Chapter IV: Introduction: Sidenote: Importance of training infantry (3)

In the conduct of such walks the instructor takes his class out as such patrol and states his problem, the firing line being represented by a few men or even entirely imaginary, its progress being announced from time to time. The instructor then acts as leader, explains what is to be done and, assuming he has a platoon, takes his first position. He conceals his platoon and has observers out covering him and so placed that any enemy approaching will be seen in time, and that he will be in the best position to meet him. The number of sentinels out and their distance from the main body of the platoon depend on the terrain. He then carefully points out his dispositions to the class and explains why made and assuming in turn that the enemy is approaching from each of the likely directions, how his dispositions enable him to meet fully the case. The necessity for signal communication with the commander is explained and how he has provided for it.

He then discusses the terrain with reference to the next advance. As the firing line advances where he should next go, and how get there. A small patrol advances to the next position selected, finds it unoccupied and so signals back. The platoon then moves there and sentinels are sent out as before and possibly small reconnoitering patrols. The same discussion as before. Also from time to time hostile patrols are assumed to be seen and what should be done explained; when fire would be opened on the main hostile line, if at all. In fact the whole conduct of this patrol until the conclusion of the fight should be discussed, showing how it jumps from place to place, always covered by sentinels or small patrols, and how the firing line is always protected by it from surprise. He should point out how, in most cases, a mere marching along in a straight line would utterly fail, and impress upon the men the fact that the leader must use his head all the time.

Having gone through such an exercise once or more, the instructor solving the problem himself, he should then prepare the problem and, having stated it, call on the class to solve it step by step in the same manner. In all cases of errors in disposition the instructor assumes an enemy from a certain direction and has the class realize the error by their inability to meet the situation. The importance of keeping as many of the patrol as practicable well in hand must be emphasized.

Any combat patrol that is to offer resistance, from a squad to a company, is handled in the same way. The work of the smaller combat patrols whose duty is only to observe are likewise taught in the same way. The terrain and conditions bringing about their use instead of the larger ones make the problem easier.

The officers of the battalion should be taken on such walks by the major or some other officer. The company commander should conduct them for his lieutenants and non-commissioned officers.

The men should also be practiced in the same way, as the combat patrol or covering detachment of a defensive line. This work is simpler, the patrol generally does not move from position to position. Its mission is the same as in the attack and even more important. In the defense very much depends on the selecting of the best position for this patrol and the correct dispositions being taken.

The case must be also considered of a patrol sent out by the defense for reconnaissance or screening which in case of attack becomes the combat patrol.

In a battle line with intervals, as in the case of the enveloping attack, connecting files must be used. Their object is to keep the commanders of the subdivision informed as to how the other is progressing. This can generally be done by forming points in the line joining the two inner flanks. In some cases this will not serve. Rules for this can not be given.

[Sidenote: Advance guard training]

Advance Guard. In most commands too much of our limited field training period is devoted to work of advance and rear guards. It is important and must be taught, but if the other work which is the real foundation for this is properly done but little more time is required outside of the maneuver exercises for training the enlisted men. Patrolling and combat form most of the work in these exercises so far as the men are concerned.

There are many tactical problems that come to the officers in this class of work and they must know how to solve them. This is the work of the school for officers and should be effectively done.

[Sidenote: Advance guard rencontre]

The point is but a patrol with a special mission. The flanking groups are reconnoitering and scouting patrols but they involve some new features. When a rencontre engagement occurs on the march one of the first things the commander wants to know is the strength of the enemy and his location; if deployed, where is his line? Where its flank? If not deployed, what is he doing? As the advance party deploys and pushes on, these flanking groups have the best opportunity to observe and by reconnaissance to gain valuable information. They also become, temporarily at least, combat patrols to the firing line. The men must be taught to carry out this mission without further orders and to do it correctly. In case small detachments attempt to delay our march, these patrols by flanking them can greatly hurry their retreat and prevent the delay of our column.

[Sidenote: Maneuver work]

The general principle of advance and rear guards should be taught the company. This work can be done in part at the relief map and sand table, but the company should be exercised on the ground as the advance guard of a battalion and as the advance party of a larger advance guard, the other troops being imaginary. Afterwards two companies should work against each other, one as rear party of a rear guard, the other as advance party of an advance guard; also each as advance party in a rencontre.

If the foundation has been properly laid there is no difficulty in teaching the application of these principles to covering detachments. If it has not been so laid and the men do not thoroughly understand patrolling in its different forms, it will be hard to teach it in these exercises.

In maneuver exercises problems involving rencontre engagements and engagements involving a marching column encountering an enemy in position should be had to train the officers in tactics and to give the men practice in combat exercises and in the patrolling necessary.

