded. 
 A temporary cooling of the throat is the only 
 result and one swig at the canteen tempts to 
 another. Pain and distress follow. A small 
 amount of warm water will relieve real thirst 
 more readily than a large amount of cold water. 
 A little sugar from the haversack taken with the 
 water aids the stomach to absorb and pass the 
 water into the blood. 
 
 Before starting on the march men should have 
 a large amount of hot tea or weak coffee. In 
 view of the great value of sugar, this should be 
 freely sweetened. Men should be advised to 
 suck a bullet or pebble on the march. The value 
 of this lies in the fact that it keeps the mouth 
 shut and therefore moist. The old campaigner 
 will march all day without having recourse to 
 his canteen. The difficulty is with the young 
 recruit, who starts pulling at his canteen before 
 he has marched two or three miles, thus promot- 
 ing habit thirst and the necessity of refilling his 
 88
 
 March Discipline 
 
 canteen from the first contaminated wayside 
 source. The canteen should be refilled at the 
 end of the first fifteen miles and at the end of 
 every seven miles subsequently, thus preventing 
 men from suffering from "necessity thirst," and 
 there will always be a quart of water between 
 them and any inefficiency from loss of fluid. The 
 canteens should always be filled at night, either 
 with sterilized water or with weak sweet tea or 
 coffee. The canteens are thus sterilized and in 
 the morning they are full of cold safe liquid. Tea 
 is a better thirst quencher than water. 
 
 The features of good marching boots have 
 been mentioned and the methods of preparing 
 boots for the march have been described. It is 
 probable that, contrary to general belief, the 
 majority of cases of disability from sore feet are 
 due to defects in the socks rather than in the 
 boots ; such as, undarned holes of which the 
 edges ruck up into ridges, and bad darning. If, 
 when wearing light woolen socks, there is still 
 friction or blisters, it is advisable to wear two 
 pairs of socks, the outer pair to be of cotton, thus 
 taking the friction of the boot off the woolen pair 
 worn next the feet. 
 
 When the socks are worn into holes and cannot 
 be replaced, they may be substituted by a trian- 
 gular piece of thin soft textile, preferably linen. 
 The soldier places his foot on it with the toe 
 toward the apex so that the material can be 
 89
 
 National Service Library 
 
 brought up around and wrapped over the foot. 
 In the absence of suitable textile material, thin 
 greased paper may be substituted. Men should 
 wash their feet in cold water, rubbing them with 
 alum or spirit lotion to harden the skin if there 
 be any tenderness. Clean socks and camp shoes 
 should be put on when practicable. The socks 
 worn on the march should be washed and kneaded 
 until perfectly soft and then dried ready for the 
 morning, when socks and boots will be clean, soft 
 and comfortable. Of course, while it will often 
 happen that this routine cannot be carried out 
 daily, it should be adhered to as far as possible, 
 and the consequent reduction in disability from 
 sore feet will be surprising. 
 
 90
 
 V 
 
 Clothing 
 
 THE soldier is given a liberal clothing allow- 
 ance, and every bit of it supplied by the govern- 
 ment is of good cut and quality. Properly cared 
 for, it is smart and appropriate, and every sol- 
 dier should take pride in it and remember that 
 one of his most important duties is to look his 
 part. Every American has a weakness for a 
 soldier, and he expects him to look soldierly 
 and show at a glance his superior feeling and 
 training. 
 
 Every enlisted man has a clothing allowance 
 of $48 for the first year of his term, with a sub- 
 sequent allowance of $24 for each succeeding 
 year. Out of this allowance he can easily, and 
 must, clothe himself. The careful soldier can 
 save money out of this sum, which is paid to him 
 on his discharge. Some of the more expensive 
 items formerly charged against the soldier's 
 account are now issued free of charge by the 
 government, and the soldier is responsible merely 
 for their safe keeping and reasonable care. In 
 this list are included the poncho, the overcoat and 
 the blankets. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 The old saw about an army moving on its belly is all 
 wrong. An army horse, foot, and guns moves on its 
 feet. It is a matter of tires and iron-shod hoofs and 
 socks and shoes. But we will narrow the discussion 
 here to the feet of the fighting men, the infantry, which 
 forms the bulk of all armies. 
 
 If the army's feet are not sound it doesn't move far, 
 and it can't move fast. And that is why, in the 
 Medical Corps and in the quartermaster's division, you 
 will find a disproportionate amount of official so- 
 licitude about feet as compared to legs or hands, or 
 even heads. This concern is the same in all armies ; 
 and we are profiting by the trials and the mistakes 
 taught us by the millions of weary feet which have 
 followed the roads of Europe into battle. An infantry- 
 man will advance a day or retreat two days without 
 food sometimes, but he won't advance on sore feet. 
 Motor lorries will be loaded up with him going to the 
 front, and ambulances lugging him away to the rear. 
 
 In the early weeks of the militia concentration on the 
 Texan border practice marches developed physical un- 
 fitness in nearly every command. On short hikes of 
 no more than six or ten" miles a very large percentage 
 of men fell out, to be gathered up by motor trucks and 
 brought into camp or harvested by ambulances back to 
 hospitals. These men fell out for a variety of reasons, 
 but a great many of them refused to march any farther 
 on account of sore feet. To begin with, marching and 
 walking as the average civilian, not a policeman or a 
 postman, understands walking about his daily vocation 
 are two very different things. An infantryman on 
 his feet carries about sixty pounds of dead weight: 
 forty-five pounds or so of pack, eight pounds or so of 
 rifle, and the rest in ammunition or separate equip- 
 ment. He cannot choose his own gait, and he has to 
 negotiate all kinds of ground, winter roads corrugated 
 with frozen ruts, slippery trails of mud and water, 
 rocks, hot sand. And more than half the time a change 
 of shoes is for him a luxury; he is very apt to keep the 
 same pair on night and day, wet or dry. If his shoes 
 
 92
 
 Clothing 
 
 are not right, or if his feet are not sound, he cannot 
 last a week with a moving command ; and it is entirely 
 possible that he will even have trouble in a trench. 
 
 It was easy to account for a great many militia sore 
 feet early in the summer. The machinery of the War 
 Department ground slowly, and many regiments turned 
 up in all kinds of quaint footwear made to be sat in or 
 briefly stood in, but never to be hiked in over the rough 
 gumbo of Texas. There were patent leathers, boots 
 button, kid-top boots, low shoes with pointed toes and 
 wide verandas running round them, sneakers, Congress 
 gaiters, and "college shoes for college men," all bravely 
 kicking up the dust or squeegeeing through the mud, 
 hay-foot-straw-foot, along the border. No wonder 
 Illinois fell out by their 20 per cent, or Virginia lay 
 down in companies. No wonder New York lost ninety 
 men by the roadside in six miles. Some of it was sun, 
 some of it was faint heart; most of it was feet. 
 
 In those early weeks the trouble was due to no 
 serious attempt at scientific shoeing ar all. But as late 
 as November a brigade formed of regiments from the 
 District of Columbia, Mississippi, and West Virginia, 
 after nearly five months spenj: in active duty at their 
 State and border camps, made a three days' hike of 
 only thirty-six miles from Fort Houston to Landa 
 Park, Tex. "Scores of the militiamen," the report 
 goes, "reached here in ambulances as a result of foot 
 trouble." Every one of these militiamen in the ambu- 
 lances was wearing a pair of regulation shoes issued 
 according to the old mechanical requisition on the 
 quartermaster's stores. The difficulty in this case was 
 due to imperfect inspection and inaccurate requisition, a 
 combination of bad system and misuse of good material. 
 
 In those days arose upon the border a prophet, an 
 apostle to the weary and heavy laden. His name was 
 Major William W. Reno, Medical Corps, U. S. A., and 
 he was a voice crying in the Texan wilderness, saying: 
 "They shall run and not be weary ; they shall walk and 
 not faint." Major Reno makes a profession of keeping 
 the United States army on its feet. With him it is 
 
 93
 
 National Service Library 
 
 more than a profession ; it is almost a religion. Out of 
 the experience of many years devoted to the study of 
 pedal extremities he devised a system of inspection 
 with a consequent form of requisition on the quarter- 
 master's supply of shoes and socks. Army orders were 
 issued which established that system for the regulars 
 and for the organized militia in service. Under this 
 established system, during the last six months, Major 
 Reno has inspected 250,000 feet not pairs of feet 
 and prescribed for them with a refinement which goes 
 to the sixteenth of an inch. 
 
 Most men enter the service with some deform- 
 ity or weakness in the feet. It is up to the soldier 
 to find out from the surgeon what the weakness 
 is and to set to work at once to cure his feet and 
 make them sound by regularly established feet 
 exercises, and above all, by having his feet prop- 
 erly shod. There are certain feet exercises in the 
 Setting-up Manual, and they have proved of great 
 help in the service. They are given here in the 
 words of George Marvin, who wrote the above 
 interesting article on "The Feet of the Fighting 
 Men on the Border" for the "World's Work" : 
 
 In Exercise I every man stands erect, with only his 
 toes projecting beyond the edge of the board or the 
 little depression he has dug in the ground. In this 
 position he repeatedly thirty times, generally bends or 
 attempts to bend his toes downward in a gripping 
 movement reminiscent of his prehistoric ancestors. For 
 Exercise II he moves forward a little until half his foot 
 projects over the edge of plank or depression and goes 
 through the same movement an equal number of times. 
 
 When it comes to Exercise III each man moves back 
 until his entire foot rests on a flat surface, when, with- 
 
 94
 
 Clothing 
 
 out raising the body of the foot, the toes are curled 
 back thirty times. In Exercise IV, in this same posi- 
 tion, the direction is to separate all the toes thirty times> 
 the way babies do and the way very few of the rest of 
 us can do. In fact, the average facial expression of the 
 enlisted man when Exercise IV is announced says 
 eloquently : "It can't be done." Exercises V and VI are 
 nearly the same. The toes are turned slightly in and 
 the heels out, the weight of the body thrown on the 
 outer edge of the foot, while the toes are bent down- 
 ward and curled under the foot, or with the weight 
 of the body on the heels the anterior portion of the 
 entire foot is lifted as high as possible from the 
 ground. 
 
 An infantryman is only as good as his feet, 
 and sound feet are directly dependent upon the 
 soldier's shoes. In garrison the regular soldier 
 has his feet most carefully measured and his shoes 
 most carefully tested, under the provisions of 
 General Orders No. 26 of 1912; but in the camp 
 and in the field the soldier himself, as well as his 
 officers, must exercise the greatest care. Meas- 
 urement for shoes should be taken over the socks, 
 standing on one foot with weight on ball, with at 
 least forty pounds weight on the back, to provide 
 for the added expansion and swelling due to the 
 pack on the back of the infantryman. The 
 marching shoes supplied by the government are 
 of excellent last and usually provide the width 
 automatically. With the pack on the back, under 
 no circumstances should the vacant space in front 
 of the great toe be less than two-thirds of an 
 inch, nor should there be pressure on the top of 
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 National Service Library 
 
 the toes. Try on several pairs of shoes before 
 deciding. Keep a careful record after experience 
 of the proper size and width of your shoes. Be- 
 fore going into the field, be sure your shoes are 
 absolutely serviceable, but never go into the field 
 without having your shoes properly broken in. 
 If this is impracticable by a certain amount of 
 wear, stand in your new shoes in about two and 
 one-half inches of water for five minutes, until 
 the leather is thoroughly pliable and moist ; then 
 walk for about an hour on a level surface, letting 
 the shoes dry on your feet. On removing the 
 shoes a very little neat's-foot oil should be rubbed 
 into the leather to prevent its hardening and 
 cracking. 
 
 Light woolen or heavy woolen socks will be 
 worn for marching. They will be large enough 
 to permit free movement of the toes, but not so 
 loose as to cause wrinkles. Darned socks or 
 socks with holes must not be worn for march- 
 ing. Start every march with clean feet and 
 clean socks. 
 
 96
 
 VI 
 Guard Duty 
 
 To walk guard is one of the soldier's most 
 important duties. It is hedged around with many 
 ancient rules and customs, and both in peace and 
 war is a sacred trust. The soldier on guard duty 
 is entrusted with the safety and security of the 
 lives and property of the command. While the 
 sentinel is on duty he is dignified by his respon- 
 sibilities, and is treated with the greatest respect 
 and formality by all officers and men. It is 
 always a trying duty, and in war times, especially 
 among savage tribes, often soul-trying. I have 
 never felt so proud of the American soldier as 
 when on guard among the Moros of the Lake 
 Lanao region and Sulu, where in the darkness 
 he was under constant danger of being jumped 
 by murderous Moros determined to hack him up 
 in fanatical rage, and where the sentries nearly 
 always showed the sterling stuff of the American 
 soldier at his best, often putting up splendid hand- 
 to-hand fights and seldom showing the nervous- 
 ness which must have been present throughout 
 their night tours. The army station on Lake La- 
 nao, in Mindanao, is named in honor and memory 
 
 97 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L.4
 
 National Service Library 
 
 of a private soldier, who, on sentry duty, killed 
 five Moros and gave the alarm to the sleeping 
 camp, saving many lives from the fierce attack of 
 the fanatical Moros. Kiethley himself was mor- 
 tally wounded in his hand-to-hand fighting with 
 the Moros, and died after making his way over a 
 mile from his outpost station to the main guard 
 and giving the alarm, his outpost comrades all 
 having been killed. 
 
 Whether in the nipping, eager air of a tour in 
 the north, or fighting mosquitoes in the tropics, 
 guard duty is of the most trying character, and 
 the constant enemy to be fought on the part of 
 the sentry is sleep. For that reason a sentry is 
 usually obliged to walk his post, so that he may 
 keep awake and alert. The temptation to sit 
 down for a moment has been the ruin of many a 
 sleepy soldier. 
 
 Sentinels are obliged to know their general and 
 special orders; general orders being those that 
 apply to all sentinels in the army ; they should be 
 memorized at once by all soldiers. Special orders 
 are those that apply to the particular post and 
 duties of the particular command. The general 
 orders for sentinels in the army are: 
 
 1. To take charge of this post and all government 
 property in view. 
 
 2. To walk my post in a military manner, keeping 
 always on the alert and observing everything that takes 
 place within sight or hearing. 
 
 98
 
 Guard Duty 
 
 3. To report all violations of orders I am instructed 
 to enforce. 
 
 4. To repeat all calls from posts more distant from 
 the guardhouse than my own. 
 
 5. To quit my post only when properly relieved. 
 
 6. To receive, obey, and pass on to the sentinel who 
 relieves me all orders from the commanding officer, 
 officer of the day, and officers and noncommissioned 
 officers of the guard only. 
 
 7. To talk to no one except in line of duty. 
 
 8. In case of fire or disorder to give the alarm. 
 
 9. To allow no one to commit a nuisance on or near 
 my post. 
 
 10. In any case not covered by instructions to call 
 the corporal of the guard. 
 
 11. To salute all officers, and all colors and standards 
 not cased. 
 
 12. To be especially watchful at night, and, during 
 the time for challenging, to challenge all persons on or 
 near my post, and to allow no one to pass without 
 proper authority. 
 
 In the field and on outpost sentries' actions 
 and duties are often modified from the strict 
 conventions of the Guard Manual, and he must 
 become the alert lookout for trouble of all kinds. 
 The tendency in the service now is to post double 
 sentries when practicable. They assist each other, 
 keep each other awake, and can observe in all 
 directions against surprise. Here the habits of 
 the Indian and frontiersman are needed acute 
 hearing and sharp sight. At night the sentries 
 should be below the sky line, often under cover 
 themselves with an open range of vision, lurking 
 or lying in concealment and letting the enemy 
 walk and move. This kind of duty depends much 
 99
 
 National Service Library 
 
 upon the enemy, and is covered more fully in 
 Patrol and Outpost Duties. 
 
 It is the custom of the service for interior 
 guards to be on duty for twenty-four hours, dur- 
 ing which time members of the guard remain at 
 the guardhouse or guard tent, subject to con- 
 stant call. The guard is divided into three reliefs, 
 with tours of duty of two hours on and four 
 hours off. In the field small commands often 
 post running guards at night, when the night tour 
 is divided up among practically the whole com- 
 mand, so that each soldier has his tour of duty 
 and can then sleep the remainder of the night ; 
 it is a frequent custom of the cavalry in the field 
 for the picket-line guard. 
 
 The guard duty heretofore described, whose 
 duties are laid down in the Guard Manual (much 
 of which must be memorized by the soldier), has 
 descended from the old-time routine guard of 
 castles and walled towns and the protection of 
 camps and government property. It is routine to 
 a degree and, like many other apparently foolish 
 performances, has been considered of value in 
 the training and discipline of soldiers. Its cere- 
 monies and conventions are in evidence and are 
 part of the spectacular formations of the soldier 
 familiar to the public. The citizen sees the sen- 
 tinel pacing back and forth ; he is interested and 
 amused when visiting camps. But he is quite 
 ignorant of the more important duties of the 
 
 100
 
 Guard Duty 
 
 sentry the scouting and the patrols in the field 
 for which the routine duty is in part a prepara- 
 tion certainly as to the sacred duty of the sen- 
 tinel on post and the habits of observation and 
 staying awake and alert. Soldiers of the old 
 time had a limited field of action, at least in litera- 
 ture. The sentry with his routine round fre- 
 quently appears in Shakespeare. He appears in 
 classical writings of Greece and Rome, and in the 
 grand opera and light opera of all countries. 
 Plutarch tells of his faithful companion the dog, 
 and how the sleeping sentry was aroused from 
 slumber by the geese of Rome. Gustavus, Tu- 
 renne, and Napoleon all appear in sentry stories, 
 inspecting and rewarding for vigilance, but 
 neither Xenophon nor Caesar nor other military 
 narratives go into the functions of security and 
 information on the march. The extensive mili- 
 tary literature, manuals, text and reference books 
 on the duties and experiences of outposts, scouts 
 and patrols, is of recent origin. There is no 
 duty of the soldier, after fighting, more important 
 and at the same time so interesting to him than 
 this. Every American boy has played Indian and 
 is familiar with his wily ways. He has heard and 
 read stories of spies, and fur traders and trappers, 
 Mayne Reid and Cooper have given him many a 
 hero, and Washington himself, in his early adven- 
 tures on the frontier and his historic suggestions 
 to Braddock, was part of the boyhood of every 
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 National Service Library 
 
 one of us. In recent years such experiences have 
 been studied and are available to Boy Scouts, and 
 the young soldier takes most kindly to this part of 
 his work. It is no trouble to have him read up 
 the government publications and manuals, and 
 train and work on Sherlock Holmes and Baden- 
 Powell lines. 
 
 Troops on the march, whether in large bodies 
 or small, when at a halt establish guards, no mat- 
 ter for how short a time, sending men out to 
 cover every possible line of approach of an 
 enemy. When in camp the larger and more 
 important outposts, with a system of reserve sup- 
 ports, outguards and patrols, are always estab- 
 lished. The soldier here finds himself on his own 
 responsibility, and often under terrible strain at 
 night in a hostile country. The routine of the 
 interior guard is changed and the training and 
 skill and intelligence of the individual is tested. 
 Every surprise and ambush, and most military 
 failures, can be traced directly to a failure on 
 the part of the individual soldier or his careless 
 commanders. Outposts in order from the main 
 body are the reserve, the line of supports, the 
 line of outguards, and the advance cavalry. In 
 the daytime a single sentry at the outguard is 
 usually provided by a Cossack post consisting of 
 a noncom. and a relief of three men. The sen- 
 tinel should be concealed where he may have the 
 best field of view, and his comrades, also in com- 
 102
 
 Guard Duty 
 
 fortable concealment, should be where he can be 
 seen and signal to them, not more than twenty or 
 twenty-five yards away. At nighttime and in 
 dangerous country two sentinels are posted 
 together on a post that is known as a double-sen- 
 tinel post. Here they support each other, watch 
 in every direction, give each other security and 
 keep each other awake. These posts were always 
 used in the Moro country and they came to our 
 common use throughout the service. The out- 
 guards whatever their form, should see and not 
 be seen. They should know where their noncom. 
 is and report to him every suspicious sight or 
 sound and keep anybody, hostile or otherwise, 
 from passing. 
 
 The following extracts from Andrew's "Fun- 
 damentals of Military Service" should be mem- 
 orized by every soldier as a guide to outpost duty : 
 
 First: About myself and friendly neighbors. 
 
 My post is number , outguard number . The 
 
 outguard is there. The post on my right is number , 
 
 outguard number and is there. The post on my left 
 
 is number , outguard number and is there. The 
 
 support is there. Other detachments are there and 
 there. Such and such patrols are operating in my 
 front. This roads leads to . , 
 
 Second: About the enemy. 
 
 The enemy is reported to be there. I have seen him 
 (describing exactly what hostile bodies I have seen) 
 there; or, I have not seen him. I am to watch for him 
 between there and there. If I see any unusual move- 
 ment I am to report it at once to my outguard com- 
 mander who is there. If suddenly attacked and forced 
 
 103
 
 National Service Library 
 
 to retire or threatened with capture, I shall rejoin my 
 outguard by going around that way so as not to disclose 
 the position of my outguard to the enemy or to mask 
 its fire. 
 
 Third: How to conduct myself on my post. 
 
 By day I shall make the best possible use of such 
 natural or artificial cover as is available, standing, 
 crouching, or lying down, and remaining stationary or 
 moving about as will enable me to observe the sector 
 assigned me to watch in the most efficient manner. I 
 shall carry my piece at will, loaded and locked. I shall 
 inform passing friendly patrols of what I have seen. 
 
 At night I shall remain standing, habitually station- 
 ary, moving about only for the purposes of observa- 
 tion. I shall not sit or lie down unless authorized to 
 do so. 
 
 Fourth: When to fire on the enemy. 
 
 Unless specially ordered to fire on the enemy when- 
 ever seen I shall fire only under the following circum- 
 stances : (a) When suddenly attacked and there is no 
 time to call the outguard commander, I shall fire rapidly, 
 but with careful aim. (&) When a person approaching 
 my post is ordered to halt and fails to do so, or other- 
 wise disobeys me, I shall fire deliberately, taking care- 
 ful aim, so as to be sure to stop him. , 
 
 Fifth: Treatment of individuals approaching my 
 post. 
 
 By day I shall allow only officers, noncommissioned 
 officers, and detachments recognized as part of the out- 
 post, and officers known to have authority to do so, to 
 pass my post either in or out. I shall detain all others 
 and notify my outguard commander. 
 
 At night when any persons approach my post, I shall 
 come to a ready, halt them, and notify the outguard 
 commander. Persons claiming to be deserters from the 
 enemy are required to lay down their arms. If they 
 are pursued by the enemy, I shall order them to drop 
 their arms and I shall give the alarm. If they fail to 
 obey me at once I shall fire on them. I shall halt 
 bearers of flags of truce and their escorts, require 
 
 104
 
 Guard Duty 
 
 them to face outward, and at once notify the com- 
 mander of the outguard. 
 
 Detached Posts. These are practically the same as 
 supports, but are sent to distant points outside of the 
 line of supports and outpost proper, which the superior 
 commander has deemed it necessary to cover. Their 
 location is made known to all members of the outpost. 
 If detailed to this duty you would proceed much as the 
 support commander, and arriving at your destination 
 would use your best judgment in disposing your 
 strength to best cover the ground assigned you. 
 
 These general rules have interesting modifica- 
 tions for the soldier in minor campaigns, whether 
 in the Philippines or on the border, as determined 
 by the possible enemy. Our experiences in the 
 Philippines and on the frontier in the days of 
 Indian warfare have given our present noncoms. 
 thorough practice, and many soldiers now on the 
 border are so trained as to give confidence for 
 the near future. Both the regular troops and the 
 National Guard have outposted and patrolled the 
 border from the Gulf to the Pacific, giving effec- 
 tive protection to their countrymen in persons and 
 property. 
 
 Outposts in themselves can be of value only 
 as points of support for vigorous and extensive 
 patrolling and scouting. 
 
 105
 
 VII 
 
 Patrolling 
 
 THE following notes and special instructions 
 issued to the troops as a result of experience on 
 the border are exceedingly valuable both in im- 
 pressing upon the civilian the great amount of 
 training and detail necessary not only for efficient 
 work by junior officers and noncommissioned offi- 
 cers, but actually for their safety and the safety 
 of those whom they command. It will be use- 
 less for the patriotic citizen struggling for pre- 
 paredness to endeavor to learn these by heart. 
 They must be impressed upon him by experience. 
 This may be simulated by a study of tactical prob- 
 lems and by taking tactical walks. By going out 
 into the country on an imagined mission and 
 asking oneself from time to time just what should 
 be done it is remarkable how soon one can have 
 all the points indicated so impressed that there 
 will be no danger of forgetting anything of 
 importance. 
 
 HANDY INFORMATION FOR PATROL LEADERS 
 
 Kinds of Patrol: Visiting, Combat, Exploring, 
 Reconnoitering, Flanking, Harassing, Pursuing, 
 etc. F. S. R. Note i, par. 23. 
 106
 
 Patrolling 
 
 Number: Enough to insure effective recon- 
 naissance. No more. 
 
 Strength: Two or three men up to as large as 
 a company, depending on purpose and conditions. 
 Never less than two men even after sending mes- 
 sengers or dividing. 
 
 Formation: Below is an example of a patrol 
 formation : 
 
 Eight men on street or road : 
 
 Point : similar 
 to advance guard 
 
 + Sergt. 
 
 (20 yards) 
 
 -f- Private 
 
 (60 yjards) 
 
 + Lieut. 
 
 (5 yards) 
 
 -f- Private 
 (5 yards) 
 -j- Private 
 
 (S yards) 
 
 -f- Private 
 (5 yards) 
 -j- Private 
 
 (60 yards) 
 
 -f Private"! Rear P artv : s * m ~ 
 (15 yards) I ilar to rear guard 
 
 + Private J of large command 
 
 107 
 
 Support: similar to 
 main body of 
 larger commands
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Don't forget flank guard of at least one man 
 when necessary. 
 
 1. Remember the foregoing is only a guide. 
 
 2. It is one of many possible patrol forma- 
 tions. 
 
 3. Change your formation to suit conditions. 
 
 4. Think, always think, and don't blindly fol- 
 low fixed rules. 
 
 Formation will vary according to conditions. 
 Think. Use your judgment. Formation should 
 always be such as to insure the escape of at least 
 one man in case of attack. 
 
 Composition: For any important independent 
 mission: Patrol leader should be an 
 officer. 
 
 To gain information : Patrol leader spe- 
 cially selected. Noncommissioned officer 
 or officer. 
 
 Sent out from covering detachment: 
 Ordinary patrols be-' 
 
 tween groups .... 
 
 ~ .. at- Patrol leader 
 
 Ordinary flanking 
 
 \. may be any 
 
 patrols f . . ... ... 
 
 .- ,. intelligent soldier. 
 
 Ordinary outpost 
 
 patrols 
 
 No member of patrol should have cold that 
 would cause him to cough or sneeze. Do 
 not select a "boozer" for important distant 
 patrolling. 
 
 108
 
 Patrolling 
 
 PATROL LEADER 
 
 The patrol leader receives the following instruc- 
 tions and information before starting-: 
 
 1. Information of the enemy. 
 
 2. Information of our own supporting troops. 
 
 3. Plan of our own commander. 
 
 4. The mission of his patrol. 
 
 5. The size of his patrol. 
 
 6. Where patrol is obtained. 
 
 7. A map is furnished. 
 
 8. General route of patrol. 
 
 9. Hour of departure. 
 
 10. Limits of country to be observed, 
 n. Location of other friendly patrols. 
 
 12. Time patrol is to return. 
 
 13. Latest hour first message should be sent back. 
 
 14. Where messages should be sent. 
 
 15. Time at which information must reach 
 
 designated point. 
 
 16. Location of our own outposts. 
 
 17. Expected movements of our own command 
 during absence of patrol. 
 
 When, as patrol leader, you receive your 
 orders, think as follows: 
 
 1. What is my mission? Do I understand it 
 
 clearly ? 
 
 2. What is the location of the enemy? 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 3. Am I apt to meet the enemy's patrols, cavalry 
 
 or infantry? 
 
 4. What am I to do if I meet the enemy's 
 patrols? Form your plans ahead of time 
 and then, if necessary, change the plans you 
 have formed according to the accidents of 
 the ground and other circumstances. 
 
 5. I must slip rapidly and unobserved through 
 flat and open country. 
 
 6. I must stop and watch from high places using 
 field glasses. 
 
 7. I must reconnoiter cross roads. 
 
 8. I must see that my retreat is not cut off. 
 
 9. I must advance boldly but cautiously. 
 
 10. I must not become careless nor for a single 
 minute neglect a proper patrol formation 
 and military precautions. 
 
 11. I must get my information back in time to 
 
 be of use. 
 
 12. / must accomplish my mission. 
 
 The patrol leader does the following before 
 starting: 
 
 1. Sets his watch with that of officer sending him. 
 
 2. Selects men specially qualified unless other- 
 wise detailed. 
 
 3. Makes arrangements for start. Hour men 
 are to be called. Breakfast or other meal 
 before starting. Cook meal to be carried if 
 patrol is to be gone more than six hours. 
 
 no
 
 Patrolling 
 
 4. His equipment : Arms and ammunition, field 
 glasses, pencils, maps, whistle, watch, mes- 
 sage pad, notebook, compass. 
 
 5. Studies map. 
 
 6. Notes prominent landmarks. 
 
 7. Decides on plan. 
 
 8. Assembles and inspects detail and equip- 
 ment. 
 
 9. Sees that men are physically fit. 
 
 10. Sees that canteens are filled with water or 
 coffee. 
 
 11. Sees that men have the necessary cooked 
 lunch in haversack. 
 
 12. Sees that accouterments do not glisten or 
 rattle. 
 
 13. Sees that no man has any maps, letters or 
 
 newspapers that might be of value to enemy 
 in case of capture. 
 
 14. Assures himself men have had meal before 
 
 starting. 
 
 15. Carefully explains mission to patrol. 
 
 1 6. Shows map, explaining to men principal 
 
 roads and important features. 
 
 17. Tells men where messages are to be de- 
 
 livered. 
 
 1 8. Instructs men as to conduct, especially to 
 
 keep concealed and avoid a fight. 
 
 19. Rehearses with men some simple set of 
 
 signals. 
 
 20. Designates a second in command. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 21. If mounted, sees that horses are not of con- 
 
 spicuous color. 
 
 22. If mounted, do not select horses that 
 neigh. 
 
 The patrol leader does the following after 
 starting: 
 
 1. Halts at the outpost and calls attention of 
 men to position of outpost. 
 
 2. Points out the route and such landmarks as 
 are of importance. 
 
 3. Questions the outpost sentry or noncommis- 
 sioned officer as to any information of the 
 enemy and our patrols. 
 
 4. Informs the noncommissioned officer and the 
 
 sentry of the outpost by what route he 
 is going, by what route he will probably 
 return, and what time he will probably 
 return. 
 
 5. On clearing outpost the patrol takes up a 
 proper extended formation, distance from 
 head to rear varying from 100 to 200 
 yards. 
 
 6. Flank reconnaissance is done by main body 
 of patrol. 
 
 7. Keep to roads. 
 
 8. Proceed as rapidly as possible, consistent 
 
 with safety and accomplishment of your 
 mission. 
 
 112
 
 Patrolling 
 
 9. Select high points for reconnoitering. Reach 
 them rapidly and unseen. 
 
 10. Reconnoiter important crossroads as far as 
 nearest crest or turn. 
 
 11. Be careful in passing through denies not to 
 be trapped. Reconnoiter first. 
 
 12. If you send a man out from patrol tell him 
 
 where to go and where to rejoin. 
 
 13. Don't split your patrol unless absolutely 
 necessary. 
 
 14. Approach houses and villages with caution. 
 
 15. Better to reconnoiter village from distance 
 unless necessary to enter it. 
 
 16. Ordinarily keep out of inclosures. 
 
 17. Point out important landmarks to men as 
 you go along. 
 
 1 8. Make necessary corrections on map. 
 
 19. Halt only in concealed places. 
 
 20. Put out march outpost when you halt. 
 
 21. If hostile patrol passes you, take his back 
 trail. You are less liable to meet others 
 than on new road. 
 
 22. Designate a place of assembly in case patrol 
 
 is compelled to scatter to avoid capture. 
 
 23. Send written messages by two men if you 
 can spare them. Give copy to each. Have 
 them repeat message to you. Inform 
 commander what your next position will 
 be. 
 
 24. Don't let strangers get ahead of you. 
 
 "3
 
 National Service Library 
 
 NOTES ON PATROLLING 
 
 Reconnoitering Patrol: Your commander will 
 want to know the enemy's location, strength, and 
 composition, movements, probable intentions. 
 
 Any Patrol: You can come in contact with the 
 enemy in two ways: I. By your own efforts. 
 2. The enemy may come on you unexpectedly. 
 In either case be prepared. Decide quickly what 
 it is you have encountered: (a) Is it a fixed out- 
 post? (b) Is it a moving patrol? (c) Is it a 
 moving covering detachment? Then, when you 
 have decided, act promptly according to the 
 requirements of your mission ; remember, chang- 
 ing conditions may make it impossible for you to 
 carry out your mission. But do not let mere phy- 
 sical difficulties, danger or hardship cause you to 
 give up or half-heartedly attempt your mission. 
 
 COMBAT PATROL LEADER 
 
 Any position or formation of your patrol that 
 allows firing line to be attacked without warning 
 is absolutely wrong. 
 
 You must place your combat patrol so that it 
 can see more than the men in the flank of the 
 firing line can see. Otherwise it is useless. 
 
 In practically all cases your combat patrol 
 must be in advance of the firing line in order 
 to gain necessary information in time to be of 
 any use. 
 
 114
 
 Patrolling 
 
 Your combat patrol must see that the enemy 
 does not get within effective rifle range on the 
 flank of the firing line. 
 
 After the action begins and during the entire 
 fight, your combat patrol must maintain contact 
 with the enemy on the exposed flanks. 
 
 GENERAL NOTES 
 
 Infantry patrols are generally used for work 
 within two miles of supporting troops, but cases 
 arise where they must go to greater distances. 
 
 A patrol's mission is usually to locate the 
 enemy's main body, or other important hostile 
 body. When you gain contact, hang on until you 
 have valuable information. 
 
 Information or reconnoitering patrols should as 
 a rule endeavor to avoid fighting and keep 
 themselves concealed as far as practicable from 
 observation. 
 
 Security or covering patrols will fight whenever 
 necessary to their mission of guarding the main 
 body from observation. 
 
 Information and reconnoitering patrols may 
 fight under the following conditions : (a) To 
 gain important information, (b) To escape with 
 important information, (c) To avoid capture, 
 (d) In exceptional cases to prevent the enemy 
 gaining important information, (e) In excep- 
 tional cases to prevent the enemy from escaping 
 with important information, (f) To prevent hos- 
 "5
 
 National Service Library 
 
 tile patrols from getting in rear and thus endan- 
 gering the transmission of important messages, 
 (g) In exceptional cases to capture prisoners if 
 this can be done without great danger and there 
 is a probability that important information may 
 be gained from them, (h) But finally remember, 
 it is the business of a reconnoitering patrol to 
 gain information and not to fight. 
 
 Travel by main roads or side roads -where you 
 can observe main roads. 
 
 Keep your eyes open and see that your retreat 
 is not cut off. 
 
 Don't forget to use flank guards where neces- 
 sary, even if each flank guard consists of only 
 one man. 
 
 Be careful about interviewing inhabitants of 
 hostile country. It will often be necessary, but 
 they will probably inform the enemy of your 
 movements. 
 
 Smoking and fires may betray your location to 
 hostile patrols. 
 
 The following notes on the establishment of 
 outposts and performance of patrolling duty 
 along the Rio Grande, prepared by an officer, as 
 the result of his experience, will be of interest to 
 all those who may be engaged on this duty : 
 
 I. Posts established along the Rio Grande have a 
 double mission ; one is to protect the various pumping 
 plants on which depend the water supply for the towns 
 and camps in the interior, and to hold other important
 
 Patrolling 
 
 points ; the other is, to protect the country against raids, 
 by making it impossible for bandits to wander about 
 either by day or by night, north of the Rio Grande. 
 
 2. The first object is accomplished by constructing 
 suitable defensive works, to enable a small force to 
 hold the pumping plants against any attack with cer- 
 tainty and without undue risk to the officers or men, 
 and by perfecting plans for conducting a defense with- 
 out confusion or loss of control. 
 
 3. The second object is accomplished by active 
 patrolling both by day and by night. The day patrolling 
 is best performed by the cavalry, and experienced 
 cavalry patrols are located at Donna Pump, Progreso 
 and Rabb's Ranch for this work. 
 
 THE BANDIT SITUATION 
 
 4. While the bandits have their main haunts south of 
 the Rio Grande, there is a large Mexican population 
 north of the river. Many of these act as spies for, or are 
 actively in league with, the bandits south of the river, 
 so that it may be considered that they are bandit gangs 
 on both sides of the river. These gangs are not mili- 
 tary bands, as a rule, but individuals who come to- 
 gether for a set purpose and afterward disband and 
 scatter, leaving no trace. The river, at low water, is 
 easily fordable in many places, and at high water there 
 are numerous boats available on the Mexican side. 
 These bandits are not bold, but very cautious ; if the 
 United States troops are alert, and conduct active and 
 systematic patrolling, they lie low and do not venture 
 out ; on the contrary, if posts are inactive and stick 
 close to their camps, the bandits are quick to find it out, 
 and they then wander forth, steal cattle and terrorize 
 and rob the people. It is also possible, of course, that 
 larger organized gangs, reported from time to time 
 farther south of the Rio Grande, might venture north 
 and attempt to cross the river, but this is unlikely, and 
 in any case, the best protection against the local bandits, 
 viz., active patrolling, is the best protection against any 
 
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 others, since once their presence was discovered, how- 
 ever large a band they might have, they would beat a 
 hasty retreat knowing full well the large numbers of 
 troops in the vicinity and the ease with which the 
 cavalry and infantry in motor trucks could move to 
 surround them. 
 
 THE CARRANZISTA SOLDIERY 
 
 5. The Mexican bank of the river is occupied by 
 detachments of cavalry, stationed at various points, 
 their headquarters being at Matamoros, Rio Bravo, 
 Reynosa, Camargo, and Mier. These detachments 
 patrol the Mexican bank with varying frequency and 
 are on excellent terms with our men, with whom they 
 usually exchange salutes by waving their hats in pass- 
 ing on the opposite banks. No hostile shot has been 
 fired across the river in this sector for nearly a year. 
 It is highly desirable to preserve this entente cordiale 
 with the Carranzistas and equally desirable not to in- 
 vite or permit them to cross. Positive instructions exist 
 that no United States officer or soldier shall cross the 
 river to the Mexican side except under orders or on a 
 hot trail in pursuit of bandits. . . . 
 
 PATROLLING 
 
 7. Since much of the patrolling is done at night, 
 special consideration should be given to the training 
 for this work. Patrols consist of two or more men and 
 may be conveniently classified as regular and special 
 patrols. The regular patrols (of two men) being used 
 for local reconnaissance, within a few hundred yards 
 of the camp, and special patrols, usually consisting of 
 not less than five men, and always under an officer or 
 N. C. O., being sent on some special mission. At night 
 the members of the regular patrol (of two men) should 
 walk ten to twenty yards apart as far as they can con- 
 veniently see one another ; they should not stay out 
 longer than ten or fifteen minutes without reporting 
 
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 Patrolling 
 
 back to a sentinel or to the corporal of the guard, who 
 should always keep himself informed in what direction 
 they have gone and from what direction they will re- 
 turn. In this way a single active patrol will make it 
 impossible for an enemy to approach within night firing 
 range without being discovered. Should the regular 
 patrol hear or see anything unusual beyond its ordinary 
 patrolling distance from the camp, a stronger special 
 patrol should at once be sent out to investigate it. The 
 regular patrol should not follow a "set" beat or path. 
 
 Patrols should seldom return by the same route. 
 The routes, distances, and time of sending, and the 
 number of patrols sent out should be varied from night 
 to night, taking into consideration the information re- 
 ceived, phase of the moon and other circumstances. 
 The patrols at first should be sent out by day that the 
 men may become thoroughly familiar with the country 
 and trails. The size of the patrol should be increased 
 (or else two or more patrols sent to act in concert) if 
 it is to go beyond two miles. 
 
 It is advisable to have designated each night one or 
 two reserve patrols, to be sent out in case some need 
 should arise while the special patrols are out, either to 
 go to the support of a special patrol, if firing is heard, 
 or to investigate some suspicious circumstance beyond 
 the patrolling scope of the regular patrol. 
 
 The special patrols should not be kept out usually 
 more than two and a half hours (unless they are to lie 
 in wait somewhere), nor the same patrol be sent out 
 more than twice the same night. Nor should patrols 
 ordinarily be sent in more than two directions at one 
 time, i. e., if three are sent, two at least should be sent 
 by the same or adjacent trails. All patrols should be 
 informed in advance of all other patrols out or to be 
 sent out. 
 
 The men need to be taught great caution in firing. 
 While pieces should be carried loaded at night, the 
 leader should see that they are kept locked, and that 
 no shot is fired unless it is absolutely certain that a 
 legitimate target is offered or that a positive danger 
 
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 exists, making it necessary to give the alarm. Random 
 firing alarms the command and makes for carelessness. 
 If men are seen at night it should be determined with 
 absolute certainty that they are not our men before 
 resorting to firing. If an infantry patrol meets a 
 cavalry patrol at night it should never run or hide from 
 it, but halt and challenge. 
 
 INSTRUCTION IN PATROLLING 
 
 8. For successful night patrolling men need to be 
 taught to move silently, to listen frequently and at- 
 tentively, and to be practiced in interpreting night 
 sounds and sights. Silence demands first of all lifting 
 up and quietly planting the feet in walking to avoid 
 stumbling over stones and rough ground ; second, 
 absence of any noise or rattling of equipment such as a 
 loose canteen chain or the rasping of bayonet scabbard 
 against breeches ; third, absence of talking, coughing, 
 whistling, etc. Tapping on the stock of the rifle will be 
 found a satisfactory means of communication between 
 members of a patrol. 
 
 Sounds travel far at night. An inexperienced man 
 will often think a shot fired a mile or so away is fired 
 within a hundred yards. It is difficult to judge of the 
 distance of sounds, and also of the direction. The men 
 should study the interpretation of night sounds. The 
 normal night sounds vary with the character of the 
 country and with density of the population. One 
 familiar with these can always tell whether anyone is 
 approaching. An ordinary baseball megaphone is useful 
 to listen through on night outpost as it intensifies sounds 
 to the ear about 100 per cent. 
 
 Night sight is most important and must be cultivated. 
 To begin with, no man should read, play cards or sit 
 by a lamp or lantern in the evening before going out on 
 a night patrol, since to do so blinds him from seeing out 
 of doors at night. Use of electric candles (while per- 
 missible on the return trip of a patrol) should in gen- 
 eral be avoided. Practice in picking up distant objects 
 
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 Patrolling 
 
 at night and then testing the accuracy of sight by going 
 up to examine the objects will soon develop good night 
 eyesight. The men should all learn to orient themselves 
 at night by the stars, not only by the Dipper and 
 North Star, but by other stars and constellations, the 
 position of the moon, and of the planets. They should 
 also learn to avoid, when possible, marching toward the 
 moon in open moonlight in night patrolling, and to 
 avoid halting on the sky line or against a light back- 
 ground. Men sometimes seek cover under a tree at 
 night ; the background against which they may show up 
 is usually more important than the overhead shadow. 
 In moonlight all men should be inspected to see that no 
 part of the equipment or dress is shiny or shows white ; 
 pieces should be carried low and without bayonets. On 
 dark, cloudy nights the men should be practiced in 
 orientation by the recognition of fences, trails and ob- 
 jects which they may have been able to observe by day, 
 and by the direction of the prevailing winds. 
 
 Night morale is important. Men unaccustomed to 
 moving in the dark at first are fearful at every unusual 
 sound ; as they get used to it they learn that night is the 
 safest and most favorable time for patrolling, and that 
 the best man by day is twice the best man at night. In 
 case a patrol meets anyone it should almost never re- 
 sort to firing. Most men want to fire at night to keep 
 their courage up, because they are frightened. If un- 
 discovered the patrol should generally halt, wait and 
 listen, until it can act with as full knowledge of the 
 case as possible. Its action should consist of either a 
 charge or a silent get-away; against an inferior enemy 
 in any numbers a charge will generally win, against a 
 greatly superior force rapid fire of a single clip may 
 precede the charge. In a reconnoiter the surprise favors 
 the side of the aggressor. To insure cohesion and 
 united action, the patrol should march as closed up as 
 practicable at night ; the exception is crossing an open 
 space in the moonlight which should be done by twos. 
 
 Training: Patrolling is not to be taught the men 
 from books, but by practice combined with friendly and 
 
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 intelligent criticism. The officers should frequently lead 
 many patrols, especially at first, and the next day or 
 before the next patrol point out the errors and suggest 
 how the work can be better done and how the men can 
 fit themselves for the better doing of it. ... 
 
