News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-08-03
THE ARMY.
IL was Organized and Drilled by
Americans-A Sketch of the Or
Uanizafinn

IL was Organized and Drilled by
Americans-A Sketch of the Or
g~anization.
The Egyptian army, which comes in
conflict with the British feet, was or
ganized by American officers, and as far
as it has any efficiency it is their Gre
alton. These officers-some twenty
five in number-went to Egypt in 1867,
nearly all broken in fortune and filled
with high hopes in their new employ
ment. 1t was through General Thad-
deus P. Mott, and son of DR.. Valentine
Mott, who had made his way to Con-
stantinople and there married a Greek
lady, that these gentlemen were in
duced to enter the service of the Khe-
dive. General Mott served in Italy, and
afterward rose to the rank of Brigadier
General in the federal army during the
late civil war. The best known of these
Americans was General Charles 2.
Stone, who almost Immediately became
chief of staff. and soon after firmly es-
tablished himself in a post similar In
power and authority to that of General
Won Moltke toward the German armies.
1t was not long before the American
officers began to feel hostile pressure
from two quarters-one from the Amer
lean Consul General, Colonel George H.
Butler, and from the English influences
prevailing in Cairo and Alexandria.
Then followed some personal ~encount-
ers and general pickering disgraceful to
all concerned, and as a body among the
Christian colonies of those two cities
these gentlemen soon lost any collective
standing. Individually, however, they
were soldiers of established reputation,
the larger proportion being from the
Confederate army, and they have nearly
all led very adventurous careers, both
before and after leaving the Egyptian
service. The most prominent Confed.
crate was Colonel Charles Rhett, chief
of staff to General Joseph E. Johnson
during the civil war. When Colonel
Rhett went to Egypt he was very much
disinclined to adopt the habits of the
military in matters of costume, and in
fact had no sympathy with the country
at all, and was quite outspoken IN his
views. From this circumstance he was
never given an important command,
but, like many others, was given his
pay regularly, according to contract,
which was an inhex1ble instrument. He
was seized with paralysis while on a
visit to Europe, dying suddenly. He
was the most popular of all the Ameri-
can officers in Egypt.
An officer of no less note was Loring
Pacha, who in 1849 performed the most
difficult AMI painstaking march known
in American military annals. He con-
Quoted a regiment supplied with artil-
lery across the Rocky Mountains to
Oregon-a five months tramp. He
subsequently, engaged in the Mexican
war, leaving an arm on the field, but
when the civil war came he cast his for
tunes with the South. When he left
Egypt, where he was commandment of
Alexandria-the important post to-day
Khedive gave him $50, 000, which
it is understood has almost melted
away in disastrous speculation. 1t was
General Loring who constructed al
most all of the important defeness of
Alexandria, commanded the disastrous
expedition against Abyssinia, and whose
hand is visible in the military organiza-
ton as it stands to-day. He is living in
New York City. engaged upon a book
recounting the experiences of his life.
The career of General Charles P.
Stone is well known to all army officers,
and had he remained in his original
position on the army list there is scarce
ly an officer in the active service that
would now rank him. He was, how
ever, at the instance of the late Senator
Sumner, sent to Fort Lafayette on
charges of reasonable conduct at the
battle of Balls Bluff, and was subse-
quently dismissed. This event nearly
upset his reason but he rallied, be-
came a mining engineer, and finally ac-
cepted the position at the head of the
Egyptian staff which he still holds.
His conduct in Egypt has been both
highly praised and severely criticised.
One thing is certain. He is about the
only American officer who was able to
hold his place against all intrigue, first
with Ismail Pacha, the deposed
Khedive, and then with his son, Tewfik,
his successor. General Stone not only
to organize the present
army, to revolutionize the rotten
methods he found in vogue, but he set
foot a comprehensive system of CEN
trail African exploration, under Colonel
@. G. Long, Sparrow Purdy and Majors
Mason, Prout and Dye. The officers
remaining at the scene of conflict
are General Stone, Colonel @. G. Long
mot in the army and Major Mason.
Sparrow Purdy is dead. Among those
longer living, too, are Colonel Jeni-
fer, the inventor of the Jenifer saddle;
General Sibley, the inventor of the
tent; General Reynolds, Colonel
Frank Kaynolds, Major Hunt and Col
onel Campbell. all x-Confederate
officers. General r. E. Colston, who
made a journey of 1, 700 miles on a lit
ter from Equatorial Africa to the Nile,
now engaged as a military instructor
at an academy on Washington Heights.
Colonel Wood is living quietly in Nor
1t is hardly probable that any of the
American officers will participate in the
with the exception of General
Stone, and it is extremely doubtful if
le will be permitted to retain any i'm
command if a religious war
grows out of the situation.
Few of the officers now live to see the
of their labors. There is a very
large number of Americans and officers
everywhere who will watch the resuIt
the fighting as an evidence of what
military taskmasters can do with
African material Tho arpou D1~boro