[Sidenote: Outpost training]

Outposts. The general principles of outpost duty, the duties of sentinels, the general formation of an outpost line with its subdivisions must be taught the men indoors. The officers have much to learn in school or from books on this subject. With proper preparation by all the work outside is simple.

There are a few things that need special mention:

In the instruction work have a definite situation. If the company is to be exercised as a support take an outpost order giving the situation and general location of the supports. If any detachment, including the company, is to march beyond assumed existing covering detachments, see that it is properly covered by an advance guard. Judgment must be used in this, the smaller the detachment the weaker relatively the cover. Bear in mind where the other detachments are marching and the amount of cover they afford to yours.

When starting out instruct the advance where you are going, then have it go far enough in advance of that to cover you while you are making your dispositions after you have reached your destination.

From the company down make the distribution of troops and assignment of tasks in an orderly manner, much as the guard is divided up for the post guard; do this while the detachment is still formed.

Full information of the situation should be given the men; the proper performance of their duty is impossible otherwise. Each subdivision commander must attend to this. The captain should give as much of the necessary information as practicable to the whole company, this saves time for the picket commanders and will probably result in the situation being better understood.

[Sidenote: Outpost practice on the ground]

Where the outpost line should be located and how it should be disposed varies with many conditions. It is a tactical problem that the officers must be able to solve and must learn elsewhere than on the ground in the few hours devoted to this work in troop training.

A little practice should be held by the regiment as a whole in forming outpost; one with the regiment as the outpost and one with the regiment as the whole command, one battalion forming the advance guard on the march. In the latter, a halt order should be issued and outpost formed from the advance guard battalion; when completed a march order should be issued by which the new advance guard passes through the outpost line. The outpost should then be assembled and take its place in column.

We do this very easily in map problems; try it on the ground, especially in rather close country.

[Sidenote: Mounted scouts]

The mounted scouts. While the mounted scouts have been taken from the infantry regiment there is still with each regiment a mounted detachment of orderlies. A few mounted scouts well trained are invaluable to an infantry regiment when operating alone. The commander of an infantry regiment, if wise, will see that these orderlies are trained as scouts and then when necessary he can so use them. Their most important and frequent use will be as the mounted point and flank patrols for an advance or rear guard and for patrolling to the front of an outpost line.

To be of any value they must be well instructed in these duties as described under advance guard. Being mounted they are much more valuable than a dismounted patrol for gaining information from the flanks and getting it back to the commander in time to be of some use. These orderlies can be trained in this work without interfering materially with their instruction in the care of horses and equipment and it can be given along with instruction in horsemanship.

VII

MARCHING

Ability to march under war conditions is of primary importance in the training of infantry. There is much more marching than fighting in war and, no matter how well a man may be trained otherwise, if he is unable to reach the field of battle he is of no value as a fighting man.

[Sidenote: Requisites for marching]

That the infantry soldier may be able to meet the requirements in this respect he must possess the necessary health and strength he must be properly shod, know how to care for himself on the march, especially how to take care of his feet, and his muscles must be properly developed. It is also necessary that the responsible officers know how to conduct the march and to care for the men.

That the man has been allowed to enlist presumes the possession of the necessary health and strength and gives us a man who can be trained to meet all necessary requirements except when temporarily sick or disabled.

[Sidenote: Shoes for marching]

The soldier’s shoes must be of proper construction, well fitted to the man and the leather kept soft and pliable. The shoe now issued to our army is good and with proper care in fitting leaves little to be desired. The fitting of the shoes is an important duty of the company commander and should never be slighted. The rules prescribed for this should be carefully followed. Every captain of infantry should have and carefully study the little book “The Soldier’s Foot,” by Lieut. Colonel Munson, Medical Corps.

No matter how well a shoe may be fitted if it becomes soaked with water and dries, without proper care, it will become hard and stiff and sore feet are apt to result. The men’s shoes in campaign should be kept oiled. Neatsfoot oil should always be carried in every company’s baggage and officers should see that it is used as needed. There should also be a supply of talcum or foot powder.

[Sidenote: Socks for marching]

The socks are of nearly as much importance as the shoes. They, too, must fit. If too large they wrinkle, if too small they are apt to bend and injure the toes; in both cases the result is sore feet. Woolen socks are much better for hard marching than cotton, they keep the feet dryer and afford more of a cushion and consequently better protection from injury. If the man finds that wool next his skin produces too great irritation he should wear woolen socks over a pair of cotton or lisle thread.

[Sidenote: Care of abrasions]

After a day’s march the feet should be washed and any blisters and abrasions should receive proper attention. Adhesive plaster should be applied to all such, even to spots that are sore and the skin not yet broken; properly applied it is a great protection.

Rather than have the men treat their own feet it is much better that, after the day’s march and camp has been made, a reasonable time be given the men to wash their feet and prepare for inspection. Captains should then carefully inspect the feet of all their men and send every man with the slightest injury to the regimental infirmary at once and have the injuries properly treated.

Men should be taught to do this for themselves but as it can be so much more surely and better done as above described the men should be permitted to do it themselves only in emergencies where sanitary troops are not available.

[Sidenote: Protection of head and neck]

In marching in very hot weather the men must be instructed in the importance of protecting the back of the neck from the direct rays of the sun. It would be well if our men were issued a small piece of cloth of suitable color with some means of readily attaching it to the hat to afford this protection. The Japanese soldiers used such an attachment in Manchuria with good results.

There must be an air space between the top of the hat and the man’s head. The hat must be ventilated and in very hot weather a wet sponge or cloth or green leaves should be carried in the hat. The shirt collar, if not very loose, should be unbuttoned.

[Sidenote: Bathing]

Besides bathing the feet the men should bathe their whole bodies frequently. Anyone familiar with our “regulars” on the march and who has seen them break for the water to bathe as soon as possible after a day’s march knows that it requires no order to get this done. But sometimes we must camp where there is no water available for bathing. Men should at least wash the crotch with a wet towel, especially if there is a tendency to chafe. Talcum powder should be used in such cases.

[Sidenote: Drinking]

Men should be carefully taught the disabling effects of alcohol if drunk the night before or during a hard march, especially if the march be made in hot weather. The men must also be instructed to care wisely for their diet and to avoid the excessive drinking of water on the march. Too little water is as bad.

[Sidenote: Personal hygiene]

All this instruction should be carefully given the men by their company officers under the general supervision of the regimental surgeon. The surgeon, with the approval of the colonel, should prepare an outlined scheme for instruction in first aid and in personal hygiene, having special reference to the soldier’s care of himself in the field. The surgeon should then instruct such company officers as have need of the instruction; the company officers then instruct the men. A part of the examination of the company at the end of its indoor period should be on these subjects.

[Sidenote: Muscle development]

The muscles must be _properly_ developed. It is not the strongest man who can best stand the march; it does not require great physical strength. The man’s muscles must be flexible, he must be trained to use them and be able to use them without causing physical pain.

Marching as fully equipped infantry in the ranks is a very different proposition from walking along the road independently, and for the private in ranks with his load it is different from what it is for the officer with his.

Many men of great strength are often what is called “muscle bound.” Others have certain muscles overdeveloped others underdeveloped. When muscles usually unused are brought into play, or when a man is forced into a constrained position, if it be kept up continuously for some time, serious pain and discomfort results and often ends in a physical break down.

A good course in callisthenics or in gymnasium training is the best thing for the new man. It loosens him up, brings into play the different muscles, renders them flexible and gives the man control of himself. Then practice in marching, carrying his equipment, strengthens the necessary muscles and accustoms the man to the necessary constraint.

[Sidenote: March training]

The training of the company for marching consists, then, in getting the men’s muscles in proper condition by physical drill, in theoretical instruction as outlined above, and actual practice. Most of the actual practice is and should be gained at the regular daily drills and exercises. In these, if they are properly conducted, the man gets enough preparation.

[Sidenote: Practice marches]

Devoting one day each week to a practice march is believed a mistake. In many of our posts a command going out on the roads can not leave them, there is no chance for instruction except very imperfect instruction in advance and rear guard work and practice in marching.

The physical part, the mere practice in marching can be just as well gained in the regular exercises, and to devote one-fifth of our field training period to the other instruction is excessive. It prevents some of the other necessary training being given and it ignores relative values.

What are wanted are men physically fit. Four to six hours a day of correct and rational training will make them as much fit without this weekly practice march as with it and give more time, all of which is needed, for necessary work.

[Sidenote: Yearly march]

There should, however, be one march every year of from 200 to 300 miles. This is necessary for instruction in camp expedients, to train the men to care for themselves on long marches and to give them experience in field service.

It would be better could it be held late in the season. The command should march to some point where they could have maneuver work and training in the larger units and on the ground more unfamiliar than their home reservation. But the march should be held, if it be only out and back.

[Sidenote: The officers]

Even with the men well prepared much of the success of the march depends on the officers. They must understand how to conduct a march and care for their men and conscientiously perform their duty. They must try to get the man’s point of view, think of the man’s comfort and health.

[Sidenote: Marching gait]

[Sidenote: Halts]

Every officer who may be responsible for the uniformity and rate of march should carefully train himself to take a suitable gait and strictly maintain it. No one thing is more trying than an unsteady pace and many good officers are unable properly to lead a column on on the march for this reason. The halts must be regulated to suit conditions. In very hot weather or when climbing steep hills they must be more frequent than once an hour.

Discipline must be strict, no straggling allowed. Running to catch up, “backing and filling” is productive of a big sick report.

Whenever conditions permit the intervals between units should be increased, especially when the weather is hot and roads dusty. It renders a steady, uniform pace easier to maintain, and thus tires the men less.

The other rules for marches given in our service regulations should be carefully observed.

[Sidenote: The first few days]

Much of the success of a long march depends on the first two or three days, until the men get into the swing. Where practicable the first day’s march should be a little less than average, the second a short one, after that our trained regulars can keep up the average march six days a week. On starting out it is the second day’s march that is the most trying to the men. This should be borne in mind and all practicable allowances made.

An excessively long march should never be made just for practice. It does not fit the man for another but the reverse.

VIII

THE NATIONAL GUARD

In training the infantry of the national guard we have a very different problem from that of the regular regiments.

In these regiments the same proportional attention should be given to those things that should be habits as in training the regulars and the necessity for varied instruction in order to keep the interest of the men is even greater.

[Sidenote: Scope of the instruction]

My observation leads me to believe that the greatest weakness of many of our national guard captains lies in the narrow scope of the instruction given and in its monotony. There is a lack of variety at each meeting. The men lose interest.

When the recruit first joins the guard he generally does it for the best of reasons and is interested in the work. But after going to the armory for a few times and drilling in a few movements over and over again he loses interest, then he cuts drill and possibly ends by trying to get discharged.

There are many things that should be taught, and you can only hope for success by varying the work and holding the interest of your men. Do not put more time than necessary on non-essentials.

[Sidenote: The recruit]

Of course the recruit must first be taught the school of the soldier and he must have the necessary instruction in close order drill. But even early in his course there is a chance for variety; early in the game give him a rifle for part of the time and as soon as he has had a little drill in the manual of arms teach him sighting and then pointing and aiming drill. As soon as he is far enough along let him fire a score at gallery practice each drill. At first devote the most time to drill without arms but increase the time with arms until all the drills are with arms and you get him in the company for close order drill.

The following should be taught as carefully as practicable:

[Sidenote: Essentials for the guard]

1. Target practice on the range. If the gallery practice and pointing and aiming drill recommended below be well done, comparatively little of this will answer. But it cannot be omitted, every man should have some practice. Where possible some of this practice should be in “field firing.” In many cases there is a tendency to give known distance firing an exaggerated value to the neglect of other training.

2. The mechanism of the deployments, the advance by rushes even after the line is mixed, control of fire, and all these directed by signals only; verbal commands should not be used.

3. Estimating distance must be taught.

4. Pointing and aiming drill and gallery practice, so that the man will always bring his piece up properly, look through the sights and pull the trigger only after careful aim, must be practiced until the necessary habit is formed.

5. There must be frequent close order drill. Knowledge of this is necessary for the orderly movement of troops and it is our greatest aid to discipline. But to be an aid to discipline it must be exact, otherwise it has a reverse effect. It is just as easy to do it correctly as to do it approximately if you only teach it so at the beginning and then give the subject attention ever afterward and do not allow the drill to become sloppy.

6. The use of the bayonet must be taught and practiced.

7. The men must be taught simple intrenching and the various uses of sand bags.

8. First aid and personal hygiene.

9. Patrolling; especially the combat patrols and those with advance and rear guards and outposts. As many as possible should know how to read a map.

10. The company musicians and two or three privates should know the flag signalling.

But the captain may say: all these are practicable with the regulars who have all the time needed and daylight in which to work and ground to work on; but how are we to do these in an armory at night?

[Sidenote: Required equipment]

Every armory should have a place fixed for gallery practice if it is only a backing for the target against the wall in one of the corners. And no company should be without a sand table; a relief map is also very desirable.

With this equipment let us see what we can do.

The ordinary drills of course are on the armory door.

[Sidenote: Estimating distances]

The principles of estimating distance should be taught the company and the men urged to practice it for themselves. Groups are formed and go anywhere it is convenient for this purpose. Occasionally, if found practicable, the company goes out. Officers and non-commissioned officers in this same way should learn to use the range finder.

[Sidenote: Patrolling]

Patrolling can be well taught on the sand table or relief map. Pile up your sand, forming any desired terrain; with yellow strings mark the roads and with blue ones the streams, little bridges, etc., can be made with a jackknife, houses represented by blocks, forests with little pieces of evergreen—you have your outdoors.

A scale must be provided and one end of the table marked as north.

The instructor takes a squad to the table and starts out, for instance, by stating: “Smith, your regiment has reached this point (just off the table) moving north in hostile territory. The colonel sends for you and gives you this order—‘Corporal, I have heard rumors that there is a force of the enemy in that village northeast of here. I want to know whether that is true. Take your squad and move along in the general direction of this main road, find out and report. The regiment will remain here for several hours. Be back here by 3 P. M., it is now 10 o’clock.’” The instructor tells Smith to do just as if he were on the ground. Smith inspects his squad, gives his instructions to his men and then proceeds. He can tell the instructor his formation, and what he does from time to time, or each of the men, provided with a match and a scale, may be required to move his own match. There are many ways of doing it. The instructor must give information of the enemy, either orally or at certain points place lead soldiers or something to represent the enemy.

The thing aimed at is to find out how Smith and the other men would act under various conditions, point out their errors and show them how to correct these, and give the reasons. An infinite number of such problems can be devised.

This sand table is especially good for teaching the work of a combat patrol. Form your field of battle and along one flank have a varied terrain with houses, clumps of trees, little hills, etc. The instructor moves a light rod along to represent the firing line and the patrol leader solves his problem. Whenever any error is made the movement stops until the mistake is pointed out and explained.

[Sidenote: Security]

In the same way are treated advance and rear guards of the strength of a company and a company as advance or rear party. Outposts are established, the sentinels being represented, and routes of the patrols selected.

[Sidenote: Entrenching]

Entrenching can be taught by constructing trenches to scale on the sand table terrain. I have seen elaborate field works with bomb proofs constructed in this way by the men of one company, but this is not recommended for any but the officers; it is better to limit this work to the simpler trenches. With a round piece of stove wood for a log and with a good jack knife, or better a hatchet, you can make your loop holes for the head log. With a lot of small Bull Durham tobacco sacks, filled with sand, you have your sand bags, the varied uses of which should be taught.

The officers should have a war game map for their patrol problems and for war games.

[Sidenote: Bayonet fencing]

Bayonet fencing should be practiced if you have the necessary equipment. If not, and a place is available for it, suspend by a rope something to represent a man, a sack full of straw will do, so that it can be made to swing through a small angle back and forth and to right and left. Let the men practice the thrusts, lunges, cuts, etc., against this, another man giving the dummy a motion. This should come after training in the bayonet exercise.

I would propose a system something like the following for your company drills:

Recruits by themselves until they can be put in the company; their work has already been discussed.

[Sidenote: Essentials at every drill]

After the company is formed give 15 or 20 minutes of snappy, precise close order drill then a little manual of arms. Then have the company deploy, two or three times at least, from different formations. Then go through an attack formation the best you can, all the company in the line, no support, an advance of 40 yards being represented by one of five, etc. Then try it holding out a support and putting it in so as to mix squads and advance as before. Remember, no verbal commands, all this to be done by signals.

Have little posters on one wall of your armory at the proper height; have a few minutes pointing and aiming drill, impressing on the men the importance of always taking careful aim.

[Sidenote: Group work]

Then divide your company into small groups. One group at the sand table, one receiving first aid instruction, another bayonet work, another gallery practice, etc. The group at the sand table may be larger than the others and may stay there for the rest of the evening, the others should change every 15 or 20 minutes. The sand table group should change each drill and once during the night if practicable, that is, if there is time for one group to finish its problem and give another a chance that same evening, it should be done. Nearly all the company should fire a score at the gallery every night.

If there are a few men in the company who are poor at the manual of arms they can be put in one group and be given one of their turns in drill in the manual.

One group may have to be taught how to make the pack. Instruction in guard duty may be necessary for another. Verbal instruction can be given in several subjects with great advantage where a good instructor is available; in that case all except the group at the sand table can be assembled.

The whole course cannot be covered at one drill. The captain should so arrange his groups that all in turn get instruction in the whole course, that all get a variety each night, that where men have a special deficiency it receives attention, that the first part, the essentials for the whole company, be never slighted, and that as many as practicable of the company get gallery practice at every drill—one score will answer fully.

Owing to the time it takes to complete a problem or task on the sand table, often but one group can use it in an evening. The size of the group working should not, however, be increased. Only small parties can be advantageously instructed. For this reason the sand table must be worked to the limit and because of this and the number of things to be taught on it and because some officers are not very expert in forming suitable terrain on the sand table, it is an advantage to have the relief map also. The latter can then be used for patrolling and work of covering detachments and the sand table for the field engineering.

[Sidenote: Brush work]

At most stations small twigs can be collected and used to make hurdle revetments, fascines and gabions for use on the sand table. They can be constructed to the reduced scale and this brush work learned nearly as well as outside with normally sized faggots.

Have the officer or non-commissioned officer best qualified give the instruction in each class. The instructor has much to do with success; some are specially good at one thing but poor at another.

With such a course of instruction well given throughout the year and with a week or ten days of good camp work annually, and suitable school work for the officers, there is no reason why the national guard should not possess the efficiency required of it to be a valuable military asset.

[Sidenote: No callisthenic drill]

Sufficient of the callisthenic or setting up exercises for the proper development of the soldier should be shown the recruit and the latter told of the advantages of practicing them for a few minutes every morning or evening, or both. Tell him what it will do for his health and appearance and urge him to get busy. There is no use drilling these exercises in the armory. A few minutes once a week or less often will do no good and wastes drill time of which the guard has none to spare.

The detailed sergeants should help in all drill work but especially should be valuable in teaching camp expedients, care of equipment, etc.

[Sidenote: Use of schools for N. C. O.]

I believe that in nearly every state the officers pursue a theoretical course each winter and generally there is a non-commissioned officers’ school as well. In the latter school there should be thoroughly taught, giving importance and precedence in the order stated:

Infantry Drill Regulations,

Manual of Guard Duty,

Small Arms Firing Regulations, and parts of Field Engineering.

Parts of the Field Service Regulations should be read carefully in connection with the study of the same subject in Infantry Drill Regulations. If more time is available map reading should be taught, and, if time remains, then applied minor tactics on the map. Attempt no more than you can _thoroughly_ do in the time available and make the course progressive.

[Sidenote: Schools for officers]

The school for officers should first cover thoroughly the above course but take more of Field Service Regulations and include the Manual of Courts Martial. Map reading should be thoroughly learned by all and the remaining time put on tactics. Beginning with minor tactics study some good problems with their solutions, then solve others to be criticised by some competent person. I have found it satisfactory to use problems in this way in connection with the drill regulations. Study a subject, for example an advance guard, then read a few tactical problems on the same subject, then try solving one, and so on.

As you progress use larger and larger forces. But do not attempt the brigade until you can handle the regiment correctly. Do not cover too much ground in one season and acquire only confusion. Each term get something positively fixed in your mind so that you can use it; there will be more winters.

Much attention should be given to acquiring facility in giving correct verbal orders.

Studying tactical problems correctly solved and solving others for yourself is the best way to learn tactics after you know the principles laid down in your manuals. Beware of “normal form” solutions, they are misleading and apt to be wrong. Apply general principles with common sense. Advantage should be taken of the officers detailed as inspector-instructors to plan and conduct this work as well as to help in the instruction of the men. Only those thoroughly competent for this instruction work should ever be detailed with the national guard.

There should be a camp of instruction each year. If properly conducted this is very valuable.

[Sidenote: Camps of instruction]

Nearly all national guard infantry needs training for individual men and officers and work in the company, battalion and regiment. When formed in divisions or larger forces for maneuver campaigns the men in ranks and junior officers get but little instruction. Except a little camp experience, it is chiefly walking, the object of which they know nothing, and most of the officers are not yet ready for this class of work. It is a camp of instruction, not a campaign, they need. They must apply on the ground what they have learned in the armory.

I believe the best results can be obtained from camps of not more than three regiments. The special needs of each regiment should be considered in forming the program. The work should be planned so as to give instruction to each in the most important things in which it is deficient. Special consideration should be given to what can not be learned in the armory and must be done out of doors.

Most of the program should be made up of practical drills and exercises in which all get instruction from private to colonel, and where their interest can be held and the best instruction given. Small maneuvers of company, battalion and regiment are what are needed.

Tactical walks for officers and non-commissioned officers are an excellent means of instruction—these supplement the other exercises.

The big maneuvers are very largely for general officers and very little for regimental officers. We need the foundation before we build the superstructure.

As much ground should be covered during the camp as is consistent with efficient instruction. No attempt should be made to cover the whole art of war in a week as it only results in confusion of ideas and gives little or no benefit.

[Sidenote: Service with regular companies]

If the law would permit a few national guardsmen to serve for short periods in the regular army it would help greatly towards uniformity of training and improve the non-commissioned personnel of the guard. These men should be allowed to so serve for three months during the company’s field training period or for one month during the indoor season; not more than five should be assigned to any one company. They should receive the regular’s pay and rations and, if joining for the three months period, one complete service uniform; the one-month men should bring their uniforms with them.

This privilege should be granted only to men who have still one year more to serve in their enlistment in the guard and who are recommended by their captains. They should be excused from post guard and all fatigue duty and in place of that receive additional instruction work each day. In order to obtain the most benefit, these men should be attached to those companies whose training is the best; in an indifferently trained company they would get some benefit but it would be little in comparison with what they would receive in the other class.