 DRILLS WHILE ON OUTPOST 
 
 10. As the night duty imposed on the men on this 
 service is arduous, day instruction and duty should be 
 reduced accordingly. A short, snappy drill might be 
 held occasionally after retreat, but once or twice a 
 week drills should be held after dark to accustom the 
 men to move by command and to deploy at night. Night 
 deployment should always be with normal intervals 
 (one man per yard) and with fixed bayonets, and the 
 men taught to charge or rapid fire and charge, for 
 offensive action. . . . 
 
 GUARD AND PATROL DETAILS 
 
 12. The men should preferably not be put on guard 
 or patrol duty oftener than every other night. In no 
 case should they be put on oftener than three nights out 
 of four and, if that be found necessary, the regular 
 guard and patrol duty should be alternated with special 
 patrol work and all day duty suspended that is not 
 absolutely necessary. 
 
 13. War diaries will be kept by each post and sub- 
 mitted to the division or separate brigade headquarters 
 which established the post every ten days, giving a 
 record of all patrols (with the leader, route, strength, 
 time of starting and return and information gained by 
 each) of the guard, drills, alarms and any unusual 
 military event. . . . 
 
 You can estimate the strength of a column 
 from the following: 
 
 Troops passing a point in one minute: Infantry in 
 4's, 175; infantry in 2 f s, 88. Cavalry in 4*3, no (walk), 
 
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 Patrolling 
 
 200 (trot) ; cavalry in 2's, 55 (walk), 100 (trot). Guns 
 or caissons, 5. 
 
 MESSAGES 
 
 You should have a field-message book. Write 
 your messages in the following form : 
 
 No. I. U. S. Army Field Message, 
 
 From Patrol No. i, Co. "L," 23d Inf. 
 At LAMARQUE, 23 Nov. 14, 8:15 a. m. 
 
 To C. O. Co. "L," 23d Inf., 
 
 NADEAU. 
 
 Have observed LAMARQUE GALVESTON road from top 
 of water tower. A hostile patrol of about eight mounted 
 men is now at north end of CAUSEWAY. They are mov- 
 ing in this direction on the GALVESTON LAMARQUE shell 
 road. Will remain in observation. 
 
 PETRUS, Sgt. 
 
 Note about above form of message. 1 When there is 
 considerable chance that messengers may be intercepted 
 by the enemy, it will be safer to omit not only your own 
 location but also the location of the commander to 
 whom the message is addressed. In this case before 
 allowing the messengers to depart, make them repeat 
 aloud: (i) The location of the commander for whom 
 the message is intended; (2) the location of your patrol. 
 
 General notes. When messages are sent back 
 through hostile territory, send two men with written 
 messages, either together or by separate routes. You 
 must be the judge of this. Make them repeat the mes- 
 sage before departing. Tell each messenger the route 
 he is to take and the rate of speed at which he is to 
 travel. Caution the messenger to destroy the message 
 
 1 It is an excellent plan to enter numbers i, 2, 3, etc., on the maps of 
 the commander of the patrol and of the officer directing the recon- 
 naissance. These may be used instead of names, and may be changed 
 from time to time. 
 
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 rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the enemy. 
 Messengers who have been sent back from a patrol do 
 not as a rule rejoin in the patrol; consequently, you 
 have no means of knowing whether your message has 
 been delivered; therefore (i) number your messages 
 No. I, No. 2, etc.. in order that your commander may 
 know whether a message has failed to reach him ; (2) 
 if you send more than one message, repeat in message 
 No. 2, etc., any very important information that you 
 gave in message No. I, thereby making it doubly sure 
 that your commander will not miss any important in- 
 formation in case previous messengers were captured. 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON OBSERVATION 
 
 A thick cloud of dust indicates infantry. A high 
 thin cloud indicates cavalry. A broken cloud indicates 
 artillery or trains. 
 
 Note: Be careful about estimating by dust clouds, 
 because: (i) The wind may cause dust clouds to act 
 deceptively; (2) these deceptive dust clouds may not be 
 caused by troops at all, but civilians, vehicles, etc. 
 Therefore it is better to get close enough to be abso- 
 lutely certain of what you see. 
 
 PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTIONS CAVALRY PATROLS 
 
 Assuming considerable instruction in the abstract has 
 been imparted to officers and noncommissioned officers, 
 the country surrounding the camp should be thoroughly 
 covered by reconnoitering patrols and sent out with 
 definite instructions to go by certain routes, to return 
 by others, to be at certain places at set times, to observe 
 all local features, ranches and their names, the habits 
 and customs of the people and their communities, 
 names, how spelled and how pronounced, watering 
 places, kinds of forage and where to be obtained. En- 
 courage the cultivation of friendly relations with in- 
 habitants of all classes. 
 
 After several weeks' training by day, repeat the 
 patrolling at night over the same country, cultivate the 
 
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 Patrolling 
 
 sense of direction and of traveling by night signs and 
 sounds, testing for quick and quiet marching. When- 
 ever possible, obtain the company of experienced 
 natives with an intimate knowledge of signs and trail- 
 ing. Test the officers and the noncommissioned officers 
 on how to travel by the map. See that all patrols re- 
 port departure and return and that officers always in- 
 spect patrols at these times. 
 
 RECONNOITERING PATROLS 
 
 At the preliminary inspection see that your patrol 
 commander sets his watch with your own, and that he 
 is provided with a map, compass, notebook, and pencil ; 
 and that each trooper has his rations, canteen filled and 
 grain for his mount. See that the horses have been 
 watered; that the men are fit for the field; and the*, 
 they are properly clothed, armed and equipped. See 
 that the rifles and pistols are loaded and locked ; that 
 the bridles and bits are properly adjusted; and that the 
 horses are shod and equipped with halters and halter 
 shanks, and the saddle properly packed for quiet and 
 quick movement. Troop commanders should always 
 make sure that no detachment leaves without its com- 
 mander reporting its departure to the organization 
 commander or to one of the lieutenants. Upon return 
 of the patrol similar report to be made, whereupon 
 either he or one of the lieutenants should make an 
 inspection of the detachment and of its mounts. The 
 instructions for the patrol should be simple and definite, 
 where to go and how, gait and time of return. Have 
 them repeated by the detachment commander and make 
 sure that he thoroughly understands them. Tell him 
 where other detachments and patrols are or may be 
 expected. Keep other detachments and patrols informed 
 of the movements of your patrols. Inform your patrol 
 commander of how and where he may reach you in an 
 emergency, of places en route where there are tele- 
 phones. Direct him to notice telephone and telegraph 
 lines and to report as quickly as possible if any are cut, 
 
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 to observe and report any wire fence which has been 
 cut. This is, in itself, in bandit times, an evidence of 
 illegal crossing and of probable bandit trails. 
 
 When practicable and consistent with instructions 
 from higher authority direct the patrol commander to 
 return by a different route from that which he followed 
 going out. Impress upon him the value of aggressive 
 action in his mounted mobility, and that this must not 
 be sacrificed, except under most exceptional circum- 
 stances. Impress upon him his mission. Show your 
 interest in his mission and in the conduct of his patrol, 
 and do not give the impression that it is a routine 
 performance. 
 
 Conduct and marching of a reconnoitering patrol: A 
 reconnoitering patrol should not be less than a squad 
 consisting of a noncommissioned officer and seven 
 troopers, and the general principles of advance and 
 rear guard shall apply. Two troopers should be out as a 
 point, at varied distances, extended or close, according 
 to circumstances. Where possible, however, in all move- 
 ments in a close country, keep at least two troopers 
 together. When marching in column of half squads 01 
 twos, the troopers march on either side of the road 
 close to the brush or fence. Arrange for simple signal- 
 ing when they separate. On the march, water your 
 horses at every opportunity. 
 
 BIVOUAC 
 
 Avoid any routine bivouac. If there is any danger 
 in the vicinity, change the bivouac to a new place after 
 nightfall. Sleep in uniform ; avoid sleeping in wooden 
 houses or other buildings, making good night targets 
 and offering no compensating advantage of protection 
 from fire. Post double sentinels in hiding or in shadow, 
 with open or moonlit spaces around them, watching 
 roads and possible approaches. 
 
 Routine sentry duty is particularly dangerous. 
 
 Before turning in, the detachment commander should 
 decide in his own mind what he would do in a case 
 
 126
 
 Patrolling 
 
 of sudden attack, and give his detachment instructions 
 accordingly. 
 
 Cover for the horses should be considered and provi- 
 sion made for their security both against thieves and 
 stampede. Consider quickest use of telephone or other 
 communication with commander. 
 
 Nothing is more interesting to the soldier than 
 patrol duty and nothing develops more rapidly 
 his initiative and confidence. The selection for 
 this duty may be made a means of arousing com- 
 petition among the men in the matter of keeping 
 their equipment and clothing in perfect condition. 
 An officer in the Philippines used to select his 
 patrols by inspection of 'the footgear. As 
 soon as this became known, practically every 
 man secured a pair of strong, perfectly fitting 
 shoes. 
 
 MAP READING AND SKETCHING 
 
 Every intelligent soldier must learn to read a 
 map, and if he aspires to be a noncom. and 
 eventually an officer he must become absolutely 
 at home on the map, be able to travel on it and 
 find himself, and later on to make simple road 
 sketches and position sketches, whether he has 
 a natural talent for drawing or not. So much 
 the better if he can make a pleasing picture, but 
 every man of intelligence can draw some lines 
 and learn the conventional signs, so that he can 
 make plain to his comrades or to his officers 
 what he has seen by accurate observation. 
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 In patrolling and scouting, noncoms. and 
 picked soldiers are sent out to gather informa- 
 tion. No matter how keen the powers of ob- 
 servation, the soldier must learn to make some 
 conventional picture of it to show to his com- 
 mander or his patrol leader. Power of language 
 is not enough. With the most accurate use of 
 English it would take a steady flow of words to 
 describe what a patrol leader or scout has seen; 
 whereas with a few lines in the sand or on a 
 sheet of paper, properly oriented, he can convey 
 his information and impressions. By constant 
 practice on the map every soldier can soon 
 find himself at any given moment, and add very 
 much to his own interest and his value to the 
 service. 
 
 In every orderly room there are a number of 
 simple manuals on the subject issued by the 
 government. The private soldier, when out on 
 patrol or scout, can soon learn from his noncom. 
 not only how to read a map, but how to make 
 one. Some of these simple manuals are, "Mili- 
 tary Map Reading, Field, Outpost and Road 
 Sketching," by Beach; "Military Maps Ex- 
 plained," by Eames ; "Military Sketching, Etc.," 
 by Grieves. All may be obtained from the Book 
 Department, Army Service Schools, at Fort 
 Leavenworth. 
 
 The following system for initiating training 
 in map sketching is suggested. An interested 
 128
 
 Patrolling 
 
 noncommissioned officer can accomplish much in 
 this way. 
 
 1. Select a loop several miles from camp and 
 return. Pick out half a dozen of the keenest 
 soldiers and send them around the loop in oppo- 
 site directions, three each way. Direct them to 
 start at a certain time and return at a certain 
 time. Direct them to observe everything and 
 everybody en route ; that they may meet other 
 soldiers, but must see the others without being 
 seen themselves ; that you intend to ask them to 
 describe the route and everything and everybody 
 seen en route. Direct them to estimate the dis- 
 tance traveled and the ranges to every prominent 
 feature on the route. 
 
 2. Give a trailing problem. Ask questions 
 about signs and trails. 
 
 3. Send your individual soldiers to different 
 hills and on their return ask questions about 
 what they have seen. 
 
 4. Send them to various places in the vicinity 
 at night. Direct them to elude each other if met 
 on the road. Send them across country to dif- 
 ferent points. Ask them questions about the 
 points of the compass, the prevailing winds by 
 day and night, the general trend of the country 
 and of the streams, and general direction of the 
 main roads. 
 
 5. Noncoms.: What they provide themselves 
 with before going on patrol. Mark different 
 
 129 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 points and routes on the map for them to use in 
 traveling to the points indicated both by day and 
 night. 
 
 6. Test in map reading for noncoms.: Indicate 
 the steepest slope on a road between two points. 
 Could a patrol at a certain point see a man in 
 the road near another point? Point out on the 
 map an orchard ; hedged fence ; barbed-wire 
 fence; telegraph line; cultivated land; improved 
 road ; embankment ; cut ; house ; barn ; double- 
 track railway ; village ; steepest slope on the map ; 
 highest hill. 
 
 How long would it take you to march from 
 A to B? Orient your map. How far is it 
 
 from camp B via the road? via road 
 
 A-B? via road C-D? What is the scale of 
 your map? Show me the bridges across River 
 X? Fords? What are the distances to hills i, 
 2 and 3 from camp? What is the lowest point 
 on the map? What is the camp's height above 
 sea level ? above River X ? 
 
 7. Test in map making for noncoms.: (i) 
 Start in at camp, make a road sketch along road 
 A-B to X. (2) Our battalion is on outpost: 
 General line A-C-D; reserve, two companies, at 
 F; line of resistance the bridge, i, 2, 3. Support 
 No. i, one company, near 17; support No. 2, one 
 company, near 21. (a) Draw an outpost sketch 
 of support No. i. (b) Draw an outpost sketch 
 of support No. 2. 
 
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 Patrolling 
 
 8. Test in writing messages: In command of 
 a reconnoitering patrol returning to camp. Ser- 
 geant So-and-so, having been out on a night 
 patrol, returning to camp at daybreak. On arriv- 
 ing at the house of Juan Garcia, about one mile 
 south of A, he informs you that at 4 a. m. he 
 was visited by a party of raiders who forced him 
 to come out of his house under threat of opening 
 fire on him ; asked him some questions about the 
 whereabouts of soldiers and carried off his Win- 
 chester and a pony. You at once take up the 
 trail and send a written message by courier to 
 your captain. Write the message. 
 
 You are commanding a flank patrol sent out 
 from the support of the advance guard of a 
 force marching from A on B via D road. When 
 you reach 7 you see a mounted patrol of the 
 enemy moving north at a trot. This is the first 
 time you have seen the enemy. Write the proper 
 message to your commander. 
 
 You have arrived at Cuevas crossing on the 
 Rio Grande at daybreak and see a trail from the 
 water's edge. On arriving at Madera a native 
 saloonkeeper tells you that a party of raiders 
 looted Ojo de Agua last night, terrorized the 
 natives and left about midnight. Write a mes- 
 sage to send to your commander at Camp Mis- 
 sion. You have in your possession progressive 
 military map of the district.
 
 VIII 
 Camp Expedients 
 
 SOLDIERS campaigning in the winter or in cold 
 climates are apt to be well provided to meet the 
 bitter conditions both in clothing and shelter, but 
 the careless preparation and life comes to the 
 soldier in hot summers or southern climates when 
 the contrasts in temperature between day and 
 night are great and lack of foresight or improper 
 preparation has been made. Cold and damp or 
 wet nights following hot days, or nights in a 
 high altitude following clear, hot days, endanger 
 the health and comfort. The easiest provision is 
 one suit of light woolen underclothing for night 
 wear on duty or for sleeping. The government 
 provides woolen socks and the flannel shirt. If 
 the soldier keeps stowed away the extra suit of 
 light flannel underclothing it may be a life saver. 
 
 Always endeavor to make yourself comfortable 
 for the night. If two hours' preparation will 
 enable you to have six hours' sound sleep it is 
 much better to make the effort than to lie down 
 for eight hours in restless tossing. Therefore 
 always try to gather brush or grass to put under 
 your bed. If this is not possible take an intrench- 
 132
 
 Camp Expedients 
 
 ing tool and loosen up the surface of the ground, 
 removing rocks, and leaving a hollow for the 
 hip. The bedding carried on the march is ade- 
 quate for sleeping on the ground, whereas it 
 would be inadequate if a cot were provided. If 
 the ground be damp the poncho should be under- 
 neath. If there be indications of rain, the ground 
 should be ditched. In a strong wind the blanket 
 alone has very little warmth. If the blanket can 
 be covered, however, to shed the wind, the sol- 
 dier will be much warmer. 
 
 Soldiers are fire worshipers in a way. 
 Whether in camp with your comrades or off in 
 detachment or lost in a strange country, as all 
 soldiers are on occasion, fire is his best friend 
 to cook by, for company and comfort, and to 
 dream by. Seldom is the soldier caught without 
 matches, but very often he finds himself wet to 
 the skin, and matches likewise. So to be on the 
 safe and comfortable side, keep your loose 
 matches or box wrapped in a piece of oiled silk, 
 which can be gotten from any druggist for a few 
 cents, or use a water-tight rubber match box 
 which can be had from the dealers in sporting 
 goods. If you are young enough to have been 
 a Boy Scout, you will have learned to make fire 
 by friction, or by striking sparks with flint and 
 steel, or with your knife and a flinty stone, using 
 as tinder the scrapings of your handkerchief or 
 a piece of cloth, or by using your watch crystal 
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 or some other piece of glass as a burning glass. 
 Another wrinkle of old soldiers is using the pow- 
 der from a cartridge and the percussion cap. 
 But best of all, make sure of your matches. 
 
 It is no disgrace to be lost, but it is to stay lost. 
 Find yourself first. Sit down and cool off. If 
 in daylight make sure of your direction by the 
 sun, or the prevailing wind, or the general lay 
 of the land. Follow your back trail, or a stream 
 course. If in a friendly country and in a hurry 
 or hungry, fire your piece three times. If at 
 night, and starshine, your old friend the Dipper 
 will give you the North Star, or the moon or a 
 planet will help you get the general direction. 
 If still bewildered, light a fire, make yourself 
 comfortable for the night, and find yourself in 
 the morning. 
 
 Fortunately a soldier does not often have to 
 cook for himself. He has a proper feeling of 
 dependence on his troop or company cook, who 
 knows how to handle the ration and cook it 
 satisfactorily for the hungry hundred. But every 
 soldier in the field carries in his field kit two 
 reserve rations, which are there for a purpose: 
 for the emergency in the presence of the enemy, 
 or if separated on patrol or other detached 
 service. 
 
 If you have been a Boy Scout, or thrown with 
 regular soldiers, or lived much in the open and 
 watched an Indian, you know that one of the 
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 Camp Expedients 
 
 first principles of individual cooking is to do it 
 over a small fire, instead of a large one, or better 
 yet, a few red coals. In other words, cook your 
 food instead of yourself. You will usually be 
 hungry enough to enjoy your own cooking. Most 
 regular soldiers like very weak coffee, but lots 
 of it and sweet. That is easy to make and you 
 have the tin cup to do it. Put in coffee to your 
 taste, remembering that you may have to make it 
 last two days. Let it boil up about three times 
 and dash in a bit of cold water to settle it. I 
 have seen Cubans make delicious coffee by pul- 
 verizing it between stones, and pouring boiling 
 water through a sock holding the powder. This 
 indicates that you should get ground coffee for 
 your pack if possible. 
 
 Tea is a most heart-warming and wholesome 
 drink in the field; it weighs little and is alto- 
 gether easy to handle and carry about. 
 
 But your bacon is going to be your mainstay, 
 and since you eat a good deal of it, learn to cook 
 it right, and not have a greasy mess. Cut slices 
 about five to the inch, three of which ought to 
 be enough for an emergency meal. Place in 
 your mess pan with about one-half inch of cold 
 water. Let come to a boil and then pour the 
 water off. Fry over a brisk fire, turning the 
 bacon and browning it. Remove the bacon to 
 lid of mess pan, leaving the grease for frying 
 anything you may have been lucky enough to 
 135
 
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 pick up. Variety is as difficult to secure on 
 active service as it is important in view of the 
 depressing effect of an unappetizing and monot- 
 onous diet. Quick assimilation is more easily 
 attainable when fresh meat is issued and is best 
 obtained by the use of stew. The valuable influ- 
 ence upon digestion of the "appetite juice" which 
 follows soup, broth, or beef tea should not be 
 lost sight of. A mincing machine is a very 
 important item in the equipment of camp kitch- 
 ens. The company or troop kitchen is a favorite 
 place for soldiers to hang out, especially on cold 
 or wet days, and most soldiers will have enough 
 tours of kitchen police to be thoroughly at home 
 about the kitchen ; so keep your eyes open, keep 
 on the usual good terms with the cook, and learn 
 something about soldier cooking before you are 
 thrown on your own resources. 
 
 136
 
 Part II The Commissioned 
 
 Officer 
 
 I 
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 OATH OF OFFICE 
 
 ONE to accompany the acceptance of every 
 commissioned officer appointed or commissioned 
 by the President in the army of the United 
 States. 
 
 I, A B , having been appointed a Captain of 
 
 Infantry in the military service of the United States, 
 do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and 
 defend the Constitution of the United States against 
 all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true 
 faith and allegiance to the same ; that I take this obliga- 
 tion freely, without any mental reservation or purpose 
 of evasion ; and that I will well and faithfully discharge 
 the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter : 
 So help me God. 
 
 A. B. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, at- 
 this day of , 191 . 
 
 C. D., 
 
 Judge Advocate G. C. M. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 This is the simple form of dedication of every 
 officer from the First in War down to John Doe 
 commissioned from the ranks by the President as 
 commander in chief of the army of the United 
 States. Having held up his hand, from that 
 moment he belongs to Uncle Sam for better or 
 worse, and although remaining subject to the 
 laws of the land, his life and conduct also fall 
 under the Articles of War and code of military 
 laws and customs made statutory by Congress. 
 
 The Articles of War which have come down 
 from Gustavus Adolphus through England, and 
 which have governed the army for more than 
 one hundred years, have recently been modified 
 and amended by a new code passed in 1916 and 
 which became effective on March 1st, 1917. Like 
 the Prince of Wales, his proud motto is "I serve," 
 and like him, his powers and privileges are care- 
 fully regulated and subordinate to civil power, 
 but by the same token he becomes a leader of 
 men, and like the Roman centurion he can say: 
 "To one man Go, and he goeth ; to another man 
 Come, and he cometh." He joins a band of 
 comrades who live and play together with the 
 same spirit as they fight together. As Lord 
 Roberts put it, he is one of those happy individ- 
 uals who love to call themselves poor soldiers. 
 He already has the proud traditions of such men 
 as Washington, Hamilton, Marshall, Scott, Jack- 
 son, the Lees, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Upton, 
 138
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 Custer, Lawton, Chaffee, Miles and Funston; 
 men who, having come from the volunteers, West 
 Point and the ranks and joined the sworn 
 brotherhood of arms, found themselves on the 
 same social and official footing without regard to 
 former life or condition. To get and keep the 
 leadership of his men requires a lifetime of work 
 and training. The winning of a commission 
 implies superior education, training or opportu- 
 nity. The new officer, if not already excelling, 
 must set about attaining superiority at once, and 
 must become expert in the use of all his arms. 
 He must shoot better with rifle and pistol, handle 
 his saber better, ride and march better than any 
 man of his command. This superior skill requires 
 constant work and training. He must become a 
 constant student of his varied profession, realiz- 
 ing that the role of the officer to-day is to be that 
 of a glorified schoolmaster, and his command a 
 constant mill through which passes the crude man 
 power of the nation, each man retiring into the 
 reserve fit to go back in the time of war and at 
 his country's call. 
 
 One of the first duties and not the least impor- 
 tant of the happy warrior is looking his part, set- 
 ting an example in life and appearance to his 
 men, who naturally and instinctively follow his 
 lead. 
 
 One of the first thoughts of the new officer is 
 about uniform and equipment. He should sup- 
 139
 
 National Service Library 
 
 ply himself with the best of everything, but I 
 strongly advise his getting only a service uniform 
 and that he defer completing his kit until after 
 joining his command. Like a sportsman going 
 into the North woods and turned loose in Aber- 
 crombie & Fitch's, he is apt to overload himself 
 with many useless things. If he has the oppor- 
 tunity, it would be well for him to visit the lead- 
 ing outfitters, leave his measurements with such 
 as Abercrombie & Fitch, New York, the army 
 cooperative stores in the great cities, such as in 
 New York, Washington or San Francisco H. V. 
 Allien & Co., New York, Wm. H. Horstmann 
 Co., Philadelphia and good uniform tailors, such 
 as Brook Bros., New York ; John G. Haas, Lan- 
 caster & Washington, etc., etc. E. Vogel, 64 
 Nassau Street, New York, or Teitzel, Junction 
 City, Kas., whose boots may also be obtained 
 through the army cooperative stores. (See Ap- 
 pendix I for Individual Field Equipment for 
 Dismounted Company Officers, and Appendix II 
 for Equipment, Army Officers' Reserve Corps.) 
 Side and personal arms may be obtained from 
 the Ordnance Department and Officers' Field 
 Rolls may be obtained from the Quartermaster 
 Department. For further advice on like matters 
 address the adjutant of your regiment if you 
 have already been assigned to a command, other- 
 wise to the adjutant general of a military depart- 
 ment who is the nearest to a bureau of informa- 
 140
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 tion for the army, and who will be glad to reply 
 to questions concerning the service. 
 
 All official publications, drill regulations and 
 other manuals of the service may be obtained by 
 writing to the Superintendent of Documents, 
 Washington, D. C., who will furnish a list of all 
 army publications. 
 
 Professional books not published by the gov- 
 ernment may best be obtained from the Book 
 Department, Army Service Schools, Fort Leav- 
 enworth, Kas., who will also furnish list on 
 application. 
 
 Upon being assigned to a command, the offi- 
 cer will at once address a formal letter reporting 
 to the commanding officer, quoting the order from 
 the War Department, requesting instructions. 
 
 Forms of military correspondence are peculiar, 
 certain models of which are given in Appendix 
 III, based on the General Order 23, 1912, War 
 Department, which covers all forms of such cor- 
 respondence in full. 
 
 You will receive an extract of an order from 
 the War Department directing you to report to 
 your proper command or commanding officer. 
 You will feel for the moment like a boy who is 
 going off to school with the uncertainty of his 
 reception and the possibility of going through a 
 preliminary kind of hazing for ignorance or 
 freshness. But if you are of the right sort and 
 becomingly quiet and modest, you will find a 
 141
 
 National Service Library 
 
 real warmth of reception awaiting you from 
 your comrades in arms. Everyone from the 
 colonel down will treat you with a distinguished 
 courtesy and with an evident desire to make you 
 feel at home. The adjutant of the command will 
 be glad to answer every question and put you in 
 touch with the little wrinkles and life of the 
 service. 
 
 Very quickly you will realize that the life and 
 work is largely and properly an instinctive fol- 
 lowing of the customs of the service as in all 
 other armies. In other words, the customs of the 
 service are certain immemorial conventions which 
 reduce friction of all kinds and classes of men 
 living together on terms of personal equality and 
 rights regulated by an official hierarchy. Remem- 
 ber that these conventions are just as closely 
 observed by the soldiers as by the officers, aKl 
 are just as necessary for their comfort and hap- 
 piness and convenience as for those of their offi- 
 cial superiors. The ignorant or inexperienced 
 civilian often rails at them and always misunder- 
 stands them. They are what makes the happy 
 ship of the navy and the contented company of 
 the army. 
 
 The little courtesies of intercourse are impor- 
 tant where men are so closely bound together, 
 and the officers and general must observe those 
 toward enlisted men with most decided particu- 
 larity of conduct. The captain and fellow lieu- 
 142
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 tenants will quickly put the new officer on to 
 them. His relations with the officers will follow 
 easily, but the new officer must be impressed with 
 his relations with the enlisted men of his own 
 company. He must show a respect in his inter- 
 course with the noncoms., especially the first ser- 
 geant and the soldiers, and it will soon become a 
 feeling one on both sides. He should at once 
 obtain a list of the organization and memorize 
 the names of his men and put them to the men 
 as quickly as possible. He should interest him- 
 self in the history of the organization and the life 
 histories of the noncoms. and soldiers, acquiring 
 this with the utmost discretion. The American 
 soldier does not like the French familiarity nor 
 the English patronizing ways, and intercourse 
 should be in keeping with the customs of the 
 service. The popularity seeker, or freely familiar 
 officer, soon acquires the disdain or contempt 
 of his men. If he is going to lead them in hard 
 times and have their willing and instinctive 
 respect in following, he must exercise a quiet 
 patience and an insistence on their rights and 
 privileges, and a keen interest in their comfort 
 and welfare. The intimate service in the field 
 will give him every opportunity for showing this. 
 It must not be forced. 
 
 Self-control is the most important faculty of 
 command over Americans an even tone of 
 voice and a quiet, cool way. When you speak 
 143
 
 National Service Library 
 
 to a man, use his name, never the old-fashioned 
 terms of "you man" or "my man" or any other 
 patronizing expression or tone of voice. Show 
 a lively interest in everything that is going on in 
 the way of both work and sport, and cultivate 
 the utmost discrimination in giving rewards and 
 punishments. 
 
 Study the temperament and characteristics of 
 your men, and remember that punishment itself 
 is not an end but a means for better work and 
 particular reform. Be sympathetic but not soft- 
 hearted at the wrong moment. Remember that 
 enlisted men in barracks are not "plaster-of- 
 paris saints," but have all of the little faults and 
 at the same time the fine loyalty and often splen- 
 did qualities of the young American. Most of 
 your soldiers are not much more than boys, and 
 they should be handled as such. 
 
 Your heart will warm particularly to the non- 
 coms. They have been tried by fire and are 
 usually a splendid lot and stand by you through 
 thick and thin, and it is one of the finest expe- 
 riences of the service to go through hard times 
 with them. 
 
 The duties of a subaltern are seldom sharply 
 defined. He is a leader in a very varied life 
 and the finest life on earth, if he takes to it full 
 of adventure, sport and travel, with periods of 
 great stress and strain. Remember that by law 
 an officer is set down as an officer and gentle- 
 144
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 man and with that high privilege there goes 
 noblesse oblige. 
 
 You must watch your company commander 
 and profit by his example. If he is an expe- 
 rienced commander of troops you will note the 
 following : 
 
 1. First, last and all the time he shows a keen 
 interest in his men as individuals. The old man 
 is the quick philosopher and friend of his troop- 
 ers as well as the captain, instructor, discipli- 
 narian and judge. 
 
 2. His men feel at liberty to come to him at 
 any time with any question, personal or official. 
 
 3. He sees to it, however, that the appeal and 
 approach is always made in a soldierly way, 
 proper military courtesies observed, uniform 
 neat, etc. Most regular soldiers get permission 
 from the first sergeant or noncom. in charge 
 before visiting the captain. 
 
 4. In giving routine orders he does it through 
 the first sergeant, keeping his lieutenants in- 
 formed. He issues as few orders as possible. 
 He keeps from nagging, but sees that every 
 order is promptly and intelligently obeyed. If 
 the captain receives an order, he is responsible 
 for its execution and must see it through. 
 
 5. He is loyal in his obedience to the orders 
 he receives from his superiors, and in carrying 
 the orders out he sees that each of his subordi- 
 nates thoroughly understands his share of the 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 work and does it well. He does not permit an 
 order given to one subordinate to be transmitted 
 by that subordinate to another and thereby ab- 
 solve himself from responsibility. The subor- 
 dinate may have to transmit the order to many 
 others but the captain holds responsible the one 
 to whom it was originally given. 
 
 6. He never reprimands nor punishes unnec- 
 essarily, and when he does he is quiet and calm 
 about it. If he loses his temper and is unjust 
 to a man he does not consider it beneath him to 
 ask pardon of the soldier. 
 
 7. He is unrelentingly severe upon the soldier 
 who is insubordinate or willfully neglectful, but 
 stands ready at any time to give even the worst 
 man another chance if the proper spirit be shown. 
 He never permits a soldier to feel that he has 
 offended so deeply as to make it impossible for 
 him to ever regain the good will of the old man. 
 
 8. When called upon to furnish a soldier for 
 special detail, he endeavors to select the soldier 
 best qualified regardless of the fact that the duty 
 may separate such soldier from the organization. 
 This he knows will enhance the reputation of the 
 company, troop, or battery and will probably 
 result in favorable details and rapid promotion 
 coming to the men under his command. 
 
 9. Finally, in disciplining his soldiers he always 
 impresses upon them that they should work with 
 him for the good of the service as a whole and 
 
 146
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 the reputation of the organization itself. In 
 other words, he establishes an esprit de corps. 
 
 The younger officer should not hesitate to con- 
 sult the older noncommissioned officers of the 
 company. The first sergeant will think none the 
 less of him if he spends some leisure hours in 
 the company office working on the company rec- 
 ords and correspondence and consulting the com- 
 pany clerk about the routine paper work. The 
 company supply sergeant will respect him the 
 more highly if he confess that he does not know 
 the names of the different parts of the equip- 
 ment and asks the older soldier to lay out a com- 
 plete equipment, show him the parts, and how 
 to fit them. The mechanic or artificer will feel 
 proud if the young lieutenant asks him to instruct 
 him in the method of taking apart the magazine 
 rifle and reassembling it. All these soldiers know 
 that the officer is the better educated and that 
 in larger matters he can instruct them. A desire* 
 to know thoroughly their part of the work also 
 will gain not only their respect but their cordial 
 good will, and no officer makes any progress who 
 has not both the respect and the good will of the 
 enlisted man. 
 
 As quickly as practicable a young officer should 
 familiarize himself with the field equipment of 
 his organization and all the articles which must 
 be carried in campaign both on the person and 
 in the wagons. Appendixes IV and V are guides
 
 National Service Library 
 
 to the present requirements. They are, of course, 
 subject to change. 
 
 Above all, do not drink or gamble. Both take 
 time, and time is what the modern officer has 
 the least of. Probably no harm results from an 
 officer taking a drink after the day's work is 
 done, but it is difficult to tell when your work is 
 done, and even a single drink lessens one's effi- 
 ciency. Drinking to excess or to the extent of 
 making it impracticable for you to do your full 
 share will certainly win you the distrust of your 
 commanding officer, the resentment of those who 
 have to do the work you neglect, and the con- 
 tempt of the soldiers (though these last may be 
 forced to conceal their true feelings). 
 
 This book is for the citizen soldier, combined 
 from experiences in the oldest of professions, so 
 that he may help himself to train and train others. 
 Soldiering in America has been a side issue and 
 a little profession, and so neglected by the very 
 men who will now show interest and bring a 
 new and varied intelligence to the service. 
 
 Many will take to it with a will and enjoy it, 
 others as an irksome duty, like unto jury duty 
 or paying taxes. Such enjoy handling ideas 
 rather than men, and would rather stay sheltered 
 than resolutely venture forth into the blizzard of 
 life. All in time of war have the oldest instinct 
 of going forth to fight, but wilt with disgust 
 under the work and routine necessary to learn 
 148
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 to fight effectively. Many a National Guards- 
 man during the past summer on the border has 
 sworn at the trying training and camp drudgery. 
 "I enlisted to fight," but he will look back on that 
 six months of getting ready as the outstanding 
 lesson of a lifetime. 
 
 I confess I'm taking to the game. ... I was too 
 highbrowed about this war business. I dream now of 
 getting a commission. "Mr. Britling Sees It Through" 
 Wells. 
 
 Hugh's letters divided themselves pretty fairly 
 between two main topics ; the first was the inter- 
 est of the art of war, the second the reaction 
 against warfare. 
 
 After one has got over the emotion of it, and when 
 one's mind has just accepted and forgotten (as it does) 
 the horror and waste of it all, then I begin to perceive 
 that war is absolutely the best game in the world. That 
 is the real strength of war, I submit. Not as you put it 
 in that early pamphlet of yours, ambition, cruelty, and 
 all those things. Those things give an excuse for war. 
 they rush timid and base people into war, but the 
 essential matter is the hold of the thing itself upon an 
 active imagination. It's such a big game. Instead of 
 being fenced into a field and tied down to one set of 
 tools as you are in almost every other game you have 
 all the world to play with, and you may use whatever 
 you can use. You can use every scrap of imagination 
 and invention that is in you. And it's wonderful. . . . 
 But the real soldiers aren't cruel. And war isn't cruel 
 in its essence. Only in its consequences. 
 
 Fortunately the art of war is not an exact 
 science, it is life itself in its most varied phases 
 149
 
 National Service Library 
 
 and raised to the nih power. Everyone will find 
 his place, and by proper organization will be put 
 in it. But everyone too should go through the 
 soldier training for his body and soul's sake 
 before the national tryout. 
 
 Every boy picks up, in playing baseball, foot- 
 ball and other games, short, sharp words of effec- 
 tive slang which save an extensive flow of lan- 
 guage. Every team in whatever game develops a 
 system of signals which insure quick and distinc- 
 tive response to the captain. In all our games 
 the prime importance of teamwork is impressed 
 upon us from boyhood, and the necessity of 
 reacting to every sound and signal, and the team- 
 work which stands for victory has traditions and 
 years of work behind it, either in college or 
 among the professionals. 
 
 Why does not the average American under- 
 stand the much greater game of training an army 
 forcing hundreds of thousands of men to react 
 to the will and word of the commander in chief? 
 The history of our wars is one of disputes over 
 orders and disasters due largely to a lack of 
 understanding of the expressed intention of the 
 commanders. In other words, the American vol- 
 unteers did not speak the same language. In 
 the regular army, from close association and 
 from standardized education and training, there 
 is mutual understanding and instinctive team- 
 work. The higher command issues an order in
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 simple and clear language, and it goes filtering 
 down the military hierarchy, and the will of the 
 commander is quickly and quietly carried out. 
 Ask any staff officer who has served a general 
 commanding green troops what happened when 
 he signed an order directing general movement 
 or particular action, and you will find that 
 nearly every colonel to whom the order went 
 called up headquarters to ask questions about it 
 to find out what it really meant. 
 
 Take the order for the attack of the Confed- 
 erate general before Shiloh, and you will find his 
 adjutant general put forth a document so full 
 of maxims of war and attempts to coordinate a 
 loose-jointed force that nobody had time or 
 patience to find out what it meant, and in conse- 
 quence no movement occurred on time, no attack 
 was pulled off as directed, and the general lost 
 complete control of his force from the start. 
 Throughout the Civil War generals were obliged 
 to explain so carefully and direct so much in 
 detail that proper discretion was not given, and 
 changed conditions left the distinct commands in 
 disorder and lacking leadership. Military par- 
 lance is just as strange to the uninitiated as 
 the language of the lawyer or the doctor, and 
 it is only by the close association in the service 
 with both officers and men that it can be acquired. 
 Careful reading of the list of professional books 
 given below will give a familiarity with the
 
 National Service Library 
 
 more formal language of the profession, and the 
 courses of study in the garrison and in the service 
 schools, and working out problems on the map 
 will be of great help. 
 
 As in every profession, the would-be officer 
 of regulars, of the National Guard or volunteers, 
 or the self-sacrificing citizen, should read up not 
 only on his particular "pidgin," but for the inter- 
 est and liberal education some general list of 
 standard works. These books should be read 
 for interest and instructive habit of mind only. 
 When in the camp or field, don't hark back and 
 try to fit the actual conditions to others' expe- 
 riences or to abstract theory. 
 
 Then as said the Squire to Doctor Syntax: 
 
 No sir, let your books rest themselves, 
 In known content shoulder to shoulder on 
 their shelves. 
 
 COURSE OF READING FOR MILITARY MEN 
 
 Professional Books: 
 
 Clausewitz on War. 
 
 The Bible of German Militarism. 
 
 (Deepest and most profound analysis and 
 description of war that has ever appeared 
 in any language.) 
 
 Jomini Campaigns of Napoleon. 
 
 (Jomini, like Clausewitz, attempted to ex- 
 plain and interpret the genius and campaigns 
 of Napoleon. Instead of producing a philos- 
 152
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 ophy of war, he reduced it to a system of 
 
 maxims and principles.) 
 Hallecks Art of War. 
 Mercur's Art of War. 
 
 (American attempts to follow Jomini's lead.) 
 Operations of War, by Hamley. 
 
 (Following Jomini's lead and going him one 
 
 better.) 
 
 Influence of Sea Power on History, by Mahan. 
 Von der Goltz : 
 
 Nation in Arms ; 
 
 Conduct in War. 
 
 Mahan's Permanent Fortifications. 
 Annals of a Fortress, by Violet-le-Duc. 
 Upton's Military Policy. 
 The Military Unpreparedness of the United 
 
 States, Huidekoper. 
 Valor of Ignorance, Lea. 
 Technique of Modern Tactics, by Bond and 
 
 McDonough. 
 
 De Brack's Cavalry Outpost Duties. 
 Tactics Infantry, Balck. 
 Studies in Troop, Leading War Game, etc., by 
 
 Verdy de Verriois. 
 Seventy Problems of Infantry Tactics, by 
 
 Morrisson. 
 
 Leavenworth Tactical Studies by Fiske, Con- 
 ger and Bjornstadt. 
 Training of the Mounted Riflemen, by General 
 
 James Parker. 
 
 153
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Tactical Principles and Problems, by Hanna. 
 
 Fundamentals of Military Service, by Andrews. 
 
 Officers' and Noncommissioned Officers' and 
 Privates' Manual, by Moss. 
 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Sketches on dif- 
 ferent arms of the service, particularly 
 under caption Infantry. 
 
 Exercises for Systematic Scout Instruction, 
 by Capt. H. T. McKenney. 
 
 Field Equipment Manual for Individuals and 
 Organizations, by Conley. 
 
 (By communicating with the secretary of the 
 Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth, pro- 
 fessional notes of most valuable kind and 
 character will be supplied from the service 
 schools at nominal cost.) 
 
 The following reviews are recommended: 
 
 "Infantry Journal," 
 
 "Cavalry Journal," 
 
 "Journal of United States Service Institution," 
 
 "Military Historian and Economist." 
 
 Books on Military History and of general 
 interest: 
 
 The Bible. (The Old Testament is full of 
 military interest, and its chronicles taken 
 together, give a remarkable picture of minor 
 campaigns under ancient conditions, includ- 
 ing the excellent studies of leadership and 
 154
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 examples of all ruses and stratagems of 
 war.) 
 
 Wars of the Jews, by Josephus. 
 
 Thucydides. 
 
 Herodotus. 
 
 Iliad and Odyssey, Homer. 
 
 Anabasis and Horse Training, by Xenophon. 
 
 Plutarch's Lives. 
 
 Caesar's Gaelic Wars. 
 
 Great Captain Series, by Dodge: Alexander, 
 Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Na- 
 poleon. 
 
 Napoleon: Jomini; Bourrienne ; Ropes (par- 
 ticularly the Waterloo campaign) ; Account 
 of Waterloo in Victor Hugo's "Les Misera- 
 bles" ; Bourgaud ; Abbott ; Sloan ; Sargeant's 
 Campaigns of '96 and Marengo. 
 
 Peninsular Wars, by Napier. 
 
 History of the Thirty Years' War, by Gin- 
 dely. 
 
 Mississippi Valley in the Civil War, by John 
 Fiske. 
 
 Lives of : John Sobieski ; Turenne ; Garibaldi, 
 by Trevelyn ; Garibaldi and the Thousand ; 
 Cavour and his Times, by Thayer; Marl- 
 borough, Peterborough, Macaulay's Essays; 
 Conde ; Prince Eugene ; Cesare Borgia and 
 the Italian Condottieri, Sabatini ; Genghis 
 Khan; Mohamet, Muir; Charles XII., Vol- 
 taire; Cromwell, by Morley and by Roose- 
 155
 
 National Service Library 
 
 velt; Give, Nicholson, Lawrence, Builders 
 of Great Britain Series; Jackson, Parton; 
 Winfield Scott ; Taylor ; Daendals ; Raffles, 
 Jacobs, Builders of Great Britain Series; 
 Rajah Brooke, Spenser St. John ; Crimean 
 War, Kinglake. 
 
 Memoirs of: Baber the Great; Grant; Sher- 
 man ; Sheridan ; McClellan ; Schofield ; Nel- 
 son A. Miles ; Fremont ; J. H. Wilson ; 
 Roberts's Forty-one Years in India; Wolse- 
 ley's Story of a Soldier's Life; Sir Evelyn 
 Wood ; Sir Harry Smith's Autobiography ; 
 Marbot; A Soldier of the Empire, Coiquet; 
 Bolivar, San Martin, Dawson's History 
 South American Republics; A Confederate, 
 by Alexander; Lee, by J. N. Page, R. 
 E. Lee, Jr., Long, etc.; Jackson, by Hen- 
 derson; J. B. Stewart, by McClelland; 
 Forrest, by Wyeth; American Campaigns 
 by Steele. 
 
 The following books by Parkman: 
 Conspiracy of Pontiac. 
 La Salle, and the Discovery of the Great 
 
 West. 
 
 The Old Regime in Canada. 
 Montcalm and Wolfe. 
 The Oregon Trail. 
 
 Military Papers on Colonial Wars, Huidekoper. 
 
 Siege of Havana, 1762, Diaries published by 
 Dr. E. E. Hale and paper in "Cavalry 
 156
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 Journal," 1903, by Lieut. McCoy, Tenth 
 
 Cavalry. 
 American Revolution: 
 
 Fiske. 
 
 Trevelyn. 
 
 Lossing. 
 
