, 1888-10-14
A FEW FORCED MARCHES.
Infantry Averages but Fifteen Miles a Day.
Ancient Figures.

Infantry Averages but Fifteen Miles q Day.
Ancient Figures.
A dispatch from Fort Robinson, Neb.,
mentions an exceptional march made by
the Eighth United States cavalry, COM
manded by Col. j. Misener, from Fort
Davis, Tex, having Fort Meade, D. T.,
for its destination, q distance of 1850
miles. The regiment reached Fort Rob-
inson on the 26th of August, having
made 1850 miles of the march, leaving
100 miles still to go. The regiment left
Fort Davis on May II, and reached Fort
Meade on Sept. 8, making the time 100
days, and an average of a fraction over
fifteen miles a day, a rate of travelling
considered exceedingly good. The band
and regimental headquarters accom-
panied the expedition. This move Is
merely n of the ordinary changes of
quarters, and is of interest only as an
initial step toward q change of system in
transporting troops. Where time is of
little object the government has con-
Guided to adopt the plan of marches in
stead of using the railroad, thereby saw
ing the cost of transportation-a very
considerable item. OF course this can
only be done in the open country, but
even there in the great west the land is
becoming settled sc fast that a barb wire
fence is frequently met with as an OBJ
struotion.
Lieut.. L. W. V. Kennon, ~aide-de-camp
Oh Gen. Crooks staff, whose main hobby,
by the way, is tactics, he having written
a number of exhaustive articles upon that
subject, one lately appearing in The Army
N Navy Journal, expressed the opinion
that the system would become very pop
ular, for, besides the saving in expense,
he claims 1t is the best sort of drill, hard
ening and ~toughening the troops as would
no other method. Fourteen to fifteen
miles a day is considered a fair pace; over
fifteen is called quick marching, and over
twenty is set down in military books as q
forced march, but there have been some
rare instances of quick marching that
make the ordinary forced march seem
like play.
Moving n whole army, consisting of
infantry, cavalry, artillery, with the ac-
companying baggage wagons and army
necessaries, is vastly different from the
transportation of a single regiment of in
fantry or cavalry. Napoleon is credited
with having performed the most aston
ishing feat of this character ON record
when in 1905 he marched his entire army
from the channel TO the Rhine, a distance
of 400 miles, in twenty-five days, sixteen
miles a day. The historian Gibbon tells
OF a march of the Sultan Galaleddin in
1906 with his troops of 1000 miles, MAX
ing fifty-eight miles a day. The same
authority mentions an incident a century
later when Mira Meheddin Sultan
marched with 80, 900 soldiers $50 miles
in five days, but states that the penalty
of the commanders ardor was the loss OF
10000 of his men, reaching his destina-
ton with but 4, 200.
During the late war Gen. Grierson,
now colonel of the Tenth cavalry, marched
COO miles in sixteen days through the
enemy's country; this was at the rate of
thirty-seven and a half miles a day.
Later than this, some time in 1873, Gen.
Stanley marched through Montana and
Dakota with a regiment of infantry 900
miles in twenty-eight days, thirty-two
miles a day.-Chicago Herald.
L.