The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-21
SOLDIERS WHO STUDY.
Col Bigelow Tells How War is
Learned From Books as Well as on
the Field ,
From the Washington Star.

From the Washington Star.
As stated in the Star, Col. Bigelow. ad-
jutant-general of the district national
guard, delivered before the officers of the
national guard at headquarters re-
Gently, the first of a course of lectures on
the Art and Science of War The pur-
pose of the lectures, as Col. Blgelow an
nounced, is first, to teach his hearers their
duties as officers; and second, to interest them
in the business of war. While admitting that
an OH er cannot become perfectly accom-
pllshed in those duties except through ex-
perlence, he maintained that war could not
be learned without study. st is, he said,
"a great mistake in inquiring into the
secret of military success during our late
war to consider our officers as divided into
two classes-the one regularly trained, the
other altogether without training-and to
compare the success of these two classes
with each other. TIE latter class should be
divided into those individuals that could
train themselves and those that could not.
We would then have three classes of officers
to considerable ready-traiued, the self
trained, the UNFRAMED. Assuming such
subdivision to be made, | venture to say
that the great names among our volunteer
generals will be found i'll the second class,
and that in the third, among the creatures
of inspiration and luck and political intiu-
ence, not a single name of good military
reputation viii be found.
THE MOST BRILLIANT SUCCESS.
"The most brilliant success, if not the
highest order of military fame, is attained
only by means of inventions, improvements,
and innovations, which for time at least,
are the monopoly of their author. The Q
advantages, it is needless to say, can hardly
be attained without study, but they have
been attained without previous experience.
No campaign OF Napoleon's was more brill
liant than that upon which he entered at
tn age OF rs, fresh from his preparatory
studies and researches at the French war
department without ever having COM
manded brigade, a division, or an army,
and Napoleon laid it down as special rule
that professional stu jy in some form is the
first condition of practical success. Well
lngton, at the close of bis last great cam
pagn, confessed to junior staff officer his
personal obligation to daily study. Mar
shal Turenne, the greatest Of hose great
soldiers of the age OF Louis XIV, thought
that the art of war was learned more from
books than upon battle fields and his great
talents were the fruit of the dee. est study.
The Archduke Charles, who first showed
the generals of Europe that Napoleon could
be beaten, formed his reputation as strate-
glst upon emergi & from his study, Where
he had spent many months pursuing the
theory of war, having previously served in
three campaigns.
1.-The great English art critic, John Rus
kin, whose opinion on this subject, though
not that of an expert deserves at lea t our
respectful notice as that of close observer
and lofty thinker, in an address delivered
to the Woolwich cadets used these words,
so admirably adapted to impress his boyish
audience;
1. IL
careless or indolent in his youth. Mary a
giddy and thoughtless boy has become
good bishop, or a good lawyer, or a good
merchant; but no such au one ever became
good general. There is no form of science
which soldier may not at some time or
other find bearing on the business of life or
death. Never waste an instantS time,
therefore; the sin of idleness Is a thousand
fold greater in you than in other youths,
for the fateS or those who viii one day
be under your command hang upon your
knowledge; lost moments now will be
lost lives then, and every instant which
you carelessly take for play you buy with
blood
''To be sure, Won Moltke has said that
great generals, like poets, are born, not
made; but he has been himself an indefat
igable student, and is reputed to be a
walking military cyclopHlia. Gen. Sher-
the war between tue states uses these words:
There may be such men as born generals,
but have never enc Juntered them, and
doubt the wisdom of trusting to their turn
ing up in an emergency
SCIENCE, ART OR TRADEl
at was Frederick the Great who said that
war is a science for superior men, an art
for ordinary men and trade for ignorant
men. | trust, gentlemen, that accepting
this dictum as correct, you are resolved that
to you it shall be science. As such it will
raise your minds above the narrowing de-
tails of drill and save you from becoming
martinez; it will guard you in time Of peace
against the vices and the follies of false
military ideal; in time of war it will assist
your higher nature to resist the baneful
influences of the soldiers rough life and
horrible work, and if it does not secure to
you all the recognition and reward which
you may think you deserve, it can hardly
fail to win for you the honorable esteem of
your immediate superior ard brother
officers, and what is more to be priced than
that, the loyal affection and fearless devo-
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