 F. V. Greene. 
 
 Arnold's Expedition to Quebec, Codman. 
 Mexican War: 
 
 Ripley. 
 
 Willcox. 
 
 Donaphan's Expedition, Hughes. 
 
 Life on the Rio Grande, Thorpe. 
 Expeditions of Cabeza de Vaca, Expeditions 
 
 of Coronado, Great Explorers Series. 
 Winning of the West, and War of 1812, by 
 
 Roosevelt (Naval). 
 Winning of the Far West, McElroy. 
 Fur Traders and Trappers, Chittenden. 
 Bonneville's Expedition, Washington Irving, 
 Civil War: 
 
 Battles and Leaders, Century. 
 
 Histories, Comte de Paris. 
 
 Ropes. 
 
 Humphrey. 
 
 Palfrey. 
 
 Dana's Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Reminiscences, Horace Porter. 
 
 Letters of Meade (Mexican War). 
 
 Chancellorsville, Bigelow. 
 157
 
 National Service Library 
 
 The Wilderness, Schaaf. 
 
 Gettysburg, Haskell. 
 Indian Wars on the Western Frontier. 
 On the Border with Crook, Bourke. 
 German General Staff Accounts of : 
 
 The Franco-Prussian Wars. 
 
 The Boer War in South Africa. 
 
 The Russo-Japanese War. 
 A Staff Officer's Scrap Book, Ian Hamilton. 
 The Russian Army in the Japanese War, by 
 
 Kouropatkin. 
 Spanish War: 
 
 Lodge. 
 
 Santiago, Sargent. 
 
 Cuba and Philippines, Funston. 
 Mexico : 
 
 Conquest of New Spain, Bernal Diaz del 
 Castilo (Hakluyt Edition). 
 
 Conquest of Mexico, Prescott. 
 
 Relations between United States and Mexico, 
 by Rives. 
 
 Hernando Cortez (Great Leaders Series). 
 
 Memoirs of the French Intervention, Niox, 
 '6i-'67, by Blanchot. 
 
 Terry's Guide Book. 
 
 Letters from Mexico, Caulderon de la Barca. 
 
 Monograph of General Staff: Mexico 
 South American Republics, Dawson. 
 Russo-Turkish War, Greene. 
 With Kitchener to Khartoum, Stevens. 
 158
 
 The Newly Commissioned Officer 
 
 The River War, Churchill. 
 
 Facts and Fallacies American History, by 
 
 Leonard Wood. 
 
 Franco-German War, Von Moltke. 
 The Great War : 
 
 Bernhardi : Germany and the Next War. 
 
 Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, 
 Chamberlain. 
 
 Ordeal by Battle, Oliver. 
 
 Elements of the Great War, Belloc. 
 The First Hundred Thousand, Ian Hay 
 
 (Beith). 
 
 Kitchener's Mob, Hall. 
 The Dutch Republic, Motley. 
 Rise and Fall of the Eastern Empire, by 
 
 Gibbons. 
 
 Fall of Constantinople, Pears. 
 History of the Mongols, Curtin. 
 Mikado's Empire, Griffis. 
 History of China, Boulger. 
 Letters of Chinese Gordon. 
 American Adventurers in the Taiping Rebel- 
 lion, Ward, etc. 
 War and Peace, Tolstoy. 
 Pan Michael, Sienkiewicz. 
 The Deluge, Sienkiewicz. 
 Fire and Sword, etc., Sienkiewicz. 
 The White Company, Conan Doyle. 
 Novels of Scott. 
 Novels of Cooper. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 Old Panama, Anderson. 
 
 History of the Buccaneers of America, Ex- 
 
 quemelin. 
 Don Quixote. 
 Kipling. 
 
 Chanson de Roland. 
 
 History of Bayard (from French of Larchey). 
 Froissart's Chronicles. 
 Shakespeare (particularly Henry IV and V, 
 
 Richard III, Othello, Macbeth). 
 Creasy 's Fifteen Decisive Battles. 
 Marco Polo, Yule. 
 The Spirit of the Sword, and other Addresses, 
 
 by Mr. Justice Holmes. 
 
 After entering the service, all of the above 
 books can be obtained from War College Library. 
 Most of the early books, such as Herodotus, 
 Homer, Plutarch, etc., are in Everyman's 
 Edition. 
 
 160
 
 II 
 
 Routine Duties of Officers 
 
 ADMINISTRATION (MAINTENANCE AND 
 GOVERNMENT) 
 
 IN approaching the matter of army adminis- 
 tration the new officer should remember that he 
 cannot expect to know it all at once, but he can 
 make up his mind to do his intelligent best in 
 every matter which comes to him. The so-called 
 army red tape is nothing but a system by means 
 of which the interests of the government and of 
 the individual are both carefully conserved. You 
 will hear many absurdities of its operation you 
 will be told how a volunteer officer was retained 
 in the service two months at a total cost to the 
 government of approximately $500 in an effort 
 to make him account for a small item of prop- 
 erty worth about one dollar. You will be told 
 how tRrough administrative stupidity equipment 
 needed by soldiers at X was shipped to them 
 from Y, while similar equipment on hand at X 
 was being shipped to troops at Y. Such inci- 
 dents stick in the memory while the stupendous 
 amount of money and supplies which are handled 
 161 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L.6
 
 National Service Library 
 
 annually so smoothly that no one notices is 
 forgotten. 
 
 Remember that all large businesses have their 
 systems, and if you are going to be one cog of 
 the wheel, make up your mind to conform until 
 by long experience you are certain you have 
 found some method promising improvement. 
 
 The commanding officer of the company is 
 responsible for the instruction, tactical efficiency, 
 and preparedness for war service of his com- 
 pany; for its appearance and discipline; for the 
 care and preservation of its equipment ; and for 
 the proper performance of duties connected with 
 its subsistence, pay, clothing, accounts, reports, 
 and returns. In the absence of its captain, the 
 command of the company devolves upon the sub- 
 altern next in rank who is serving with him. 
 Captains will require their lieutenants to assist 
 in the performance of all company duties, includ- 
 ing the keeping of records and the preparation of 
 the necessary reports and returns. 
 
 The health, happiness, and efficiency of an 
 organization in the army are directly dependent 
 upon the thorough observance of the regula- 
 tions of the army and the intelligent interest 
 of the company officers showing responsible 
 administration. 
 
 All administrative work in the army is stand- 
 ardized ; and all records, returns, etc., must be 
 made out on the blanks furnished by the adjutant 
 162
 
 Routine Duties of Officers 
 
 general of the army. The captain is responsible 
 for keeping a complete list of these on hand, 
 each one of which has instructions for its proper 
 use printed on it. For full list of these blanks, 
 note Appendix V. 
 
 The morning report is a continuing record of 
 the command, and is made out by the First Ser- 
 geant and presented to the captain for his infor- 
 mation, check and signature, prior to being turned 
 in to the sergeant major. 
 
 The sick report should be handed in with the 
 morning report, those men on the sick report 
 reporting at the same time to the captain for his 
 inquiry and interest. If this is neglected by a 
 careless officer, many soldiers will take the oppor- 
 tunity of going on the sick report for the purpose 
 of dead-beating drill or fatigue. 
 
 The duty roster also is kept by the First Ser- 
 geant, but should be supervised carefully by the 
 company commander to see that it is kept prop- 
 erly and that there are no unjust discriminations. 
 The captain will thus keep himself informed of 
 the routine duties of his men and that his men 
 are not doing guard or fatigue duty out of their 
 proper proportion. 
 
 All the routine records, such as the above, with 
 correspondence books, soldiers' deposit books, 
 company delinquency books, descriptive lists and 
 individual clothing slips should be laid out on 
 the captain's desk after Saturday morning inspec- 
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 tion to see that they are made out properly and 
 up to date. 
 
 Noncommissioned officers will be carefully 
 selected and instructed, and always supported 
 by company commanders in the proper perform- 
 ance of their duties. They will not be detailed 
 for any duty nor permitted to engage in any 
 occupation inconsistent with their rank and posi- 
 tion. Officers will be cautious in reproving them 
 in the presence or hearing of private soldiers. 
 
 Company noncommissioned officers are ap- 
 pointed by regimental commanders, or tempo- 
 rarily appointed by battalion commanders, on the 
 recommendation of their company commanders ; 
 but in no case will any company organization 
 have an excess of noncommissioned officers above 
 that allowed by law. 
 
 To test that capacity of privates for the duties 
 of noncommissioned officers, company command- 
 ers may appoint lance corporals, who will be 
 obeyed and respected as corporals, but no com- 
 pany shall have more than one lance corporal at 
 a time, unless there are noncommissioned officers 
 absent by authority, during which absences there 
 may be one for each absence. 
 
 The captain will select the first sergeant, sup- 
 ply sergeant, mess sergeant and stable sergeant 
 from the sergeants of his company, and may 
 return them to the grade of sergeant without 
 reference to higher authority. 
 164
 
 Routine Duties of Officers 
 
 A noncommissioned officer may be reduced to 
 the ranks by sentence of a court-martial, or, on 
 the recommendation of the company commander, 
 by the order of the commander having final 
 authority to appoint such noncommissioned offi- 
 cer, but a noncommissioned officer will not be 
 reduced because of absence on account of sick- 
 ness or injury contracted in the line of duty. If 
 reduced to the ranks by sentence of court-mar- 
 tial at a post not the headquarters of his regi- 
 ment, the company commander will forward a 
 transcript of the order to the regimental com- 
 mander. The transfer of a noncommissioned 
 officer from one organization to another carries 
 with it reduction to the ranks unless otherwise 
 specified in the order by authority competent to 
 issue a new warrant. 
 
 Chief mechanics, cooks, farriers, horseshoers, 
 mechanics, artificers, saddlers, wagoners, musi- 
 cians, trumpeters and first-class privates are 
 enlisted as privates, and after joining their com- 
 panies are appointed by their respective com- 
 pany commanders. For inefficiency or miscon- 
 duct they are subject to reduction by the same 
 authority. 
 
 The following named books of record, reports, 
 and papers will be kept in each company: A 
 correspondence book, a sick report, a morning 
 report, and in companies supplied with public 
 animals, a file of descriptive cards of public ani- 
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 mals, also a company council book, a record of 
 individual property responsibility of enlisted 
 men, and a record of punishments awarded by 
 the company commander, to be furnished by the 
 quartermaster corps. 
 
 There will be kept also a complete record, 
 description, and accounts of all men who be- 
 long to or have belonged to the company. A 
 record of vaccinations will be kept on these 
 blanks. 
 
 There will be kept also a document file, orders 
 and instructions received from higher authority, 
 and retained copies of the various rolls, reports, 
 and returns required by regulations and orders. 
 
 There will be kept also in each company re- 
 tained copies of all returns of property pertain- 
 ing to the company and full information respect- 
 ing all quartermaster and other supplies held on 
 memorandum receipt, showing list of articles, 
 date of receipt, from whom received, and the 
 name of the officer who signed the memorandum 
 receipt therefor; also an account of all articles 
 turned in, expended, stolen, lost, or destroyed; 
 and the company commander will have a settle- 
 ment with the staff officers concerned quarterly 
 and when relinquishing his command. 
 
 All quartermaster property is held on mem- 
 orandum receipt from the post or other supply 
 officer. The supply sergeant is charged by the 
 captain with its care, and the captain or one of 
 166
 
 Routine Duties of Officers 
 
 his troop officers should make a quarterly in- 
 ventory to insure proper care and responsibility. 
 
 Ordnance property is accounted for semian- 
 nually on the unit equipment return. The method 
 obtained in caring and accounting for this equip- 
 ment is laid down in the Unit Accountability 
 Manual furnished by the Ordnance Department. 
 The supply sergeant sees that each man has his 
 individual equipment and keeps a charge slip 
 against each one. Such equipment should be 
 checked up at Saturday inspection, or at least 
 once every month. 
 
 There is also signal and engineer property that 
 is accounted for semiannually on blanks fur- 
 nished for the purpose. In a company there are 
 comparatively few articles of these departments. 
 
 A complete list of individual equipment is 
 shown in Appendix IV. 
 
 There is never any particular trouble in the 
 regular service in easily keeping straight the 
 careful responsibility as outlined above, as either 
 officers or noncommissioned officers or both are 
 experienced and thoroughly trained, but with 
 volunteer and militia troops, many of whom have 
 had different systems, and even not appreciating 
 the thorough responsibility and accountability 
 required of them, there is always much to be 
 impressed and learned. Government property is 
 often considered by them as common property 
 and they have not had the experience of lock- 
 167
 
 National Service Library 
 
 ing horns with the eternally vigilant Auditing 
 Bureau of the government. 
 
 Up to the time of Pitt in England there was 
 no honest responsibility in the British army. 
 There was no standard method of administration 
 or of accountability, and even the officers of the 
 British army were liable to extreme official care- 
 lessness and what is nowadays called "graft." 
 The paymaster general of the forces of the Brit- 
 ish army was the great bonanza of the British 
 Government and by the perverted system politi- 
 cal favorites were rewarded by the full control 
 of the pay of the army and the purchase of sup- 
 plies. These methods were in part inherited by 
 the American army and were a frequent source 
 of scandal during our Revolution. Washington 
 and Hamilton made earnest efforts, even in the 
 earliest days of our army, to correct these abuses, 
 and when Hamilton became Secretary of the 
 Treasury he established the principles of account- 
 ability and audit which have persisted until this 
 day. Whether you believe in such red tape or 
 not, it is here to stay in one form or other. So 
 make the best of it. 
 
 To give a striking instance of the determined 
 and automatic vigilance of our system, General 
 Fitzhugh Lee on his return to the United States 
 service in 1898, after forty years, had his pay 
 stopped by the auditor to refund to the govern- 
 ment certain charges made against him when he 
 168
 
 Routine Duties of Officers 
 
 was a lieutenant of dragoons before the Civil 
 War. The items listed against him had com- 
 pletely passed from his memory and were due 
 to some very active, and no doubt proper work, 
 of an enterprising young quartermaster, but were 
 done without the necessary red tape or proper 
 authority. 
 
 The following report indicates the effect of 
 carelessness in paper work : 
 
 "Recent complaint was made to the officer in 
 charge, Militia Affairs, that sometimes pay rolls 
 were returned to Company Commanders for cor- 
 rections so evidently necessary and so simple that 
 they could have been made by the Paying Quar- 
 termaster and expedited the payment of the 
 troops. The Quartermaster was questioned as 
 to this matter and replied in effect as follows : 
 'To alter a document in the slightest degree over 
 the signature of another is technical forgery and 
 unjustifiable under any circumstances.' Most of 
 the corrections referred to were so evident that 
 the officers signing the papers should have had 
 them made before submitting pay rolls or final 
 statements. Most of the errors, at least 80 per 
 cent, for which papers are returned for correc- 
 tions are made because officers have not fol- 
 lowed directions printed on backs of blanks. The 
 Paying Quartermaster has offered to instruct 
 officers or their clerks in proper methods of mak- 
 ing these papers but very few have availed them- 
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 National Service Library 
 
 selves of the offer. He has also passed and paid 
 on every voucher however irregularly made, that 
 gave the facts necessary to ascertain amounts 
 due. Though he considers ample time and oppor- 
 tunity has been given all company, troop, battery 
 and detachment commanders to learn to submit 
 proper documents, upon which payment is to be 
 made, and that in future he will expect from 
 state organizations the same compliance in form 
 and substance as is required of regular organi- 
 zations. The attention of all officers responsible 
 for the rendering of pay rolls or final statements 
 is called to the foregoing statement. Officers are 
 responsible that their men receive their just dues 
 while in the service and when about to be sepa- 
 rated from it, and any failure to secure such jus- 
 tice through carelessness or neglect is most cul- 
 pable on the part of an officer. For the sake of 
 the men dependent upon him, as has been repeat- 
 edly emphasized, every officer should read his 
 orders, read instructions on all documents, carry 
 them out." 
 
 The officer who signs a pay roll as being cor- 
 rect (generally the troop, battery, or company 
 commander) is responsible that it is correct, and 
 in case an overpayment is t made and cannot be 
 collected from the man overpaid it is a just claim 
 against the officer signing the pay roll, and under 
 army regulations will be stopped against his pay. 
 
 Post exchange and company councils of admin- 
 170
 
 Routine Duties of Officers 
 
 istration are assembled to audit the exchange 
 company funds respectively, to ascertain and ex- 
 amine sources from which they have accrued 
 and to recommend expenditures therefrom. The 
 post exchange officer and company commanders 
 are respectively the custodians of the exchange 
 and company funds. 
 
 The post exchange and company councils will 
 meet at the end of each month and when neces- 
 sary. . . . The company council will consist of 
 all officers on duty with the company. 
 
 The company commander will keep an account 
 of the company fund and also a complete list 
 of property with cost thereof purchased from 
 said fund. The company fund account will be 
 inspected by the post, regimental, battalion or 
 squadron commander at least once each quarter. 
 
 A company council book may be obtained from 
 the quartermaster and a record should be kept 
 as laid down therein. The company commander 
 should keep this council record himself, but it 
 is good policy to leave the book in the orderly 
 room subject to the inspection of the noncom- 
 missioned officers and men. As far as possible 
 company funds should be kept in the bank and 
 the company commander make payments wher- 
 ever possible by check. 
 
 Company commanders will make a complete 
 inspection of their organizations under arms 
 every Saturday. They will also make a daily 
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 National Service Library 
 
 inspection of the men's quarters and kitchens, 
 giving particular attention to cleanliness and the 
 proper preparation of food. 
 
 He will cause the enlisted men of the company 
 to be numbered and divided into squads, each 
 under the charge of a noncommissioned officer 
 who should be held responsible for the soldierly 
 conduct of his squad. As far as practicable the 
 men of each squad will be quartered together. 
 
 In quarters the name of each soldier will 
 be attached to his bunk, arms will be kept in 
 racks, and accouterments will be hung up by 
 the belts. 
 
 Strict attention will be paid by the company 
 commanders to the cleanliness of the men and to 
 the police of the barracks or tents. The men 
 will be required to bathe frequently. In garri- 
 son, and whenever practicable in the field, they, 
 will be required to wash their hands thoroughly 
 after going to the latrines and before each meal, 
 in order to prevent the transmission of typhoid 
 fever and other diseases by germs taken into the 
 mouth with food from unclean hands. The hair 
 will be kept short and the beard neatly trimmed. 
 Soiled clothing will be kept in the barrack bag. 
 
 A thorough police of barracks will precede the 
 Saturday inspection. The chiefs of squads will 
 see that bunks and bedding are overhauled, 
 floors, tables and benches scoured, arms and ac- 
 couterments and clothing in the best order, and 
 
 1/2
 
 Routine Duties of Officers 
 
 that such as have passes leave the post in proper 
 dress. 
 
 Clothing, equipments, and shoes will be fitted 
 to the men under the direction of an officer. 
 
 Articles of public property issued to a com- 
 pany for its exclusive use will be marked, when 
 practicable, with the number or letter of the com- 
 pany and number and arm of the regiment. Such 
 articles issued to an enlisted man (arms and 
 clothing excepted) will be marked, when practi- 
 cable, with the number of the man, letter or num- 
 ber of the company, and number of the regiment. 
 Haversacks, canteens, and similar articles of 
 equipment will be uniformly marked on the out- 
 side as follows: crossed rifles with the number 
 of the regiment above and the letter of the com- 
 pany below the intersection. The design will 
 be stenciled in black, the letters and numbers in 
 full-faced characters. The design will be placed 
 above the letters "U.S." on equipments, and the 
 soldier's number in characters one inch high be- 
 low the letters "U.S." 
 
 In camp or barracks the company commander 
 will supervise the cooking and messing of his 
 men. He will see that suitable men in sufficient 
 numbers are fully instructed in managing and 
 cooking the ration in the field ; also that necessary 
 utensils and implements in serviceable condition 
 for cooking both in garrison and field are always 
 on hand, together with the field mess furniture 
 173
 
 National Service Library 
 
 for each man. By proper forethought the mess 
 sergeant and cooks should have had a course at 
 the Army School for Cooks. Kitchens will be 
 placed under the immediate charge of a mess 
 sergeant who will be held responsible for their 
 condition and for the proper use of rations. No 
 one will be allowed to visit or remain in the 
 kitchen except those who go there on duty or are 
 employed therein. The greatest care will be ob- 
 served in cleaning and scouring cooking utensils. 
 
 Special regulations for soldiers' fare cannot be 
 made to suit each locality and circumstance. Per- 
 sonal care and judgment on the part of company 
 officers are relied on to prevent waste or misuse. 
 By due economy the ration allowance will pro- 
 vide sufficient variety of diet. 
 
 Kitchen and tableware and mess furniture will 
 be supplied by the Quartermaster Corps. Allow- 
 ances will be announced in orders. Commanders 
 will enforce rigid economy in regard to such 
 property. Articles broken, lost or damaged will 
 be charged to individuals at fault. Such propor- 
 tions of company allowances of fuel, illuminating 
 supplies, brooms, and scrubbing brushes as may 
 be necessary for the service of a general mess 
 will be allotted by the post commander. 
 
 The Manual for Army Cooks contains com- 
 prehensive instructions in cooking which will be 
 observed as far as practicable. (See Appendix 
 VI for Report of Administration.) 
 
 174
 
 Ill 
 
 The Development of a Military 
 Policy 
 
 IN the introductory sketch of training in the 
 United States army it was evident that there has 
 been no national policy, and the only consistent 
 school of war in the United States has been war 
 itself, and with the exception of the Civil War 
 all were minor campaigns, whose lessons were 
 promptly forgotten, and the sacred fire of expe- 
 rience only kept burning by the selected few of 
 our spirited veterans, who themselves hardly 
 digested and interpreted what had happened. 
 
 After each war there was a Congressional Com- 
 mission of investigation whose conclusions were 
 neglected or forgotten, certainly they were not 
 taken advantage of, and until Mr. Root became 
 Secretary after the Spanish War there was no 
 statesman who tried to give effect to the plain 
 and pitiful lessons learned. There was no organ- 
 ization or body of officers in the army itself that 
 did so. There was thought to be no need of it, 
 because Americans and American statesmen be- 
 lieved in the face of evidence that each war would 
 be the last. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 After each war also the nation felt strong in 
 the training and power given it by the war 
 itself, especially after the Civil War, when in 
 the pride of power it could dictate and enforce 
 its policies. And it was apparently confirmed by 
 the Spanish War that we could always handle 
 our minor campaigns on the frontier and in the 
 islands of the sea with one hand and it trusted in 
 Providence and the latent power of great re- 
 sources for the great wars with first-class powers 
 which was easily hoped would never come. Mr. 
 Root, however, with his great analytical mind and 
 determined statesmanship, interpreted the na- 
 tional misadventures, and after the report of the 
 war investigating commission at the end of the 
 Spanish War proposed to Congress a well- 
 thought-out plan and policy for the future. He 
 sent abroad to the armies of the nations in arms 
 selected commissions of our foremost generals 
 like unto those of General Sheridan and others 
 after the Civil War, whose reports had been 
 buried in the files of the War Department and 
 only resurrected during his administration, 
 among them that most valuable and far-reaching 
 report on the military policy of the United States 
 by General Emery Upton. 
 
 With this report as the beacon light, and the 
 
 discriminating experiences of such generals as 
 
 Ludlow, Sanger, Young, Wood, Corbin, Chaffee, 
 
 Bell, Bailey, Wotherspoon, Carter, McClernand, 
 
 176
 
 Development of a Military Policy 
 
 Parker and others, who visited the army maneuvers 
 in Europe prior to the Great War, he and his suc- 
 cessors tried to prepare the country for the one 
 great problem it could not handle out of hand, 
 that of war with a first-class power. The regular 
 army itself had to be jolted and brought to a real- 
 izing sense of its weakness and ineptitude and 
 made to think on a great scale commensurate with 
 the power and resources of the country in men 
 and supplies. 
 
 Mr. Root founded the War College and 
 fathered courses of work and studies be- 
 ginning with the academic education at West 
 Point and the continued professional education 
 of the army through the different army schools, 
 particularly that of the line and the staff at Fort 
 Leavenworth. 
 
 In 1903 he persuaded Congress to a rad- 
 ical organization of the army, and the crea- 
 tion of a chief of staff as the military adviser 
 to the President and the Secretary of War, with 
 the assistants of the General Staff appointed at 
 large from the army by careful and discriminat- 
 ing selection, to study the military needs of the 
 country and to help prepare the country for 
 war. 
 
 The chief of staff was made the coordinating 
 head of the army and given great power and pres- 
 tige for the purpose of coordinating and super- 
 vising the staff department work, so that the 
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 National Service Library 
 
 historic failures of war time due to the lack of 
 such would no longer occur. 
 
 Up to this time there had never been any at- 
 tempt to formulate a national policy. Upton's 
 famous report on the military policy of the 
 United States showed clearly there never had 
 been such a thing, and his proposals for such 
 had been absolutely neglected. 
 
 In the years since the organization of the Gen- 
 eral Staff, national policies have been studied and 
 prepared and proposed to Congress, such as that 
 on the Organization of the Land Forces of the 
 United States presented to Congress in 1912, a 
 statesmanlike paper prepared by thei General 
 Staff and approved by the Secretary of War 
 after conference with the general officers of the 
 United States army. With this as a basis the 
 General Staff has formulated policies on organi- 
 zation, legislation, education and training which 
 have been in these days of the Great War the 
 subject of general information and discussion, 
 and have finally proposed and formulated a 
 plan for universal service. We are learning the 
 lessons of the Great War now, but the danger 
 is in interpretation. He who runs may read all 
 about it in any daily paper. 
 
 The auxiliary arms, such as artillery, flying, 
 and other mechanical forces, have been devel- 
 oped to an unimagined degree. War correspond- 
 ents, many attaches and observers, and the spir- 
 178
 
 Development of a Military Policy 
 
 ited Americans who are fighting in all of the 
 continental armies insist upon our learning only 
 from their own particular experiences. Every 
 kind of war is in progress in every part of the 
 world and every experience should be studied 
 and considered and discriminated for our own 
 purposes. I am minded of the befuddled Malay 
 Rajah in Java, disturbed by his villagers fleeing 
 in terror from a great new beast, dependent in 
 his ignorance on the excited tales poured into 
 his ears. One in the darkness had felt the great 
 beast's tusk and represented him as white in 
 color, hard as marble and sharp as a razor; 
 another punching his bulky side insisted he was 
 big and bulky, soft and tough, black and hard, 
 while the flabbergasted man who had felt his 
 tail described him as a serpent. So in the fog 
 of this war, with the advantage of still standing 
 on dry land, let us try to see clearly and realize 
 thoroughly that most of our troubles come from 
 the scale and intensity of it. 
 
 I find from the best sources that all the great 
 powers deadlocked or mobile and victorious are 
 still training on the right lines of common expe- 
 rience, and in general may be said, after six 
 months of intensive training of the soldier in 
 spirit and fitness and to march and to shoot, he is 
 sent to the front, not ready for every kind of 
 war, but so prepared that in the particular terrain 
 and for the particular experiences into which he 
 179
 
 National Service Library 
 
 is to be pushed he is given months more of spe- 
 cial training. 
 
 For our purpose I propose to outline the Pro- 
 visional Manual of Training prepared by the 
 General Staff and published under the authority 
 of the Secretary of War in Official Bulletin No. 
 2, 1914, and to follow it with the experience in 
 the Brownsville district where General James 
 Parker applied the abstract principles laid down 
 in a most practical way on the largest scale here- 
 tofore attempted in our army, and trained some 
 thirty thousand American soldiers of the National 
 Guard successfully under the most trying condi- 
 tions of system and climate, so that in less than 
 five months, although not ready for the strain 
 of modern war itself, they were handled together 
 in division maneuvers. These men gathered from 
 States as far distant as North Dakota, and Vir- 
 ginia, New Hampshire and Texas, Louisiana and 
 Nebraska, Illinois and Colorado, over 60 per cent 
 of them having been recruits without any train- 
 ing, and having very different characteristics ; 
 marched without any straggling, worked hard 
 and lived in the open without any sickness to 
 speak of, and played the next game to war 
 so as to give a feeling of pride to every officer 
 present. 
 
 Synopsis and extracts from the Provisional 
 Manual of Training, Bulletin No. 2, 1914, Vol- 
 ume I, No. 2, Office Chief of Staff: 
 180
 
 Development of a Military Policy 
 
 OUTLINE OF THE SYSTEM 
 
 The training of troops devolves upon the officers. 
 All training thus centers about the instruction of offi- 
 cers. In its entirety, such instruction presents two 
 aspects that received while serving with troops and 
 that received by pursuing a special course of instruction 
 at schools established for the purpose. Regulations 
 governing the several established schools are published 
 in War Department orders. The system herein laid 
 down pertains to the training of officers serving with 
 troops. 
 
 Training of officers serving with troops begins 
 with entry into service and progresses through an un- 
 broken period of three years under tutelage, followed 
 by a period, not necessarily unbroken, of three years of 
 personal effort under precept and guidance, with finally 
 an indefinite period, extending through the grade of 
 captain, of personal elective effort under supervision. 
 It is assumed that the periods of instruction under 
 tutelage and direct guidance will serve the double pur- 
 pose of establishing a sound basic knowledge and of 
 instilling habits of industry. 
 
 The duties which officers are called upon to per- 
 form are grouped under the three heads of Routine 
 ( Duties ; Care, Management and Training of Troops ; 
 and Tactical Handling of Troops). The training of 
 officers in the performance of these three classes of 
 duties consists of individual instruction in the theory 
 and practice of each and of applied training carried on 
 simultaneously with the instruction of the troops. 
 
 Routine duties. 
 
 Study (self -directed or orderly). 
 
 Law and Regulations : Military Law ; International 
 Law; Rules of Land Warfare; Official Orders, 
 regulations, manuals, other official publications, 
 bearing directly or indirectly upon the officer's 
 duties. . 
 
 181
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Military Policy and Military Art; Military Policy 
 of the United States ; Strategical, Tactical, Lo- 
 gistic, Technical, and Economic Studies ; Modern 
 Languages. 
 
 Practice. 
 
 Command (Organization and discipline) ; Drill, 
 Honors, Courtesies, Ceremonies, Guard Duty. 
 Appointment and Reduction of noncommissioned 
 officers and company specialists. Interior Econ- 
 omy and Inspections of arms, accouterments and 
 clothing. 
 
 Administration (Maintenance and Government) : 
 Procurement, Transportation and Issue of Sup- 
 plies ; Military Courts and Commissions ; Punish- 
 ments and Rewards. 
 
 Training of Troops. 
 Military Technology. 
 Individual training: 
 
 1. Use of weapon Small Arms Firing Manual, 
 
 fencing manuals. 
 
 2. Use of equipment Drill Regulations, General 
 
 Orders and descriptive pamphlets. 
 
 3. Development of physique and marching power 
 
 Manual of Physical Training. 
 
 4. Special technique of the arm or corps Drill 
 
 Regulations. 
 
 5. The individual specialist in the arm or corps 
 
 Topographical Sketching, Signaling, Mes- 
 senger Duty, First Aid, Telephony, Agents of 
 Communication. 
 
 Collective training: 
 
 Mobile fighting troops; Infantry, Cavalry, and 
 Field Artillery Drill Regulations, Manuals 
 and Orders pertaining to each. 
 
 182
 
 Development of a Military Policy 
 
 Special Troops ; Harbor Defense, Signal, Sani- 
 tary, Engineers, General Service Drill Regu- 
 lations, Manuals and Orders pertaining to 
 each. 
 
 Military Economics. 
 Personal Measures : 
 
 1. Care of Person, personal hygiene and indi- 
 
 vidual cooking Hygiene. 
 
 2. Care of Horse, knowledge of the powers and 
 
 limitations of the horse and the conservation 
 of his energies Hippology. 
 
 3. Care of Equipment and Supplies Care of 
 
 Arms, clothing, leather, webbing, and metal 
 equipment Orders. 
 
 General Measures : 
 
 1. Sanitary measures applied to the command. 
 
 2. Prophylactic measures applied to the command 
 
 and its material. 
 
 3. Hippology in its general application to the 
 
 command. 
 
 Tactical Handling of Troops. 
 Leadership. 
 
 Fighting Troops : Combat operations of each arm ; 
 the three arms combined ; minor operations. Pro- 
 tective operations ; covering and exploring de- 
 tachments. Field Service Regulations, Part I. 
 Drill regulations of the arm in conjunction with 
 those of other arms. 
 
 Special Troops : General service in connection with 
 the operations of fighting troops. Combat service 
 as fighting troops. Field Service Regulations. 
 Part I. Drill regulations of the arm or corps in 
 conjunction with those of all other arms or corps. 
 
 Direction. 
 
 Operations : Field Service Regulations, Part II. 
 Administration : Field Service Regulations, Part III.
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Study. 
 
 Instruction from textbooks. 
 General character of books. 
 Regulations dealing with 
 
 1. Drill of the Arm. 
 
 2. Machine Gun Drill. 
 
 3. Field Service. 
 
 4. Rules of Land Warfare. 
 
 5. Tables of Organization. 
 
 Manuals. 
 
 1. Interior Guard Duty. 
 
 2. Small Arms Firing. 
 
 3. Use of Hand Arms. 
 
 4. Military Hygiene. 
 
 5. Hippology. 
 
 6. Military Topography. [ments. 
 
 7. Ordnance Pamphlets, Arms, and Accouter- 
 
 8. Special Manuals of the Arm or Corps. 
 
 9. Instruction orders. 
 
 Instruction in the use of reference books. 
 General character of books. 
 Regulations. 
 
 1. Drill of other Arms and Corps. 
 
 2. Army. 
 
 3. Uniform. 
 
 4. Ordnance Property. 
 
 5. Unit Accountability. 
 
 6. Standing orders (all sources). 
 
 Manuals. 
 
 1. Equitation and Horse Training. 
 
 2. Physical Training. 
 
 3. Army Horseshoer (mounted troops). 
 
 4. Special Manuals of other arms and corps. 
 
 5. Pack Transportation. 
 
 6. Unit Equipment tables. 
 
 7. Ordnance Supply. 
 
 8. Army Cooks. 
 
 9. Army Bakers. 
 
 184
 
 Development of a Military Policy 
 
 CHARACTER AND SCOPE OF THE EXAMINATION AS TO PRO- 
 FESSIONAL FITNESS OF OFFICERS NOT OTHERWISE 
 DECLARED ELIGIBLE FOR PROMOTION. 
 
 For officers of Cavalry and Infantry (including Porto 
 Rico Regiment of Infantry) 
 
 I. ROUTINE DUTIES CHARACTER AND SCOPE OF 
 EXAMINATION 
 
 I. Study. 
 
 (a) Law and Regulations. 
 (&) Military Art, History, and Policy. 
 Second lieutenants : 
 Manual of Courts-Martial. Oral. 
 Cavalry Drill Regulations. Cavalry only. Oral. 
 Definitions, signals, general principles, school 
 of the soldier, school of the trooper, school of 
 the troop, employment of Cavalry, stable duty, 
 troop inspection. 
 
 Infantry Drill Regulations. Infantry only. Oral. 
 Part I, omitting pars. 263 to 289, and 327 to 341, 
 inclusive ; Part II ; Part IV, company inspection 
 only ; Part V, Manuals of the bayonet, saber, 
 tent pitching only. 
 
 Army Regulations, Courtesies, etc. Oral. Article 
 XL (1913). 
 
 Manual of Interior-Guard Duty. Oral. 
 
 Field Service Regulations. Oral. Part I. 
 
 Use of Special Troops. Oral. Manual of Train- 
 ing. 
 
 Small Arms Firing Manual. Oral. Part III, 
 Chapters I, II, III, only. 
 
 First lieutenants : 
 
 A treatise on the Military Law of the United 
 States (Davis). Oral. Chapters XIII to XIX, 
 
 185
 
 National Service Library 
 
 inclusive. The examination to take the form of 
 presenting concrete cases to the officer for an 
 application of the law. 
 
 Cavalry Drill Regulations. Cavalry only. Oral. 
 The School of the Squadron ; the Regiment. 
 
 Infantry Drill Regulations. Infantry only. Oral. 
 Those portions not required of Second Lieu- 
 tenants. 
 
 Army Regulations. Oral. Articles I to XV and 
 XXIX and XXX (1913). 
 
 Modern Studies. Choice of one foreign lan- 
 guage ; a tactical study ; or a study in world 
 politics. Or, in lieu of any of the above any 
 special study chosen from the list of elective 
 Special Studies. Manual of Training, Elective 
 Course. Oral. 
 
 Captains : 
 
 International Law. Oral. Elements of Inter- 
 national Law (Davis), Chapters I to IV, in- 
 clusive, and IX to XIV, inclusive. Rules of 
 Land Warfare. 
 
 Military History and Policy. Written. 
 
 i. A campaign of the officer's selection, studied 
 previous to examination and a written study 
 presented at time of examination. The study 
 to cover : 
 
 (o) The strategy and general conduct of the 
 campaign. 
 
 (6) Detailed study of the tactics employed; 
 a deduction of basic principles, of subsidiary 
 principles or fallacies, and a statement of the 
 officer's judgment as to the effect of modern 
 arms, equipment, and means of communication 
 upon application of principles. Dates, names, 
 and exact strength and composition of forces 
 are not required to be memorized. 
 
 186
 
 Development of a Military Policy 
 
 II. Practice, 
 (a) Command. 
 (&) Administration. 
 Second lieutenants: 
 
 Paper Work. Written. Preparation of the or- 
 dinary returns, rolls, requisitions, and other 
 papers with which an officer must be familiar 
 in order to perform the duties of a battalion 
 adjutant, quartermaster, and commissary, and 
 company commander in post and in the field. 
 The officer will be furnished the necessary 
 blank forms and will be permitted to consult 
 any official source of information to which he 
 would in practice refer in the preparation of 
 papers. 
 
 Cavalry Drill. Practical. The officer to demon- 
 strate his ability to maneuver a platoon or troop 
 at war strength. 
 
 Infantry Drill. Practical. The officer to demon- 
 strate his ability to instruct and maneuver a 
 platoon or company at war strength. 
 
 The introduction to the manual of Training. 
 Oral. 
 
 Field Service Regulations, Part II. 
 First lieutenants: 
 
 Paper Work. Written. Preparation of regi- 
 mental papers. The officer will be permitted to 
 refer to any official sources of information he 
 may desire. 
 
 Cavalry Drill. Practical. The officer to demon- 
 strate his ability to instruct and maneuver a 
 troop at war strength: (a) Close Order; (6) 
 Extended Order. 
 
 Infantry Drill. Practical. The officer to demon- 
 strate his ability to instruct and maneuver a 
 company at war strength: (a) Close Order; 
 (&) Extended Order. 
 
 I8 7
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Military Policy of the United States (Upton). 
 Oral. General knowledge only required. De- 
 tails not required. 
 
 Field Service Regulations, Part III. 
 Captains : 
 
 The officer's record of administrative ability as 
 shown by his efficiency record will be furnished 
 the examining board who will determine 
 whether the officer should be further examined. 
 
 Cavalry Drill. Cavalry only. Practical. The 
 officer to demonstrate his ability to instruct and 
 maneuver a squadron or regiment at war 
 strength: (a) Close Order; (&) Extended 
 Order. 
 
 Infantry Drill. Infantry only. Practical. The 
 officer to demonstrate his ability to instruct and 
 maneuver a battalion or regiment at war 
 strength: (a) Close Order; (&) Extended 
 Order. 
 
 II. TRAINING OF TROOPS CHARACTER AND SCOPE 
 OF EXAMINATION 
 
 I. Technology. 
 
 (o) Individual Technique: 
 
 1. General Service. 
 
 2. Cavalry and Infantry. 
 
 (fr) Collective Technique. 
 Second lieutenants : 
 
 1. Use of Weapons. Practical. The officer to 
 
 illustrate the prescribed methods of teach- 
 ing individual skill with the rifle, pistol, 
 bayonet or saber. 
 
 2. Use of Equipment. Practical. The officer to 
 
 illustrate the prescribed method of fitting 
 and using each article of the accouterment 
 of a soldier of his arm of service. 
 
 188
 
 Development of a Military Policy 
 
 3. Development of Physique. Practical. The 
 
 officer to illustrate his knowledge of the 
 Manual of Physical Training: (a) Special 
 Training to correct defects; (&) General 
 results to cover any series of five calisthenic 
 movements, stating the object and scope of 
 each. 
 
 4. Cavalry and Infantry Technique. Practical. 
 
 (a) General. The officer to illustrate 
 methods of equitation and horse training 
 (cavalry) ; demonstrate some special appli- 
 cation of principles to horse training (cav- 
 alry) ; to illustrate the prescribed methods 
 of constructing intrenchments ; any five 
 knots shown on pp. 167-168, Engineer Field 
 Manual ; lashings, p. 173, EFM ; Holdfasts, 
 p. 174, EFM; camp expedients. 
 (&) Special. Military Topography. The 
 officer to make a sketch of the area, if 
 practicable, over which the practical exer- 
 cise in tactical handling will be held ; other- 
 wise a road or position sketch of reasonable 
 dimensions. Signaling. The officer to send 
 and receive a message of 10 words more or 
 less. Resourcefulness. The officer to illus- 
 trate at least two expedients of woodcraft 
 that would prove useful in scouting. 
 
 5. Collective Technique. 
 
 Saber Attack en Masse. Practical. Platoon. 
 Drill ground technique without regard to 
 tactical considerations. 
 Bayonet attack en Masse. Drill ground 
 technique without regard to tactical con- 
 siderations. 
 
 Fire Direction and Control. Practical. The 
 expenditure of 20 rounds of rifle ammuni- 
 tion per man for a platoon of 32 men is 
 authorized. The officer to illustrate with- 
 
 189
 
 National Service Library 
 
 out regard to tactical considerations his 
 ability to adjust the fire of his platoon in 
 accordance with the principles laid down in 
 Small Arms Firing Regulations. 
 
 First lieutenants : 
 
 1. The Officer's Record. The officer's efficiency 
 
 record as submitted to the board will in- 
 dicate to what extent if any the officer 
 should be examined as prescribed for 
 second lieutenants, and is necessary to 
 establish the officer's fitness and is discre- 
 tionary with the board. 
 
 2. Field Fortifications. Practical. The board 
 
 will furnish a detail of men, the necessary 
 tools and material. The officer will super- 
 intend the construction of I yard of trench 
 of a type designated by the board. 
 
 3. Packing. Practical. The officer to be pro- 
 
 vided with two uninstructed men and to in- 
 struct them in loading and lashing a pack 
 animal. 
 
 4. Fire Direction and Control. Practical. The 
 
 expenditure of 10 rounds per man for a 
 troop of 80 men is authorized. The officer 
 to conduct the fire of his troop upon a 
 target or targets designated by the board to 
 illustrate adjustment, effect and control. 
 
 Captains : 
 
 i. Fire Direction and Control. Practical. An 
 exercise in the distribution and control of 
 infantry fire to obtain a maximum of effect 
 upon a given target. The board will desig- 
 nate the position to be occupied by the 
 squadron or battalion and the targets. The 
 officer will conduct a simulated fire to illus- 
 trate adjustment, control, and effect of fire. 
 The tactical employment of infantry fire is 
 part of the examination in tactical handling 
 of troops which follows. 
 190
 
 Development of a Military Policy 
 
 II. Economics. 
 
 (a) Individual Measures. 
 (&) General Measures. 
 Second lieutenants : 
 Military Hygiene. Elementary. Oral. Care of 
 
 the person. 
 Hippology. Elementary. Care of the individual 
 
 animal. 
 Care of arms and accouterments by the individual. 
 
 First lieutenants : 
 
 1. Military Hygiene : Oral. Sanitary Management 
 
 by the company commander. 
 
 2. Hippology. Stable and Horse management by 
 
 the troop commander. 
 
 3. Supplies, arms and accouterment. Handling 
 
 with a view to preservation and safe keeping 
 by the company commander. 
 
 Captains : 
 Hygiene. Oral. Conserving strength of men 
 
 and animals on march and in bivouac. 
 Hippology. Oral. Forced marches. 
 
 191
 
 IV 
 
 Suggestions for Tactical Training 
 
 IT has been a long time an easy and pat saying 
 that the best school for war is war, and from our 
 historical sketch we realize that wars have beer) 
 frequent enough to keep the professional soldier 
 trained more or less and the spirit alive even in 
 peace-loving America. In the few years when 
 there have been no wars at home, many of our 
 military adventurers have hunted trouble the 
 world over. Wherever there has been a fight 
 you will find some fighting Americans mixing 
 in: Paul Jones in Russia, Ward in China, 
 Walker in Central America, Kearney, Victor 
 Chapman, Alan Seeger, Stewart, Wood and hun- 
 dreds of others in France, Shelby in Mexico, 
 Stone in Egypt, Gardiner in India, Funston, 
 Osgood and Janney in Cuba, and many another 
 unsung hero wherever there was a fight for lib- 
 erty or a fight for fun. These all come back 
 and line up to train and lead the crowd of vol- 
 unteers in our own wars. But since peoples 
 have begun to think on war and the why and 
 wherefore, and democracies have begun to make 
 war of their own volition for vital interests, the 
 192
 
 Suggestions for Tactical Training 
 
 best minds of the nations have thought out a 
 philosophy and with it an attendant system of 
 physical, mental and moral training which has 
 resulted in a thorough progressive development 
 and training on the lines of common sense and 
 human nature. 
 
