Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-24
The national Guard.

The two most marked defects OF the Ma
tional Guard are in discipline and guard
duty. 1t is difficult for men who are on
more or less familiar terms at home to lay
aside those relations and don the uniform
and assume the role of the soldier. Disci-
pline is of slow growth. 1t cannot be
learned in day, but is the gradual de-
velopment of military career. When
we reflect that large percentage of the
men in the annual camps are recruits of
but few weeks or months service, that
many of them are serving the State with
out compensation, and are even paying for
their own subsistence and transportation.
and that the obligations they feel to the
State sit very lightly on them, the wonder
is not that discipline is often lax, but
rather that it can be maintained at all.
1t is also difficult to impress upon new
soldier the dignity and gravity of his re-
sponsibility as sentinel, and until he has
been thoroughly imbued with the true
spirit of the soldier no reliance can be
placed in him for guard duty. Unfortu-
nately for many of our National Guard
companies, too much attention has been
paid to ceremonies, parades, reviews, ex-
hibition and prize drills and fine points in
the drill-book, to the entire neglect Of the
far more important instruction of the SEN
tinel. The Acknowledgement of the army,
referring to-this subject, in his annual re-
port for 1886. says: Exhibition drills,
while interesting as showing to what de-
gree of mechanical precision body OF
men can be trained to attain in move
ments and motions, are an undesirable
feature of military camps. In many in
stances, the development of extreme
smartness in drill involves the neglect of
some of the most important and solid
parts of a soldiers training"
In point of drill military appearance
and bearing, and general intelligence and
morality, the National Guard of America
are probably the equal of the best troops
in the world. Colonel Loder, of the Fifth
United States Artillery, who inspected the
New York camp last year, declares:
Nothing could be finer than the dress
parade and appearance of the Seventh, nor
the drill of the Twenty third or guard
mount of the Twenty-second." The officer
who inspected the Dallas Tex Artillery,
himself an artilleryman, says: "Its inspec-
ton and drill were almost beyond criti
cism." The Fourteenth Regiment Of Ohio,
commanded by Colonel A. B. Colt, gal
liant officer who won distinction as Cap
tain by his GOODNESS and bravery in the
Cincinnati riots, is thus described: "This
regiment is famous in the West for its long
and varied services. Its appearance was
fire; with the exception of two companies,
almost every man was well set up, and
standing properly at attention leather of
accoutrements was blackened, brass parts
polished, cap-devices and buttons bright,
clothing neat-ftting, boots shining and
men clean shaved. The manual was we'll
executed throughout, tents were we'll
pitched and foored, and police excellent"
Illustrations could be multiplied many
times by examples selected at random from
almost any State. The relations which
now exist between the army and the Ma
tional Guard are of the most cordial ma
ture, and the more they are thrown to-
gether the better they will understand each
other, and the result can but prove benef-
cial to both The War Department is ex-
tending every courtesy and encouragement
to the State troops, and it is within the
bounds of reason that the time is not far
distant when this great reserve force of the
nation will contain quarter of million
of as fine young soldiers as the world has
ever seen.-Lieuenant A. C. Sharpe, .. S.
A., IN Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly.