The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1881-11-10
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER.

Archibald FOrbes' Opinion ola Connecticut
Regiment on Parade at Charleston, South
Carolina.
One OF the most delighted spectators of
the superb marching and Iress parade of
the First Connecticut regiment was Archi-
bald Forbes, the famous war correspondent
of the London Neaos. To reporter of the
Charleston Neus and Courier, who had a
talk with him, he said:
I'VE Enelishmen have habit of looking
down upon talking man, and to agree with
Carlyle, when he says, The able man is the
silent man. and I am bound to say that the
first night was here, when heard those
Connecticut men crate, with a good deal of
buncombe thrown in. I said to myself, Much
that l AN told that will see Tomorrow will
be promise without full6llment.' But it
came about quite the other way, and I am
free to say that it seems to me that if there
are a great many regiments like that Connect
ticut regiment which saw here On parade in
.he nation, it don't want any standing army
at all, as they would constitute far cheap
or and more effective force than anv stand
ing army would. have seen all the arm
les in the world, believe, from Afghan
scala~ags to Russian Imperial Guards, and
nave never seen greater precision and
stability than those men manifested on that
dress parade. To me it was revelation,
and rather disagreeable revelation from
this point of view, which you can easily
understand, that became painfully aware
that there was another factor in the world
capable of beating us. A MAN never likes
to find out that the number of men strong
er than himself is on the increase. We
Engllshmen have been INDUCING in the
satisfaction, that however continental coun.
tries might grow with their millions of re.
serves against our 100000 or 2OO. 600
trained troops. We were yet capable of
staggering over the United States in the
matter of drill and discipline, and the pune
tllious performance of evolutions. But
what saw yesterday proved to me that
such was not the case. Thosemen marched
and wheeled quite equal to our grena-
der guards, and don't think have seen
anything to equal the precision in the man.
ual in that dress parade. It seemed to me
tina: the commanding officer, who went to
| the front, aud moved as piece of mechan-
| ism, had bis foot on an electric wire which
communicated with the regiment, ana that
each man was mere automaton, not
moved by the word Of command, but by the
colonels foot on the concealed wire in the
ground, and what I admired most of all
Was the absolute rleidity of the accuracy
that was preserved in the minutest detail.
| The tendency of a republican country
like this is to iespise the accuracy which
does not bear fruit right away, but the &C.
curacy in military affairs, which appears
good to outsiders, is really the means to an
end. 1t is the evidence of that discipline
which in the time of danger may be found
to have no other stable reliance than bv
| that consuetude which rigorous drill and
p srctice carries with 1t. The week point of
all volunteer improvised forces is that they
have not that amount of discipline that be-
comes engraftea into the very nature of the
old soldier, but those mon seemed yes,er-
day to have been that way so long, that
what they did VAS not the result of thought.
| fulness, not the result OF first rehearsal
or a second rehearsal, but the performance
of thing by note, and they had
come to that perfection as naturally as the
taking Of cocktail. All this seems to
come out Of an infinite capacity for taking
pains in these Connecticut people. It
seems to me that comparing for didn't
like to contrast), but comparing what l
saw, that your South Carolina people were
| deficient in comparison with these Con.
necticut troops in mechanical accuracy.
They looked we'll, and all the world knows
that they are good fighting men, but they
had not got that punctilious accuracy in
keeping step and in the manual which
brings confidence to General in a LARGE
maneuver. In other words, their disci-
pine was not so good"