 A Frenchman, Le Bon, gave new food for 
 thought in his psychology of the crowd, and 
 the practical soldiers are applying his prin- 
 ciples with full intent, and carrying along the 
 routine and progressive training of the soldier 
 with the suggestion and tender touch of imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 The old single-minded soldier of high honor 
 and stiff, straight lines in all his reactions is now 
 up against the best minds and interest of the 
 nations. He must not only train his men, but 
 he must interest them, and show them the reason 
 why. 
 
 Formerly the greatest attention was given to 
 close order drills and ceremonies. In fact until 
 the last few years training in the military schools 
 and the National Guard was almost entirely con- 
 fined to this character of drill. It was the excep- 
 tion when even the mechanics of extended order 
 were thoroughly undisturbed. In recent years 
 this was all changed. Close order drill is con- 
 fined to that necessary for discipline. Extended 
 order drill occupies the major portion of the 
 time on the parade ground and in the armory, 
 
 193 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L. 7
 
 National Service Library 
 
 but even this is only preparatory to the real 
 training of the soldier, which is in the field. 
 
 As soon as possible the soldier is trained in 
 field problems and exercises. Corporals are given 
 their squads and sent on a definite mission with 
 something to accomplish which requires them to 
 think, decide and act. More complicated prob- 
 lems are given platoon leaders and company com- 
 manders and the training is extended to the 
 higher units. 
 
 The commander of any force utilizes the period 
 of inclement weather in instructing his subordi- 
 nates in the theory of tactical problems. There 
 is always an assumed situation in which certain 
 information is given of the supposed position 
 and strength of the enemy, definite information 
 of our own forces and resources, and the orders 
 to be carried out. This theoretical training accus- 
 toms the officers and noncommissioned officers to 
 clear thinking and quick decision. 
 
 An infinite number of problems can be worked 
 out on any map and the same is true of any varied 
 terrain. Some problems are designed to teach 
 certain specific principles, as for example a 
 problem in control of fire which for the sake of 
 illustration is outlined as follows: 
 
 On terrain having approximately one thousand 
 
 feet clear space there are stationed at one end a 
 
 number of umpires with flags ; the troops are 
 
 formed at the opposite end. Under orders of 
 
 194
 
 Suggestions for Tactical Training 
 
 their commander they advance. As long as the 
 umpires' flags are down the formation can be 
 continued. When the umpires raise their flags 
 this is an indication that the losses of the assail- 
 ants are so great that the commander must change 
 his formation. For example, if he has been 
 advancing in squad columns without firing he 
 must throw a portion of his men at least into 
 skirmish line and have them open fire. When 
 this has been done the umpires' flags may come 
 down indicating that the superiority of fire is 
 with the attack. The advance continues in the 
 new formation until the flags are raised again. 
 This necessitates another change. It means more 
 rifles must be put into the firing line. In this 
 way the rush by company may have to be changed 
 to a rush by platoon and again to a rush by 
 squad. Finally the flags come up and remain 
 up in spite of every effort the commander of 
 the attack may make, and every maneuver he 
 may undertake. This means he must bring up 
 reenforcements and the advance of these reen- 
 forcements, also, is controlled by the flags of the 
 umpires. With the strengthening of the firing 
 line the flags are lowered again and again the 
 commander of the attack attempts an advance. 
 If his dispositions are unskillful the flags go up 
 again and again until in the opinion of the um- 
 pires he has maneuvered himself into a position 
 to enable him to make the charge. 
 195
 
 National Service Library 
 
 It may be easily seen that such a problem will 
 teach more than months of ceremonial or follow- 
 ing any fixed regulations for drill. 
 
 By far the major portion of the field prob- 
 lems, however, present a situation in which the 
 enemy is represented by another body of troops, 
 the soldiers bearing some distinctive mark such 
 as a white or a red band around the headdress. 
 Each commander is given an assumed situation 
 and instructions which require the two bodies to 
 meet on some suitable terrain. The opposing 
 troops move out, protecting themselves by patrols 
 and advance guards. These come in contact and 
 information is sent back to the commanding offi- 
 cers. The situation develops until the two bodies 
 of troops are in contact. The officer capable of 
 maneuvering into the most favorable position is 
 the winner of the problem. In this way the 
 instruction is made intensely interesting both to 
 officers and men and it is impossible to anticipate 
 what the developments will be. 
 
 I have recently heard General Parker talking 
 to the assembled officers of a National Guard 
 regiment, say that after forty years of work 
 and interest, he felt himself learning something 
 new every day. In a recent sketch of the Russian 
 leader the writer says: 
 
 To begin with, one should make it entirely clear that 
 there is nothing haphazard or extemporized, no element 
 of mere luck, in what General Brusiloff has accom- 
 
 196
 
 Suggestions for Tactical Training 
 
 plished ; no single factor of effort or training or science 
 has been lacking in his lifelong preparation, and no 
 element of devotion or consecration. Heredity, too, has 
 played its part, and early environment has had a share 
 in the ripening of his genius. 
 
 So that no matter what the rank, every officer 
 should be practicing himself in peace time with 
 the means at hand. Without the strain and great 
 school of battle, he can keep preparing himself 
 and his men much better to-day than ever before. 
 Most of the great armies of Europe had no train- 
 ing in war, but everyone of them which has shown 
 effective fighting in the field prepared both its 
 officers and men by the more intelligent and mod- 
 ern methods of progressive training, and many 
 of the most successful officers and staff officers 
 by what is known as the Applicatory System. It 
 involves the map problem, terrain exercise, war 
 game, maneuver and battle exercise. 
 
 Few officers can learn their profession on the 
 battle field, the best of all schools, and the appli- 
 cation method of teaching tactics was involved 
 in an effort to reproduce in peace the situations 
 which would confront an officer in war, situations 
 involving most essential elements and conditions 
 of war excepting the use of weapons. 
 
 The following extracts from Major H. B. 
 Fiske's "Notes on the Solution of Tactical 
 Problems" will serve as a guide to the military 
 student. 
 
 197
 
 National Service Library 
 
 In the field, tactical problems of greater or lesser 
 importance are continually being solved by officers of 
 all ranks, from the supreme command down through 
 the intermediate grades to that of captain, and even 
 within the company by those in charge of its patrols, its 
 pickets, and its other detachments. Every time the 
 captain deploys his company, except at a merely me- 
 chanical drill, every time he stations his company as an 
 outpost or as a support thereof, every time he is as- 
 signed a task on the general duty of security, or makes 
 any new dispositions therein, he is compelled to arrive at 
 a tactical decision, which can be reached only by the 
 solution of a new problem. That problem may be solved 
 without much conscious use of reason ; but in any case, 
 however simple the process, the process nevertheless is 
 there. And as one goes up in the hierarchy of rank, the 
 problems presented for solution are of constantly in- 
 creasing importance, if not of frequency. 
 
 Unless there has been extended training in the solu- 
 tion of problems, even the simplest one is liable to 
 strike vacant the mind of the one who is suddenly con- 
 fronted with the responsibility for its solution. Who 
 has not seen the untrained officer, in the face of such a 
 necessity, utterly unable to grasp any idea as to his 
 proper action? And yet the solution may be tactically 
 so simple as to be solved instantly by the trained mind 
 and almost by intuition. Still, while the situation may 
 be simple and the answer axiomatic to the man who 
 knows, yet, like most military operations, upon its cor- 
 rect solution depend perhaps many lives. The nation 
 that sends its men into war under officers untrained in 
 the solution of tactical problems is carrying a tre- 
 mendous responsibility ; and so likewise does the officer 
 who neglects to acquire all possible previous training. 
 
 No amount of study of the theory alone of the art 
 will, by itself, fit one to meet the emergencies of war 
 with skill and certainty. To acquire such, not only 
 must its principles be learned, but the habit, as well, of 
 their application to concrete cases must be established. 
 A man might read volumes on how to lay brick, but he 
 
 198
 
 Suggestions for Tactical Training 
 
 could hardly attain skill thereat until he has long ex- 
 perience in the actual handling of his trowel. The 
 military mind, like the mason's hand, requires practice 
 in the use of its tactical tools to acquire dexterity. 
 
 We do not have to wait for war to present its vital 
 problems in order to begin the training of our officers 
 in applied tactics. But the teaching of tactics in time 
 of peace by application to concrete situations requires 
 no defense. To confound the critics of that system, 
 one need but to point to the German army, and to the 
 map of Europe to-day. 
 
 The following extract on the value of tactical 
 studies, is taken from the introduction to Buddecke's 
 Tactical Decisions : 
 
 "However high may be duties which come to an 
 officer in the departments of education, instruction, 
 administration and scientific investigation, he neverthe- 
 less enters upon the activity corresponding to the real 
 character of his calling only when he exercises com- 
 mand of troops and when he exercises such command 
 in the presence of the enemy. It must be the aim of 
 every officer to become at some time a commander, to 
 become a responsible leader in action. 
 
 "For this purpose he needs, in addition to the de- 
 velopment of peculiar personal characteristics and in 
 addition to experience and service with troops, before 
 all else, a thorough tactical education. 
 
 "The tactical instruction which an officer gains in 
 military schools and with troops is not alone suffi- 
 cient. Study on his . own part must be added. The 
 tactician has need, in his profession, of steady and 
 uninterrupted training in order both to preserve and 
 to develop his powers once he has discovered them. 
 The commander receives his education not only in the 
 saddle, but also at his desk. This is proved by illus- 
 trious examples of celebrated commanders. 
 
 "Military history offers inexhaustible material to 
 the officer who wishes to pursue his education in tactics. 
 It leads him directly to the conditions of war and, "by 
 showing the ever-changing relations between cause and 
 
 199
 
 National Service Library 
 
 effect, brings him to a realization of the conditions 
 upon which success and failure depend. 
 
 "Military history, however, offers only what is 
 finished and completed. The mental activity exercised 
 in its study is a reproductive one and its value to the 
 student depends directly upon the extent to which he 
 is able to grasp and synthesize the real conditions and 
 their relations and to enter into the thoughts of the 
 leading personalities. 
 
 "The education of the tactician demands, in addi- 
 tion to this, a productive activity, in the exercise of 
 which he is confronted by questions still unsolved, 
 which he himself must solve. Therein lies the worth of 
 tactical problems, which are the more valuable the 
 nearer the conditions approach those of actual warfare 
 and the more latitude they give for the exercise of 
 judgment and decision. They must provide the student 
 with the means of developing his tactical judgment and 
 of gaining practice in the use of forms. 
 
 "The tactician needs a thorough knowledge of the 
 fundamental principles to build on as well as the faculty 
 of rightly applying them. Through uncultivated genius 
 alone, which pays no attention to form, he will never 
 become equal to the difficult problems of a serious 
 crisis. Still less will the mere theorist be able to fill 
 the position if his powers be limited to the knowledge 
 of formal tactics. 
 
 "That power of decision and action which is able 
 to cope with all the situations of war is gained only by 
 developing the ability to form a judgment in technical 
 matters with certainty. 
 
 "Therefore tactics is an art to be learned. Like 
 every other art, it demands a measure of talent, and 
 the highest stage of perfection can be reached only by 
 those highly gifted at the start. In spite of this, how- 
 ever, the less gifted can, through practice, gain a con- 
 siderable degree of facility, and many a tactician has 
 only begun to find out his powers as he advanced in 
 the knowledge of his profession. Here also, one may 
 say: 'industry is genius.' 
 
 200
 
 Suggestions for Tactical Training 
 
 "It should therefore be the aim of every officer to 
 progress through the individual study of tactics and 
 thus prepare himself for the highest duties of his 
 calling." 
 
 We cannot, in time of peace, simulate or present any- 
 thing adequate to take the place of the tremendous 
 strain under which, in war, all commanders reach their 
 decisions ; whether on the firing line under a decimat- 
 ing hostile fire, or miles to the rear in some splendidly 
 equipped great general headquarters a strain which 
 confuses and deadens the ordinary mind and character, 
 but which with those few minds of the very highest 
 order, seems simply to clarify and stimulate their 
 workings. Notwithstanding this war-time stimulation, 
 the military genius has always, in peace, been a great 
 student and critic of his predecessors ; and while per- 
 haps in many cases he has not laid himself hypothetical 
 problems for solution, he has nevertheless persistently 
 studied and solved the actual problems which history 
 tells him were presented to former commanders. How 
 very much more does the ordinary mind, which is 
 crushed and stupefied by the appalling circumstances 
 of war, need all the guides, landmarks, and resources 
 of applied, and long continued peace training, along 
 lines and through incidents which, at least, are similar 
 to those it is then encountering. 
 
 As with the strain, so it is in other respects with 
 much of the realism of war; it cannot be very closely 
 simulated. Actual work on the ground with troops in 
 maneuver furnishes us the nearest approach thereto. 
 Next in realism, come those exercises in the form of 
 tactical rides or terrain exercises where the actual 
 ground is used, but the troops are imaginary. But in 
 tactical rides and terrain exercises of all sorts, much 
 time is lost by the necessity for moving from point to 
 point. In actual maneuvers, time is again lost, and the 
 labor performed by the troops is, in the aggregate, 
 very great. Much of the work, moreover, particularly 
 of the higher commanders in the solution of their 
 problems, is in no wise affected by the presence or 
 
 2OI
 
 National Service Library 
 
 absence of troops, or even by being in the neighbor- 
 hood of the terrain where the problem is laid. In all 
 large movements, movements in which more than a 
 division is concerned, the problem frequently is solved 
 at a comfortable headquarters and on the map. And 
 many of the problems of much smaller bodies will, 
 even in war, be solved on the map without reference to 
 the terrain, other than as there shown. Consequently, 
 when from the map and in peace time we state a situa- 
 tion and arrive at a decision upon the questions in- 
 volved, the departure from the actualities of war is 
 not so great as to detract too much from the value of 
 the training so acquired. 
 
 Moreover, by first solving problems on the map 
 during the portion of the year when maneuvering is 
 difficult, proceeding then to exercises on the ground in 
 which only officers take part, we finally arrive at the 
 maneuver ground with the corps of officers already 
 pretty well trained ; and with the necessity only of 
 completing their education by correcting the probable 
 inconsistencies that have crept in through the mistakes 
 of the imagination, and of the many unexpected diffi- 
 culties developed by actual handling of human beings 
 instead of the iron war-game soldier of the map room. 
 In this way we obtain a maximum of training with a 
 minimum of effort, at least so far as the private sol- 
 dier is concerned ; for to maneuver throughout the 
 year, and get all of the training of our officers by field 
 work alone is impracticable. Field work to be of value 
 must imitate the characteristics of war, which call upon 
 the individual for the most extraordinary physical and 
 mental exertions. Such periods in time of peace can- 
 not be long continued if well done, and if not well done 
 they do more actual harm than good. 
 
 202
 
 V 
 
 Special Training 
 
 "THE Great War has been terribly hard on the 
 textbooks." About the only military china that 
 has not been smashed are the primary functions 
 of discipline and its drill, drill, DRILL. But even 
 the disciplined soldier is not fit for fighting until 
 he can shoot, and in an emergency the quickest 
 way to teach men to shoot is the system of firing 
 full charges at miniature targets, which should 
 be proceeded by a thorough course of aiming and 
 position drills. In the field all formations from 
 reveille to retreat should be under arms. All 
 setting-up exercises such as that laid down for 
 ten minutes after reveille should be with rifles. 
 
 An English officer states : "In musketry, con- 
 centrate all your energy in taking care of your 
 rifle and practicing rapid fire." Of course, his 
 experience was in the trenches, where the firing 
 was seldom over two hundred yards, and at that 
 range effective rapid fire is the most destructive 
 means yet devised in warfare. 
 
 Every officer should be thoroughly familiar 
 with the firing regulations, the gist of which has 
 been given in the chapter on Shooting Straight, 
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 in the first part of this book. For his own inter- 
 est and amusement, I strongly urge every officer 
 to read the seventh chapter of "The First One 
 Hundred Thousand," and for the information 
 of those officers who have not had the advantage 
 of a course at the School of Musketry, the meth- 
 ods used at the school for fire discipline, direc- 
 tion and control is published in Appendix X. I 
 recommend also the use and certain tests of the 
 self-contained range finder now issued to each 
 company. 
 
 THE MACHINE GUN 
 
 Although this weapon has largely been devel- 
 oped by American inventors, and has been used 
 in one form or another in our armies ever since 
 the Civil War, it has been more or less a stranger 
 in our midst. The Catling had been long known 
 in the army, but very little used. It was occa- 
 sionally let fly at some lively Indian without much 
 effect, or by the militia in mob action, and it was 
 handled most effectively at the psychological mo- 
 ment by Captain John H. Parker at San Juan 
 Hill in '98, but has not been heard of since, due 
 to the quick and effective development of a large 
 number of automatics, notably the Colt, which 
 was used with some effect in minor campaigns in 
 the Moro Islands, and by the navy in the Samoan 
 Islands, where the guns jammed and resulted 
 in a bloody lesson. In fact all machine guns 
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 Special Training 
 
 jam under certain conditions of superheated 
 action. It follows that we must have the best of 
 guns and the best of training in handling them, 
 and above all, thorough fire discipline and con- 
 trol, for being let loose without proper control 
 the ammunition supply is almost sure to fail. 
 They are omnivorous as well as carnivorous. 
 The Great War has developed them to a degree 
 unthought of before, particularly in the trench 
 warfare, where they are used mostly in cross, 
 flanking or enfilading fire, rarely in frontal fire. 
 Every warring nation is getting as many as pos- 
 sible, and many kinds. Each kind has its use at 
 the particular place and moment, the lightest 
 ones for airplane work and mobile work, and 
 the heavier ones for the trenches and supporting 
 works. The officers and men are hand-picked 
 for this class of work, where discretion and dis- 
 cipline are so absolutely needed. An outline of 
 practical and theoretical instruction for machine- 
 gun companies and duties for same is given in 
 Appendix XI. 
 
 BOMBS AND HAND GRENADES 
 
 The Great War has not only developed a vast 
 number of new inventions and carried the old 
 methods to the extreme, but has resurrected 
 every device and improvision from museum and 
 history. The bomb and hand grenade, which 
 have been known from the days of the fall of the 
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 Greek Empire and used so generally in the days 
 of permanent fortifications, have come back with 
 a new explosive effect only made possible by the 
 extensive use of the highest explosives of to-day. 
 
 To quote Captain Beith once more : "In future 
 it is to be a case of 'for every man a bomb or 
 two,' and it is incumbent upon us, if we desire to 
 prevent these infernal machines from exploding 
 while yet in our custody, to attain the necessary 
 details as to their construction and tender spots 
 by the humiliating process of conciliating the 
 bomb officer." 
 
 So far we have mastered the mysteries of the 
 craft, there appear to be four types of bomb in 
 store for us or rather for Brother Boche. They 
 are: (i) The hairbrush; (2) the cricket ball; 
 (3) the policeman's truncheon; (4) the jam tin. 
 
 The hairbrush is very like the ordinary hair- 
 brush, except that the bristles are replaced by a 
 solid block of high explosive. The policeman's 
 truncheon has gay streamers of tape tied to its 
 tail, to insure that it falls to the ground nose 
 downward. Both these bombs explode on im- 
 pact, and it is unadvisable to knock them against 
 anything say the back of the trench when 
 throwing them. The cricket ball works on a time 
 fuse. Its manipulation is simplicity itself. The 
 removal of a certain pin releases a spring which 
 lights an internal fuse, timed to explode the 
 bomb in five seconds. You take the bomb in your 
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 Special Training 
 
 right hand, remove the pin, and cast the thing 
 madly from you. The jam-tin variety appeals 
 more particularly to the sportsman, as the ele- 
 ment of chance enters largely into its successful 
 use. It is timed to explode about ten seconds 
 after the lighting of the fuse. It is therefore 
 unwise to throw it too soon, as there will be 
 ample time for your opponent to pick it up and 
 throw it back. On the other hand, it is unwise 
 to hold on too long, as the fuse is uncertain in 
 its action, and is given to short cuts. 
 
 Such is the tactical revolution promised by the 
 advent of the bomb and other new engines of 
 war. As for its effect upon regimental and com- 
 pany organization, listen to the plaintive voice 
 of Major Kemp : 
 
 I was once, only a few months ago, commander of 
 a company of two hundred and fifty disciplined sol- 
 diers. I still nominally command that company, but 
 they have developed into a heterogeneous mob of 
 specialists. If I detail one of my subalterns to do a 
 job of work, he reminds me that he is a bomb expert, 
 or a professor of sandbagging, or director of the 
 knuckle-duster section, or Lord High Thrower of 
 Stink Pots, and has no time to play about with such a 
 common thing as a platoon. As for the men, they 
 simply laugh in the sergeant major's face. They are 
 "experts," if you please, and are struck off all fatigues 
 and company duty ! It was bad enough when Ayling 
 pinched fourteen of my best men for his filthy ma- 
 chine guns ; now, the company has degenerated into 
 an academy of variety artists. The only occasion upon 
 which I ever see them all together is pay day! 
 
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 To-day, out here, bombs are absolutely dernier cri. 
 We talk of nothing else. We speak about rifles and 
 bayonets as if they were so many bows and arrows. 
 It is true that the modern Lee-Enfield and Mauser 
 claim to be the most precise and deadly weapons of 
 destruction ever devised. But they were intended for 
 proper and gentlemanly warfare, with the opposing 
 sides set out in straight lines, a convenient distance 
 apart. In the hand-to-hand butchery which calls itself 
 war to-day, the rifle is rapidly becoming de mode. For 
 long ranges you require machine guns ; for short, bombs 
 and hand grenades. Can you empty a cottage by firing 
 a single rifle, shot in at the door? Can you extermi- 
 nate twenty Germans in a fortified back parlor by a 
 single thrust with the bayonet? Never! But you can 
 do both these things with a jam tin stuffed with 
 dynamite and scrap iron. 
 
 So the bomb has come into its own, and has brought 
 with it certain changes tactical, organic, and domestic. 
 To take the last first, the bomb officer, hitherto a de- 
 spised underling, popularly (but maliciously) reputed 
 to have been appointed to his present post through in- 
 ability to handle a platoon, has suddenly attained a 
 position of dazzling importance. From being a mere 
 super he has become a star. In fact, he threatens to dis- 
 pute the preeminence of that other regimental parvenu, 
 the machine-gun officer. He is now the confidant of 
 colonels and consorts upon terms of easy familiarity 
 with brigade majors. He holds himself coldly aloof 
 from the rest of us, brooding over the greatness of his 
 responsibilities, and when he speaks, it is to refer 
 darkly to "detonators," and "primers," and "time 
 fuses." And we, who once addressed him derisively 
 as "anarchist," crowd round him and hang upon his 
 lips. 
 
 Bombs and hand grenades have not been in 
 use in our army since the Civil War, although 
 improvised bombs made of the exaggerated clam 
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 Special Training 
 
 shells of the Philippine Islands and filled with 
 home-made powder and nails and stones and 
 glass and bits of china were heaved at us by 
 various Philippine tribes and Moros. To attain 
 accuracy and range in throwing hand grenades 
 requires preliminary practice with dummy gre- 
 nades, which are now issued to the service as well 
 as rifle grenades for periods of training. The 
 extensive presence of baseball pitchers and 
 players in our service will enable us to train 
 experts in their use rapidly. Instructions for 
 throwing the hand grenades are laid down in 
 Appendix XII. 
 
 TRENCHES 
 
 Some vivid pictures of actual war to illustrate 
 the abstract principles and show the real role of 
 the officer of to-day and to-morrow. i 
 
 Most of our interest in the Great War and 
 much of our information comes from the west 
 front, where the armies have been immobile since 
 the battle of the Marne. 
 
 Trench warfare has been carried on on a 
 greater scale than ever before and with unim- 
 aginable violence. Attempts at reaching deci- 
 sions and of breaking through have been by most 
 violent assaults, prepared by most thorough and 
 overwhelming artillery preparation assisted by 
 every mechanical contrivance and invention 
 one surprise following another but to every 
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 surprise, no matter how successful at the given 
 moment, has been at once improvised an answer. 
 No matter how inspiring or ingenious the me- 
 chanical contrivances of this war, the ultimate 
 answer is in men and the man behind the gun. But 
 the individual man must be armed cap-a-pie and 
 fully equipped. The army of men must be com- 
 plete in all its parts. The army is the great 
 functioning body and the infantry is still the 
 backbone and larger part. All other branches 
 are still auxiliary. Communications of the 
 Signal Corps have become much more vital. If 
 they are cut, there is a failure in the nerves and 
 quick reaction failing in function. If the dictum 
 of the hasty correspondent is taken and cavalry 
 all dismounted, whatever army breaks through 
 will find itself hampered in mobility. At Goritz, 
 where the Italians had dismounted their cavalry, 
 finding themselves in siege operations, the place 
 was finally taken by a coup-de-main and the road 
 to Trieste laid open. They were unable to take 
 quick advantage of it through lack of cavalry. 
 During the push on the Somme, vast mounted 
 forces were held in leash for the break through. 
 Flying service has become the eye of command, 
 and everyone realizes and appreciates its vital 
 importance. So with the engineers and sanitary 
 units, all equally and vitally necessary. So that 
 with weakness in any one thing which the wel- 
 fare of the world has developed, whatever it 
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 Special Training 
 
 may be, and however apparently minor it may 
 be at the particular point and time, in the stress 
 of the great decisive conflict the smallest weak- 
 ness will be revealed and the strong body crip- 
 pled. So that the professional soldier, with all 
 his pride in his particular arm of the service, must 
 never forget that war on a great scale is the most 
 intense strain on every part, and that to have an 
 efficient army it must be a complete army in all 
 its parts head, eyes, body, arms and legs com- 
 pletely functioning, and a soul inspired and 
 sensed with the highest duty and patriotism. 
 
 The scale of this Great War has at times made 
 all of us lose our bearings. This trench warfare 
 is a development as all other war doings. Forti- 
 fied places are as old almost as the first hill from 
 which a man defied his enemy. But the use of 
 field intrenchments by a mobile army and on a 
 large scale, was a development of our own Civil 
 War. Our early colonials and frontiersmen 
 learned to fight from cover, behind trees and 
 piles of fence rails and over the stone walls at 
 the "red coats." 
 
 But the final development in America still can 
 be seen in the terrain of Grant's campaign against 
 Richmond, and from the Wilderness where the 
 trenches were hasty and shallow, through Spot- 
 sylvania, North Anna, Totopotomy, Bethesda 
 Church, Cold Harbor to Petersburg, where the 
 works assumed character and extent like unto 
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 those of the western front in Europe, and can be 
 followed and seen to-day and give the increasing 
 use and importance of field works as plainly as 
 the war pictures of to-day. The story of the 
 campaign can be read in the furrowed earth by 
 the professional soldier to-day just as plainly as 
 the scientists and geologists build up their his- 
 tories of the earth's surface and the life of pre- 
 historic times. 
 
 To give a picture of the trench life, I quote 
 from one of Hugh's letters home to Mr. Britling : 
 
 And now about those trenches as I promised. The 
 great thing to grasp is that they are narrow. They are 
 a sort of negative wall. They are more like giant 
 cracks in the ground than anything else. But perhaps 
 I had better begin by telling how we got there. We 
 started about one in the morning ladened up with every- 
 thing you can possibly imagine on a soldier, and in 
 addition I had a kettle filled with water most of the 
 chaps had bundles of firewood, and some had extra 
 bread. We marched out of our quarters along the road 
 for a mile or more, and then we took the fields, and 
 presently came to a crest and dropped into a sort of 
 maze of zigzag trenches going up to the front trench. 
 These trenches, you know, are much deeper than one's 
 height; you don't see anything. It's like walking along 
 a mud-walled passage. You just trudge along them in 
 single file. Every now and then some one stumbles 
 into a soakaway for rainwater or swears at a soft 
 place, or somebody blunders into the man in front of 
 him. This seems to go on for hours and hours. It 
 certainly went on for an hour ; so I suppose we did two 
 or three miles of it. At one place we crossed a dip 
 in the ground and a ditch, and the trench was built up 
 with sandbags up to the ditch and there was a plank. 
 
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 Special Training 
 
 Overhead the.re were stars, and now and then a sort 
 of blaze thing they send up lit up the edges of the 
 trench and gave one a glimpse of a tree top or a fac- 
 tory roof far away. Then for a time it was more 
 difficult to go on because you were blinded. Suddenly 
 just when you were believing that this sort of trade 
 was going on forever, we were in the support trenches 
 behind the firing line, and found the men we were 
 relieving ready to come back. 
 
 And the firing line itself? Just the same sort of 
 ditch with a parapet of sandbags, but with dugouts, 
 queer big holes helped out with sleepers from a near-by 
 railway track, opening into it from behind. Dugouts 
 vary a good deal. Many are rather like the cubby- 
 house we made at the end of the orchard last sum- 
 mer ; only the walls are thick enough to stand a high 
 explosive shell. The best dugout in our company's bit 
 of front was quite a dressy affair with some woodwork 
 and a door got from the ruins of a house twenty or 
 thirty yards behind us. It had a stove in it too, and a 
 chimbley, and pans to keep water in. It was the best 
 dugout for miles. This house had a well, and there was 
 a special trench ran back to that, and all day long there 
 was a coming and going for water. There had once 
 been a pump over the well, but a shell had smashed 
 that. 
 
 And now you expect me to tell of Germans and the 
 fight and shelling and all sorts of things. I haven't 
 seen a live German ; I haven't been within two hundred 
 yards of a shell burst, there has been no attack and I 
 haven't got the V. C. I have made myself muddy be- 
 yond describing ; I've been working all the time, but 
 I've not fired a shot or fought a ha'porth. We were 
 busy all the time just at work repairing the parapet, 
 which had to be done gingerly because of snipers, 
 bringing our food in from the rear in big carriers, get- 
 ting water, pushing our trench out from an angle 
 slantinotways forward. Getting meals, clearing up and 
 so on takes a Jot of time. We make tea in big kettles 
 and in the big dugout, which two whole companies use 
 
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 for their cooking, and carry them with a pole through 
 the handles to our platoons. We wash up and wash 
 and shave. Dinner preparations (and consumption) 
 takes two or three hours. Tea too uses up time. It's 
 like camping out and picnicking in the park. This first 
 time (and next too) we have been mixed with some 
 Sussex men who have been here longer and know the 
 business. It works out that we do most of the fatigue. 
 Afterwards we shall go up along to a pitch of our own. 
 
 But all the time you want to know about the Ger- 
 mans. They are a quarter of a mile away at this part, 
 or nearly a quarter of a mile. When you snatch a peep 
 at them it is like a low particolored stone wall only 
 the stones are sandbags. The Germans have them black 
 and white, so that you cannot tell which are loopholes 
 and which are black bags. Our people haven't been so 
 clever and the War Office love of uniformity has 
 given us only white bags. No doubt it looks neater. 
 But it makes our loopholes plain. For a time black 
 sandbags were refused. The Germans sniped at us, 
 but not very much. Only one of our lot was hit by a 
 chance shot that came through the sandbag at the top 
 of the parapet. He just had a cut in the neck which 
 didn't prevent his walking back. They shelled the 
 trenches half a mile to the left of us though, and it 
 looked pretty hot. The sandbags flew about. But the 
 men lie low, and it looks worse than it is. The weather 
 was fine and pleasant, as General French always says. 
 And after three days and nights of cramped existence 
 and petty chores, one in the foremost trench and two a 
 little way back, and then two days in support, we came 
 back and here we are again waiting for our second Go. 
 
 The night time is perhaps a little more nervy than 
 the day. You get your head up and look about, and see 
 the flat dim country with its ruined houses and its 
 lumps of stuff that are dead bodies and its long vague 
 lines of sandbags, and the searchlights going like white 
 windmill arms and an occasional flare or star shell. 
 And you have a nasty feeling of people creeping and 
 creeping all night between the trenches. 
 
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 Special Training 
 
 Some of us went out to strengthen a place in the 
 parapet that was only one sandbag thick, where a man 
 had been hit during the day. We made it four bags 
 thick right up to the top. All the while you were doing 
 it, you dreaded to find yourself in the white glare of a 
 searchlight, and you had a feeling that something would 
 hit you suddenly from behind. I had to make up my 
 mind not to look around, or I should have kept on 
 looking around. Also our chaps kept shooting over 
 us, within a foot of one's head. Just to persuade the 
 Germans that we were not out of the trench. 
 
 Nothing happened to us. We got back all right. 
 It was silly to have left that parapet only one bag thick. 
 There's the truth, and all of my first time in the 
 trenches. 
 
 To train for such conditions, the increasing 
 importance of the right kind of discipline is 
 evident. Force of circumstances and discriminat- 
 ing intelligence is changing our discipline, in 
 military life as well as in civil life, from one of 
 extreme coercion to a discipline of habit a will- 
 ing and instinctive obedience as an intelligent 
 member of a great team, training for a national 
 and well understood purpose. 
 
 The American soldier must be trained by ap- 
 pealing to his common sense, with an earnest 
 effort to encourage individual intelligence and 
 excellence. The common knowledge of the great 
 efforts of the contending powers on the western 
 front has borne in on everyone of us the com- 
 plicated and desperate nature of every attack. 
 We all know that superiority of fire must be pre- 
 pared and maintained. Where the artillery leaves 
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 off, the infantry and machine-gun fire and throw- 
 ing of grenades and bombing must keep it up. 
 The communications must be maintained midst 
 terrible confusion and soul-racking noise. No 
 commands can be heard. The attacking lines 
 must be handled by signals which presupposes 
 absolute training and teamwork the thorough 
 cooperation between all arms. For the infantry 
 who gain and keep the superiority of fire, every 
 individual soldier must handle his arm instinc- 
 tively and rapidly and be controlled and directed 
 by officers and noncoms. The teamwork must 
 function in the dark, advancing and crawling by 
 the unseen touch of training and discipline. The 
 possibility must be attained of rushing forth from 
 a line of shelter at a short distance from the 
 enemy at any decisive phase of the combat. The 
 sacrifice being resolved upon, it must be pushed 
 through to a finish and the enemy drowned under 
 successive waves. It is our duty as officers to 
 train men, both physically and morally, so that 
 the attacks will be pushed through. 
 
 In order to break through ' completely it is 
 necessary : 
 
 (a) To take the first line of hostile defense 
 (the zone of first trenches and centers of re- 
 sistance). 
 
 (6) To take the second line of defense. 
 
 1 Based on an article in the "Infantry Journal" following the account 
 of a French officer. 
 
 2l6
 
 Special Training 
 
 (c) To prevent the enemy from forming be- 
 yond the zone already fortified, a barrier by the 
 aid of reenforcements brought up in haste. 
 
 There must be organized : 
 
 First: A line of attack formed in several 
 waves of assault, with preparation for the assault 
 by formidable artillery minutely regulated. 
 
 Second : A second line of attack as strong as 
 the first, sent straight to the front all in one piece 
 like the first line, with groups of light guns and 
 machine guns, all starting as soon as the first 
 trenches are taken. 
 
 Third : A reserve destined to reenforce any 
 point and conquer any particular strong point. 
 
 Fourth: Cavalry, autocannon, automachine 
 guns, battalions of infantry on motor trucks or 
 automobiles with pioneer crews to clear the 
 roads. Large units ready to commence new com- 
 bat, capable of being brought up within two or 
 three hours. The assaulting troops themselves 
 cannot be depended upon to do more than break 
 through. 
 
 The successive waves of assault are each pre- 
 ceded by selected soldiers and shots in skirmish 
 formation at four to five paces interval. The 
 fighting is very often at point-blank range and 
 the man should be trained to use his rifle in close 
 fighting. Teach him to watch that part of the 
 parapet and loopholes in which he marches in 
 order to block the shots of the enemy; to aim 
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 National Service Library 
 
 rapidly, throwing the piece to the shoulder to get 
 his shot at the enemy who is aiming at him; to 
 have his piece always ready for close fighting; 
 to know how to load it quickly lying down or 
 while running. 
 
 Lieutenants in training themselves and their 
 commands in front of any resistance whatever, 
 best assumed by an indicated line with blank 
 cartridges, the standard idea should be rapidly to 
 take a position for the assault in a line of shelter 
 at assaulting distance. 
 
 To Assault: This is only possible by a rapid 
 gaining of superiority of fire. Develop the 
 ability to take in the situation quickly and to act 
 with rapidity and make a rapid reconnaissance 
 of resistances. At varying stages of the attack 
 call out: "Enemy resistance on such a line, our 
 first elements are stopped at such a point" 
 "Hostile machine guns in such a region" "Cav- 
 alry to the right in rear," etc. One well-tried 
 officer in the present war stated that in nine 
 months of campaign, only twice did he know a 
 company capable of delivering an assault 
 properly. 
 
 In addition to the routine training of soldiers 
 for individual shooting, endurance and dis- 
 cipline, there is needed to-day for each special 
 problem a particular training in cohesion 
 actual work over the kind of ground and against 
 the kind of trenches and obstacles he will be 
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 Special Training 
 
 pushed against. In order that a body of troops 
 may be capable of reaching the enemy it is neces- 
 sary for each man to be intimately convinced 
 that his neighbor will march along with him and 
 not abandon Irm. This cohesion of comradeship 
 is very different from the days when the Gauls 
 were tied together by chains to meet the on- 
 slaughts of the Romans. The chain to-day must! 
 be that of training and instinctive habit. The 
 company should also be tried out by rough ex- 
 periences in the field, so that everyone may have 
 been able to see what his leaders and comrades 
 are worth under trying conditions. Though 
 habit, friendship, and confidence make no differ- 
 ence in the appearance of a company, in battle 
 these qualities appear in their stanchness and 
 value. 
 
 One French officer of experience speaks of the 
 life in the trench as an excellent school for cohe- 
 sion, but it must be alternated with a period of 
 exercise, where there will be exercises by entire 
 units, close-order drill and passing in review, 
 which should always close an exercise period. 
 All these contribute to develop the sentiment, 
 blunted in the trenches, that the soldier belongs 
 to a unit compact and articulate. The trench 
 produces cohesion in a smaller group the period 
 of exercise, cohesion in the organization. The 
 Frenchman insists also upon exact discipline 
 during the period of exercise, impossible in the 
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 trenches, requiring the punctual marks of respect 
 and great care as to the daily aspect of the com- 
 pany carefully uniformed and well disciplined. 
 All these details have a prime moral importance. 
 Nothing is more demoralizing for the soldier than 
 to see around him his comrades badly dressed 
 and negligent in their duty. He at times drops 
 into this convenient carelessness, but at heart 
 every soldier would lack confidence in a troop 
 without faith or order, and he will realize it in 
 moments of danger.- 
 
 SKETCH OF AN ASSAULT BY A FOREIGN OFFICER 
 
 The artillery preparation, roaring on the horizon 
 like a furious storm, ceases sharply and a tragic silence 
 falls over the field of battle. The infantry leaves its 
 parallels in a single movement at a walk, magnificently 
 aligned, crowned with the scintillation of thousands of 
 bayonets. Then the hostile trenches burst out suddenly 
 with fire, the fusillade rattles immediately, madly, 
 dominated by the pitiless crackle of the machine guns. 
 The wave of assailants thins out, entire units dis- 
 appear, mowed down. Some lie down and advance no 
 further, while others, better commanded, march ahead 
 in spite of all. Some, more favored, find themselves in 
 places where the artillery preparation has cleared the 
 enemy out. They reach the first trench and it is hand- 
 to-hand fighting. 
 
 The second wave arrives in its turn, avoids the zone 
 of destruction, is absorbed in the parts where the re- 
 sistance has weakened, and thus the first trench, par- 
 celled out in partially surrounded fragments, is def- 
 initely submerged by the second wave. They re-form 
 beyond the taken trench, they start forward again ; but 
 it is unrestrained combat by groups in the midst of 
 shots and bullets which cross each other in every sense. 
 
 22O
 
 Special Training 
 
 The second trench is reached, certain parts are con- 
 quered by which the flood of assailants spreads out 
 while desperate groups resist obstinately in some 
 redoubts. 
 
 Now in the first line of attack there is no more 
 order, the dead cover the ground, here mowed down 
 by ranks, there hung in the wire entanglements like 
 grapes on the vine, or forming a crown at the summit 
 of the parapets, or sown here and there by the scatter- 
 ing of the hand-to-hand fights ; the wounded flow back 
 in numbers to the rear, the isolated are straggling in 
 all corners for the most diverse reasons ; even organi- 
 zations are stopped in the conquered trenches by their 
 chiefs finding that they have done enough, and that it 
 is high time to get out of the trouble. But beyond this 
 immense dispersion some heroic groups, weak nuclei 
 of multiple companies, led by ardent chiefs, make their 
 way further into the hostile territory. They suddenly 
 appear, urged into a gallop over the trenches ; magnified 
 ten times by the imagination of the enemy who loses 
 his head, they run beyond into the open fields, receiv- 
 ing some shots here and there but surprised at the 
 emptiness of the field of battle. Behind them the com- 
 bat of extermination continues in places, but nothing 
 follows, only some groups of isolated and wounded are 
 returning. Then these foremost parties feel their weak- 
 ness and take note of it ; the emptiness, the silence, the 
 invisible resistance impress them, they scent the ambush 
 and soon stop. 
 
 In front of the centers of resistance the fight is hard 
 and murderous ; they have taken one or two trenches, 
 carried the first houses, but the organizations are 
 melted in the interminable individual fighting in the 
 ruins ; here the progress has been almost nothing in 
 spite of enormous losses. 
 
 Thus the first line has made its effort ; in the centers 
 of resistance it has scarcely gotten a good hold on the 
 exterior borders ; in the intervals, on the contrary, it 
 has largely expanded like a wave which had broken 
 through a dike at one point. But it has been stopped, 
 
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 out of breath, in front of the second line of defense, 
 whose resistance is organizing, or it has been nailed to 
 its place by flanking fire from the still unconquered 
 centers of resistance ; it is composed from now on of 
 feeble groups of veritable fighters, just strong enough 
 to mark out here and there the limits of the conquered 
 ground, and of a multitude of isolated individuals and 
 entire units which are scattered over the whole zone of 
 attack. 
 
 This has all lasted perhaps less than an hour. 
 
 Action of the Second Line of Attack: With the 
 enemy all in disorder, the batteries flee at a gallop 
 before the tide which has carried away all the ob- 
 stacles prepared long ago and judged impregnable; all 
 confidence disappears ; the adversary, feeling the re- 
 sistance giving way around him no longer dares to hold 
 out desperately, from now on the least thing induces 
 him to turn tail. However, on some points reserves 
 have come up, have manned their positions of the 
 second line and have attempted some timid counter- 
 offensive. Machine guns, rapidly brought up, are in- 
 stalled and fire with all haste to prevent access to the 
 open zones of the defender and to gain time. The 
 tottering resistance tries to hold on ; now, one more 
 great brutal push along the whole point like the at- 
 tack of the first line, and then will come the desper- 
 ate rout. 
 
 It is then that the second line appears; starting out 
 in its turn from the parallel, it advances by immense 
 and successive waves of thin lines, calm and unshakable 
 among the rafales of shells and spent bullets. 
 
 Already numerous detachments of machine guns 
 and light cannon have preceded it. Creeping through, 
 following up the first line, they have been able to un- 
 ravel the situation and take account of the points 
 where the resistance seems to be desperate and needs 
 to be immediately swept. The light cannon orient them- 
 selves directly on the rattling of the machine guns, 
 which they endeavor to overwhelm with a shower of 
 their small shells. 
 
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 Special Training 
 
 The accompanying batteries have started as soon as 
 the first trenches are taken ; they are soon oriented by 
 the signals of the special agents of liaison artillery 
 men who follow the infantry. The remainder of the 
 artillery cuts off the approaches by a barrier of 
 asphyxiating shells and carries its fire on to the 
 second line marked out according to the directing 
 plan. 
 
 Thus the second line arrives close up to the advanced 
 elements of the first line under cover of sufficient fire. 
 The second line pushes straight to the front on the 
 objectives fixed long before and which should claim its 
 whole attention. 
 
 Certain of the units have a mission to block off the 
 centers of resistance by finishing up the conquest of 
 their exterior borders, while the great majority is 
 absorbed in the intervals, instead of being halted and 
 played out, playing the game of the adversary in his 
 inextricable points of support. 
 
 To quote an expression in "A Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," modifying it slightly, a center of resistance is 
 a filter into which one pours battalions and regiments; 
 it will yield only a few drops. 
 