This recommendation is made from having recently seen the results of having a few men of the national guard join an excellent regular company for a short period. These men came without pay and themselves paid their board while with the company.

There would probably be no large number who would so serve, but there are some and we are in no condition in this country to overlook even small helps that will contribute towards fitting us for war.

[Sidenote: Value in war]

Owing to the small peace strength of most of these regiments and the large number of recruits they must take in on the outbreak of war, their value will depend on the time they will require to be fit for the field at war strength. They have the organization in working shape. Their officers will, in the majority of regiments, be men who have had considerable training. If they will follow a logical and systematic course of training in peace, the officers will be familiar with it and will be experienced instructors, and all their old men will have the instruction to a certain degree so that they can help drag up the recruits. All this will help to shorten the time required to fit them for the field and every day thus cut off adds greatly to their value.

Without such training their value is small, for no regiment should be accepted except at war strength and a national guard regiment so filled up, without experienced instructors who know the course, will take nearly as long to become efficient as would a new regiment.

IX

INSPECTIONS

Much can be done to improve the training of our infantry by the inspections. Most officers greatly dislike to have an adverse report made by an inspector on their commands. Fear of such a report sometimes works to the detriment of sound training and sometimes to its improvement.

[Sidenote: Influence of inspections]

A captain once asked why he put so much time on exercises of obviously little consequence and so little time on others more important, replied: “Blank will inspect this year. He always pays great attention to such and such an exercise and never examines the company in the others. I want a clean record on this inspection.”

We have all been influenced as was this captain. Even if we do not care personally, loyalty to our colonel or to the post commander leads us to consider what the inspector will require.

The author has no intention of criticizing adversely the Inspector General’s Department; its inspections have steadily improved in recent years and become more rational and consequently more beneficial. His aim is rather to point out the place of the inspections in the year’s training and to suggest how, in connection with the methods of training proposed, they may be made both searching and helpful toward real proficiency.

[Sidenote: The annual inspection]

In the annual inspection it is evident that in the time available the inspector cannot examine an organization in everything it should know; he must choose certain things and judge from those of the training of the company or regiment.

In making this choice the relative importance of the subjects must be kept in mind. Of course every company must be tried out in the combat exercises and in all the things that should be made fixed habits. It is of equal importance that no stress be laid on non-essentials. For the rest, he should select certain important things which every company should know and inspect it thoroughly as to its proficiency in those, examining the various companies at a post in different subjects so that a captain would feel that anything in the whole course might fall to his lot from properly making the pack to establishing an outpost at night.

The inspector should make free use of the war game map, tactical walks and every other recognized means of instruction to find out how well the officers and men of the regiment are instructed and what class of work each organization is doing.

In order to be fair to the organizations inspected the annual inspection should be made late in the season. It should never be made before the officers have had a fair show to instruct their commands.

[Sidenote: Company examination]

[Sidenote: Battalion examination]

The above inspection by an officer of the Inspector General’s Department should not, however, be the only one. At the close of each period of training there should be an examination of the organizations on the work they are supposed to have done. The last of March or first of April the field officers of the regiment, as a board, should examine the companies on the results of their winter’s work; a similar examination should be made at the close of the period of company field training. When the battalions have finished their period of field training the colonel and lieutenant colonel should form the board to examine them. If the brigade commander be thoroughly posted on all matters pertaining to infantry training his presence at the examinations and careful supervision of the work cannot fail to be very beneficial. His supervision should not, however, lead to restriction of the proper latitude which should be allowed subordinates; his mission should be to see that the instruction given is correct and that the whole course has been satisfactorily covered.

[Sidenote: National guard inspection]

The same general principles apply to the inspection of national guard organizations. If anything is found wrong with them the inspector should not keep silent at the time and content himself with rendering later an adverse written report; he should tell the officer being inspected what is wrong and take pains to show him how to correct the error. A helping hand, offered in the right spirit, will always be appreciated.

X

TRAINING A NEW REGIMENT

[Sidenote: Need for quick training]

In this country we are liable to have the necessity forced upon us of turning out troops in the shortest possible time. We shall have to use troops not fully trained; we shall have to employ them as soon as they can be used at all. Of course this system will be frightfully costly in blood and money. In war imperfectly trained troops must pay with their lives for all mistakes. The better trained they are, the fewer mistakes, the more skill they possess the more cheaply can any desired result be obtained.

It is the duty of all officers who may be charged with the responsibility of preparing this mass of untrained men for war service to give the subject careful thought, to study the question carefully and to be prepared on short notice to take charge of such work and produce the best results possible in the shortest time.

