The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-07-07
SIR WILLIAM NAPIER.
How He Managed the Most Lawiess DO
diers In the British Army.

How He Managed the Most Lawless Sol
diers in the British Army.
Sir William Napier, who first helped
to make history and then told it, was
the most tender-hearted of men and the
sternest of disciplinarians. The COM
pany of which he was made Captain was
the worst in his regiment, and the regl-
ment, the Forty-Third, was the worst IN
the army. Three months after Napier
took command of the company it was
in such perfect order that the young
Captain was looked up to as the best
disciplinarian in the army. The regi-
ment at the siege and assault OF BSdaJos
had shown itself the bravest of the brave.
Its Colonel had been killed, and nearly
all its officers were dead or wounded,
when Napier, twenty-seven years OF age.
arrived from England to take COM
mand.
He found the men who had braved
unheard-of terrors demoralized by de-
bauchery and the absence of control.
His heart jumped into his mouth at the
thought of furnishing such brave men,
but punish them he did with unflinch-
inc severity. lie told them plainly that
he would curb their law ressness, and
they defied him to do his worst. At
Salamanca, while skirmish was going
on, and the enemy's guns were pouring
shot into the regiment, his men became
disobedient. He halted the regiment,
and flogged four of the ring-leaders I'M
der fire. Then they submitted to the
order, and advanced three miles under
constant cannonade, as steadily as at
review. At Vittoria, his regiment.
which had been the most lawless OF the
plunderers at Badajoz, marched over
the richest articles of dress and furni-
ture strewn about the field, and not a
man stopped to pick up single thing.
Yet this same officer. who could halt
regiment under fire to fog four men,
had the heart of an affectionate woman.
Once when he returned to England on
sick leave, his youngest child, baby OF
twelve months, was so frightened at the
sight of his moustache that she would
not kiss him. He stepped into an adj
Joining room, shaved off his moustache,
and came back to be kissed. One day
he met little girl sobbing over a
broken bowl, because she would be
whipped when she got home
But ZEE can mend it, can't 'ee" said
she, looking up at the giants face.
"I'm afraid not, my dear" said he,
feeling in his pocket; ''but | will give
you a sixpence to buy new bowl.
He couldn't find even penny.
'Meet me here tomorrow at this
time" said he, "and ] will give you the
sixpence.
The child went off smiling, to tell hel
mother that stranger would replace
the bowl. Napier returned home to
find an invitation to dine in Bath the
next evening, to meet q gentleman
whom he wished very much to see. AT
once he thought of the little girl, and Of
the possibility of meeting her and then
returning in time for the dinner. Find
ing that it would be impossible, he
wrote declining the invitation, saying
to his daughter:
II can't disappoint her; she trusted
me so implicitly.
1.-THE young Colonel could halt mu
tinous regiment, under plunging can
non balls, and fog their ring-leaders
because of his tender heart. All his
men knew that Napier loved them, was
their best friend and was trying to save
them from their wicked selves. He
held them while they saw their com
rades tiogged and their ranks deeimated
because he had hold upon their hearts
The leader who has gripped his men by
love can do what he pleases with them
They will stand in the jaws of death, il
he cries ..HaltnI- Ynath,s Goauraauiou