 The organizations passing through the intervals 
 arrive in front of the second line of defense, which is 
 not in general occupied in a continuous manner. They 
 run against lively and sudden resistances, or else en- 
 counter empty spaces through which they boldly pene- 
 trate, pushing straight on always to the front, without 
 being intimidated by the silence or distracted by the 
 resistance on the right or left. The units stopped, 
 rapidly organize the assault and attack by main force 
 like the first waves of the attack, without trying to 
 maneuver, a temptation of weakness and indecision. 
 Here again is found hesitation ; units held up by only 
 a semblance of resistance or trying to avoid it; others 
 having approaches to assaulting distance dig in and 
 dare not go forward openly into a supreme charge. 
 Others are turned away from their objective to get into 
 another combat, which absorbs them. 
 
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 However, the second line of hostile defense finds 
 itself in its turn disabled, broken in and notably passed 
 by in certain localities, assailed vigorously on all points 
 where a resistance is improvised in haste ; it is soon 
 parcelled out in islands and surrounded in all parts. 
 
 Action of Reserves: We are now nearly in open 
 ground ; we must still definitely clear away the last 
 resistances which the hostile reenforcements now com- 
 ing up in haste will strengthen and soon convert into 
 an insuperable barrier if we give them a few hours' 
 respite. 
 
 It is for this purpose that we employ the reserves. 
 
 Officers of liaison, who are not afraid to traverse 
 the battle field to find out how things are going on, and 
 who do not abandon the troops to their own resources 
 until tardy reports come in, obtain the information for 
 the superior commander, who directs his reserves to 
 the precise points where they are most needed. 
 
 Thus are definitely broken by the reserves the last 
 resistances which the second attacking line, occupied 
 with marching straight ahead, was not able to encircle. 
 
 Exploitation of the Success: Finally, we have arrived 
 in the zone of open country, the gigantic assault of 
 five or six kilometers is ended. Now it will be the 
 surprise, the rapidity of movements, the skill of 
 maneuver which will gradually produce panic. 
 
 MARCHING AND MOVEMENT OF INFANTRY 
 
 Marching experience and discipline have been 
 rather fully covered in the part on that subject 
 in the first part of the book, but several additional 
 points come to mind may be added. During 
 the maneuvers in the Brownsville district, several 
 Iowa battalions developed the happy habit of 
 singing while on the march, cheering them up 
 and preventing tediousness and fatigue, which 
 224
 
 Special Training 
 
 originate in the mind as well as in the body. 
 Just as "A Hot Time in the Old Town To-night" 
 quickly became the popular soldier song of the 
 Spanish War, so the regimental tune and song of 
 the Third Cavalry (mounted rifles) "Green Grow 
 the Rushes O !" was sung by the army through- 
 out the Mexican War and gave the Mexicans 
 their popular term gringo. General Parker sug- 
 gested that in each battalion a quartet or sextet 
 of trained singers be organized to lead in singing 
 a list of airs known to the men, such as college 
 songs, negro melodies, and Civil War songs, as 
 "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are March- 
 ing," "Rally Round the Flag," etc., be selected. 
 Special privileges were given to encourage the 
 singers. The proper place for the selected band 
 is a little in front of the center of the column in 
 order that their voices may be heard from front 
 to rear. 
 
 During the past summer on the border large 
 bodies of troops were moved quickly over great 
 distances in motor trucks. Three-ton trucks be- 
 ing lined up in column, whole regiments were 
 loaded in less than a minute by the following 
 system: Regiments to be lined up opposite the 
 trucks and thirty men being assigned to each 
 truck, the front rank mounted the truck from the 
 front end and the rear rank mounted from the 
 rear end, the rations and equipments being in the 
 bottom of the truck, and being in some cases 
 225 
 
 Vol.3 N.S.L.8
 
 National Service Library 
 
 used for seats. In some instances baled hay was 
 so used and for long distances cross seats pro- 
 vided. 
 
 In our country such long distances are trav- 
 eled by rail that it seems proper to lay down 
 rules for the conduct of troops traveling by rail- 
 road. (Appendix XV.) 
 
 226
 
 VI 
 
 A System of Intensive Training 
 
 THE following is a general outline of the 
 practical training of General Parker's command 
 in the Brownsville district, from July I to Decem- 
 ber i, 1916. 
 
 OUTLINE OF TRAINING: PERSONNEL 
 
 General Parker in command of the Brownsville 
 district, which extended along the Rio Grande 
 from its mouth for some hundreds of miles, with 
 a command of four regiments of infantry, three 
 scattered batteries of artillery, and various 
 auxiliary detachments of the auxiliary arms, was 
 engaged in patrolling and protecting the border, 
 when he was suddenly confronted with the prob- 
 lem of handling, supplying, and training some 
 thirty thousand National Guard troops, hurriedly 
 pushed into the district from States all over the 
 Union, the highest commands arriving being bri- 
 gades, together with regiments of infantry, de- 
 tachments of all other arms, mostly without 
 animals or other transportation, partly equipped 
 and supplied. Over 60 per cent of these troops 
 were raw recruits, most of the officers inexperi- 
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 enced in any but the ordinary State militia func- 
 tions, with many divergent systems of supply and 
 administration, and under laws and regulations of 
 many different States. As they arrived they were 
 at once organized into a division and several sep- 
 arate brigades. General Parker at once increased 
 his general staff and technical staff by a training 
 staff of hand-picked regular officers, at the head 
 of which was Major L. F. Kilbourne, Twenty- 
 sixth Infantry, a graduate of West Point and the 
 Service Schools of Fort Leavenworth, and re- 
 cently having had the valuable experience of 
 serving in the Fifth Brigade of Galveston under 
 General George F. Bell. His assistants were offi- 
 cers of all arms of the service, including many 
 officers of General Parker's First Cavalry Bri- 
 gade, who have had the experience of his methods 
 of inspiring and competitive training. One of 
 these regular officers, with certain experienced 
 noncoms. of the regulars, was assigned to each 
 incoming National Guard regiment as inspector 
 and instructor. A senior inspector and instructor 
 for the purpose of supervision and coordination 
 was assigned to the staff of each division and 
 camp commander. The spirit of the State troops 
 and their officers was fine. They took kindly 
 and intelligently to the training work. The first 
 weakness shown was in their administrative 
 work. The average officer has no use for red 
 tape, and does not realize that supply, health, and 
 228
 
 A System of Intensive Training 
 
 comfort of his men are absolutely dependent on 
 it. So that to the training staff were shortly 
 added experienced officers known as inspectors 
 of records, but who were really instructors in 
 administration. As thousands of animals, mules, 
 and horses were supplied the troops their lack of 
 experience in handling these precious impedi- 
 menta were shown, and in each camp inspectors 
 of transportation were appointed whose duty it 
 was to train and supervise in the handling of 
 public animals. 
 
 Although there was not much choice in the 
 hot, alluvial delta of the Rio Grande for camps 
 of large bodies of men, camp sites were selected 
 with regard to the health and comfort of the 
 commands, and railroad and water facilities sup- 
 plied. Camp sanitary inspectors were appointed 
 from regular medical corps. Camp sites were 
 cleared of chaparral and near-by pools and low 
 places drained and oiled. The auxiliary branches 
 were supplied with instructors and inspectors 
 from the regulars for their corresponding branch 
 of the service. Cooks and horseshoers and clerks 
 were loaned by the regulars. The regulars and 
 National Guard were camped together where 
 practicable, so that the regulars could serve as 
 a model, and inexperienced National Guardsmen 
 see with their own eyes, and also pick up the 
 little wrinkles of the old soldiers by intimate 
 association. Most citizen soldiers thoroughly 
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 appreciate the value of this association and com- 
 radeship with regular officers and men, and it 
 should be impressed upon every one of them that 
 in the excitement and emergency of preparation 
 that full advantage must be taken of every such 
 opportunity. 
 
 In the Spanish War the best-known volunteer 
 organization, the Rough Riders, owed much of 
 its quick preparation to the fact that its com- 
 mander was wise enough to entice as many old 
 regular noncoms. and soldiers as possible, and 
 divided them among his troops. Every man who 
 has had the Plattsburg experience will testify to 
 the value of the regular noncom. Indeed, one of 
 them, a professor at Princeton, who wrote a 
 most interesting article on his experience in the 
 first Plattsburg camp, held that the most efficient 
 man he had ever known in any walk of life was 
 a sergeant of the regulars assigned to his com- 
 pany. Most citizens have this humility of the 
 high intelligence and are glad to learn from 
 those very fine men and soldiers, the noncoms. 
 of the regular service, at the thought of whom 
 even every regular officer feels his heart warm 
 with pride and gratitude, for they are loyal, 
 patient, efficient, as every regular knows, and is 
 a fact becoming appreciated by the citizens who 
 have had the good luck to associate with them. 
 
 I must insist that this is in no sense a manual 
 of training. I hope General Parker or Major 
 230
 
 A System of Intensive Training 
 
 Kilbourne will shortly publish such a manual 
 based on their various successful experiences, 
 but I simply indicate the outline of their experi- 
 ences, so that the aspirant officer may realize the 
 scope of such training, the reasons for it, and 
 that he must make himself the leader of his men 
 by force of character, making the most of his 
 personality, and training himself to be superior 
 to his men in intelligence, education, and in the 
 handling of his command under every circum- 
 stance of peace or war. It is difficult for any 
 man to excel one hundred men of his company 
 in every respect. Assuming that every officer 
 has been picked for those reasons, although he 
 may be a subaltern for some time he must at 
 once not only know the duties of a lieutenant, 
 but absorb those of the company commander, 
 and know them in outline from the start, for he 
 will very often be by force of circumstances the 
 acting company commander and administrator 
 of the largest one-man command in which the 
 chief deals intimately with the man. The very 
 meaning of lieutenant indicates that, but with 
 his captain present he is assistant in training and 
 instruction and commands his unit or platoon in 
 training and action. Although the captain as ad- 
 ministrative head deals directly with the first 
 sergeant and incidentally with the company clerk 
 and mess sergeant in the affairs of interior 
 economy, the lieutenant must sit by the first ser- 
 231
 
 National Service Library 
 
 geant and troop clerk and become familiar with 
 all their work and learn from the experienced 
 mess sergeant the details of obtaining rations 
 and handling and cooking them. The captain 
 will frequently delegate all his duties to the 
 lieutenant. 
 
 The company, the smallest administrative unit, 
 must have all the copies of textbooks, regula- 
 tion manuals, and at least three months' supplies 
 of blanks as laid down in Appendix IV. Each 
 blank has it clearly stated on its back how it 
 should be made out and used. There must be 
 for each soldier an individual record, clothing, 
 and descriptive lists carefully made out and kept 
 up to date. If it has not already been done, 
 officers see that each man is vaccinated and inocu- 
 lated for typhoid and parityphoid. Each officer 
 and man must have complete his arms, uniform, 
 and equipment. From these reports of admin- 
 istration and lists of blank forms and from the 
 manuals of the Supply Department the particu- 
 lars of administration will be evident. In gen- 
 eral, rations, supplies, and equipment come from 
 the Quartermaster's Corps, arms and munitions 
 from the Ordnance Department. Minor sup- 
 plies will be indicated by the blanks listed and 
 supplied. 
 
 In garrison and semipermanent camps the 
 rationing and messing are at the discretion of the 
 company commander, limited by the monthly 
 232
 
 A System of Intensive Training 
 
 allowance for rations and published each month 
 by the Quartermaster's Corps, varying from 
 twenty-five to thirty cents a man. The captain 
 normally prepares a ration return for his com- 
 mand for one month, and he can purchase his 
 supplies through his mess sergeant, whom he 
 carefully supervises, anything he desires, sub- 
 ject to certain regulations published from time to 
 time. Articles and supplies kept on hand in the 
 commissary must be bought there if used at all. 
 Articles not supplied by the commissary depart- 
 ment, such as fresh vegetables, fruit, fish, etc., 
 may be purchased anywhere from the company 
 fund, which accrues from the savings made 
 monthly on the ration allowance or from author- 
 ized income for the company fund, such as 
 shares of the post or camp exchange, receipts 
 from the library or billiard table, etc. 
 
 The company fund must be kept in the custody 
 of the company commander, and must be audited 
 each month by the company council in a manner 
 laid down by regulations. The mess sergeant 
 should keep a running account so that each day 
 the captain may know how he stands and be able 
 to arrange the rationing and messing equitably 
 through the month. 
 
 In the field during maneuvers or war the supe- 
 rior commander orders issued a standard ration 
 in kind. The company is the family of the army, 
 and the captain has great discretion in handling 
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 it, and in exercising his ingenuity in causing it to 
 live well and happily. There is much human 
 nature and common sense to be exercised, and a 
 deep personal interest is the measure of it. It 
 should be a happy family in the best sense. As 
 a naval officer speaks of a happy ship, not mean- 
 ing that the individuals are lightly happy, but that 
 the organization is keenly efficient, the interior 
 friction of the family diminished to the lowest, 
 and the ship ready for action with a cheer. 
 
 OUTLINE AS SHOWN BY ORDERS OF BROWNS- 
 VILLE DISTRICT 
 
 The following orders are published without 
 much comment as the reasons are therein stated 
 most effectively. The system is given and the 
 reasons given, and it has been thoroughly jus- 
 tified by the successful condition of the com- 
 mand. 
 
 The keen interest of the higher command was 
 felt throughout, soldierly and sportsmanlike 
 competitions and conscious emulation aroused 
 added much to develop the keen spirit of the 
 men. Monthly tests showed up the weaknesses 
 and the further training was based upon provid- 
 ing for them. 
 
 Due to the circumstances of these men coming 
 
 to the border, their probable short time ahead for 
 
 training, the emergency special courses B, 1908, 
 
 Small Arms Firing Regulations, was used as soon 
 
 234
 
 A System of Intensive Training 
 
 as they had had a short number of preliminary 
 instructions on aiming and firing drills. 
 
 Those troops that remained on the border for 
 the maneuvers of November were more effec- 
 tively trained by the use of frequent combat 
 exercises, including firing problems. 
 
 Having been somewhat critical of this system 
 at first, I am now convinced that it is on the 
 right lines for our training on a large scale, and 
 I believe not only in line with our own general 
 abstract policy as laid down by the General Staff, 
 but after having had the opportunity of reading 
 reports from the most critical observers in all 
 the European armies, I believe it is consistent 
 with the best experience abroad. Some of the 
 minor points that I find fault with were the 
 statement of so many minor details apparently 
 limiting the freedom and discretion of the com- 
 pany commander, but in a force of so many 
 varied kinds of troops and with so many inex- 
 perienced officers as were there present, I believe 
 it is necessary to standardize properly and make 
 uniform the training so that the will of the chief 
 may be known and understood and made use of 
 in action. 
 
 NOTES ON SELECTION OF CAMPS 
 
 Billeting, as in certain foreign countries, is not 
 practicable in this country, certainly not with 
 large bodies of troops, but even for commands 
 235
 
 National Service Library 
 
 not larger than regiments I believe it would be 
 better to camp them in towns quartered in large 
 public buildings or rented buildings, such as 
 warehouses, etc., rather than the old American 
 custom of always assuming that soldiers must 
 be in camps. This is made possible by the availa- 
 bility of large buildings in most of our towns, 
 and the very much better discipline and attendant 
 conduct of our troops, especially in towns where 
 there are no saloons, but even in towns where 
 there are saloons nowadays the character and 
 training of the troops causes little difficulty when 
 under proper officers. Through the Brownsville 
 district during the past summer, with large bodies 
 of troops around the small towns, many of them 
 being open towns, there has been no particular 
 trouble, and the citizens of these towns have 
 united in high praise of the good conduct and 
 pleasant associations with our high-class soldiers. 
 Where there are troops in or near a town, ar- 
 rangements should be made with the civil author- 
 ities for furnishing a small number of military 
 police, supplied with a blue and white brassard 
 and working in close association and understand- 
 ing with the civil authorities. It is very easy to 
 select a camp site with a small command, having 
 regard to the health and comfort of the command 
 and the facilities for properly handling and sup- 
 plying them, but in commands of a brigade or 
 more there is often not much choice of site, and 
 236
 
 A System of Intensive Training 
 
 in all camps of a semipermanent nature the 
 drainage details and raised walks and roads 
 should promptly be supplied. Mosquito nets 
 should always be supplied and used. Kitchens, 
 latrines, exchanges, mess rooms, etc., should be 
 screened as quickly as possible, tents floored, cots 
 requisitioned for at once and proper store tents 
 or storehouses and room provided for. Where 
 practicable the officer and orderly rooms should 
 be in rooms or buildings rather than tents. 
 
 Remember that the sun is the best disinfectant, 
 and although not so pleasant or comfortable, 
 large and semipermanent camps should be in 
 open and sunswept sites. All brush and under- 
 growth should be cleanly and quickly removed. 
 A carefully supervised dump where everything 
 should be burned should be provided. Crude oil 
 will always be supplied by the supply officer for 
 sanitary purposes. Latrines should always be 
 dug, and carefully watched by the sanitary in- 
 spector and by company officers. Regular troops 
 even on the march carry a screen of condemned 
 canvas for placing around latrines. In semi- 
 permanent camps they should be the first covers 
 and protection erected. They should either be 
 burned out daily or sprayed with oil and lamp 
 black. The New York division found that this 
 was the better method, and that the latrines of 
 the division could be sprayed and kept sanitary 
 by this method much easier than by -burning o-t 
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 National Service Library 
 
 with crude oil. Medical officers can inform as 
 to the details of this method. 
 
 Often with infantry commands there are large 
 numbers of animals, and these should be supplied 
 with shelter as soon as possible. Frame or paper 
 roofs if possible, or if the government will not 
 supply the lumber and materials, poles and brush 
 can be cut, and in very hot, sunny countries, if 
 there is not sufficient and convenient brush, grain 
 sacks can be stretched over the poles and brush 
 frames. 
 
 Supply officers should insist upon No. i forage 
 for their animals, and see that it is not fed off 
 the ground, but either in feed boxes or nose 
 bags. Remember that the ordinary horse nose 
 bags will not be large enough for mules. Daily 
 grooming and monthly horseshoeing should be 
 insisted upon for each and every animal, whether 
 mule or horse. If by misadventure your requi- 
 sitions are not filled for anything, responsible 
 officers should insist on the camp supply officer 
 supplying urgent needs, and red tape can always 
 be cut if intelligence and tact is displayed. 
 
 Subaltern officers and supply sergeants should 
 have temporary duty with regular supply officers, 
 and such assistance and training will always be 
 given on request. 
 
 The appendixes which follow all contain in- 
 formation of vital importance to the military 
 man. While it cannot be claimed for the method 
 238
 
 A System of Intensive Training 
 
 of presentation that it is the most interesting, 
 nevertheless it is believed the arrangement is the 
 best which could be made for practical purposes. 
 This is the information which it was found by 
 experience on the border civilian soldiers were 
 most in need of and the great success of the 
 training in the Brownsville district is proof of 
 the efficacy of the system. Few officers of the 
 regular army would be able off-hand to state 
 where all of the data given herein can be readily 
 obtained. 
 
 239
 
 Appendix I 
 
 INDIVIDUAL FIELD EQUIPMENT FOR DISMOUNTED 
 COMPANY OFFICERS 
 
 Equipment "A," carried on person and 
 wagons: Ammunition as ordered; I barrack bag, 
 optional ; I mosquito bar ; i canvas basin ; I bed- 
 ding roll, or combination bedding-clothing roll 
 with contents not to exceed 50 pounds, G. O. 8, 
 W. D. 1915; i bed sack, optional; i pistol belt, 1 
 model 1912; I waist belt; I blanket, O. D. ; i 
 pair breeches ; i hair brush ; i canvas bucket ; ; 
 i can bacon; i can condiment; i can meat; i 
 canteen ; i canteen cover, dismounted ; i comb ; 
 i compass ; i cup ; i dispatch case, optional ; 3 
 pair drawers; i field glass; i first-aid packet; 
 i fork; 2 handkerchiefs; i pair woolen gloves (if 
 ordered) ; i haversack and pack carrier; i head- 
 net (if mosquito, bar not furnished) ; i knife; i 
 pocket knife; i extra pair shoe laces; i lan- 
 tern, combination ; 2 pistol magazines, extra ; I 
 message blank book; i mirror; i notebook and 
 indelible pencils ; i package toilet paper ; 10 
 shelter-tent pins ; i automatic pistol ; i pistol 
 
 1 This belt, with or without saber ring, includes the magazine pocket, 
 web double. 
 
 24O
 
 Appendix 
 
 holster ; 2 shelter-tent poles ; I pouch for first- 
 aid packet; i poncho, cape or rain coat; 2 re- 
 serve rations (when ordered) ; i flannel shirt, 
 O. D. ; i pair marching shoes ; i cake soap 
 in box ; i spoon ; 5 pairs stockings ; i sweater, 
 optional; i identification tag; i tape for identi- 
 fication tag; 2 tents (shelter halves) and 2 
 ropes; i toothbrush and powder; 3 face towels; 
 3 undershirts ; i watch ; i whistle and chain. 
 
 Equipment "B," carried on wagon: i blanket, 
 O. D. ; i pair breeches ; i cot ; i pair drawers ; 
 i extra pair shoe laces ; i locker trunk for extra 
 clothing ; i flannel shirt, O. D. ; i pair marching 
 shoes ; i pair stockings ; i undershirt. 
 
 Note: Clothing enumerated under "A" and 
 "B" does not include that worn on the person. 
 
 Some of articles which may be carried with 
 Equipment "A" up to the 5o-pound allowance: 
 6 candles ; i folding chair ; i cot ; extra bedding ; 
 extra clothing; 3 handkerchiefs; i housewife; 
 i box matches; i mattress (light weight); i 
 pillow ; i shaving outfit ; i pair slippers ; i wall 
 pocket; i package writing materials, envelopes, 
 paper, stamps. 
 
 241
 
 Appendix II 
 
 UNIFORM AND EQUIPMENT OF OFFICERS' 
 RESERVE CORPS 
 
 The only equipment required at present of 
 officers in the O. R. C. are the uniforms of the 
 corresponding grades in the regular army. In 
 other words, a major, O. R. C., should provide 
 himself with the uniform specified in the Army 
 Regulations, for a major, U. S. A. If a complete 
 equipment is desired by the appointee he can 
 make arrangements for securing it from the 
 Quartermaster General's Office. 
 
 Scores of inquiries are being received by the 
 adjutant general along this line and, in reply, 
 the applicants are referred to the revised edition 
 "Regulations for the Uniform of the United 
 States Army" (which can be secured from the 
 Superintendent of Documents, Washington, 
 D. C., at ten cents per copy) ; and to Changes No. 
 18, Uniform Regulation, War Dept., Dec. 30, 
 1916. We give below the paragraphs (as 
 amended) from Changes No. 18 which relate 
 to the Officers' Reserve Corps: 
 
 Insignia on Collar of Coat All insignia will 
 be of metal. 
 
 242
 
 Appendix 
 
 For the regular army the letters "U. S."; for 
 the volunteer army the letters "U. S. V."; for 
 the Officers' Reserve Corps and the Enlisted 
 Reserve Corps the letters "U. S. R."; for the 
 National Guard while in the service of the United 
 States, the letters not to exceed four forming 
 the abbreviation of the name of the state, terri- 
 tory, or District of Columbia. 
 
 (a) Officers The letters "U.S." will be worn 
 I inch from each end of the collar, with a suita- 
 ble space between the letters, and placed midway 
 between the upper and lower edges of the collar. 
 The letters "U. S. V." or "U. S. R." will be simi- 
 larly worn, but five-eighths of an inch from each 
 end of collar. 
 
 If the abbreviation of the name of a State, 
 Territory, or the District of Columbia consists 
 of but two letters, it will be worn at i inch from 
 the end of the collar; in other cases at five- 
 eighths of an inch. 
 
 The insignia of the corps, department, or arm 
 of service and the insignia of aids, chiefs of staff, 
 and chaplains will be worn five-eighths inch from 
 the letters "U. S.," and one-half inch from the 
 letters "U. S. V.," or "U. S. R.," next to letter 
 farthest from opening of collar. 
 
 The same rule will establish intervals from 
 State, Territory, and District of Columbia ab- 
 breviations. 
 
 (b) The gold or gilt insignia will be worn on 
 
 243
 
 National Service Library 
 
 the collar of the dress and white uniforms, and 
 the bronze insignia on the collar of the service 
 uniforms, except that chaplains will wear the 
 silver Latin cross on all uniforms. 
 
 Insignia on Collar of Shirt (when the shirt 
 is worn without the coat). See par. 102 (a) 
 as changed by C. U. R. No. 16, War D., 1916. 
 The insignia of rank worn on the collar of the 
 shirt will be of metal and will be worn as follows : 
 
 (a) Officers. 
 (i) Regular Service. 
 
 Lieutenant colonel. 1 On the right side, in the 
 middle of the collar, the letters "U. S." and a 
 silver oak leaf, point up; the left side, in the 
 middle of the collar, and i inch from the end, 
 the insignia of corps, department, or arm of 
 service. 
 
 Major. Same as lieutenant colonel (substi- 
 tuting "a gold oak leaf"). 
 
 Captain. Same as lieutenant colonel (substi- 
 tuting "two bars, one- fourth inch apart and 
 parallel to the end of the collar"). 
 
 First lieutenant. Same as lieutenant colonel 
 '(substituting one bar parallel to the end of the 
 collar"). 
 
 Second lieutenant. On the right side, in the 
 
 1 Highest rank in Reserve Corps is major. See Major. Cap- 
 tain, and First Lieutenant. 
 
 244
 
 Appendix 
 
 middle of the collar, and i inch from the end, 
 the letters "U. S." On the left side, in the 
 middle of the collar, and i inch from the 
 end, the insignia of corps, department, or arm 
 of service. 
 
 General staff officers, chiefs of staff, aids, and 
 chaplains. The letters "U. S.," to be i inch 
 from the end of the collar (substitute on the 
 left side of the collar the proper device in place 
 of the insignia of corps, department, or arm of 
 service). 
 
 (2) National Guard Service. 
 
 Same as for officers of the regular service, 
 except that the letters not to exceed four 
 forming the abbreviation of the name of the 
 State, Territory, or District of Columbia will be 
 substituted for the letters "U. S." 
 
 (3) Volunteers or Officers' Reserve Corps. 
 
 Same as for officers of the regular service, 
 except that the letters "U. S. V." or "U. S. R." 
 will be substituted for the letters "U. S." 
 
 i. Based on the requirements of the uniform 
 regulations, equipment manuals and on the re- 
 quirements of the service the following is a 
 detailed list of the minimum clothing and equip- 
 ment necessary for an officer of the Army Re- 
 serve Corps to have in his possession to be 
 ready for any service required of him. 
 245
 
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 ORDNANCE EQUIPMENT FOR EACH DIS- 
 MOUNTED OFFICER 
 
 New Model Equipment 1 I can bacon ; i can 
 condiment ; I canteen ; I canteen cover, dis- 
 mounted; i pistol belt with magazine pocket, 
 web double; i cup; i knife; i fork; i spoon; i 
 meat can; i haversack (except mounted offi- 
 cers) ; i pack carrier (except mounted officers) ; 
 i pouch for first-aid packet; i pistol holster; i 
 pistol, caliber .45 ; 2 extra magazines. 
 
 Old Model Equipment i canteen with strap, 
 I cup; i haversack (except mounted officers) ; i 
 haversack strap (except mounted officers), or 
 suspenders for belt; i meat can; i knife; i fork; 
 i spoon ; i pouch for first-aid packet ; i pis- 
 tol belt with magazine pocket, web double; i 
 pistol holster ; i pistol, caliber .45 ; 2 extra 
 magazines. 
 
 Quartermaster Property i mosquito bar; i 
 bedding roll * ; i bed sack ; i canvas bucket ; i 
 lantern ; i clothing roll ; i cot ; i identification tag 
 with tape ; i shelter tent complete with poles and 
 pins; i poncho or slicker; i whistle (company 
 officers and battalion commanders of infantry) ; 
 clothing; 2 blankets; i canvas basin; I pair 
 leggins; 3 undershirts; 3 pairs drawers; 2 pairs 
 
 1 Either model of equipment is permissible. 
 
 * The bedding roll supplied by the Quartermaster Corps or 
 any other canvas roll may be used as a combination bedding- 
 clothing roll. 
 
 246
 
 Appendix 
 
 shoe laces; 5 pairs stockings; I service hat; I 
 hat cord ; i woolen coat, O. D. ; i cotton coat, 
 O. D. ; i woolen breeches, O. D. ; i woolen over- 
 coat, O. D. ; i waist belt ; 2 flannel shirts, O. D. ; 
 i pair russet leather shoes. 
 
 Medical i first-aid packet. 
 
 Miscellaneous i compass ; i pair field glasses ; 
 i notebook and pencil; i watch. 
 
 Toilet, Articles i comb ; i housewife ; i mir- 
 ror ; i toothbrush with paste ; i package toilet 
 paper ; 3 towels ; i cake soap ; i shaving outfit. 
 
 ORDNANCE EQUIPMENT FOR EACH MOUNTED 
 OFFICER 
 
 In addition to above: i set of horse equip- 
 ment, consisting of i cavalry bridle ; i watering 
 bridle (not required if model 1909 bridle is on 
 hand); i currycomb; i nose bag (or feed and 
 grain bag); I halter headstall; i halter strap 
 (or halter tie rope) ; i horse brush; i lariat; i 
 lariat strap; i link; i picket pin; i saddle 
 (McClellan or Whitman); i pair saddle bags; 
 i saddle cloth with insignia; i saddle blanket; 
 i surcingle. 
 
 2. The unit equipment manuals for the various 
 arms authorize organization commanders to keep 
 on hand such of the following articles authorized 
 by paragraph 1522, A. R. (articles of ordnance 
 furnished by the government for use of officers 
 serving with troops), as may be necessary to 
 247
 
 National Service Library 
 
 properly equip the officers on duty with these 
 organizations : 
 
 Pistols, caliber .45. 
 
 Extra magazine. 
 
 Pistol belts. 
 
 Pistol holsters. 
 
 3. The horse equipment required by mounted 
 officers below the grade of major are included in 
 the ordnance-unit accountability of the organiza- 
 tion to which they may be assigned. 
 
 4. It is not necessary for reserve officers to 
 purchase the horse equipment and articles men- 
 tioned in paragraph 3 above, but they may pur- 
 chase such articles and use them if they so desire. 
 
 5. Officers of infantry are not required to have 
 a saber and scabbard when on field service. Cav- 
 alry officers are required to have a saber and 
 scabbard and are advised to purchase the new 
 model saber which may be procured from the 
 Ordnance Department. 
 
 6. Officers of the Reserve Corps may pur- 
 chase uniforms and equipment from the supply 
 department of the army. 
 
 248
 
 Appendix III 
 CORRESPONDENCE MODEL G. O. 23, 1912 
 
 Company B, 4Oth Infantry, 
 (File number) Fort William H. Seward, 
 
 Alaska, July 19, 1912. 
 
 From : The Commanding Officer, Co. B, 4Oth Inf. 
 To: The Adjutant General of the Army, 
 (Through military channels.) 
 
 Subject : Philippine campaign badge, Corporal 
 John Doe. 
 
 Inclosed are lists in duplicate of enlisted men 
 of Company B, 4Oth Infantry, entitled to the 
 Philippine campaign badge. 
 
 JOHN A. BROWN, 
 2 Incls. Capt., 4Oth Inf. 
 
 (File number) ist Ind. 
 
 Hq. Ft. William H. Seward, Alaska, July 19, 
 1912 To the Comdg. Gen., Dept. of the 
 
 Columbia. c ,., , 
 
 o. r . 1 . 
 
 2 Incls. Col., 40th Inf., Comdg. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd Dept. Columbia, July 27, 1912. 
 249
 
 National Service Library 
 (File number) 2nd Ind. 
 
 Hq. Dept. Columbia, Vancouver Bks., Wash., 
 July 28, 1912 To the Comdg. Gen., Western 
 Division. 
 
 A. F. R. 
 
 2 Incls. Brig. Gen., Comdg. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd Western Div., July 30, 1912. 
 
 (File number) 3d Ind. 
 
 Hq. Western Division, San Francisco, Cal., 
 July 31, 1912 To the Adjt. Gen. of the Army, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 ARTHUR E. GREEN, 
 Col. Gen. Staff, in absence of 
 2 Incls. the Division Commander. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd A. G. O., Aug. 5, 1912. 
 
 ( File number) 4th Ind. 
 
 W:u- Dept., A.G.O., Aug. 8, 1912 To the CO., 
 Co. I, 5<Dth Inf., through the Comdg. Gen., 
 Philippines Division. 
 
 i Information is requested as to whether 
 the records of the company show that Cor- 
 poral Doe served in the field against hostile 
 250
 
 Appendix 
 
 natives on the Island of Panay during July, 
 1907. 
 
 2 The early return of these papers is desired. 
 By order of the Secretary of War: 
 
 THOMAS H. SMITH, 
 2 Incls. Adjt. Gen. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd Phil. Div., Sept. 14, 1912. 
 
 (File number) 5th Ind. 
 
 Hq. Philippines Division, Manila, P. I., Sept. 15, 
 1912 to the C. O. Co. I, 50th Inf., through 
 the Comdg. Gen., Dept. of Mindanao. 
 
 2 Incls. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd Dept. Mind., Sept. 24, 1912. 
 
 (File number) 6th Ind. 
 
 Hq. Dept. of Mindanao, Zamboanga, P. I., 
 Sept. 25, 1912 To the C. O. Co. I, soth Inf., 
 Camp Keithley, Mind., P. I., through the Post 
 Commander. 
 
 2 Incls. 
 
 To the C. O. Co. I, soth Inf. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd Co. I, soth Inf., Sept. 26, 
 1912. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 (File number) 7th Inf. 
 
 Co. I, 5Oth Inf., Camp Keithley, Mind., P. I., 
 Oct. 4, 1912 To the Comdg. Gen., Dept. of 
 Mindanao, through the C. O., Camp Keith- 
 ley, P. I. 
 
 I Inclosed are extracts from the post orders 
 and morning report of this company, which con- 
 tain all that there is of record regarding the 
 service of Corporal Doe referred to herein. In- 
 closed also is affidavit of Corporal Jones as to 
 Corporal Doe's service. 
 
 2 It is believed that the records of the head- 
 quarters, Department of Mindanao, may contain 
 the information desired. 
 
 (3 Incls. added.) EDWARD FRENCH, 
 
 , . Capt., 50th Inf. Comdg. 
 
 (File number) 8th Ind. 
 
 Hq. Camp Keithley, Mind., P. I., Oct. 5, 
 1912 
 
 To the Comdg. Gen., Dept. of Mind. 
 
 5 Incls. A. C. D. 
 
 Maj., 5Oth Inf., Comdg. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd back, Dept. Mind., Oct. 6, 
 1912. 
 
 252
 
 Appendix 
 (File number) gth Ind. 
 
 Hq. Dept. of Mindanao, Zamboanga, P. I., Oct. 
 12, 1912 To the Comdg. Gen., Philippines 
 Division. 
 
 There is nothing on file at these headquarters 
 bearing on the service of Corporal Doe referred 
 to herein. 
 
 WILLIAM TONES, 
 
 5 Incls - TD r~ r j 
 
 Brig. Gen., Comdg. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd back, Phil. Div., Oct. 23, 
 1912. 
 
 (File number) loth Ind. 
 
 Hq. Philippines Division, Manila, P. I., Oct. 24, 
 1912 To the Comdg. Gen., Dept. of Min- 
 danao, with directions to withdraw the affi- 
 davit of Corporal Jones, it being proposed to 
 inclose an affidavit from Sergeant Blank, who 
 is on duty at these headquarters and who is 
 prepared to furnish a more complete affidavit 
 than that furnished by Corporal Jones. By 
 command of Major General White: 
 
 5 Incls. ANDREW BROWN, 
 
 Adjt. Gen. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd back, Dept. Mind., Nov. 3, 
 1912. 
 
 253
 
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 National Service Library 
 (File number) nth Ind. 
 
 Hq. Dept. of Mindanao, Zamboanga, P. I., 
 Nov. 4, 1912 To the Comdg. Gen., Philip- 
 pines Division, the foregoing directions hav- 
 ing been complied with. 
 
 (Incl. 5 withdrawn.) WILLIAM JONES, 
 4 Inds Brig. Gen., Comdg. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd back, Phil. Div., Nov. 15, 1912. 
 
 (File number) I2th Ind. 
 
 Hq. Philippines Division, Manila, P. I., Nov. 16, 
 1912 To the Adjutant General of the Army, 
 inviting attention to the preceding indorse- 
 ments and to the accompanying inclosures. 
 
 (i Incl. added.) JAMES O. WHITE, 
 
 Mai. Gen., Comdg. 
 5 Incls. 
 
 (Stamp) Rec'd back, A. G. O., Dec. 23, 1912. 
 
 254
 
 Appendix IV 
 
 INDIVIDUAL EQUIPMENT FOR ENLISTED MEN OF 
 A COMPANY 
 
 Ordnance: Can bacon, carried, I ; can condi- 
 ment, carried, i ; canteen, carried, I ; canteen 
 cover, carried, I ; cup, carried, I ; fork, carried, 
 i ; haversack, carried, i ; knife, carried, I ; 
 meat can, carried, i ; pack carrier, carried, 
 i ; pouch first-aid packet, carried, i ; spoon, 
 carried, i. 
 
 Quartermaster: Waist belt, worn, i ; breeches, 
 worn, i pair ; hat cords, worn, i ; drawers, 
 worn, I ; carried, i ; gloves, O. D. (when pre- 
 scribed), worn, i ; service hats, worn, i ; canvas 
 leggins, worn, i pair; overcoat (when pre- 
 scribed) worn, i ; shirts, O. D., worn, i ; 
 russet shoes, worn, i pair; stockings, worn, i 
 pair; carried, 2; sweater (when prescribed) 
 worn, i ; undershirts, worn, i ; carried, i ; 
 blankets, O. D., carried, I ; identification tag and 
 tape, worn, i ; poncho, carried, i ; shelter tent 
 half, carried, i ; shelter-tent pins, carried, 5 ; 
 shelter-tent pole (if not armed with rifle), car- 
 ried, I ; shelter-tent guy rope, carried, I.
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Toilet Articles: Comb, carried, i ; soap, car- 
 ried, i cake ; toothbrush, carried, I ; towel, car- 
 ried, i. 
 
 Medical: First-aid packet, carried, i. 
 
 Rations: Emergency (as ordered) ; reserve, 
 carried, 2. 
 
 Surplus Kit: i breeches, i drawers, i O. D. 
 shirt, i shoes, i pair shoe laces (extra), 2 pairs 
 stockings L. W., i undershirt. Surplus-kit bags : 
 i per squad, i for sergeants and i for cooks and 
 buglers of companies and i for every 8 men of 
 detachments. 
 
 Ordnance: Bayonet and scabbard, sergeants 
 i, corporal i, cooks i, mechanic i, squad leaders 
 i, privates i ; bolo and scabbard (No. 3 rear 
 rank each odd-number squad) ; brush and thong, 
 sergeants i, corporal i, cooks i, mechanic i, 
 squad leaders i, privates i ; cartridges, caliber 
 .30, sergeants 100, corporal 100, cooks 100, me- 
 chanic loo, squad leaders 100, privates 100; car- 
 tridges, caliber .45, ist sergeant 21, bugler 21; 
 cartridge belt, caliber .30, dismounted, sergeants 
 I, corporal I, cooks i, mechanic i, squad leaders, 
 i, privates i; cleaning rod 1 jointed and case 
 (No. 4 rear rank each squad) ; drift slides, 
 (squad leader 2 No. 45, 2 No. 6s) ; front-sight 
 cover, sergeants i, corporal i, cooks i, mechanic 
 
 iWhen surplus kits do not accompany command. 
 256
 
 Appendix 
 
 I, squad leaders i, privates i ; gun sling, sergeants 
 i, corporal i, cooks i, mechanic i, squad leaders 
 i, privates i ; hand ax and carrier (No. 3 each 
 even-number squad) ; magazines, pistol extra, 
 ist sergeant 2, bugler 2; oiler and thong case, 
 sergeants I, corporal i, cooks i, mechanic i, 
 squad leaders i , privates i ; pick mattock and car- 
 rier (No. i rear rank each squad) ; pistol and 
 holster, ist sergeant i, bugler i ; pistol belt with 
 saber ring, ist sergeant i ; pistol belt without 
 saber ring, bugler i ; rifle, United States caliber 
 30, sergeants I, corporal i, cooks i ; mechanic i, 
 squad leaders i, privates i ; rifle fitted for tele- 
 scopic sight (i for each two men best qualified 
 to carry them) ; screwdriver, rifle, squad leaders 
 i; shovel and carrier (i to Nos. i, 2, 3, front 
 rank each squad) ; steel tape, 5 feet, ist sergeant 
 I ; telescopic sight and pouch ( i for each man 
 carrying rifle fitted with telescopic sight) ; wire 
 cutter and carrier (i for No. 2 rear rank each 
 squad and i for each bugler). 
 
 Quartermaster: Bugle and sling chevrons, 
 bugler i pair ; housewife, squad leaders i ; note- 
 book, ist sergeant i ; pencil, ist sergeant i, ser- 
 geants, i, corporal i, bugler i, squad leaders i; 
 whistle, ist sergeant i, sergeants i, bugler i. 
 
 Signal: Field glasses (i EE to ist sergeant, 
 2 EE to two sergeants, i A or B to bugler) ; 
 field message book or notebook, sergeants I, 
 
 257 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L. 9
 
 National Service Library 
 
 corporal i, squad leaders i ; field message book, 
 squad leaders I ; flag kit (infantry) combination. 
 
 Medical: Foot plaster and powder, squad 
 leaders i. 
 
 Engineer: Watch compass, sergeants I. 
 
 258
 
 Appendix V 
 
 CONTENTS OF FIELD DESK (COMPANY) FOR 
 PERIOD OF THREE MONTHS (ESTIMATED) 
 
 Records: Morning report; duty roster; sick 
 report ; summary court manual ; company council, 
 check and bank books ; field service regulations ; 
 unit accountability equipment manual; corre- 
 spondence book and document file ; soldiers' de- 
 posit books ; retained copy of all allotments ; copy 
 of all court-martials; copy last muster roll, pay 
 roll and monthly return; last clothing order; 
 G. O. 39, WD, 1915 (tear out all parts that don't 
 concern company); ration return blank; data 
 cards for muster and pay rolls ; last returns of 
 unit equipment; list of QM property held on 
 memo, receipt ; list of ordnance property held on 
 memo, receipt; Army Regulations; copies of 
 WD, Reg. and other orders likely to be needed. 
 
 Blanks, A. G. O. (see Army Regulations) : 
 12 descriptive lists; 3 descriptive lists (desert- 
 ers) ; discharges, honorable, dishonorable, with- 
 out honor (estimated for period required) ; 6 
 furloughs to army reserve; 12 inventory effects 
 deceased soldier; 3 morning report blanks; 4 
 muster roll blanks; 3 company return blanks; 
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 National Service Library 
 
 i sick report blank; 3 statements of service; 12 
 summary court blanks; 12 reports of survey 
 blanks ; 8 unit equipment return blanks ; 2 notifi- 
 cation of discharge blanks ; final statements 
 (estimated for period required). 
 
 Blanks, QMC. (see Circular 12, QMC, 1916) : 
 9 pay rolls, outside sheets; 36 pay rolls, inside 
 sheets; 6 advice soldiers' deposit; 6 soldiers' 
 allotment blanks ; 4 soldiers' allotment discon- 
 tinuance blanks ; 6 deposit books ; 3 copies of 
 furlough ; 3 statements of clothing charged ; 4 
 statements of charges ; 6 requisitions for 
 clothing. 
 
 Blanks, Chief of Ordnance: 3 form 94, state- 
 ment of charges; 6 form 146, transfer of ord- 
 nance; 3 requisitions for ordnance; 6 form 152, 
 transfer of ordnance (see A. R. 1535). 
 
 Stationery (see page 565, G. O. 39, WD. 
 1915): i box rubber bands; i book duplicating 
 letter size ; i rubber eraser ; 2 packages black ink 
 powder ; I tube mucilage ; 3 indelible pencils ; 2 
 blue and red pencils ; 24 steel pens ; i office 
 shears ; 3 ounces sealing wax ; 2 scratch pads ; 30 
 penalty envelopes ; i box paper fasteners ; i 
 package red ink powder; 3 blotters; 2 lead 
 pencils; 3 penholders; i 1 2-inch office ruler; i 
 spool office tape; i ball twine. 
 
 260
 
 C 
 
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 Appendix 
 
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 2 
 
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 fl ;i 
 
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 261 
 
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 QQuu U
 
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 WO 
 
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 111
 
 Appendix VII 
 ORDER GOVERNING DETAILS OF INSTRUCTION 
 
 Headquarters Brownsville District, 
 
 Brownsville, Texas, August 23, 1916. 
 
 General Orders 
 
 No. 33 
 
 i. The following list of service and roll calls 
 for troops of this command, effective September 
 i, 1916, is announced: 
 
 Reveille, ist call 5.30 A. M. 
 
 march 5.35 A. M. 
 
 assembly 5.40 A. M. 
 
 Mess call, breakfast 6.00 A.M. 
 
 Drill, ist call 6.55 A. M. 
 
 assembly 7.00 A. M. 
 