Success in this hurried training can only be secured if the man in charge thoroughly appreciates his task and follows out a well prepared and systematic course.

There are three phases of the problem: Our regular regiments must be raised from a strength of about 65 men per company to nearly 150. The national guard regiments, less well prepared, will have, as a rule, to stand a still greater increase of new men, and there will be hundreds of entirely new regiments to be raised.

[Sidenote: The commander]

In outlining or suggesting a possible course to be pursued in such cases let us take the new regiment. The regiment must first be enlisted, organized and equipped. This first step will not be considered further than to say that in its organization it is absolutely necessary that its commander be an active, competent officer, one who can train it and prepare it for its work. In no other way can the regiment be prepared to do anything within a reasonable time.

To appoint an incompetent commander to such a regiment would cost many lives, would be a crime closely resembling murder in the second degree.

An effort should be made in every new regiment to have a reasonable number of subordinates competent to act as instructors.

[Sidenote: General principles of training]

Under modern conditions there is a minimum amount of training that is absolutely necessary before an organization can be put in the field. The number of men lost to an organization from disease depends on how well the men are trained in caring for themselves and how well the officers do their part.

Time is the all important element; we must have these organizations in such shape that they can be used as quickly as possible and be as nearly good as possible. Of course they will constantly improve in the field and become excellent, but they will have to be used before that state is reached. The occasion for organizing such regiments will only arise in case of great national danger, when the utmost can be demanded of all. Hours of work should then be all that can be profitably employed. Most of the recruits will be men accustomed to at least eight hours work a day.

All that has been said previously as to variety in the work, keeping up the men’s interest, explaining and giving the reasons for things done, applies even more to a new volunteer regiment than to our regular companies. Essentials only must be taught at first, bearing in mind that discipline is most essential and the use that can be made of close order drill in obtaining it. Those things that should be a habit must be drilled carefully and frequently. Other essentials may be hurried through for the first time, to give the men the best general idea possible in the shortest time, and then repeated and perfected as time and opportunity offer.

As a rule our men will be intelligent and quick to learn. Every little taught them, if they have understood the reason for it, will help them to do what is required even if their instruction is not complete. With such volunteers much instruction should be given not as a drill but as a sort of lecture or talk. The average American works better when he knows the why and the wherefore. Remember how different are his new life and surroundings from what he is accustomed to and how very little the average American knows of an army and how much of that little is not so.

In submitting a proposed schedule of training it is fully appreciated that conditions will vary greatly and any schedule must be suited to conditions as they exist; it is doubtful if the one here proposed would ever exactly fit. It is only offered as a possible help.

It is assumed that the colonel is thoroughly competent and that there are several men in the command with some military training, such as ex-regulars and national guardsmen and those who have had training in a college battalion. This latter assumption is a safe one in this country.

[Sidenote: Company Cooks]

It is very probable that every company will have a cook that enlisted as such and knows something of the art. But handling the ration and army cooking have features that are different from what he is used to unless he has been trained in the army. The company kitchen must be correctly run or training will be difficult. Discontent and a big sick report are fatal to success.

The first thing, then, is to instruct the cooks and mess sergeants. Some one must be found competent to do this and he must look after the kitchens, correct mistakes and give instruction until they are all running properly. The new captains must learn how to look after this work properly if they do not already know. If the colonel can find nobody else to do it he must do it himself. It must be done. It is a very important part of the foundation upon which success must be built.

[Sidenote: Paper work]

The necessary records and papers should be properly kept and made, both at regimental headquarters and in the orderly room. This is important but not so much so as the kitchens. The mistakes in paper work only cause annoyance and confusion off the battlefield and possibly will lose somebody some money; but the other causes loss of life and prevents efficiency. This work should be properly taught. Some competent non-commissioned officers or officer should be given the task of instructing the clerks and first sergeants. It is not difficult, at least the essential parts, and it should be promptly attended to upon organization but so as in no way to interfere with training. An ex-regular sergeant major, first sergeant or clerk would be very valuable here. So far as possible such a man should be made adjutant of every new regiment of volunteers. His value as an instructor in many things would be great and he would save the colonel much trouble and annoyance.

[Sidenote: Band]

From the first day of training the band should be turned over to the surgeons for thorough instruction as auxiliary sanitary troops. At least two hours a day should be devoted to this work until they become proficient, after which, an hour or two a week, to keep them so.

The band must also receive the necessary drill so that it can be maneuvered as such. Callisthenic drill, practice in marching, care of themselves in the field, individual cooking, and tent pitching must be taught. Three hours daily should be devoted to this instruction until satisfactory results are obtained, after which only occasional drills are necessary. This may interfere somewhat with their music, but that can wait.

[Sidenote: Surgeon]