 Privates' school call, Mondays and 
 
 Wednesdays 10.30 A. M. 
 
 Sick call ii.oo A. M. 
 
 Mess call, dinner 12.00 Noon 
 
 Noncommissioned officers' school call, 
 
 Tuesdays and Thursdays i .00 P. M. 
 
 Officers' school call, Mondays, Wed- 
 nesdays and Fridays i.oo P. M. 
 
 Drill, ist call ; . . . 4.15 A. M. 
 
 263
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Drill, assembly 4.20 P. M. 
 
 recall 5.20 P. M. 
 
 Mess call, supper 5.30 P. M. 
 
 Parade or Retreat, ist call 6.10 P. M. 
 
 assembly 6.15 P. M. 
 
 Retreat (when no parade) under arms. 6.20 P. M. 
 
 Guard mounting immediately after Retreat 
 
 Tattoo 9.30 P. M. 
 
 Call to quarters I O-45 P- M. 
 
 Taps 1 1 .00 P. M. 
 
 Saturday Inspection: 
 
 ist call 7.55A.M. 
 
 Assembly 8.00 A. M. 
 
 Immediately following Reveille roll call, ten 
 (10) minutes' calisthenic exercises will be 
 held. 
 
 If practicable men will have six (6) hours of 
 training daily, to include four (4) hours under 
 arms. 
 
 2. The period September i, 1916, to March 31, 
 1917, is designated as a field training period, but 
 schools will be held daily, Saturdays and Sun- 
 days excepted. 
 
 3. The provisions of General Orders No. 17, 
 War Department, 1913, prescribing subjects and 
 methods of instruction, will be complied with. 
 Instruction bulletins from these headquarters, 
 issued from time to time, prescribe classes of 
 
 264
 
 Appendix 
 
 field exercises to be used, and suggest methods. 
 These bulletins are issued primarily for assistance 
 in instructing State troops, and are not intended 
 to restrict the initiative of officers in instructing 
 their commands. 
 
 4. The provisions of General Orders No. 19, 
 1916, these headquarters, will govern where not 
 in conflict with these orders. 
 
 5. An allotment of time for instruction of dif- 
 ferent tactical units will be made by each division 
 commander or commander of a unit not part of 
 a division, at the rate of six (6) days a week, in 
 the proportion of one-half ( l / 2 ) to a company, 
 troop or battery instruction and one-half (^) to 
 instruction of larger units. 
 
 In making this allotment the days or fraction 
 of a day will be so assigned, that the instruction 
 of higher and smaller units will progress simul- 
 taneously. 
 
 The allotment of time having been made, the 
 commander of each unit will submit each Friday, 
 to his next higher commander, a schedule, show- 
 ing in detail for each day of the ensuing week, 
 the classes of instruction to be given, the number 
 of hours to be devoted to each. These schedules 
 will be made in the form of the schedules now 
 being submitted by inspector instructors of State 
 troops, and will be approved or revised by the 
 commander to whom submitted. Besides show- 
 ing the work proposed for the ensuing week, the 
 265
 
 National Service Library 
 
 schedules will contain a report of the work done 
 during the week just past. 
 
 6. For convenience, instruction is classified 
 under the following headings: 
 
 DRILL 
 
 There will be four (4) hours drill or four (4) 
 or more hours field exercises daily, Saturdays 
 and Sundays excepted, the cooler hours before 
 ii a. m. and after 4 p. m. being utilized for 
 drill. 
 
 For infantry there will be one or more practice 
 marches of twelve (12) miles by regiment or 
 brigade per week. These marches will be con- 
 ducted as prescribed in F. S. R., paragraph 96 to 
 105. They are for instruction in march disci- 
 pline, and all rules will be obeyed. The uniform 
 rate of three (3) miles per hour (2 l / 2 in 50 
 minutes) actual marching will be maintained. 
 
 For cavalry and field artillery, there will be 
 one (i) practice march per week. The pro- 
 visions of Drill and Field Regulations will be 
 strictly enforced. At least one-half ( l / 2 ) hour 
 per day of the time allotted to them will be de- 
 voted by cavalry troops and infantry and engi- 
 neer companies to preliminary exercises for tar- 
 get practice (position and aiming, pointing and 
 sighting exercises, S. A. F. M.) to be continued 
 after the completion of the prescribed Special 
 Course "B," or other target practice. 
 266
 
 Appendix 
 
 This practice is an excellent means of main- 
 taining proficiency in rifle and pistol practice. 
 The subjects embraced in subhead "A," para- 
 graph 4, General Orders 17, 1916, will be taken 
 up under the head of Drill as follows : 
 
 Drill of company, battery, troop and all units 
 thereof, mounted and dismounted; bayonet and 
 saber combat, signaling, equitation and horse 
 training, packing, tent pitching, swimming where 
 practicable. 
 
 Close-order drill will be limited to the amount 
 necessary to preserve discipline and precision of 
 movement. 
 
 FIELD EXERCISES 
 
 Field exercises when held, will be in lieu of 
 drill. During the period devoted to field exer- 
 cises, drills will not be neglected. Short field 
 exercises by small units may be held on the same 
 day as drills are held, for example: Simple 
 patrol exercises may be held in part of the drill 
 hours. Paragraph 5, General Orders 17, War 
 Department, 1913, prescribes the subjects appro- 
 priate to this period. The immediately important 
 ones are "Security and Information," best studied 
 by means of practical exercises in advance and 
 rear guard, outpost, patrolling and scouting, re- 
 treat and pursuit, combat exercises and the main- 
 tenance of communication between the different 
 elements of a command ; instruction in construc- 
 267
 
 National Service Library 
 
 tion of hasty intrenchments and more permanent 
 field works ; men should be taught at once to get 
 cover by use of intrenching tools, by digging, 
 lying down. 
 
 Of special importance to infantry and cavalry 
 are the use of very extended skirmish lines in 
 combat and the use of the leaf sight, 100 yards 
 elevation in close work, instead of the battle 
 sight. These will be practiced in all extended 
 order drills and combat exercises. 
 
 Night exercises will be held when practicable 
 forces involved varied from the company or 
 troop to include the division. 
 
 In all combat exercises, both sides should be 
 represented. 
 
 All field exercises should be carried out to a 
 logical conclusion, regardless of hours. When 
 likely to last into the afternoon, cooked lunches 
 will be carried. When they will last into the 
 next day, full field kit and full equipment "A" 
 will be carried. A critique will be held after 
 each exercise. 
 
 If wagons are not available, application will 
 be made to these headquarters for autotrucks 
 sufficient for the command, three (3) days in 
 advance of the date of the proposed exercise. 
 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 (/) The Privates' School: To embrace the 
 subjects prescribed in (C) paragraph 2, General 
 268
 
 Appendix 
 
 Orders No. 19, these headquarters, if this course 
 has not been completed with repetition, where 
 desired. 
 
 The day preceding each field exercise, an 
 explanation of the nature of the exercise 
 and the duties required of the soldier in 
 any position likely to be assigned to him, will 
 be explained. A critique will follow each ex- 
 ercise. 
 
 Whenever the company, troop or battery has 
 engaged in an exercise, as part of a large com- 
 mand, the full exercise and the part played by 
 the organization will be explained next school 
 day, and the men will be asked as to their knowl- 
 edge of the exercise, and permitted to express 
 their views, the officer explaining any points not 
 understood. 
 
 This not only instructs the men, but is a valu- 
 able means of enabling the officer to judge of the 
 interest the man takes in his duty, as well as of 
 the intelligence of the man. 
 
 Instruction in making brush revetments, ga- 
 bions, fascines, hurdles, etc., instruction of men 
 detailed especially as signalmen, packers and any 
 other special work will be given during school 
 hours. 
 
 (2) Noncommissioned Officers' School: So 
 much instruction as is prescribed in (C) para- 
 graph 2, General Orders No. 19, 1916, these 
 headquarters, as has not been completed, will 
 269
 
 National Service Library 
 
 be completed, and as much as is necessary, 
 repeated. 
 
 After the completion of the courses prescribed 
 in General Orders No. 19, referred to above, 
 noncommissioned officers will not attend privates' 
 school, except as assistants to the instructor, but 
 subjects will be so arranged that noncommis- 
 sioned officers will receive at least rudimentary 
 instruction in each subject before the subject is 
 introduced in the privates' school. 
 
 (j) Officers' School: Where practicable, there 
 will be a branch of this school for field officers 
 and one for captains and subalterns. 
 
 In each of these schools, instruction prescribed 
 for officers' school in (E) paragraph 2, General 
 Orders No. 19, 1916, above referred to, will be 
 completed. The subjects will be enlarged upon 
 by use of instruction bulletins and by lectures by 
 inspector-instructors. 
 
 After each field exercise there will be a dis- 
 cussion in the officers' school hour of the exer- 
 cise and the duties pertaining to each officer and 
 unit which may not have been made clear in the 
 critique immediately following the exercise. Also 
 the school day, prior to the holding of any field 
 exercise, the duties pertaining to each officer and 
 unit of the command will be studied and ex- 
 plained in the officers' school. 
 
 The hour designated to officers' school will be 
 largely devoted to these matters 
 270
 
 Appendix 
 
 CEREMONIES AND INSPECTIONS 
 
 Weather permitting, there will be held four (4) 
 parades each week as follows: 
 
 Monday ist battalion or squadron 
 
 Tuesday 2d battalion or squadron 
 
 Wednesday 3d battalion or squadron 
 
 Thursday regiment 
 
 Whenever parade cannot be held, retreat for- 
 mation will be under arms, and will be attended 
 by all company, troop or battery officers of State 
 troops. An inspection of arms and clothing 
 will be made before the organizations are dis- 
 missed. 
 
 Other ceremonies prescribed by Drill Regula- 
 tions of the different arms will be substituted for 
 parades from time to time. 
 
 Each battalion or squadron commander, ac- 
 companied by the company, troop or battery com- 
 mander will inspect the quarters, kitchens, la- 
 trines and grounds of his organization, before 
 noon, each day. He will assure himself that all 
 sanitary and other regulations have been com- 
 plied with. He will also make the afternoon 
 inspection prescribed in General Orders No. 13, 
 Southern Department, 1916. Company, troop 
 and battery commanders will pay minute atten- 
 tion to the economical handling, and proper 
 preparation of the food. 
 271
 
 National Service Library 
 
 On Saturday mornings there will be inspection 
 and drill for three (3) hours, two (2) of which 
 will be under arms. At least one-half ( l / 2 } of 
 the Saturdays will be allowed troop, battery and 
 company commanders for their inspections. 
 
 Every Saturday morning, all regimental and 
 detachment supply officers will thoroughly in- 
 spect their organizations and equipment, espe- 
 cially their transportation. For this purpose, the 
 wagons will be hitched up and the equipment and 
 separate parts of the wagons and harness, shoe- 
 ing of animals, will be minutely examined, and 
 any repairs or replacements necessary will be at 
 once attended to. This inspection is of more im- 
 portance than the inspection of companies etc., 
 as without transportation in fit condition, the 
 troops are of little use. All commanding officers 
 will so arrange the routine of camp supply, as to 
 allow Friday afternoons for preparation for this 
 inspection, and Saturday mornings for the in- 
 spection. Only serious emergency will be per- 
 mitted to interfere with this duty. Nothing in 
 this paragraph will be construed to relieve com- 
 manding officers of their responsibility for the 
 condition of all parts of their commands. 
 
 TESTS 
 
 Inspector-instructors on duty with State 
 troops will carefully observe the conduct of drills 
 and exercises of each company, troop and battery 
 
 272
 
 Appendix 
 
 under their instruction, with a view to selecting 
 the most proficient to represent the regiment or 
 smaller unit, in a competitive test to be held at 
 a date to be designated later by these headquar- 
 ters. Tests of comparative efficiency will be con- 
 ducted for this purpose where necessary. 
 
 ADMINISTRATION 
 
 In order that the important and, at present, 
 heavy work of administration and accountability 
 may not be delayed or neglected, officers charged 
 with administrative responsibilities, and their 
 authorized enlisted clerks will, under the super- 
 vision of brigade and regimental commanders, be 
 excused from other duties in the afternoon, for 
 such time as is necessary for the proper perform- 
 ance of their administrative duties. 
 
 7. Details for the instruction and training of 
 staff troops will be arranged by the staff officers, 
 assigned to this duty by these headquarters. 
 
 All staff corps troops will participate in all 
 field work of the tactical units to which they are 
 attached. They will be assigned to duty appro- 
 priate to their qualifications. 
 
 8. Saturday afternoons will be devoted to 
 athletic sports and amusements, organized by 
 regimental commanders or commanders of 
 smaller separate units. 
 
 No functions under arms will take place Satur- 
 day afternoons. 
 
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 The afternoon of the second (2d) and fourth 
 (4th) Saturdays of each month are set aside 
 for regimental athletic meets. Regimental com- 
 manders and commanders of smaller separate 
 units will arrange for the conduct of these meets. 
 (See General Orders No. 22, July 28, 1916, 
 these headquarters.) 
 
 9. Sundays: One and one-half (ij^) hours 
 will be set aside for devotional exercises. During 
 the day, three ( 3 ) hours for amusement and en- 
 tertainment will be set aside. The entertainment 
 will be organized under direction of regimental 
 commanders and commanders of smaller separate 
 units. 
 
 10. It is as much the duty of commanding offi- 
 cers to provide healthy amusement and diversion 
 for the men, outside of instruction hours, as to 
 provide the instruction for these hours. 
 
 Such forms of entertainment as vaudeville 
 features, boxing and wrestling matches and stag 
 dances are a few of the means for providing en- 
 tertainment. A search should be made in each 
 regiment for talent among the officers and men 
 which can be used in this connection. 
 
 1 1 . Attention is called to paragraph 9, Manual 
 of Interior Guard Duty. In all camps, one (i) 
 company of troop will furnish the entire guard, 
 the remainder of the company or troop so de- 
 tailed, will be available for general fatigue and 
 police of camp. Men not necessary for fatigue 
 
 274
 
 Appendix 
 
 will be given drill in Manual of Arms, Bayonet 
 and Saber, Fencing or other appropriate in- 
 struction. 
 
 The fact that a company or troop is on guard 
 is no excuse for absence from drill of men not 
 on guard or fatigue. 
 
 By command of Brigadier General Parker : 
 
 F. R. McCoy, 
 Captain, 3d Cavalry, Chief of Staff. 
 
 Official : 
 
 R. K. EVANS, 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel, Adjutant General, 
 District Adjutant. 
 
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 Appendix VIII 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR AN INSPECTION OF EQUIPMENT 
 
 "A" AND SURPLUS KITS PRESCRIBED IN 
 
 EQUIPMENT "B" 
 
 (In submitting answers questions will not be 
 written as the numbering of answers is sufficient. 
 Every defect will be corrected without delay and 
 report will be made of action taken upon paper 
 containing answers.) 
 
 Battalion: Questions to be answered after a 
 monthly field inspection of the personnel, mounts 
 and material of a battalion, and submitted to 
 brigade headquarters (through regimental com- 
 mander) . 
 
 1. How many officers at inspection ? 
 
 2. (a) Did each officer have full equipment 
 prescribed? (b) State shortages. 
 
 3. How many enlisted men at inspection? 
 
 4. What was the appearance of enlisted men 
 as regards: (a) Clothing worn? (b) Set-up? 
 (c) Fit and packing of equipment? (d) Neat- 
 ness? 
 
 5. At inspection how many men had corns or 
 needed treatment for their feet? 
 
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 Appendix 
 
 6. What was the general appearance and con- 
 dition of feet at inspection? 
 
 7. (a) Were any cases of "dhobie" or other 
 itch found on feet? (b) How many? 
 
 8. Are all men receiving treatment for bad 
 feet when needed? 
 
 9. (a) Were all stockings worn at inspection 
 in good condition? (b) How many were in bad 
 order ? 
 
 TO. How many men did not wear woolen 
 stockings? If any, state by whom authority to 
 wear other than woolen was given and necessity 
 for same. 
 
 1 1 . Were all shoes worn at inspection "broken 
 in" and in serviceable condition? 
 
 12. Was all clothing serviceable and only that 
 prescribed ? 
 
 13. Was ammunition in belts the amount pre- 
 scribed, and was it carried properly in every 
 pocket ? 
 
 14. Were there any defective pockets in the 
 ammunition belts? 
 
 15. Were canteens full and in good condi- 
 tion? 
 
 1 6. Were cups in good condition? 
 
 17. Were any canteen covers unserviceable? 
 
 1 8. Were all first-aid pouches in serviceable 
 condition and carried as prescribed? 
 
 19. (a) Were all first-aid packets serviceable? 
 (b) How many unserviceable? 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 20. How many rifles at the inspection? 
 
 21. Was every rifle clean and in serviceable 
 condition ? 
 
 22. Did every rifle have brush and thong; 
 also oil as prescribed? 
 
 23. (a) Were the two telescopic sights and 
 the two rifles in each company fitted for those 
 sights carried? (b) If not, why not? 
 
 24. Were the bayonets and scabbards clean 
 and in good condition? 
 
 25. Was the entire equipment uniformly 
 carried ? 
 
 26. Were the haversacks uniformly and 
 properly packed, and were all straps for carrying 
 them serviceable in every way? 
 
 27. Were all articles prescribed for haver- 
 sacks carried and were they in good serviceable 
 condition ? 
 
 28. Were the contents of the condiment bags 
 or cans as prescribed for number of days' rations 
 ordered ? 
 
 29. Was the bacon can carried top up, if 
 furnished ? 
 
 30. Was anything carried in meat cans to 
 prevent rattling of knife, fork and spoons, 
 and was pocket for meat can, the can itself, 
 and its contents all complete and in good 
 condition ? 
 
 31. Was the pack properly and uniformly 
 packed ? 
 
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 Appendix 
 
 32. (a) Were all prescribed articles carried 
 in the pack? (b) Were they all in good condi- 
 tion and serviceable? 
 
 33. Were intrenching tools complete in each 
 squad and carried as prescribed? 
 
 34. Did every man have a properly marked 
 identification tag with his name, company, rank, 
 etc.? 
 
 35. Was all equipment properly marked as 
 prescribed with company, regiment, and number? 
 (All articles are not required to be marked ex- 
 actly alike, but each kind of article should be 
 marked in the same place and manner. Articles 
 should be marked only as prescribed for the 
 article itself.) 
 
 36. Did first sergeants and musicians have 
 pistols ; were they clean and serviceable, and was 
 prescribed ammunition carried properly? 
 
 37. Did each first sergeant carry a watch 
 compass, a pair of field glasses "EE," a Weldon 
 range finder and pouch, a five-foot and fifty-foot 
 tape, a field message book, a notebook, a pencil 
 and a whistle? 
 
 38. Did each sergeant carry a compass watch, 
 a field message book, a pencil and a whistle? 
 
 ' Two sergeants in each company should also 
 each carry a field glass "EE." 
 
 39. Did each company musician carry a 
 bugle, a bugle sling, a field glass ("A" or "B"), a 
 flag kit, infantry combination, a wire cutter and 
 
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 carrier, a field message book, a pencil and a 
 whistle ? 
 
 40. Did each squad leader carry a screw 
 driver (rifle), two No. 4 and two No. 6 drift 
 slides, a roll of adhesive tape, a box of foot 
 powder, a housewife, a field message book or 
 notebook, and a pencil? 
 
 41. Did number 4 rear rank carry jointed 
 cleaning rod and case, or were surplus kits 
 carried ? 
 
 Surplus Kit: 
 
 42. Did each man inspected have a surplus 
 kit complete as prescribed? 
 
 43. (a) Was each pair of shoes in surplus kit 
 "broken in" and serviceable? (b) How many 
 were found unserviceable? 
 
 44. (a) Was every pair of woolen stockings 
 in surplus kit inspected? (b) How many were 
 found unserviceable? 
 
 45. (a) Was every suit of underclothing in 
 surplus kit inspected? (b) How many were 
 found unserviceable? 
 
 46. (a) Was every O. D. shirt in surplus 
 kit inspected? (b) How many were found 
 unserviceable ? 
 
 47. (a) Was every pair of breeches in sur- 
 plus kit inspected? (b) How many were found 
 unserviceable ? 
 
 48. (a) Was every extra pair of shoe laces 
 
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 Appendix 
 
 in surplus kit inspected? (b) How many were 
 found unserviceable ? 
 
 Note: Battalion sergeant major and mounted 
 orderlies should be inspected, but report of re- 
 sult of inspection will be given in report of in- 
 spection of headquarters company. 
 
 49. Did each company have all the articles 
 given below? If not, state what articles are short. 
 
 Quartermaster: Axes and helves, 2; water 
 bags, sterilizing, i ; mosquito bars, single, at 
 least one for each two men ; bedding rolls, I for 
 each officer; buckets, G. I., 2; candles (if no oil 
 carried) ; cooking utensils, march kit, i G. O. 
 39-15, 8-15, 22-15; field desk, small, and con- 
 tents, i G. O. 39-15, 8-15 ; mosquito head nets, 7 ; 
 combination lanterns, complete, 2; matches, 
 boxes, 24 ; mineral oil, gallons, 3 ; neat's-f oot oil, 
 pints, 2; pickaxes and helves, 2; powder, hypo 
 of lime, tubes, 50; shovels, S. H., 2; soap, issue, 
 Ibs., 12; shoe stretcher, i; shelter tents, com- 
 plete, 3 ; fly-wall tent, i ; barber kit, i G. O. 39- 
 15; litters, i. 
 
 Rations: Field, days per man, 2 ; reserve, days 
 per man, i. 
 
 Ordnance: Stencil, personal, equipment-rifle, 
 i ; ball cartridges, caliber, .30, per rifle, 120; ball 
 cartridges, caliber, .45, per pistol, 21 ; range finder 
 (B. &L.), i. 
 
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 50. Did each battalion headquarters have all 
 the articles given below? If not, state what ar- 
 ticles were short : 
 
 Quartermaster: Axes and helves, 8; bedding 
 rolls, 2; buckets, G. I., i ; candles (if no mineral 
 oil) ; colors, i ; field desk, small, and contents, i ; 
 handcuffs, pairs, i ; combination lanterns, com- 
 plete, i ; matches, boxes, 6 ; harness mender, i ; 
 horseshoe nails, Ibs., 2; mineral oil, gallons, 2; 
 pickaxes and helves, 8 ; rock salt, Ibs., i ; horse 
 shoes, extra, Ibs., 2; mule shoes, fitted, Ibs., 16; 
 mule shoes, extra, Ibs., 4; shovels, S. H., 8; sling, 
 color C. D., i ; pyramidal tent, small, complete, i. 
 
 Ordnance: Packs, small arms ammunition, 2; 
 repair material, combat chest or box (arm-repair 
 chest), i. 
 
 Medical: Box reserve dressings, i ; litters, 3. 
 Engineer: Reconnaissance outfit, i. 
 Grain: Reserve, days (each wagon), 2. 
 
 Rations: Reserve, 2; field, days per man on 
 ration section, 2; reserve, days per man on ra- 
 tion section, i. 
 
 51. How many rifles are equipped with spare 
 part containers? (All rifles manufactured since 
 October, 1910, will hold either the spare part 
 container or the oil and thong case. With com- 
 
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 Appendix 
 
 mands equipped with these rifles the odd-num- 
 ber men should carry oil and thong cases and 
 the even-number the spare-part container.) 
 
 52. In these reports unnecessary paper work 
 will be avoided ; therefore, in submitting answers 
 questions will not be written. The numbering of 
 answers is sufficient. Each officer will prepare 
 the answer sheets for his organization. 
 
 53. As an example, a battalion report would 
 be something like this: 
 
 MERCEDES, TEXAS, June 20, 1916. 
 Third Battalion, Second Infantry. 
 
 ' No. i. Two. No. 2. (a) Yes. (b) No short- 
 ages. No. 3. 243. No. 4. (a) Very good, 
 (b) Fair, (c) Good, (d) Excellent. No. 5. 
 Two. No. 6. Very good. No. 49. No short- 
 ages. No. 60. No shortages. 
 
 A. B. 
 Major, 4th Infantry. 
 
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 Appendix IX 
 
 ORDER FOR ATHLETIC COMPETITION AND OTHER 
 AMUSEMENTS 
 
 General Orders 
 No. 
 
 1. Wednesday, August i6th, 1916, and Wed- 
 nesday, August 3Oth, 1916, are designated ath- 
 letic field days in all regiments and separate 
 smaller commands in this district. 
 
 2. Regimental and other commanders and in- 
 spector-instructors will arrange for the selection 
 of competitors from each battery, troop, or com- 
 pany of each command to take part in the compe- 
 titions, prescribed below, and also make all other 
 arrangements for the successful conduct of the 
 field-day exercises. 
 
 3. Suitable prizes when necessary will be given 
 the winners of each event, the money being raised 
 from exchange appropriations or donations 
 from company funds, or such other means as 
 may be available. 
 
 4. For the first meet, the events will be as 
 follows: zoo-yard dash, 22O-yard dash, running 
 broad jump, running high jump, quoit pitching 
 (horseshoes to be used), wall scaling (i squad, 
 
 284
 
 Appendix 
 
 8-ft. wall), boxing, wrestling, and such other con- 
 tests as are considered desirable. 
 
 5. In addition to preparation for the set field 
 days, regimental and other commanders will en- 
 courage the organization of baseball, volley and 
 basketball teams, fencing clubs, etc., in their 
 commands. 
 
 6. Company, troop and battery commanders 
 will arrange for the amusement of their men 
 by providing amusement tents or rooms in which 
 books, magazines and papers can be obtained. 
 If funds can be obtained by subscription or other- 
 wise, phonographs and pool tables may also be 
 provided.
 
 Appendix X 
 
 NOTES ON TRAINING IN FIRE CONTROL AND 
 DIRECTION 
 
 Target Designation 
 
 Horizontal Clock Face System (used with vis- 
 ible targets) : 
 
 System Example 
 
 1. Announce direction. "At 2 o'clock." 
 
 2. Announce range. "Range 1,000." 
 
 3. Announce objective. "A troop of cavalry 
 
 dismounted." 
 
 Procedure 
 
 1. All look along a line pointing towards 2 
 o'clock of a horizontal clock face whose center is 
 at the firing point and whose 12 o'clock mark is 
 directly perpendicular to the front of the firing 
 line. 
 
 2. All look at a point about 1,000 yards away 
 on the 2 o'clock line, and 
 
 3. At 1,000 yards on the 2 o'clock line find the 
 objective. 
 
 Vertical Clock Face System (used against small 
 or indistinct targets) : 
 
 286
 
 Appendix 
 
 Example 
 
 "To our right front" 
 (or at 2 o'clock). 
 
 "A stone house with 
 two chimneys." 
 
 "At 3 o'clock." 
 
 System 
 
 1. Announce the gen- 
 
 eral direction of 
 reference point. 
 
 2. Designate a refer- 
 
 ence point the 
 most prominent 
 object in the zone 
 indicated. 
 
 3. Announce the posi- 
 
 tion of the target 
 with respect to the 
 reference point. 
 
 4. Announce the range. "Range 1,000." 
 
 5. Announce the objec- "A hostile patrol of 
 
 tive. four men." 
 
 Procedure 
 
 1. All men look to their right front (or along 
 the 2 o'clock line). 
 
 2. The reference point (stone house) is found 
 in the indicated direction. 
 
 3. A clock face (vertical) is imagined cen- 
 tered on the reference point and the men look 
 along the line leading from 2 o'clock center to 3 
 o'clock, and, 
 
 4. 1,000 yards away, 
 
 5. Find the hostile patrol. 
 
 Finger System (used with indistinct or invis- 
 ible targets and to define sectors) : 
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 National Service Library 
 
 1. Announce direction 
 
 to reference point 
 as in the vertical 
 clock face system. 
 
 2. Announce reference 
 
 point. 
 
 3. Announce angular 
 
 distance and direc- 
 tion from the ref- 
 erence point to the 
 target. 
 
 4. Announce range. 
 
 5. Announce objective. 
 
 Example 
 
 "To our right front at 
 i,oooyards." 
 
 "A stone house with 
 two chimneys." 
 
 "Four o'clock, three 
 fingers (90 mils, 2 
 inches, etc.) 
 
 "Range 1,000." 
 
 "A skirmish line along 
 side of the fence, 
 length about two 
 fingers, right at the 
 dark bush." 
 
 Procedure 
 
 The reference point is found as explained and 
 the vertical o'clock line upon which the target 
 will be found. The arm is extended to its full 
 extent, palm of the hand upwards, fingers held 
 vertically with one side of the hand "against" the 
 reference point. The target will be found on the 
 4 o'clock line and touching the third finger at 
 1,000 yards distance, its right flank at the bush 
 and its left flank about 100 yards farther to the 
 288
 
 Appendix 
 
 right. Where the mil system is used mils are 
 measured either from a ruler, graduated pencil, 
 or other graduated line held at a certain distance 
 from the eye after the manner of the battery com- 
 mander's ruler, or the soldier is taught the number 
 of mils which are covered by one of his ringers 
 when held at arm's length. One point of windage 
 is approximately one mil. 
 
 Auxiliary Aiming Point System: This does 
 not differ from the other systems so far as the 
 designation of the aiming point is concerned. It 
 is used where the target is invisible or offers an 
 aiming point which is so indistinct as to render 
 the fire ineffective because of the lack of a suit- 
 able holding point. In such a case, and when the 
 landscape affords a suitable aiming point which 
 is within the same sector as the target, men are 
 told to aim at the good aiming point or line but 
 with such a sight setting that the bullets will fall 
 on the target instead of on the aiming point. 
 Within limits an aiming point may be chosen 
 which is slightly to one side or the other of the 
 target, an approximate deflection being set off on 
 the wind-gauge. 
 
 Example: The enemy is on a line 300 yards 
 in front of a white road, a hedge, etc. The small 
 target furnished by the line of heads will not 
 afford a good aiming point, while the white road, 
 the hedge, etc., 300 yards directly in rear is a 
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 Vol. 3 N.S.L. 10
 
 National Service Library 
 
 good aiming point. Here the men might be di- 
 rected to aim at the road with a sight setting 
 slightly less than the true range to the target, 
 it being assumed that the terrain is flat. Where 
 the auxiliary point is above the target a lower 
 sight setting will be required than the true range, 
 and conversely where the aiming point is below 
 the target a higher sight setting will be required. 
 To avoid a negative sight setting, the aiming point 
 should be below the target if possible. The cor- 
 rect sight setting is a matter of judgment. Vari- 
 ous mechanical devices exist which give a correct 
 sight setting, but judgment, reenforced by obser- 
 vation of the effect of the fire, will generally be 
 the only method available. 
 
 Covering Fire: It is a cardinal principle that 
 the whole target must be kept under fire during 
 an advance. To this end the whole target is usu- 
 ally divided into company sectors and a definite 
 part of the company sector is assigned to each fire 
 unit. When any fire unit ceases its fire, as when 
 advancing for example, arrangements must be 
 made for some other unit to take up the work in 
 its assigned sector. (Par. 413, I.D.R.) 
 
 This may be accomplished by one of two gen- 
 eral methods: I. By assigning more than one 
 fire unit to each sector (overlapping method). 
 2. By assigning one platoon to the duty of re- 
 placing the fire lost by the cessation of the fire 
 in the other platoons (switch method). Each 
 290
 
 Appendix 
 
 method has many variations, and each has its 
 appropriate occasions, but care should be exer- 
 cised that in adopting a variant, one is chosen 
 that is simple, practicable, and does not endanger 
 advance portions of the line. The following are 
 typical examples of the two methods in detail. 
 
 Overlapping Method: (Par. 413, I.D.R.) 
 With four platoons in the company the company 
 sector is divided into two parts, each of which is 
 covered by two adjacent platoons. When one of 
 these platoons ceases fire to advance, the other, 
 having the same sector, replaces the lost rifles by 
 firing faster. With three platoons the company 
 sector is divided into two parts, one is assigned 
 to each flank platoon and the whole company sec- 
 tor to the center platoon. With two platoons, 
 each takes the whole company sector. 
 
 Switch Method: The company sector is di- 
 vided into a number of parts one less than the 
 number of platoons in the company. One platoon 
 is designated as the "switch" and swings its fire 
 automatically into that sector from which the fire 
 of its assigned unit is withdrawn. Thus with 
 four platoons and platoon rushes to start from 
 the right, the company sector is divided into three 
 parts assigned to the first, second and third pla- 
 toons, the fourth being the "switch." Number one 
 ceases fire to advance, number four fires at 
 number one's target, number two ceases and 
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 National Service Library 
 
 number four fires at number two's target, then 
 at number three's target, and finally number 
 four advances. 
 
 Variants which call for more complicated solu- 
 tions than this generally will fail in action, and 
 even this can be used only by trained troops well 
 in hand. Danger to advanced or advancing por- 
 tions of the line is minimized by this method, but 
 control by the corporals at platoon divisions must 
 be the best protection in all cases. 
 
 PRELIMINARY MUSKETRY TRAINING FIFTH 
 BRIGADE 
 
 Ranging Exercise i ; Exercise 2. 
 Target Designation Exercise 3 ; Exercise 4. 
 Communication Exercise 5; Exercise 6. 
 Fire Discipline Exercise 7. 
 
 The problems included in this bulletin are pub- 
 lished as suggestions for the elementary training 
 of individuals and squads. To assist organization 
 commanders in their work of formulating prob- 
 lems for larger units, the following general rules 
 are included and their attention is directed 
 to the field-firing problems published in the 
 S.A.F.M., nearly all of which can be slightly 
 altered so as to serve as preliminary train- 
 ing problems without ammunition or special 
 apparatus. 
 
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 Appendix 
 
 Targets 
 
 1. As silhouettes are not available, it will be 
 necessary to represent targets with individual 
 soldiers; with this in view, it is recommended 
 that regimental and battalion commanders ar- 
 range the instruction in their organizations so 
 that sufficient men will be available for use as 
 targets. 
 
 2. With reference to their visibility, the battle 
 field will present three classes of targets: (a) 
 Those which are visible throughout, (b) Those 
 which are visible in part, (c) Those which are 
 invisible, but whose location might be described. 
 
 In these preliminary exercises, targets should 
 be arranged to simulate one of the enumerated 
 classes. Instruction should begin with simple 
 exercises in which the target presented is plainly 
 visible and represents only the objective of the 
 unit undergoing instruction. It should progress 
 to the more difficult exercises in which the target 
 is invisible and the line of figures is prolonged to 
 include the objective of units on the right or left. 
 
 3. The limits of indistinct targets may be 
 shown to unit commanders by the use of com- 
 pany flags. These flags, however, should be 
 withdrawn from sight before a description of 
 the target or an estimate of the range is attempted 
 and before any one but the commander of the 
 unit undergoing instruction sees their location. 
 
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 4. At the conclusion of each exercise, in which 
 flags are used to mark the limits of the target or 
 its subdivisions, they should be displayed, in or- 
 der that any existing errors may be readily 
 pointed out. 
 
 5. To determine proficiency in target designa- 
 tion, the instructor will provide a sufficient num- 
 ber of rifles, placed on sand bags or other suitable 
 rests, and require those charged with fire direction 
 and control to sight them at the limits of their 
 objective. An inspection by the instructor will 
 at once detect errors. Similarly, in those exer- 
 cises in which all the members of the firing unit 
 participate, the percentage of rifles aimed at the 
 correct target may be determined. 
 
 6. In these preliminary exercises no method 
 of communication will be permitted that could 
 not be used under the conditions assumed in the 
 problem. 
 
 Exercise I Ranging 
 
 Object: To train the individual to set his sight 
 quickly and accurately for the announced range 
 and windage ; and to accustom leaders to the giv- 
 ing of windage data. 
 
 Situation: The company is formed in single 
 rank at the "Ready" with the rear sight set at 
 zero and the slide screw normally tight. 
 
 Action: The range and windage is announced, 
 sights are set accurately in accordance therewith 
 294
 
 Appendix 
 
 and as rapidly as may be, each man coming to 
 port arms immediately upon completing the 
 operation. 
 
 Time: Time is taken from the last word of the 
 command. 
 
 Standard: Sights should be correctly set 
 within 15 seconds. 
 
 Note: Of the two elements, time and accuracy, 
 the latter is the more important. 
 
 Par. 411, I.D.R., implies complete use of the 
 rear sight, that is, utilization of the wind gauge, 
 and sight setting to the least reading of the rear 
 sight leaf, i.e., 25 yards. Sight setting therefore 
 in this exercise should include, more often than 
 not, "fractional ranges" and windage data. 
 
 Exercise 2 Ranging 
 
 Object: To familiarize officers and noncom- 
 missioned officers in the use of an auxiliary aim- 
 ing point. 
 
 Situation: Two men with the company flags 
 are stationed to mark the enemy's invisible posi- 
 tion. This position should be suitably located 
 with reference to a practicable aiming point. 
 
 Action: The markers are signaled to display 
 
 their flags. An officer or noncommissioned officer 
 
 is called up and the enemy's position is pointed out. 
 
 The flags are then withdrawn and the officer or 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 noncommissioned officer selects an auxiliary aim- 
 ing point and gives his commands for firing at 
 that point. 
 
 Exercise 3 Target Designation 
 
 Object: To train the individual soldier to lo- 
 cate a target from a description solely. To do so 
 quickly and accurately and fire thereon with ef- 
 fect, and to train officers and noncommissioned 
 officers in concise, accurate and clear description 
 of targets. 
 
 Situation: The men are so placed as not to be 
 able to see the target. The instructor places 
 himself so as to see the objective. 
 
 Action: The instructor, to one man at a time, 
 describes the objective, and directs him to fire one 
 simulated round. The man immediately moves so 
 as to see the target, locates it, estimates the range 
 and fires one simulated shot. 
 
 Standard: For ranges within battle sight, 
 time 20 seconds; beyond battle sight, time 30 
 seconds. Not more than 15 per cent error in 
 the estimation of the range. Objective cor- 
 rectly located. 
 
 Note: Arrangements made so that the descrip- 
 tion of the target is heard by only the man about 
 to fire. After firing the man will not mingle with 
 those waiting to fire. 
 
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 Appendix 
 
 Exercise 4 Target Designation 
 
 Object: To train the squad leader in promptly 
 bringing the fire of his squad to -bear effectively 
 upon the target presented. To train the indi- 
 viduals of a squad to fire effectively from orders 
 of the squad leader and automatically to obtain 
 effective dispersion. 
 
 Situation: The squad is deployed, the squad 
 leader being in the firing line. Position prone. 
 A sighting rest is provided for each rifle. 
 
 Action: Upon the appearance of the target 
 the squad leader gives the necessary orders for 
 delivering an effective fire. The men under these 
 orders sight their rifles and then rise. The in- 
 structor then examines the position and sighting 
 of each rifle. 
 
 Time: Time is taken from the appearance of 
 the target until the last man has risen. 
 
 Target: A squad of men to outline a partially 
 concealed enemy emerges from cover, advances 
 a short distance and lies down. 
 
 Standard: Ninety per cent of the rifles should 
 be sighted in conformity with the orders of the 
 squad leader and should evenly cover the whole 
 front of the objective. The squad leader's esti- 
 mate of the range should not be in error over 
 15 per cent. 
 
 297
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Note: The squad leader should not in general 
 be allowed to divide the target into sectors, but 
 to obtain distribution by training the men to fire 
 at that portion of the objective directly related to 
 the position they occupy in their own line. The 
 exercise should be repeated with the squad leader 
 in rear of the squad and not firing. As to this, it 
 is to be noted that musketry school experiments 
 prove that in small groups the directed fire of 
 say seven (7) rifles is more effective than the par- 
 tially undirected fire of eight (8) rifles obtained 
 when the group leader is himself firing. 
 
 Exercise 5 Communication 
 
 Object: To teach prompt and accurate trans- 
 mission of firing data without cessation of fire, 
 and also to teach automatic readjustment of fire 
 distribution. 
 
 Situation: A squad deployed in the prone po- 
 sition and with sighting rests, is firing at a desig- 
 nated target. 
 
 Action: A squad with sights set at zero is de- 
 ployed and brought up at the double time into the 
 intervals of the firing line and halted. The firing 
 data is transmitted to them without cessation of 
 fire. At the command "Rise," given 20 seconds 
 after the command "Halt," the first squad rises 
 and retires a short distance to the rear. At the 
 same time, the supports cease fire and adjust their 
 298
 
 Appendix 
 
 rifles in the rests so as to be aimed at the target 
 as they understand it. They then rise and their 
 rifles are examined by the instructor for range 
 and direction. 
 
 Standard: Eighty per cent of the rifles should 
 be sighted according to the transmitted data and 
 aimed according to the principles of fire 
 distribution. 
 
 Target: One target equal to a squad front, 
 which is increased to two squads prior to the ar- 
 rival of the supports in the firing line. 
 
 Note: This exercise should be repeated with 
 the supporting squad reenf orcing on a flank. To 
 determine whether the original squad is able to 
 keep its assigned sector during an advance, this 
 exercise should be repeated, the supports being 
 thrown in after a series of short advances by the 
 original squad. Care should be exercised to pre- 
 vent the transmission of firing data in a manner 
 under which service conditions would be imprac- 
 ticable. (See Exercise 6.) 
 
 Exercise 6 Communication 
 
 Object: To train the squad leader in receiving 
 and transmitting instructions by visual signals 
 alone. 
 
 Situation: A squad with its leader in the firing 
 line is deployed in the prone position firing at 
 will. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 Action: The instructor, without sound or other 
 cautionary means, signals (visually) to the squad 
 leader at various intervals to: First Change 
 elevation, swing the fire to the right or left, sus- 
 pend the firing, etc., etc. The squad leader, upon 
 receiving a signal, causes his squad to execute it 
 without verbal command or exposing himself. 
 
 Time: No specified time limit. 
 
 Standard: The squad leader should fire with 
 his squad, but after each shot should look towards 
 his platoon leader for any signal, then observe 
 the fire and conduct of his men, then, after glanc- 
 ing again at his platoon leader, fire again. This 
 the squad leader should do without exposing him- 
 self. By lying about a head's length ahead of 
 his men he can see his squad front. In trans- 
 mitting orders he can accomplish it by nudging 
 the men on his right and left and signaling to 
 them with his hand. 
 
 Xote: This exercise is essential to prepare men 
 for the deafening noise of a heavy action when 
 speech or sound signals are largely futile. 
 
 Exercise 7 Fire Discipline 
 
 Object: To train men to carry out strictly the 
 fire orders given them, and to refrain from start- 
 ing, repeating or accepting any change therefrom 
 without direct orders from a superior. 
 300
 
 Appendix 
 
 Situation: A squad deployed in the prone 
 position. 
 
 Action: While the squad is firing at an indis- 
 tinct but specified target, another and clearly 
 visible target appears in the vicinity of the first 
 target but not in the same sector. Upon the ap- 
 pearance of this second target, the instructor sees 
 that the men continue firing at the assigned target. 
 The corporal should check any -breach of fire 
 discipline. 
 
 Note: Variations of this exercise should be 
 given to test the fire discipline of the men in other 
 phases, such as rate of fire (Par. 147, 1.D.R.), etc. 
 
 The Finger 
 
 The "finger" is the width of the forefinger 
 held at such a distance from the eye that it sub- 
 tends 50 mils. It is also the width of the rear 
 sight leaf seen in the position of aiming, which 
 in the average case covers 50 mils (1-20 of the 
 range). 
 
 Communication 
 
 Due to the tremendous uproar and confusion 
 of modern battle, the use of every class of signals 
 has become indispensable. Unbroken communi- 
 cation is essential to efficiency throughout the 
 entire military organization. This is maintained 
 by systems adapted to the fields in which used. 
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 In a well-organized military force, contact is 
 regularly maintained between the War Department 
 in the capital of the country and the most distant 
 patrol in the field. Each subordinate maintains 
 contact with his commander. This principle is 
 maintained from private through squad, platoon, 
 company, battalion, regiment, brigade, division, 
 field army, army and base of operations to the 
 capital. The only equality in rank in the mili- 
 tary service is, possibly, to be found among the 
 private soldiers. Every military man has a 
 higher authority to whom he reports and from 
 whom he receives orders. It is this principle 
 that makes an army a unit without it, a force 
 lacking cohesion. 
 
 The systems used for conveying military in- 
 formation are: 
 
 First, electricity ; second, messengers ; third, 
 visual signals ; fourth, sound signals ; fifth, vocal 
 commands. 
 
 The means and particulars of these systems are 
 set forth at length in the various service manuals, 
 and in a particular manual on communications 
 published by the School of Musketry, of which 
 the following resume will give a general idea: 
 
 Efficiency in the means of communication is 
 essential to the coordination of units and the 
 attainment of success in battle. 
 
 All systems of communication contribute to a 
 common end the efficiency control of troops in 
 302
 
 Appendix 
 
 attack and defense. By efficient intercommuni- 
 cation, the movements of all the armies in the 
 theater of operations are coordinated. Within 
 each force, great or small, the lines of informa- 
 tion permit the commander to utilize his forces 
 as a unit. By combining reports from the de- 
 tachments in contact with the enemy the com- 
 mander keeps informed of events along his en- 
 tire front. Information passes continually from 
 front to rear. Instructions, orders, and com- 
 mands pass from headquarters to the front, 
 spreading fanlike until the will of the commander 
 is known at the most distant points. 
 
 On a modern battle field, stretching over miles 
 of front, communication is an important and 
 highly developed science. Regiments no longer 
 carry streaming banners to indicate their progress 
 and location. It is true that each headquarters 
 may display a distinctive flag, but this will mark 
 the position of brigade and higher commanders 
 in a modest manner for the benefit of mes- 
 sengers. 
 
 After the supreme commander has assigned 
 missions or sectors to the various units of his 
 command and ordered the advance he observes 
 the progress of events closely and handles his 
 reserves as the conditions warrant. All the 
 information comes to him over the lines tele- 
 graph, radio, telephone, buzzer and messenger 
 established by the Signal Corps. These lines, 
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 National Service Library 
 
 however, do not extend far into the zone of hos- 
 tile fire. 
 
 To the front of brigade headquarters in the 
 second zone the information is transmitted by 
 messenger, visual signaling or bugle. The bri- 
 gade commander divides his objective among the 
 regiments constituting the firing line. The colo- 
 nel usually places one battalion in the regimental 
 reserve and gives each of the two battalions 
 sent forward one-half of the regimental objec- 
 tive. The major, holding back a support, divides 
 the battalion sector between his companies on 
 the firing line and pushes the attack against the 
 target assigned him. The captain assigns the 
 company target among his four platoons in such 
 a way as to insure the maximum fire effect dur- 
 ing the advance. The platoon chief points out 
 the position of the target assigned to each of 
 his four squads, and the corporals require each 
 man to fire at the part of the squad target be- 
 fore him. 
 
 During the fire fight, the messengers and sig- 
 nalists maintain connection between brigade and 
 regimental headquarters. 
 
 For this purpose the brigade commander is 
 furnished three staff officers and authorized en- 
 listed men. 
 
 The colonel has with him one staff officer 
 and three or four enlisted men, including a 
 mounted sergeant, all trained messengers and 
 304
 
 Appendix 
 
 signalists, for communication back to brigade 
 headquarters and forward to the battalions. 
 
 The battalion is in a zone of hostile fire 
 the third zone. Here messengers must move 
 with caution, if at all. The wigwag and sema- 
 phore can be used only when concealed from 
 view of the enemy. The major and his staff 
 one officer and two enlisted men avoid exposing 
 themselves unnecessarily to the view of the 
 enemy. Flag communication with, and vocal 
 control over, the companies on the firing line 
 being out of the question, the major, his adjutant 
 and sergeant major carry whistles, a short note 
 of which attracts the attention of the captains. 
 The sergeant major is especially charged with 
 the duty of maintaining communication with the 
 firing line and, when there is but one range finder 
 to a battalion, of obtaining ranges. The orderly, 
 a trained messenger and signalist, maintains com- 
 munication with regimental headquarters. The 
 adjutant performs such duties as the major 
 directs. 
 
 The captain directs the fire and advance of 
 his company under the orders of the major. The 
 normal position of the captain is prone, or nearly 
 so, in the rear of his company. Any upright 
 position would draw the fire of the enemy on 
 his organization as well as on himself. The cap- 
 tain governs his four platoons by means of arm 
 and hand signals made from the prone position. 
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 He is also charged with observing the fire effect 
 of his command advancing within his sector and 
 maintaining contact with the major. To assist 
 him in keeping six different points under obser- 
 vation the company commander is provided with 
 two assistants, the company buglers, each of 
 whom is equipped with field glasses and signal 
 kit. The captain and two buglers each carry a 
 whistle of different note from the major's. One 
 of the buglers is charged with the duty of observ- 
 ing the major for signals turning instantly at 
 the note of the battalion whistle. As instructed, 
 he notifies the captain when the major has 
 whistled "Attention," or receives the signal, 
 repeats it back, and informs the captain of the 
 message. The other bugler keeps the platoon 
 chiefs under observation, listening for their 
 whistles, notifying the captain or transmitting 
 the signal as ordered. 
 
 The platoon chief is charged with the fire con- 
 trol of his platoon. His position is prone behind 
 his unit, with a platoon guide on his left; each 
 carries a whistle different from that of the cap- 
 tain or major. The platoon chief controls the fire 
 of his four squads through the corporals. Neither 
 the platoon chief nor guide pay any attention 
 to the major's whistle, knowing that its note 
 is a signal for the captain only. When the cap- 
 tain's whistle blows, however, the guide unless 
 otherwise instructed turns at once, receives the 
 306
 
 Appendix 
 
 captain's signal, repeats it back and transmits the 
 information to his platoon chief, who has not 
 withdrawn his attention from the fire effect of 
 his squads. The platoon chief blows a short 
 note on his whistle, thus securing the attention 
 of his four corporals without affecting the fire 
 of the men. He transmits the captain's will to 
 the corporal or corporals concerned by arm and 
 hand signal. 
 
 The corporal is in immediate contact with and 
 control over his squad. From his position just 
 behind his seven men, he can speak to one or 
 all of them, roll over and touch a man requiring 
 special attention without rising or otherwise 
 drawing hostile fire. The corporal pays no atten- 
 tion to the whistle of the major or captain. He 
 turns at once at a note from the distinctive pla- 
 toon whistle. If the signal is for him, he receives 
 and repeats back the message, and turning to his 
 squad, transmits the order by voice and touch 
 if necessary. 
 
 The entire attention of the private belongs 
 toward the enemy. Once the fire fight is opened, 
 all of his orders come from his squad leader. 
 His duty lies to the front, continuing to fire at 
 the target with the sight setting and at the rate 
 ordered. The private turns at no whistle what- 
 ever. None are blown for him. The last man 
 to look to the rear at a whistle signal is the 
 corporal. For the private to heed any whistle 
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 signal "Attention" is a military offense, as he 
 is diverting his attention from the enemy. The 
 squad organization and office of the corporal 
 relieves the private of all such distractions 
 and allows the private to devote his entire 
 attention to doing his part to secure and 
 maintain fire superiority, and close with the 
 enemy. 
 
 Such are the channels of military communi- 
 cation. It will be observed that perfection in 
 the means possible in the third, fourth and fifth 
 zones the zones of hostile fire will permit the 
 will of the supreme commander to be carried 
 out as he planned failure in these simple lines 
 of communication, the messenger, flag, whistle, 
 arm and hand, and last but not least, the voice 
 and personal touch of the corporal, marks an 
 untrained command, lack of teamwork, and pos- 
 sible defeat. 
 
 Range Finding 
 
 Six trials with self-contained base range finder 
 at ranges from 1,500 to 4.500 yards, using well- 
 defined objects as targets, aiming points, or reg- 
 istration marks. 
 
 The range finder will be set up, put in gear 
 and focused, but will be out of direction at the 
 beginning of each trial. 
 
 The object to which the range is to be found 
 having been identified by the candidate, the 
 308
 
 Appendix 
 
 examiner commands, for example: I. Registra- 
 tion mark, that tree ; 2. Measure the range. 
 
 At the last word of the last command the can- 
 didate measures the range and announces, for 
 example, 3300. He then steps clear of the instru- 
 ment. 
 
 No credits are given if the range announced 
 is not within 5 per cent of the correct range, as 
 determined by the board with the instrument 
 used. 
 
 If the range has been correctly measured and 
 announced within the limits prescribed, credits 
 are given as follows : 
 
 
 Within 3 per 
 cent of range 
 
 Within 5 per 
 cent of range 
 
 Time in seconds, exactly or less than 
 
 IS 
 
 2.O 
 
 25 
 
 1.8 
 
 30 
 
 IS 
 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 Credits 
 
 1.6 
 
 i-S 
 
 1.4 
 
 1-3 
 
 
 The ability to determine distances and ranges 
 correctly is of preeminent importance to the 
 officer. 
 
 When in action this accomplishment enables 
 him to make effective the fire of the troops which 
 he commands. Its absence often causes him to 
 dissipate and make worthless their fire. 
 
 In an estimating distance test made at Leon 
 Springs, Texas, July 12, 1913, the distance being 
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 National Service Library 
 
 750 yards, twelve officers out of ten made an 
 error of 100 yards or over, and four officers 
 made an error of 200 yards or over. The latter 
 error, at this range, would throw the center of 
 a shot group 6 feet above or below the point 
 aimed at. 
 
 It is evident that, for officers, instruction in 
 estimating distance, in addition to that given in 
 the regular course of firing, is necessary. 
 
 To accomplish this, the regimental and all 
 smaller separate organization commanders will 
 from time to time assemble all officers for a 
 competitive test of estimating distances. The 
 results of these tests will be published. 
 
 To prepare for this test, officers should take 
 advantage of all favorable opportunities, in order 
 that by constant practice expertness may be 
 obtained. 
 
 Such opportunities, it is suggested, may be 
 had when troops are proceeding to, or return- 
 ing from, drill ; during rests at drill ; during prac- 
 tice marches ; and at other times. 
 
 It would be well if occasionally noncommis- 
 sioned officers shared in this instruction. 
 
 Regimental and all smaller organization com- 
 manders are charged with the details necessary 
 to facilitate this training. 
 
 In this connection it is suggested that officers 
 will add to their value for active service by the 
 habit, when traveling through the country, of 
 310
 
 Appendix 
 
 picking out positions which seem suitable for 
 defense, analyzing their advantages or disadvan- 
 tages, in the way of lines of approach, etc., and 
 estimating the ranges to the probable positions 
 of an attacking force.
 
 Appendix XI 
 
 PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL INSTRUCTION IN 
 MACHINE-GUN COMPANIES AND TROOPS AND 
 TESTS FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF THE ORGANI- 
 ZATION 
 
 i. The following outline of practical and theo- 
 retical instruction for machine-gun companies 
 was adopted for the machine-gun companies in 
 the El Paso and Brownsville districts : 
 
 (A) Machine Gun: Nomenclature, function 
 of parts, care, preservation and repair of machine 
 guns. 
 
 (B) Enlisted Men: Duties of the individual 
 soldier in the service of (a) the piece; (b) the 
 gun squad; (c) the ammunition squad; (d) the 
 pack squad. 
 
 (C) Packing: To include packing and carry- 
 ing of various kinds of loads and the arrange- 
 ment of the machine-gun equipment. 
 
 (D) Animals: The care of animals and in- 
 struction in equitation for mounted men of the 
 company. 
 
 312
 
 Appendix 
 
 (E) Pistol: Nomenclature, care and use of 
 pistol. 
 
 (F) Drill: To include instruction in the 
 mechanism and celerity of movement of the 
 nature and with the same object as close and 
 extended order for infantry companies ; applica- 
 tion of signals to drill; movements; estimating 
 distances ; selection of firing positions ; ammuni- 
 tion supply; use of sight; instruction in loading 
 and the use of various kinds of fire ; athletics and 
 gymnastic exercises. 
 
 (G) Mechanism of Gun: (l) Disassemble 
 and reassemble; naming parts and functions. (2) 
 Take apart and reassemble blindfold; take time 
 of these operations (one minute twenty-five sec- 
 onds is good time). 
 
 (H) Jams: Illustration and practical demon- 
 stration of jams and instruction in the reduction 
 of same. 
 
 (I) Signaling: Flag and semaphore. 
 
 (J) First Aid: Instruction in first aid, the 
 hygienic care of the person and the care of the 
 feet on the march. 
 
 (K) Rations: Individual cooking and use of 
 the reserve rations. 
 
 (L) Messages: Receiving and delivering ver- 
 bal messages. 
 
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 (M) Marching: Instruction in marching and 
 camping ; pitching shelter tent camps ; inspections. 
 
 (N) Field Fortifications: To include con- 
 struction of hasty cover for guns; gun pits 
 with overhead shelter, also adaptation of the 
 various types of infantry trenches for machine- 
 gun use. 
 
 (O) Firing: Actual firing to instruct in the 
 use of the various kinds of fire, viz : searching, 
 distributed, fixed, intermittent, continuous, and 
 the use of combined sights exercises in reload- 
 ing; description, marking and manipulation of 
 targets. 
 
 (P) Combat: Training to consist of simple 
 problems involving the following: Selection and 
 occupation of positions; use of various kinds of 
 fire; use of ranging fire; advancing to position; 
 ammunition supply; use of cover; and operation 
 of the company as a whole ; tactical walks. 
 
 (Q) Combat Practice: With service ammu- 
 nition (to include at least two exercises in night 
 firing). 
 
 (R) N. C. O. School: Subjects: (a) Drill 
 regulations for M. G. Co. (b) Machine-gun 
 Firing Manual, (c) Theory and practice in use 
 of range finders, (d) Map making and map 
 reading, (e) Preparation and transmission of 
 orders and messages, (f) Field engineering, 
 314
 
 Appendix 
 
 including construction of simple bridges, repair 
 of roads ; cordage. 
 
 (S) Conferences: Subjects: (a) History of 
 machine-guns in war. (b) Tactical use of 
 machine guns. (c) Selection and occupation 
 of positions for machine guns, (d) Types of 
 machine guns, (e) Types of packs. 
 
 2. In addition to the foregoing, the following 
 is prescribed: (a) Manipulation of the gun in 
 daylight, gun crew to be blindfolded, and manip- 
 ulation by night, (b) In addition to the fore- 
 going, companies equipped with the Lewis guns 
 will practice packing and hauling in Ford or 
 other automobiles and trucks, (c) Under sub- 
 paragraph "O," paragraph I, companies equipped 
 with the Benet Mercier guns will keep record of 
 gas pressure under varying conditions, familiar- 
 izing themselves with the peculiarities of each 
 gun and keeping record of them for future 
 reference. 
 
 The following machine-gun tests for infantry 
 and cavalry were made from time to time to 
 foster competition among the several regiments : 
 
 Preparation for a March: 
 
 Full equipment "A" to be laid out, but not 
 
 packed. VALUE 
 
 Pack for the march and march one (i) 
 mile 5 
 
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 Inspection of arms and equipment to be 
 as follows: 
 
 Security and arrangement of personal 
 equipment 2 
 
 Cleanliness and serviceability of personal 
 equipment 2 
 
 Completeness of personal equipment and 
 neatness of clothing 2 
 
 Packing of mules or automobiles 2 
 
 Completeness of equipment other than per- 
 sonal 2 
 
 Grooming and shoeing of animals, or 
 cleanliness and serviceability of auto- 
 mobiles 3 
 
 Drill of company or troop 2 
 
 Training and handling of animals, or 
 handling of automobiles 3 
 
 Selection of position for guns by captain as- 
 sisted by platoon chiefs to be marked as 
 follows: 
 
 For defensive operation 5 
 
 To assist an attack 5 
 
 To assist a withdrawal 5 
 
 Manner of occupation of selected position 
 
 (use of cover, concealment) 3 
 
 Quickness in getting into position 3 
 
 316
 
 Appendix 
 
 VALUE 
 
 Arrangement for supply of ammunition 
 (position to support attack to be used) . . 3 
 
 Construction of hasty cover on site selected 
 for defensive position to be marked as 
 follows: 
 
 Shortest time 5 
 
 Longest time o 
 
 Intermediate in proportion: 
 
 Protection from rifle fire 5 
 
 Protection from shrapnel fire (overhead 
 cover) 5 
 
 Concealment 3 
 
 Individual tests to be marked as follows: 
 Officers : 
 
 Estimating distances 4 
 
 Writing report of position selected for 
 defensive 4 
 
 Noncommissioned Officers : 
 
 Map reading (all N.C.O.) 4 
 
 Position sketch I -square mile showing 
 position of guns in defensive position 
 (2 N.C.O.) 4 
 
 Range finding with range finder (N.C.O.) .. 4 
 
 Privates : 
 
 Estimating distances (4 privates) 2 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 Privates : VALUE 
 
 Signaling, flag (2 privates) 2 
 
 Signaling, semaphore (2 privates) 2 
 
 Receiving and delivering verbal messages 
 
 ( i private each gun) 2 
 
 First aid (4 privates) 2 
 
 Taking apart and assembling gun, blind- 
 fold ( i private each gun) 3 
 
 Reducing jams (i private each gun)... 2
 
 Appendix XII 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE OF DUMMY HAND 
 GRENADES 
 
 1. The weight of one hand grenade complete 
 is one pound. 
 
 2. Having taken the grenade from the bando- 
 lier in which it is issued, the tin box is opened 
 by tearing off the soldering strip which releases 
 the cover of the can. The hand grenade hav- 
 ing been removed from the container, the gre- 
 nade must be armed before it is thrown, and this 
 is done by removing the safety disk. Having 
 armed the fuse of the grenade and replaced the 
 hood in the proper armed position, the grenade 
 is ready to be thrown. In this condition the 
 grenade should be carefully handled and not per- 
 mitted to strike either on the ground adjacent to 
 the thrower or in the vicinity of friendly troops. 
 The thrower and all friendly troops should have 
 cover before the grenades strike, as the frag- 
 ments resulting from their detonation have a 
 longer range than the distance to which the 
 grenade as a whole may be thrown. The cord 
 of the grenade is made in a convenient length for 
 the soldier of average stature, but this length 
 
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 may be decreased by pulling the cord through 
 the knob and tying in a new knot. The manner 
 of throwing the grenade is dependent upon the 
 free space available for swinging it. When the 
 thrower has ample space behind a parapet, it is 
 best to swing it around the head as with a sling, 
 both for accuracy and safety. Untrained men 
 will naturally swing the grenade in a vertical 
 plane. The tests at Sandy Hook Proving 
 Ground indicate that this method is accompanied 
 by considerable danger, as the thrower may strike 
 the ground with the grenade in the act of whirl- 
 ing it or may release it so that its flight will be 
 nearly vertical, causing the grenade to fall back 
 near the thrower. The ranges that can be 
 attained with this form of grenade are not great 
 and vary with the strength and skill of the 
 thrower. The cord of the grenade should also 
 be examined to make sure it is in good condition 
 and not liable to break while the grenade is being 
 whirled. 
 
 To obtain accuracy and range in throwing the 
 hand grenade requires preliminary drill and 
 practice with the dummy grenade. For maxi- 
 mum effect the grenade should be detonated 
 within a few feet of the object at which it is 
 thrown. This requires accuracy usually acquired 
 only by a considerable amount of practice. 
 
 320
 
 Appendix XIII 
 TRENCH DIGGING 
 
 The best results in trench digging, whether 
 for purposes of drainage or defense, will always 
 be obtained by carrying out the principle laid 
 down in the engineer manuals of having shifts 
 of men. 
 
 With uninstructed troops it is best to have 
 three shifts, each shift working for ten minutes 
 at high pressure, resting for twenty minutes. 
 Further, when several companies, platoons or 
 squads are employed, a task should be given 
 to each, a section of the ditch being marked off 
 for the purpose ; they should be informed that 
 their work ceases as soon as the task is com- 
 pleted. 
 
 By this method remarkable results can be 
 obtained and the work can be finished in much 
 less time than in the usual manner of fatigue 
 detail. The men also work more uniformly. 
 
 It is desired in digging ditches that when pos- 
 sible they be laid out as, and have the form of, 
 defensive trenches, with the necessary traverses, 
 etc. In this way the men will obtain very neces- 
 sary instruction in a very important art. 
 321 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L. ii
 
 National Service Library 
 
 ENGINEER INSTRUCTION 
 
 1. Reconnaissance: Selected men from each 
 company, troop or battery will be given instruc- 
 tion in the use of the reconnaissance equipment 
 covering the work of road and position sketching. 
 This work will be undertaken as soon as troops 
 are sufficiently well supplied with their engineer- 
 unit accountability. 
 
 Similarly, cavalry will be given instruction in 
 the use of the demolition equipment. 
 
 2. Field Fortifications: Each infantry regi- 
 ment will be given instruction in the construc- 
 tion and use of trenches. This will be progres- 
 sive. The men will be taught the use of their 
 intrenching tools to gain hasty cover, and later 
 the construction of firing, communicating, and 
 support trenches. 
 
 For each battalion there will be laid out on 
 the ground the trace of a firing trench sufficient 
 to be occupied by it, communicating trenches 
 leading therefrom to the support trenches, with 
 the locations of the support trenches themselves, 
 of the kitchens, latrines and dressing stations 
 marked and the trenches which would lead from 
 the support trenches to the reserves. All of these 
 trenches will be marked out on the ground, using 
 white tracing tape. Each company of each bat- 
 talion will construct, working in reliefs, a suffi- 
 cient length of full-size firing trench to accommo- 
 322
 
 Appendix 
 
 date two (2) squads. Subsequently, the portion 
 of this trench sufficient to accommodate one 
 (i) squad will be improved. 
 
 3. Each machine-gun company of infantry and 
 troop of cavalry will construct an emplacement 
 for a machine gun. 
 
 4. Each battery of artillery will construct an 
 emplacement for one gun. 
 
 5. Revetments: The construction of hurdles, 
 gabions and fascines will be taught, and each 
 company and troop will be required to make one 
 of each of these, and their use as revetting 
 material will be illustrated by actually placing 
 them in the trenches which the company or 
 troop has constructed. 
 
 323
 
 Appendix XIV 
 MARCH OF INFANTRY 
 
 "Distances, intact ranks, and alignment and 
 covering of squads will, as far as practicable, be 
 preserved, and the left half of the road kept free, 
 both at a halt and on the march, for the use 
 of messengers and higher commanders. The 
 piece will be carried with the muzzle so elevated 
 that the man following need not lose distance to 
 protect his face. 
 
 "The preservation of march discipline is pri- 
 marily the duty of file closers and company 
 commanders, who should be constantly on the 
 alert to check the first tendency toward elonga- 
 tion ; but all commanders from the company up 
 should, from time to time, permit their units 
 to pass by for the observation and correction 
 of defects. If, notwithstanding due care of all 
 concerned, elongation of the column takes place 
 (and with the best trained troops and excellent 
 march discipline such cannot altogether be pre- 
 vented), no effort should be 'made by increasing 
 the gait, or continuing to march after the head 
 of the column has halted, to close gaps. Dis- 
 324
 
 Appendix 
 
 tance once lost must remain lost until a long 
 halt (of an hour for example) or until the end 
 of the day's march. Nothing takes so much, 
 and so quickly, from the stamina of the heav- 
 ily loaded infantryman as hurrying his steps 
 or double timing to regain any considerable 
 distance. 
 
 "Proper pace setting, which includes the great- 
 est regularity and a correct rate, is of the utmost 
 importance. All company officers should be care- 
 fully trained therefore. Each should determine 
 the exact number of his paces per minute for 
 the standard i mile in 20 minutes by actual 
 pacing of measured miles, and when the duty 
 of pace setting devolves upon him, he should con- 
 stantly count his steps and check his rate with 
 the watch. 
 
 "The pace of marching troops must not be 
 regulated by that of some mounted officers' 
 horse. 
 
 "It is noted that troops are sometimes assem- 
 bled either to begin a march or after a halt, much 
 sooner than is necessary. A command should 
 never be late; but on the other hand, it should 
 never cut short the men's rest by being much 
 ahead of time. Care in the calculation of dis- 
 tances and in the estimate of time required for 
 getting into motion, will enable much of the irri- 
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 National Service Library 
 
 tating and wearisome waiting in ranks, to be 
 avoided." 
 
 Although it is appreciated that the infantry 
 troops of each command have achieved a first- 
 rate marching ability, the foregoing extracts are 
 published to give to all an appreciation of the 
 requirements for successful marching of large 
 bodies of troops. Distances are, as stated above, 
 sometimes unavoidably lost as in passing defiles 
 or crossing streams and other obstacles. If these 
 distances must be made up, the head of the col- 
 umn should halt until the lost distances are 
 closed. 
 
 It is true that small detachments (even as 
 large as a regiment) of well-seasoned troops can 
 march at a rate of more than a mile in twenty 
 minutes, but years of experience have taught 
 that for bodies of any size the rate of one (i) 
 mile in 20 minutes is the only proper one. 
 
 A French report, at the beginning of the pres- 
 ent war, recounts the march of a division for 
 twelve (12) miles in three and three-fourths 
 (3M) hours as a remarkable achievement. 
 
 It is suggested that at ceremonies and on other 
 occasions where music is used the bands be 
 required to play only selections where the drum 
 beats are clear and regular and used to mark 
 the time throughout. 
 
 326
 
 Appendix XV 
 
 RULES FOR CONDUCT OF TROOPS TRAVELING BY 
 RAILWAY 
 
 1. Traveling by rail, each officer is entitled to 
 a double lower berth, standard sleeper, but may 
 be required to occupy an upper berth. Each 
 enlisted man is entitled to one half, double lower 
 berth or one upper berth, tourist sleeper. 
 
 If day coaches are provided, men are assigned 
 at the rate of three (3) men to each two (2) 
 seats. If trip is over twenty- four hours, one 
 (i) seat per man should be furnished, if possible. 
 
 2. Commanding officers of each train and of 
 each section, before entraining, should inspect 
 the passenger cars to see that they are clean, 
 supplied with water and ice, and that coolers, 
 urinals and toilet seats are in good order; the 
 stock cars to see that they are clean, that there 
 are no projecting nails, bolts or splinters, no 
 loose or rotten boards in the floors, no broken 
 fixtures on hay racks, floors, doors or troughs, 
 and that suitable noninflammable footing (sand or 
 loose earth) has been provided. 
 
 The cars having been accepted, an officer will 
 be detailed to mark with chalk on each car, 
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 the number of men or animals to travel in it, 
 with the letter or other designation of organ- 
 izations. 
 
 3. Trains divided into sections should be so 
 arranged that the baggage, and if possible the 
 animal box and gondola cars carrying the mate- 
 rial pertaining to any of the troops, be attached 
 to the same section as are the troops. In case 
 it is necessary to divide the trains otherwise, the 
 sections carrying animals should precede the 
 others and an officer with a sufficient detail to 
 take care of any emergency should travel on each 
 section carrying animals and baggage. 
 
 4. Heavy baggage, and baggage not likely to 
 be required immediately on arrival at destination, 
 will be loaded as soon as box cars are available. 
 Cars will be assigned to organizations, so many 
 to each battalion or squadron, etc. Where (as 
 will usually be the case) one car is assigned to 
 two or more companies, troops or batteries, pro- 
 portional space will be allotted each organization 
 by the commanding officer or officer delegated 
 by him. Artillery guns and carriages, escort 
 wagons and other classes of wheeled transpor- 
 tation are generally loaded on gondola or flat 
 cars. They must be made secure by nailing 
 blocks of wood, under and on each side of each 
 wheel and by means of lashings. Commanding 
 officers or officers detailed by them are charged 
 with seeing that this is attended to properly. 
 
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 Appendix 
 
 5. Transportation is loaded after it has hauled 
 all property to be taken to the cars. Animals are 
 loaded after wagons have been loaded, unless 
 they can be loaded simultaneously with the 
 wagons. Harness is loaded with the wagons. 
 Horses and mules, with halters only, are loaded 
 in the stock cars provided through chutes, or 
 from platforms, if any are available, or for lack 
 of either, by means of ramps. For each section 
 carrying animals, there will be constructed a 
 portable ramp, to be carried on a flat car, or 
 lashed to the roof of a stock car. Such a ramp 
 may be constructed as follows: Lay three (3) 
 pieces, 4"x4" lumber, 18 feet long, on the ground 
 so as to be parallel and 2 feet between centers 
 (if no 4"x4" is at hand two 2"x4" pieces securely 
 nailed together will answer). To these pieces 
 (sleepers) nail securely a floor of 2"xi2" lumber 
 6 feet long (a double floor of i"xi2" will 
 answer). To the outer edges nail side rails of 
 2"x4" lumber, cleat the floor by nailing i"x4" 
 boards over each crack. This ramp may prove 
 very useful in case of an accident where unload- 
 ing becomes necessary and the usual facilities 
 are lacking. Ramps must not be placed inside of 
 a stock car. 
 
 Loading Animals: In loading animals, the 
 number of animals for each car will be told off, 
 and each animal will be held by the halter by a 
 soldier. 
 
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 Two men will be placed inside the car, who will 
 take the animals, lead them to the end of the car 
 and tie them facing alternately to opposite sides 
 of the car. 
 
 One man will stand by the loading ramp or 
 chute, or by the door, if animals are loaded from 
 platforms, and will call off in a loud tone of 
 voice the number of the animals as "one, two, 
 three, etc.," as each animal enters the car. There 
 will also be posted near the door two men hav- 
 ing a piece of rope or a strap to use as breeching, 
 ready to pass around the rear of a balky animal 
 and force him into the car. 
 
 When all is ready, the gate of the car will be 
 thrown open and the file of animals moved into 
 the car without halting. When the last animal 
 has entered, as shown by the number called off, 
 the gate will be shut. In order that there will 
 be no delay in loading cars, the second detach- 
 ment will be kept ready to load the next car. 
 When platforms are convenient, several cars 
 can be loaded at once. Animals should be so 
 packed that they sustain each other when stand- 
 ing against bumps and sudden stops. In enter- 
 ing a car, an animal must be entirely inside 
 before he is turned. On leaving, he must be 
 athwart the car before he is led out. A quiet ani- 
 mal should lead in loading and a quiet animal 
 be the last loaded as he will be the first to be 
 unloaded. Loading and unloading must be done 
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 quietly, so as not to excite the animals. Swear- 
 ing or yelling at animals or jerking halters is 
 strictly prohibited. 
 
 6. Light baggage (such articles as field desks, 
 field ranges, etc.) immediately necessary on ar- 
 rival at destination and such articles or personal 
 and horse equipment as may be prescribed by 
 each commanding officer is loaded in the bag- 
 gage cars of each section. These cars should 
 be placed so as to be readily accessible while 
 train is in motion. 
 
 7. Mounted troops, before loading the horses, 
 unsaddle and place saddles, blankets and bridles 
 in gunny sacks, each tagged with the man's name 
 and troop number, and load them in the baggage 
 cars. The saddle bags are taken into the cars 
 with the men. Horses are then loaded and 
 details, if any, for their care sent to the animal 
 section. 
 
 8. All baggage, freight and animals having 
 been loaded, the command is formed, each organi- 
 zation opposite the cars it is to occupy. Com- 
 panies, troops and batteries are marched into 
 their cars and seats assigned by the captains; 
 seats near the doors are assigned to sergeants. 
 
 Before leaving camp, the commanding officer 
 of the troops to occupy each section makes the 
 following details : 
 
 An Officer of the Day. A guard sufficient 
 lo furnish a noncommissioned officer in charge,
 
 National Service Library 
 
 and a relief, of one sentinel to each door, in 
 each car. 
 
 9. Immediately upon receipt of notice of a 
 movement by rail, the supply officer, or an offi- 
 cer detailed by the commanding officer, of each 
 command will ascertain whether kitchen cars are 
 to be furnished for the trip, whether cooking is 
 to be done in baggage cars or whether travel 
 rations and coffee money are to be furnished. 
 He will make all arrangements for the opera- 
 tion of messes and for procuring the necessary 
 supplies; as much beef (fresh) and bread as 
 possible should be secured en route. 
 
 A mess officer will be detailed for each section 
 and will report to the supply officer or other offi- 
 cer detailed by the commanding officer for 
 instructions. 
 
 10. The following are the duties of different 
 officers and guards, on receipt of orders for a 
 movement by rail and while en route: 
 
 Commanding Officer: (a) Notify all officers 
 of the movement, giving time of departure, (b) 
 Assign to each staff officer such duties as pertain 
 to his office, giving him all information at hand. 
 
 (c) Notify all officers as to what baggage is to 
 be loaded in box cars, in baggage cars or carried 
 with the men in passenger cars, and what is to 
 be turned in, and to whom it is to be turned in. 
 
 (d) Detail the necessary officers and enlisted 
 men to load headquarters property and the prop- 
 
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 Appendix 
 
 erty of the staff departments, (e) Assign or- 
 ganizations to sections of the train, if necessary, 
 (f) His duty with reference to inspecting rail- 
 road equipment is defined in paragraph 2. 
 
 The Commander of each Section: (a) Assign 
 a mess officer, if one not already assigned, and 
 make necessary details and arrangements for 
 the messing of the command, (b) Ascertain 
 what guards are necessary and arrange for their 
 detail, (c) Superintend the packing and load- 
 ing of the property and animals pertaining to 
 the troops in his section, assigning space in each 
 car to each organization, (d) Duties with regard 
 to inspection of the railroad equipment, prescribed 
 in paragraph 2. (e) Issue orders for the con- 
 duct of the troops, while en route, (f) Make 
 two (2) inspections each day to assure that his 
 orders are .being carried out. 
 
 The Officer of the Day: (a) Inspect each relief 
 at least once each day and once each night to 
 assure that sentinels know their orders and are 
 enforcing them, (b) Report any breaches of 
 orders that come to his notice to the command- 
 ing officer. 
 
 The Guard: (a) One noncommissioned officer 
 and six privates for each car will be detailed 
 each day for guard, (b) At every stop one 
 sentinel will be posted at each door. His orders 
 are : To allow no soldier to leave the car unless 
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 orders have been issued permitting it. To allow 
 no soldier to enter the car except those who have 
 left it by proper authority. To allow no civilians 
 to enter the car, except railroad employees on 
 duty, or by authority of the commanding officer, 
 (c) The noncommissioned officer in charge and 
 the privates of the guard will enforce all orders 
 and regulations prescribed. 
 
 The Company Commander: (a) As soon as 
 orders for a move by rail are received, he will 
 separate his property according to whether it is 
 to be transported in box cars, baggage cars with 
 the men, or turned in. (b) He will make details 
 for packing the property for shipment, arrang- 
 ing for the packing of articles not in general use 
 first, (c) He will make lists of all his property, 
 giving weights of packages and such other data 
 as the supply officer may require, (d) He will 
 make arrangements for the messing and comfort 
 of the men, unless these matters are arranged by 
 higher authorty. (e) He will see that two (2) 
 brooms are provided for each car to be occupied 
 by his company, and that one whisk broom and 
 one shoe cleaning outfit is in each squad before 
 entering the cars, (f) He will superintend the 
 loading of all his property and turn in such part 
 of it as is ordered, (g) He will personally, with 
 the assistance of his lieutenants, assign seats to 
 the men as the company enters the cars and 
 see that the entraining is carried on in an orderly 
 334
 
 Appendix 
 
 and expeditious manner, (h) En route, he will 
 have the cars occupied by his company thor- 
 oughly policed after breakfast, dinner and sup- 
 per, and as many other times a day as may be 
 necessary, (i) He will inspect his company at 
 least twice a day and assure himself that the 
 cars are well policed, the men properly dressed, 
 clothing brushed, shoes cleaned, and faces and 
 hands washed, and that all regulations contained 
 in paragraph n are strictly adhered to. 
 
 Lieutenants and Noncommissioned Officers: 
 Assistants to the company, troop or battery com- 
 manders will carry out his orders and see that 
 they are obeyed. 
 
 ii. The following rules will govern the con- 
 duct of all troops moving on trains; all officers, 
 noncommissioned officers and sentinels are 
 charged with their enforcement: 
 
 (a) Except by authority of the commanding 
 officer, no officer or enlisted man will leave the 
 train at any stop for any purpose, (b) Where 
 the length of a stop will permit, the men will 
 be taken from the cars for exercise. In such 
 cases, they will be marched by battalion or com- 
 pany for as much time as the circumstances jus- 
 tify. Assembly will be sounded five (5) minutes 
 before the train is to start, and all detachments 
 will at once board the train. Care will be exer- 
 cised not to take commands too far from the 
 train, (c) Special details to obtain provisions 
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 or other necessities will be made by authority 
 of the commanding officer only, (d) No officer 
 or enlisted man will interfere with or engage in 
 any altercation with any employee of the rail- 
 road. In case employees are neglectful of their 
 duties, the fact will be reported to the company 
 commander or other proper officer who will 
 report to the commanding officer, (e) No unau- 
 thorized persons will be permitted to enter any 
 cars. If such persons attempt to enter, they will 
 be halted by sentinels and the noncommissioned 
 officer on duty will at once report the matter to 
 the officer of the day, who will investigate the 
 case and take necessary action, (f) No one will 
 be permitted to ride on platforms, roofs of cars 
 or on engines. (g) No scuffling or rough play 
 will be permitted, (h) No change of assign- 
 ment of seats will be made except by company 
 commanders, (i) The putting of heads, feet or 
 arms out of the windows while trains are in 
 motion is prohibited, (j) Throwing of food or 
 spitting on floors and throwing of missiles in 
 cars is prohibited, (k) Greatest care is enjoined 
 to prevent damage to water coolers, wash basins, 
 toilets or urinals. (1) No alcoholic liquors or 
 other intoxicants will be allowed on troop trains, 
 (m) Officers and men will at all times be prop- 
 erly uniformed. Sitting in undershirts with 
 sleeves rolled up or without leggins is strictly 
 prohibited. Clothing and hats will be brushed 
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 Appendix 
 
 and shoes and leggins cleaned as often as is nec- 
 essary to maintain a cleanly, soldierly appear- 
 ance at all times. 
 
 12. Upon arrival at destination, men will dis- 
 embark with their arms and equipment and be 
 formed in the vicinity of the cars. 
 
 The commanding officer or officer detailed by 
 him will inspect all passenger coaches and stock 
 cars, accompanied by a representative of the 
 railroad, and list all damage caused by troops 
 or animals while en route. A report of such 
 damages will be made to the department com- 
 mander of the department in which the command 
 detrains. 
 
 Necessary details for unloading will be made, 
 officers being placed in charge of all details. 
 Unless cars can be unloaded simultaneously, the 
 following order will govern: (a) Animals, (b) 
 Wagons, trucks or other means of transportation, 
 and artillery guns and carriages, (c) Light bag- 
 gage, (d) Heavy baggage. 
 
 In case the camp to be occupied is near the 
 point of detraining, troops may be marched to 
 camp before unloading, a guard being left over 
 the arms and equipment. Ordinarily, arms will 
 be stacked and a guard placed over the stacks 
 until the unloading is completed. 
 
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 Appendix XVI 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR TRAINING IN EQUITATION 
 
 The security of the rider's seat and the pos- 
 sibility that he may easily use his aids require 
 imperiously that his position on horseback pos- 
 sess certain qualities; and his appearance de- 
 mands that his position be neither ridiculous nor 
 constrained, but seem, on the contrary, elegant 
 and easy. The rider should seek to give to his 
 position, by hard work and long sustained atten- 
 tion, the qualities necessary. 
 
 The upper part of the body. The head ought 
 to be high and straight on shoulders falling nat- 
 urally. The arms hang naturally near the body. 
 The forearms have a direction such that the 
 elbows are a little higher than the wrists. The 
 latter ought to be held in their natural position, 
 without being twisted around, in such manner 
 that the back of the hand be turned outward, 
 the line of the knuckles being vertical. 
 
 The small of the back should be convex and 
 without stiffness in order to permit the supple- 
 ness indispensable to the weakening of the reac- 
 tion of the gaits and of violent movements. 
 This suppleness is in fact impossible if the small 
 338
 
 Appendix 
 
 of the back is hollowed; besides, if it is convex, 
 the buttocks are of themselves pushed under the 
 rider, which to him are indispensable in order 
 to find the middle of his saddle and to have 
 flexibility and cohesion with his horse; if he 
 is placed otherwise, one says that he does not 
 "sit down." 
 
 All the upper part of the body ought to be 
 quite vertical at the walk and at the gallop; it 
 may be inclined slightly forward when riding at 
 the trot. 
 
 These qualities which have been enumerated 
 pertain naturally, without any preparation, to 
 all riders, without having to acquire them, and 
 the position which results is taken by them them- 
 selves if it is not deranged by momentary con- 
 tractions. 
 
 Now, these contractions are due to apprehen- 
 sion ; if he does not fear to fall, the rider will 
 maintain the position already indicated: it is no 
 other in fact than that he himself takes when he 
 is seated on a table or chair. Since now that 
 position is natural, it is not necessary to supple 
 the rider in order that he may take it ; it suffices 
 to cause the apprehension to disappear that he 
 may keep it. 
 
 The effects of apprehension are not things 
 
 that should astonish us: do we not find them 
 
 always when we commence to devote ourselves 
 
 to a physical exercise in which the equilibrium 
 
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 is unstable skating, bicycling, etc.? At first, 
 one contracts and one falls ; then, experience aid- 
 ing, contractions disappear and the position 
 becomes easy. One has not had for this to resort 
 to special suppling exercises; it has sufficed that 
 practice removes the apprehension. 
 
 It is the same in equitation ; nothing is needed 
 to supple the upper part of the body, and only 
 that part is discussed at this moment, so that it 
 may take a better position ; it itself takes it if the 
 fear of falling does not interfere. It is not then 
 so necessary to supple these parts as it is to 
 reassure the rider. The latter requires less time 
 and is much more efficacious. One of the first 
 concerns of the instructor ought to be then to 
 remove all fear from the minds of the riders. 
 This may be obtained by having them mount at 
 the beginning only the horses not difficult to man- 
 age and having easy gaits. One may thus pre- 
 vent the rider from becoming too occupied 
 about the security of his seat by causing him 
 to converse and to occupy his mind with other 
 things, etc. 
 
 The thighs. What has been said about the 
 upper part of the body, that it places itself nat- 
 urally in a good position if the rider does not 
 contract, is no longer true with reference to the 
 thighs, for their conformation does not permit 
 them to take, once spread apart by the horse, 
 the position they ought to have. Their fixity, 
 340
 
 Appendix 
 
 in fact, is not possible except as their bony parts 
 are brought close to the saddle, without which 
 the femur rolls on the muscular mass that is 
 found between it and the saddle and which, more- 
 over, raises the knee: one says then that the 
 rider is "hooked up." In this position the thigh 
 and the leg cannot take hold, cannot, one might 
 say, girth the horse, that which is necessary, how- 
 ever, in resisting violent reactions. 
 
 In short, the articulation of the hip is such 
 that if the rider leaves the thighs to place them- 
 selves naturally, the knee will not touch the 
 saddle and the leg will not adhere to the horse 
 more than at the upper part of the thigh and 
 at the lower extremity of the calf. From that 
 two inconveniences arise : first, the mobility of 
 the surface adherent prevents all solidity; sec- 
 ondly, the calf being in contact with the horse 
 at its lower extremity the spur will be used 
 forcibly, the more so during somewhat violent 
 reactions. 
 
 All these faults have their remedy in a sup- 
 pling exercise called "rotation of the thighs," 
 which at the same time brings the femur close 
 to the saddle, permits the pressure of the knee, 
 and causes it to descend and finally to turn 
 inward. From that, fixity of the femur and of 
 the knee, lowering of the heel, and carrying the 
 spur at its normal distance from the side of 
 the horse. 
 
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 To execute the "rotation of the thigh," remove 
 the thigh from contact with the saddle, carry 
 back the knee and turn it, as well as the toe of 
 the foot, inward, extend the leg and lastly draw 
 the knee a little forward, pressing the thigh hard 
 against the saddle in such manner as to press to 
 the rear the muscles found on the interior. The 
 knee being now in place, let the lower leg fall 
 naturally, also the feet, and relax the small of 
 the back if it has been hollowed, while carrying 
 back the knee. The rotation of the thigh having 
 been thus executed, the rider should force him- 
 self to maintain the thigh as long as possible in 
 the position given it and preserve the small of 
 the back relaxed. The movement is executed at 
 the halt, then at the walk, the two legs alter- 
 nately, and without stirrups. 
 
 This suppling exercise is excellent ; but its role 
 being to change a little the conformation of the 
 rider, it must be repeated often and during a 
 long time. It will not cease to be useful until, 
 the articulation of the hip having been suffi- 
 ciently accustomed and the interior muscles hav- 
 ing been sufficiently pushed back, the thigh takes 
 of itself a good position. 
 
 The legs. It can be repeated for the legs and 
 the feet what has been said of the upper part 
 of the body : when the thigh is in a good position, 
 there is nothing to do to assure that of one of 
 the legs: one only has to let them fall naturally 
 342
 
 Appendix 
 
 by their proper weight, as well as the feet, by 
 relaxing completely the knee and the ankle. 
 
 The position of the thighs and the legs is 
 notably and rapidly improved if, together with 
 frequent rotation of the thighs, the rider be 
 induced to ride without stirrups at the slow trot 
 and canter. The weight tends to cause the knees 
 to descend naturally. This exercise is so excel- 
 lent that it may be practiced advantageously even 
 by riders already formed, to preserve the good 
 position of their legs and to sit deep down in 
 their saddles. 
 
 Schedule for instruction in equitation followed 
 in the Brownsville district: 
 
 First day, one and one-half hours, (a.) In- 
 troductory remarks, (b.) Suppling exercises 
 dismounted, (c.) Bridling, all students required 
 to do same, (d.) Saddling, all students required 
 to do same, (e.) Stand to horse, (f.) To lead 
 out. (g.) To mount, (h.) To dismount, (i.) 
 To take the reins in one hand and to separate 
 them, (k.) Position of the trooper mounted. 
 (I.) Elementary commands and their execution 
 (on the circle or the rectangle), (m.) The aids 
 (elementary), (n.) Criticisms of positions (at 
 walk or trot), (o.) Walk back to rendezvous 
 point, (p.) Short talk upon what care the horses 
 should receive upon their return to camp. 
 
 Second day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Suppling exercises, dismounted, (b.) All stu- 
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 dents required to bridle and saddle, (c.) Hasty 
 review of "e" to "m," first day. (d.) To move 
 forward, (e.) To halt, (f.) To turn to right 
 or left, (g.) Walk, slow trot, trot (criticisms 
 of positions), (h.) Posting. 
 
 Third day, one and one-half hours, (a.) All 
 students required to bridle and cinch. (b.) 
 Suppling exercises mounted, (c) Review of 
 position of soldier ; contact with horse's mouth ; 
 forward; halt; the forward movement, (d.) 
 How to make horse leave ranks, (e.) Posting. 
 (f.) Aids: Opening reins; bearing reins; direct 
 rein; legs. How to regulate on the instructor 
 when riding in a flock "cross-country." (g.) 
 Cross-country exercise on varied ground. 
 
 Fourth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) The 
 seat, (b.) The hands, (c.) The halt, (d.) The 
 half halt, (e.) Then how to regulate on the 
 instructor when riding in a flock "cross-country." 
 (f.) A little cross-country work; through water; 
 up and down fairly steep slopes, (g.) Explana- 
 tion of benefit derived. 
 
 Fifth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) Work 
 at will first ten minutes, (b.) Review that which 
 seems not to be clear, (c.) To take the reins in 
 either hand and in both hands, (d.) The "open- 
 ing" or "leading" rein, (e.) The "bearing" rein, 
 (f.) The direct rein, (g.) The legs, (h.) Work 
 on the rectangle: (i) circles. (2) abouts, (3) 
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 Appendix 
 
 broken lines, (4) serpentines, (i.) Work at 
 the gallop. 
 
 Sixth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) Sup- 
 pling exercises mounted. (b.) Cross-country 
 work (with short talk before and after upon 
 how to control the horse in this work). 
 
 Seventh day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Suppling exercises mounted, (b.) The indirect 
 rein of opposition in rear of the withers, (c.) 
 The indirect rein of opposition in front of the 
 withers, (d.) Passing corners, (e.) Changes 
 of gait, (f.) Increasing and decreasing the gait, 
 (g.) Work at the gallop, (h.) The walk, trot, and 
 gallop and the extended walk, trot, and gallop. 
 
 Eighth day, dismounted, one and one-half 
 hours, (a.) Lecture and conference, (b.) Suit- 
 able clothing, (c.) Care of leather and other 
 equipment, (d.) Stable management, (e.) Con- 
 ditioning, (f.) List of reference books. 
 
 Ninth day, one and one-half hours. Instruc- 
 tion ride to 4th Inf. corral for observation and 
 conference upon stable management. 
 
 Tenth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Hasty review of important points, (b.) Exer- 
 cise on varied ground, (c.) Remarks upon com- 
 pleted work and work to follow. 
 
 Eleventh day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Increasing and decreasing the gait, (b.) The 
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 extended walk, (c.) Work on the rectangle. 
 (d.) The turn on the forehand, (e.) The about 
 on the forehand, (f.) Posting (changing from 
 one pair to diagonals to the other), (g.) Gal- 
 lop cross-country. (h.) Up and down steep 
 slopes. 
 
 Twelfth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) The 
 gallop (false, true), (b.) To take the desired 
 lead at the gallop (on the circle), (c.) Pre- 
 liminary jumping (from small log on the ground 
 to 2- foot brush jump). 
 
 Thirteenth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Increasing and decreasing the gait, (b.) Har- 
 mony in use of aids, (c.) Passing corners, (d.) 
 The turn (on the forehand and on the haunches), 
 (e.) Shoulder in. (f.) Gallop on varied ground. 
 
 Fourteenth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Increasing and decreasing gait, (b.) On two 
 large circles : ( i ) Taking proper lead at the gal- 
 lop. (2) Changing the lead by coming down to 
 the trot and taking the 2d circle on the opposite 
 hand at the gallop, (c.) Cross-country gallop 
 (including jumps). 
 
 Fifteenth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Increasing and decreasing the gait (up and down 
 the scale from walk to gallop), (b.) Work on 
 the rectangle; circle; abouts ; half-turns; half- 
 turns in reverse, (c.) Cross-country gallop, (d.) 
 Slides. 
 
 346
 
 Appendix 
 
 Sixteenth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 One-half hour without stirrups: (i) Walk, trot, 
 gallop. (2) Low jumps, (b.) Work on the 
 rectangle (same as "B" i5th day), (c.) Exer- 
 cise on varied ground. 
 
 Seventeenth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Three-fourths hour without stirrups : ( I ) Exer- 
 cise on varied ground. (2) Low jumps, (b.) 
 Increasing and decreasing the gait, (c.) The 
 extended walk and trot. 
 
 Eighteenth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Three-fourths hour without stirrups: (i) On 
 the large circle (suppling exercises). (2) Jump- 
 ing, (b.) Exercise on varied ground, (c.) 
 Slides. 
 
 Nineteenth day, one and one-half hours. 
 Lecture and conference: (i) School of the 
 Remount. (2) Shoeing. 
 
 Twentieth day, one and one-half hours, (a.) 
 Exercise on varied ground (jumps, slides, water 
 hazards), (b.) Remarks upon completed work 
 and work to follow. 
 
 The above outline of training may be 
 slightly varied according to progress from day 
 to day. 
 
 Though not mentioned above, each day's 
 work ended with at least two minutes at the 
 walk. 
 
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 NOTES ON GROOMING 
 
 The physical condition of horses and mules 
 depends first : on their feeding ; second, on their 
 grooming; third, on their general care. 
 
 Ordinarily, the grooming counts 20 per cent 
 in the condition of a horse or mule. 
 
 As a rule each animal should be groomed for 
 a few minutes before exercise, and for a half 
 hour after exercise. 
 
 The active grooming should be strenuous, not 
 carelessly done. In each infantry regiment 
 there should be a fixed time for stables, and it 
 should be attended by an officer detailed for the 
 purpose. 
 
 The following method of grooming, as advo- 
 cated and published by the Mounted Service 
 School, will be used during the first two (2) 
 weeks after the publication of this bulletin, in 
 order to teach the details of grooming to enlisted 
 men: 
 
 At the command "Commence grooming" each 
 man brushes, and wipes off the legs of his horse 
 from the knees down (2 minutes). 
 
 "Currycomb, left side." Take the currycomb 
 and gently loosen dried mud or matted hair on 
 fleshy parts of left side (2 l / 2 minutes). 
 
 "Brush head and neck." Start with the head 
 and work back to include the shoulders and 
 elbow joints. The weight of the man, stiff armed 
 348
 
 Appendix 
 
 and standing well away from the horse, should 
 be put on the brush (2 minutes). 
 
 "Brush belly and back" (2 minutes). 
 
 "Brush croup and between the hind legs" (i]/2 
 minutes). 
 
 "Brush hind leg" (# minute). 
 
 "Brush fore leg" (ft minute). 
 
 Total time for left side, about n J /2 minutes. 
 
 "Wipe out eyes, nostrils and dock, and brush 
 mane and tail" (3^ minutes). 
 
 "Clean feet" (i minute). 
 
 Total time, 30 minutes. 
 
 NOTES ON INSPECTION OF HORSE AND MULE 
 TRANSPORTATION 
 
 Numbers and General Information. The 
 inspector will keep a table showing the number 
 of animals on hand in the units whose mount 
 or transportation he is charged with inspecting. 
 He will also record all important data in connec- 
 tion with the effectiveness of these animals which 
 can be obtained from their descriptive cards, such 
 as age, weight, etc. 
 
 Shoeing. The inspector will be charged with 
 the general inspection of the shoeing of these 
 animals. He will keep informed as to the sup- 
 plies on hand of horseshoeing material shoes, 
 nails, tools, etc., and the degree of training of 
 the horseshoers. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 Veterinary Care. The inspector will be charged 
 with the inspection of the veterinary care given 
 to these animals whether the number of veter- 
 inaries is sufficient, what the proportion of ani- 
 mals on sick report is, etc., whether the medicine 
 is sufficient in quantity. 
 
 Forage. Acting in connection with the officer 
 of the Quartermaster Corps he will keep himself 
 informed of the quality and quantity of forage 
 issued. 
 
 Grooming. The inspector will keep himself 
 informed of the appearance of animals. Oppor- 
 tunity will later present itself, especially during 
 reviews of transportation. He will keep in- 
 formed regarding the amount of grooming given 
 animals. 
 
 Condition. The inspector will inform himself 
 by observation of the hours per week of actual 
 work requiring physical effort by the animals. 
 This with a view to keeping all animals in 
 hard condition for campaign. He will re- 
 quire that four animals per team are worked, 
 not two. 
 
 Quantity, Material. The inspector will keep 
 informed on the amount of material in the trains 
 of his command, including wagons, harness, ac- 
 cessories, spare parts, etc. He will note all de- 
 ficiencies under G. O. 39 W. D., 1916, and report 
 them to these headquarters. 
 350
 
 Appendix 
 
 Upkeep and Cleaning of Material. The inspec- 
 tor will note the markings on wagons, will keep 
 informed of the frequency with which harness 
 and packs are cleaned, and will report on the 
 general upkeep of all material in the trains in- 
 spected by him. 
 
 351
 
 Appendix XVII 
 
 NOTES ON THE TRAINING OF TROOPS IN THE 
 GREAT EUROPEAN WAR WITH DEDUCTIONS 
 DRAWN THEREFROM 
 
 Additional Training During the War. Due 
 to lack of authority for representatives of the 
 United States army to remain at the front with 
 armies of belligerent nations, reports of steps 
 taken to provide additional training during the 
 war are few and incomplete. 
 
 Additional Training, German Troops. A 
 camp for recruit training was established at 
 Beverloo, Belgium, for a course of eight weeks' 
 training, especially in firing and combat exer- 
 cises, following preliminary training at home sta- 
 tions. Capacity of camp, 2,500 animals, 25,000 
 men. Similar depots for increased training in 
 essentials of the character of warfare experienced 
 were established throughout Germany, the course 
 at each being eight weeks. Men were trained to 
 fire from trenches and trees, practicing conceal- 
 ment. They were trained in construction of 
 types of trenches. 
 
 Cavalry of the German army was trained to 
 endure long marches rather than to charge, and 
 352
 
 Appendix 
 
 to accustom horses to bivouac in the open rather 
 than rely upon stabling. 
 
 Field artillery were trained in construction 
 of trenches and concealment from aerial ob- 
 servation. 
 
 Aviators were taught better cooperation with 
 field artillery. 
 
 Candidates for appointment as second lieu- 
 tenant are given practical training at the recruit 
 depots above referred to. 
 
 Additional Training, French Troops. In- 
 dependently of the student reserve officers, 200 
 noncommissioned officers of the active army were 
 given special courses of training, April 6 to May 
 31, 1915, at St. Cyr, Maixent, Joinville, and Fon- 
 tainebleau, to qualify for appointment as second 
 lieutenants. 
 
 It is impracticable to ascertain how much train- 
 ing during the war is given men forwarded from 
 regimental depots to replace casualties, but most 
 if not all such received training in former years. 
 This number is very large. The Seventy-ninth 
 and One Hundred and Thirty-first Infantry to 
 June, 1915 (10 months of war) each received 
 13,000 men in all to maintain its effective 
 strength of 3,000. 
 
 Imagine the result if such proportion of un- 
 trained volunteers join an American regiment 
 in war! 
 
 It was soon developed that the reconnaissance 
 
 353 
 
 Vol. 3 N.S.L. 12
 
 National Service Library 
 
 service of cavalry was badly performed, infantry 
 being surprised, as no warning was received 
 from cavalry screen. 
 
 The marksmanship of infantry was poor, too 
 little ammunition being allowed for instruction 
 of recruits (120 rounds instead of 200 allowed 
 in peace). 
 
 In September, 1915, the class, due in October, 
 1916, for compulsory service; assembled at 
 depots for training. 
 
 During service at the front a French regiment 
 of infantry or cavalry in the first line spends 3 
 days in trenches, 3 days in cantonment exposed 
 to bombardment, and 6 days in quiet cantonment ; 
 then 12 days in the second line (reserve). Thus 
 it has 3 days on the alert, 3 days in danger, and 
 1 8 days in security. Artillery, less tried by fire, 
 are continually in action and not withdrawn to 
 the rear for rest. Rest given infantry and 
 cavalry is moral rather than physical. While in 
 second line, 12 days at 1 5-kilometer march is 
 had each day, and company battalion, or regi- 
 mental maneuvers. Bayonet fencing, throwing 
 petards, reversing parapets of trenches, crawling, 
 running, target practice, machine-gun practice, 
 etc., utilize entire period in second line. One- 
 half the French army drills while the other half 
 guards the trenches. 
 
 French infantry is trained to organize and 
 carry out the assault of three lines of trenches 
 354
 
 Appendix 
 
 constructed in rear of their positions to resemble 
 the German trenches in their front and on ter- 
 rain similar to that in their front. Men are 
 trained to rush 100 kilometers and lunge at 
 figures dressed as German soldiers in the trenches 
 used for assault training. 
 
 Additional Training, Canadian Troops. Al- 
 though the Canadian contingent had had some 
 training before sailing, the first expedition (31,- 
 250 men) was sent to camp at Salisbury Plain 
 for six months' additional training. One regi- 
 ment (Princess Patricia's) was given only two 
 months in England and two months in France 
 before being placed in the trenches in February, 
 1915. It was composed largely of men with 
 previous service in the regular army or South 
 Africa. 
 
 Other than this regiment the personnel and 
 training of the Canadians is said to have been 
 inferior to the territorial force. 
 
 The first Canadian division was sent to France 
 after four and one-half months' training at Salis- 
 bury Plain. The second division was not sent 
 to France until September, 1915. These two 
 divisions, with authorized strength of 40,000 
 men, have met heavy casualties, and as selected 
 men are transferred to them to replace losses, 
 it represents the strength which Canada can 
 maintain in the field in view of preliminary train- 
 ing given in Canada and supplementary training 
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 National Service Library 
 
 in England and France before troops with no 
 previous training can be safely employed at the 
 front. Such strength' was not reached at the 
 front until after 14 months of war. 
 
 British Cadet School in the Field. In Jan- 
 uary,^! 5, to replenish the corps of officers, sadly 
 depleted since August, 1914, Field Marshal Sir 
 John French, commander in chief of the British 
 forces in the field, established a school for train- 
 ing officers at Blendecques near St. Omer, France. 
 Cadets are selected from enlisted men of educa- 
 tional, physical, and moral qualities, who have 
 been tested as good field soldiers in actual cam- 
 paign. The course, which lasts one month, is 
 one of demonstration and practice coupled with 
 a minimum of theory. Each cadet passes 48 
 hours in the trenches and visits observation posts 
 of a battery or group of batteries, submitting re- 
 port of his tour. Machine-gun tactics is an im- 
 portant subject of instruction. Among others 
 are range finding, siting and construction of 
 trenches, sapping, sketching, night operations, 
 use of rifle and hand grenades, cooperation of 
 infantry, artillery, engineers, etc. The capacity 
 is 105 cadets, that number being graduated 
 each month. Graduates have been favorably 
 reported by divisional and corps commanders. 
 The Artists' Rifles (Twenty-eighth Battalion, 
 London regiment) was utilized as the basis for 
 this training corps for officers in the field. 
 356
 
 Appendix 
 
 British Machine-gun School in the Field. A 
 school for training the increased personnel em- 
 ployed with machine guns, the number of which 
 guns with field units was doubled, was estab- 
 lished at Wisques, near St. Omer, France, under 
 an enthusiastic musketry officer. The course, 
 which lasts two weeks, consists of improvising 
 positions and gun shelter, oblique or enfilade fire, 
 firing from behind houses through openings in 
 walls, or from within houses and cellars through 
 openings in the roofs, firing from armored motor 
 cars and aeroplanes, etc. 
 
 Practical Experience for Higher Unit Com- 
 manders. It is reported that regimental and 
 battalion commanders of the expeditionary forces 
 still training in Great Britain were sent to 
 France in relays for a week's experience and 
 training at the front, that on returning they might 
 make the training of their proper commands 
 more practical and appropriate to the service 
 anticipated when such commands reach the front. 
 
 British Central Training Camp at Havre. 
 In the summer of 1915 a camp was established 
 near the base at Havre for the supplementary 
 training of men arriving from England and con- 
 sidered deficient in the essentials of infantry 
 training. All men passing the camp were sub- 
 jected to "tests," and not permitted to go to the 
 front until found proficient by the commandant, 
 357
 
 National Service Library 
 
 Major H. F. Whinney, Royal Fusiliers. In- 
 structors are experienced officers and noncom- 
 missioned officers recently returned from active 
 service in the trenches, some of them recuper- 
 ating from wounds or sickness. In addition a 
 very good officer is selected from each division 
 at the front and detailed for a tour of two 
 months as instructor. This maintains instruction 
 in pace with the evolution of the peculiar condi- 
 tions of warfare which characterize the struggle 
 in France. The course includes musketry, in- 
 trenching, first aid, pack-saddlery, bayonet fenc- 
 ing, bombing, revetting, construction of obstacles, 
 particularly barbed-wire entanglements, machine- 
 gun practice, the disabling of guns, and conduct 
 of artillery fire. Lectures and practical instruc- 
 tion are given groups of officers and men, at 
 times to as many as 300 in a group or class. All 
 are impressed with the idea that their lives may 
 depend upon following the advice given. Sub- 
 jects are so practical, and the necessity for knowl- 
 edge is so vital, the hour so solemn, and lecturers 
 men who have learned by wounds and bitter ex- 
 perience in action what to avoid, that there is no 
 lack of interest or attention. In musketry targets 
 represent German helmets barely visible over a 
 parapet, bobbing up over a front of several hun- 
 dred yards. Men are taught the character of 
 trees and houses in the landscape, so as readily 
 to recognize aiming points and division lines 
 358
 
 Appendix 
 
 between sectors. They are taught the distinction 
 between cover from view and cover from fire. 
 Trenches of patterns found best at the front are 
 built, faced by trenches similar to those used by 
 the Germans. Men under instruction occupy 
 these trenches 24 hours to test their knowledge 
 of what they have been taught in lectures. Men 
 are taught to throw dummy bombs from a nar- 
 row fire trench into trenches in front and to ad- 
 vance in specified formations of small groups 
 or squads, clearing "pockets" between traverses 
 of any hostile occupants by "lobbing" bombs into 
 such pockets. They are taught to hurl live bombs 
 and shown how to avoid accidents, relieving men 
 in fire trenches, formations for assault, bring- 
 ing up supports, attacking "hostile" trenches 
 occupied by dummy "Germans" which must be 
 bayoneted or bombed, use of respirators to avoid 
 effects of gas, positions taken in trenches when 
 aeroplanes are sighted, use of trench sprayers 
 to negative effects of gas that has been thrown 
 by "Germans," are interesting and practical ex- 
 ercises undertaken. They represent the last word 
 in practical infantry training for the character 
 of warfare peculiar to the situation in north- 
 eastern France. 
 
 Deductions, (a) The time devoted in peace 
 
 to training in all other countries exceeds 
 
 that given all British forces, excepting possibly 
 
 the British regular army, which constituted at 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 the outbreak of the war the only British force 
 fit for service on the Continent, and compared 
 with strength of the new army was very small. 
 It included many men of several years' training, 
 reenlisted and professional soldiers, and its serv- 
 ice in August and September, 1914, demonstrated 
 the value of troops thoroughly trained and habit- 
 uated to discipline. But its casualties, fighting 
 against odds, were very heavy. 
 
 (6) All other British troops, excepting possi- 
 bly those from Australia, required from six to 
 nine months' training, after organization, regard- 
 less of previous training, before they were con- 
 sidered fit for service at the front. No reports 
 have been received to indicate whether Aus- 
 tralian troops required more training than had 
 been received under the compulsory training re- 
 quired by the defense act. It is probable that 
 such additional training was necessary and was 
 given in camps in Egypt before such troops were 
 sent to the Dardanelles in the spring of 1915. 
 
 (c) Casualties in the ranks of units from 
 countries having compulsory training were re- 
 placed by men of reserve forces, variously desig- 
 nated, who had training in peace. Casualties in 
 British and Canadian units had to be replaced by 
 men with no training in peace, and the prepara- 
 tion of such men required at least six months' 
 intensive training in Great Britain, after which 
 many were found unfit and were given supple- 
 360
 
 Appendix 
 
 mentary training in France before joining units 
 at the front. 
 
 (d) The proportion of the British regular and 
 territorial forces to the population of Great 
 Britain and Canada being greater than that of 
 the regular army and organized militia of the 
 United States, to the population of the United 
 States, a greater percentage of British citizens 
 than of United States citizens had received some 
 military training before the war commenced, and 
 the amount of such training in the territorial 
 forces was greater than in the organized militia 
 of the United States. 
 
 Application to Situation in the United 
 States, (a) If imminence of war should war- 
 rant mobilization of the United States land 
 forces, it is obvious that only the regular army 
 and such of the army reserve as have very re- 
 cently served in the regular army can be con- 
 sidered ready at once for active field service 
 against a force from any country now at war, 
 including the British new army thus far sent 
 to the Continent. 
 
 (&) The United States has now no adequate 
 method of supplying properly trained men to 
 replace casualties in the ranks of the regular 
 army or to compose the ranks of the large num- 
 ber of combatant units required in addition to 
 the existing mobile regular troops to resist 
 invasion.
 
 National Service Library 
 
 (c) The experience of the British with the 
 new army confirms the estimate in paragraph 42 
 of "A Statement of a Proper Military Policy" 
 (W C D 9053-90) that 
 
 "Twelve months' intensive training is the mini- 
 mum that will prepare troops for war service. 
 Therefore the 500,000 partly trained troops above 
 referred to require nine months' military train- 
 ing before war begins." 
 
 (d} Conditions of modern war do not afford 
 time to train an army after war becomes immi- 
 nent. Not only must material be secured, but 
 personnel must be trained before military opera- 
 tions can be undertaken with any hope of success. 
 
 362
 
 Appendix XVIII 
 TRAINING FOR TRENCH WARFARE 
 
 There is sometimes a tendency to reach the 
 hasty conclusion that the training of the soldier 
 for trench warfare means chiefly or solely the 
 digging of ditches and the construction of an 
 aggregation of defensive works of various types 
 and patterns, and to look upon such work as a 
 wearisome, monotonous and uninteresting task, 
 drudgery that the man wielding the pick and 
 shovel can hardly see the reason for. 
 
 It is true that in actual war the trench is the 
 basic element of defensive works in the field, 
 miles and miles must be dug, immense labor is 
 required and thousands of men will work un- 
 tiringly but under the spur of necessity and 
 knowledge that what they are doing is a meas- 
 ure of self-preservation. 
 
 The soldier's duty in time of peace is not so 
 much to toil and dig as to learn how to do the 
 work and to use his labor effectively, to obtain 
 results commensurate with the energy expended. 
 It is not intended to argue that the construction 
 of trenches and intrenched positions in the field 
 should not be included as part of the peace 
 363
 
 National Service Library 
 
 training of a soldier, but only to emphasize the 
 fact that the profile and construction of field 
 works are simple matters compared with their 
 correct location and proper tactical use and to 
 suggest that the time devoted to the actual con- 
 struction of field works be proportioned intel- 
 ligently to that devoted to elementary instruction 
 in the general principles of the subject and to 
 subsequent utilization of the constructed works, 
 including attack and defense, maneuvers, occu- 
 pancy of the trenches in all sorts of weather, 
 nightwork, etc. 
 
 A man is quick to improve his condition in 
 regard to protection and comfort when he learns 
 what is needed. His mind is at least as useful 
 as his body and its training must not be for- 
 gotten. Therefore teach the soldier what all 
 these devices described in the manuals and 
 pocket books are for ; let him build and try out 
 the most approved types ; he will then learn to 
 adapt himself to the effective use of the devices, 
 to grasp the essential features, to eliminate 
 the nonessential, to make improvements, to 
 absorb the idea, and to impart his knowledge 
 to others. 
 
 Another point to be well considered by those 
 charged with the soldier's training is that a man 
 does not learn anything unless he is first in- 
 terested, and the progress of the instruction given 
 must keep this constantly in view. 
 364
 
 Appendix 
 
 Military training in time of peace is handi- 
 capped by the fact that much of it must be car- 
 ried on in the light of theory alone without daily 
 practice to test out the theories under service 
 conditions. The practical lessons of a war soon 
 become out of date due to improvements in 
 weapons and other material of war and the 
 resultant changes in tactical ideas. It is difficult 
 to predict the precise effect of improved weap- 
 ons and the improved training of other nations 
 who may possibly become our opponents in 
 armed conflict. Theoretical views may be 
 wrong. The best we can do is to keep clearly 
 in mind the fundamental object to be attained, 
 to note from each great war how this object was 
 achieved under varying conditions and to try to 
 apply and adapt the principles to the present 
 need. 
 
 The above remarks apply in large measure to 
 all kinds of military training. 
 
 For trench warfare it is believed that the 
 training may well begin with the use of topo- 
 graphical maps and models of field works and 
 intrenched positions and with the construction 
 of relief maps in a simple fashion to teach the 
 significance of the shape of the ground and the 
 method of utilizing natural features, hills, val- 
 leys, ridges, woods, etc., to secure cover and 
 concealment. The meaning of the common 
 terms, sky line, military crest, reverse slope, etc., 
 365
 
 National Service Library 
 
 should be understood by all in some degree, and 
 very thoroughly by those who may have the 
 duty of selecting or laying out the lines to be 
 occupied by trenches or other field works. 
 
 The construction, then, of miniature trenches 
 and parapets in sand built quite accurately to 
 scale, with all the accessories such as revetments, 
 overhead cover, obstacles, etc., seems to be a 
 very good way to arouse the interest of the sol- 
 dier and to give him the elementary instruction 
 as to dimensions, slopes, directions, and relative 
 position of the component parts of an intrenched 
 position. The sand table can also carry the in- 
 struction in topography one step further by al- 
 lowing the building to scale of the hills, stream 
 beds, roads, and railroads, and the representation 
 of wooded, cleared and cultivated areas. In the 
 employment of artificial features in the miniature 
 landscape it is believed to be highly desirable to 
 construct them all to the same horizontal scale 
 as that of the trenches and topography in order 
 that the idea of correct proportion may be ac- 
 quired. 
 
 A proper sense of proportion is impor- 
 tant in all occupations and is one of the most 
 valuable things that a soldier or an officer can 
 carry around in his head ready to apply it in- 
 stantly to the case at hand. It is realized that it 
 is nearly always necessary to exaggerate the 
 vertical scale of relief models showing extensive 
 366
 
 Appendix 
 
 tracts, but the horizontal scale may usually be 
 adhered to for all features. 
 
 Extensive positions can be laid out on the 
 sand table and profitable instruction given to 
 officers and noncommissioned officers as well as 
 to the private soldier. 
 
 This training by maps and models must not 
 be carried too far ; it is only a means to an end, 
 and the details must not be allowed to obscure 
 the main object in view, namely, to apply these 
 principles to the actual ground. 
 
 The next step should be the construction of 
 full-sized trenches and all accessories. If this 
 has to be done by troops in small isolated bodies 
 the work may have to be limited to practice in 
 the mere mechanical handling of the full-sized 
 elements, the tools, the obstacles, different kinds 
 of revetment, and the like. In view of the pro- 
 posed subsequent use of the intrenchments, it 
 would be better to have the work done by troops 
 assembled in large bodies that could then be used 
 in maneuvers and in the occupancy of the 
 trenches, including further training in all the 
 active duties of the attack and defense of field 
 works. 
 
 The last idea involves, perhaps, the construc- 
 tion of an intrenched camp, in which all the 
 operations and details of life in the trenches 
 could be simulated. Field fortifications are con- 
 structed with a view to giving a cover that will 
 367
 
 National Service Library 
 
 diminish losses, but they must be so built and 
 placed that they will not interfere with the free 
 use of the rifle. Fire effect is the first con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Major Sydenham Clark, R. E. (1890) says: 
 
 "Organization, capable commanders, efficient 
 armament, adequate supplies, matured prepara- 
 tions, well-arranged communications these 
 things constitute the essence of defense ; these 
 determine the resisting power of land fortifica- 
 tions. Within broad limits the details of de- 
 sign are of relatively small account." 
 
 Fire effect and organization may be said to 
 include in a broad sense all that is to be secured 
 by training. 
 
 To quote from a French source : 
 
 "Warfare of the kind the enemy forces us to 
 wage includes at present as its chief occupation 
 the construction and defense of an uninterrupted 
 line of intrenchments from the North Sea to 
 Alsace. The present form of warfare appears 
 not to have been foreseen by those who for 
 forty- four years have commanded our army, 
 and that element officially known in the infantry 
 maneuver book as field fortifications has, with 
 rare exceptions, received but scant attention 
 from our corps and detachment chiefs. On the 
 contrary, in many garrisons, gymnastics and 
 open-air games have been in great favor, and 
 certain unkind persons have sometimes asked 
 368
 
 Appendix 
 
 themselves if our military chiefs have not lost 
 sight of the great principle that in time of peace 
 the soldiers are taken away from their civil 
 occupations to learn to fight rather than to learn 
 to play at leapfrog. 
 
 "All of us know the terrible consequences of 
 these mistakes which plain common sense should 
 have condemned. When in the early days of 
 the war we found ourselves in the presence of 
 an army which had not devoted several after- 
 noons a week to hurdle games, but which knew 
 marvelously well how to shelter itself behind 
 the least fold of the ground and to hide itself in 
 holes rapidly dug, we suffered enormous losses." 
 
 The tendency in the European war zones 
 where the new trench warfare has reached its 
 greatest development is shown by the character 
 of training that is being given or is recommended 
 for the new armies that are being steadily pre- 
 pared for duty at the front. The ideas acquired 
 are briefly outlined as follows : 
 
 1. The range and accuracy of modern field 
 artillery is so great that the fundamental prin- 
 ciple of selecting infantry positions has changed 
 since the outbreak of the present war. 
 
 2. The modern infantry should be trained 
 first to be dead shots at 200 or 300 yards, and 
 should be able to fire as rapidly at these ranges 
 as the conditions of accurate and individual aim 
 permit. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 3. Concealment is now the fundamental con- 
 sideration in posting infantry, simply because 
 the moment a line of hasty trenches is seen it 
 can be made untenable by high-explosive shell. 
 
 4. In selecting a line for intrenchments the 
 infantry commander now places this line from 
 100 to 200 yards behind the crest, thus sacrific- 
 ing long-range field of fire, instead of just be- 
 yond the crest as heretofore taught in the drill 
 book. 
 
 Armies now in training in the British camps 
 are being instructed in trench digging and in 
 small-arms practice in accordance with the 
 principles noted above by selected officers re- 
 turned from the front. The new conditions 
 point to the adoption of some form of automatic 
 or semiautomatic rifle in order to increase the 
 density of fire over the relatively narrow field of 
 fire. The use of machine guns has already been 
 greatly increased with the same object in view. 
 
 An enumeration of the duties in which troops 
 must be trained will include the following: 
 
 1. Musketry; bayonet fencing; manufacture 
 and throwing of bombs ; machine-gun practice. 
 
 2. Hasty and deliberate intrenchment in- 
 cluding : 
 
 Firing trenches; traverses and parados; 
 head cover; overhead cover; machine-gun em- 
 placements; loopholes. 
 370
 
 Appendix 
 
 Shelter and cover trenches ; cover at firing 
 point for personnel, for ammunition, sup- 
 plies, stores, etc. ; cover behind firing point ; 
 shelters for supports and reserves; dressing 
 stations; splinter proofs and bombproof s. 
 
 Concealment; use of natural cover; use of 
 dummy field works; dissimulation, screening 
 and masking of earthworks. 
 
 Communications ; constructing forward 
 communications; advance by covered ap- 
 proaches ; sapping ; parallels ; passage trenches 
 from the rear or along the rear; trenches to 
 lookout men and listening posts. 
 
 Mining and countermining; occupation and 
 organization of a crater for defense and 
 further advance. 
 
 Signboards; systematic numbering and 
 naming of all avenues, shelters and under- 
 ground stations; guideposts to reserve am- 
 munition and all important stations; arrange- 
 ments to illuminate signboards and to provide 
 warning and directing lights. 
 
 Revetment of all kinds. 
 
 Preparation and improvement of the fore- 
 ground; clearing; range marks; obstacles; 
 inundations; wire nets; alarm signals; barri- 
 cades. 
 
 3. Residence in the trenches. First aid and 
 sanitation ; drainage ; latrines ; heating of trenches ; 
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 National Service Library 
 
 sleeping accommodations; care of arms and am- 
 munition ; care of shoes, clothing, and bedding ; 
 personal cleanliness and care of the feet; prep- 
 aration and supply of food ; methods for elimina- 
 tion of pests. 
 
 4. Attack and defense of works. Marching 
 through approach and communicating trenches ; 
 troop leading in trenches; reenforcement of fir- 
 ing trench; movements by night in attack and 
 defense; advance to the assault; reversal of 
 parapets of enemy trenches and organizing 
 them for defense; illumination of field of fire. 
 
 5. Defense against gas, liquid fire, inflammable 
 liquids, etc. 
 
 6. Observation. Accurate and rapid recon- 
 naissance from front-line trenches; instruction 
 as to the importance of every topographical 
 feature and to the use that may be made of same 
 by friend or enemy; practice in interpreting 
 features of the enemy's position, as machine- 
 gun emplacements, loopholes, dummy works ; 
 sharp lookout by day and night; special precau- 
 tions against night attacks; use of telephone 
 throughout intrenched position. 
 
 7. Use of trench mortars. 
 
 8. Practice with hand grenades and rifle 
 grenades in the assault and the defense. 
 
 9. Care and use of high explosives. 
 
 10. Airplane control of artillery fire; this may 
 be done by exploding ground mines beyond and 
 
 372
 
 Appendix 
 
 short of the intrenched positions the airplane 
 signaling the position of the assumed bursting 
 shell. 
 
 ii. Practice with antiaircraft guns against 
 free balloons. 
 
 Concealment is of prime importance for bat- 
 teries and for infantry trenches. Advances in 
 the open are impossible and advances even 
 where there is some cover are so difficult in the 
 day light that the cover of darkness or of smoke 
 must be used more and more. Ground gained 
 by short advances must be rapidly intrenched 
 and connected up with the trenches in rear by 
 winding approaches. In the close stages of an 
 advance the only possible methods seem to be by 
 blinded sap or mine galleries driven just below 
 the surface of the ground. Mines are used also 
 extensively to form craters, destroying the de- 
 fender's trenches and offering a temporary cover 
 for the attacker if he rushes forward immedi- 
 ately after the explosion of the mine, taking 
 advantage of the confusion, destruction and of 
 the cover to be found in the crater. The 
 accurate and overwhelming artillery preparation 
 with high-angle fire and high-explosive shell is 
 still an indispensable preliminary to an infantry 
 advance on hostile trenches with the object of 
 destroying the obstacles, washing away the earth- 
 works, and shaking the morale of the defending 
 troops. 
 
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 National Service Library 
 
 It is commonly related that the war in the west 
 has become a stupendous siege, and that the 
 operations of formal sieges are being reproduced 
 to a certain extent; we hear of local combats 
 by trench, sap, mine, and assault for ridges and 
 hilltops important for observation ; of tactical 
 wedges driven by one side or the other into a 
 weak section of the enemy's line, and frequently 
 of the rebound of the wedge when the enemy's 
 lines on either side of the pierced section squeeze 
 in and press back the isolated attack. But how 
 do they go about a great attack intended to gain 
 a strategical success and to drive back the enemy 
 into his territory? An outline of the French 
 offensive in Champagne in August and Sep- 
 tember, 1915, may give us some ideas on this 
 subject. 
 
 An assault to be successful under the condi- 
 tions existing on the western front must be made 
 along a wide front of 20 or 30 or 40 miles ; 
 otherwise a local break only will be made and 
 the flanks of the attacking force will soon be 
 exposed and rolled up by the converging masses 
 of the enemy who can afford to shift his troops 
 to meet a local effort. 
 
 In the first place the conditions are such that 
 the trenches have been pushed forward so as to 
 get as close to the enemy as possible, so that in 
 some places the front-line firing trenches are 
 less than 250 yards from the enemy's front line. 
 374
 
 Appendix 
 
 In certain special cases these lines have ap- 
 proached as close as 10 yards. 
 
 It is considered important to instruct all arms 
 for infantry work under emergencies, where in 
 hand-to-hand combats of a nature not previously 
 anticipated for their arms their lives may de- 
 pend on a knowledge of at least elementary in- 
 struction in the duties of the infantry soldier. 
 
 To illustrate the details of the instruction re- 
 quired the following description has been com- 
 piled from notes on a training camp conducted 
 by one of the European belligerents for new 
 levies destined to duty in the trenches of the 
 western front. 
 
 METHOD OF ATTACKING TRENCHES 
 
 The defense has steadily increased in power 
 due to its small-arms fire, its obstacles, and its 
 artillery. This is the first great war fought on 
 European soil with the magazine rifle and 
 smokeless powder and with powerful modern 
 artillery. A frontal attack on trenches held by 
 well-trained unshaken infantry seems more im- 
 possible than ever before. Heretofore when 
 such a condition existed the alternative for the 
 attacking force was to maneuver around the 
 flank of the defending force, but where there 
 are no flanks to turn, as in an all-round position 
 like a fortified town or fortress, or in a position 
 like that on the western European war front 
 375
 
 National Service Library 
 
 where the entire frontier from the sea to the 
 mountain ranges of a neutral state is heavily 
 intrenched, we naturally ask ourselves what is 
 the best and most scientific method of making 
 the attack? Captain Thuillier, R. E., writing in 
 1902 after the Boer War and assuming condi- 
 tions like those just described, remarks : 
 
 "At all events, though it is impossible to fore- 
 cast in detail the form of attack we may at 
 least assume that as a rule the combat on 
 both sides would be largely one of pick and 
 shovel, trenches and countertrenches, mines and 
 countermines." 
 
 The artillery bombardment which may be 
 taken up for weeks before the day of assault 
 consists of a deluge of high-explosive shells and 
 shrapnel delivered day after day and sometimes 
 continuously night and day. 
 
 The section of the line attacked consists of two 
 main positions, roughly parallel, and from 2 to 
 2.Y-2. miles apart. The first line is extremely 
 dense and consists of from three to five parallel 
 trenches, and for lateral deefnse a network of 
 defense and communication trenches. The first 
 line is about 400 yards deep, and between the 
 several trenches are broad areas of barbed-wire 
 net some 60 to 70 yards deep. 
 
 The second defensive line consists mainly of a 
 single trench with a few support trenches. It is 
 located on the reverse side of a hill crest, the
 
 Appendix 
 
 upper front slopes of which are under observa- 
 tion and are held only by machine guns, out- 
 posts, and artillery observers who communicate 
 with the trench in rear by tunnels through the 
 crest of the ridge. 
 
 The entire two miles behind the front position 
 is fortified into a net work of trenches in all 
 directions, studded with machine guns in con- 
 cealed emplacements, and obstructed by barbed- 
 wire entanglements, some of it in deep pits 70 
 yards square and 6 or 7 feet deep. These are 
 almost invisible to airplanes, and the formidable 
 nature of the position in rear of the front trench 
 is not known to the attackers until they have 
 swept beyond the first line. 
 
 The object of the artillery bombardment of 
 the front line is to destroy the barbed-wire net, 
 to level down the trenches and concealed em- 
 placements, to cave in the shelters and dugouts 
 over their occupants, to block up communica- 
 tion trenches, and to demoralize the enemy. 
 Long - range artillery meanwhile bombarded 
 depots, communications, camps, and transport 
 columns in rear of the lines in order to impede 
 and interrupt the supply of food and ammuni- 
 tion to the enemy's fighting units. 
 
 The duty expected of the artillery is to flatten 
 the trenches and parapets, to plow up the dug- 
 outs and subterranean defenses so completely 
 that it will be almost possible for the attacking 
 377
 
 National Service Library 
 
 infantry to march to the assault with their rifles 
 at the shoulder. 
 
 To quote from the London "Times's" "History 
 and Encyclopaedia of the War" : 
 
 "When reveille sounded at 5.30 on the morn- 
 ing of the great day, September 25, those who 
 had slept through the din of gunfire awoke to a 
 world of gloom. Clouds heavy with rain swept 
 low across the gray chalky landscape. 
 
 "Between 6 and 6.30 the morning coffee was 
 drunk . . . and then, conversation being impos- 
 sible, the men squatted down by the trench wall 
 and smoked and thought of what the day might 
 bring forth. 
 
 "Under a pouring rainstorm which broke at 
 nine o'clock, in a few brief phrases the general 
 situation and the general scheme of operations 
 of the day were set before the men. Then by the 
 time given by wireless to the army from the 
 Eiffel Tower the fuses of the artillery from be- 
 hind were lengthened and the officers scrambled 
 out of the advanced parallels with a last shout of 
 "En avant, mes enfants" to the men. . . . The 
 great offensive of 1915 had begun, and all those 
 who took part in it are agreed that no moment 
 of the battle was so thrilling, so soul-stirring 
 and impressive as that which saw the first wave 
 of Frenchmen in blue uniforms, blue Adrian 
 steel helmets, with drums of grenades hanging 
 at their waists, burst from the trenches in which 
 378
 
 Appendix 
 
 they had remained hidden for so many months 
 and strike across the intervening No-Man's- 
 Land for the enemy's lines. 
 
 "The first waves of the assault had about 250 
 yards to cross to reach the enemy's trenches, 
 and such was the impetuosity and dash of the 
 men, and so complete had been the work of the 
 artillery that by noon the first line along the 
 entire front had been taken. At some points the 
 assaulting waves passed over the first line and 
 into the enemy's position, but sooner or later 
 they came to a halt as resistance was developed, 
 machine guns were unmasked by the enemy, and 
 their artillery again put to work. At one place 
 the center was held up by four machine guns 
 which had escaped destruction by the artillery." 
 
 The official communique of September 26 
 thus sums up the day's operations: 
 
 "In Champagne obstinate engagements have 
 occurred along the whole front. Our troops 
 have penetrated the German lines on a front of 
 25 kilometers to a depth varying between I and 
 4 kilometers and they have maintained during 
 the night all the positions gained." 
 
 Many prisoners were taken. The first day's 
 work was considered successful. The two ends 
 of the line had resisted the assaults upon them, 
 but the attacking troops had held on with ten- 
 acity and kept a large force of the enemy oc- 
 cupied, thus relieving pressure at the center. 
 379
 
 National Service Library 
 
 But here the resistance and obstacles that finally 
 brought the entire movement to a standstill were 
 causing delay at certain points. 
 
 The second line of works behind the hill crest 
 was practically intact, having suffered very little 
 from the artillery bombardment. 
 
 Details of further operations here are not now 
 available, but the great offensive had come to halt 
 and had failed to make an effectual break 
 through the opposing front. The period of pre- 
 paration, the mapping, the airplane combats, the 
 artillery duel, and the assault had taken the at- 
 tackers just so far, where, encountering ever- 
 increasing resistance, they had come to a halt, 
 and again were compelled to resume the de- 
 fensive until driven back or until more elaborate 
 preparations over a wider front or under more 
 favorable circumstances would permit another 
 rush into the enemy's lines with momentum that 
 would finally carry the day and achieve a 
 strategic success by making the enemy withdraw 
 along his whole front. 
 
 In theory high-explosive shell poured in suf- 
 ficient quantities upon the enemy's positions de- 
 stroys all semblance of trenches and levels the 
 deep-dug line with the rest of the country. It 
 is stated that in the five weeks which preceded 
 the assault described above on no fewer than 
 twenty-five days the hostile front was violently 
 bombarded and on the last three days the artillery 
 380
 
 Appendix 
 
 worked without ceasing day and night. The re- 
 sults we have seen* The first line was taken, 
 but the second line held ; perhaps if the second 
 line had fallen a third would have checked the 
 attack. Perhaps if the artillery had worked fifty 
 days they might have destroyed the rear lines, 
 but always until utter demoralization or exhaus- 
 tion of supplies or ammunition had overtaken 
 the defending troops would the attackers have 
 found trenches, obstacles, machine guns, artil- 
 lery, and men in successive lines ready to repel 
 them. 
 
 Operations like those described bring a tre- 
 mendous strain on the defenders and demoraliza- 
 tion may often be not far away. It may be that 
 if the trenches are sufficiently "washed away" 
 over a wide enough front and in depth over first, 
 second and third lines, not omitting the ground 
 in rear, and the deluge of steel and chemicals 
 kept up until the strain on the men becomes un- 
 bearable, one line or the other will break and a 
 victory be achieved. The magnitude of the 
 preparations to accomplish this end cannot be 
 estimated.
 
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