The herald., 1897-06-13
6nglanars T,m.y
Nnue1. Wcto,xa
General Sir Evelyn Wood, the Famous
Military Authority
Writes for The Sunday Herald on Sixty Years
With the British Troops

LONDON, May 2s.-During the sixty
years Queen Victoria has reigned, ex-
elusive of the chartered and other COM
panies, the British army has fought in
great or small expeditions, for fifty
years, leaving ten years only of alb
Yolute peace.
In 1852, we had got battalions, but we
had no generals trained and practiced
in the duties of that rank; for as soon
as colonel was promoted he was placed
on half-pay and was very seldom en-
ployed afterwards. There was no staff
known as such, no field commissariat
ambulance corps, nor transport. There
was no general qualified to handle more
than one arm, /. e., the cavalry or in
fantry, while the artillery was kept as
distinct from the rest of the army as il
it had been a separate profession! The
army was in this state when England
drifted into a war with Russia, of which
the only recollection to be recalled with
thorough satisfaction is that our SOL
diers gave to all time an enduring ex-
ample of the highest form of discipline.
Forty per cent of those who served be-
fore Sebastopol, in the depth of the
winter of 1S5455 rest ON the uplands OF
the Crimea, or in the Scutary cemetery
at Constantinople These heroic men,
who were destroyed by unnecessary and
preventable privations, exposure, dis
ease and undue exertion, never gave in
and lay down to die without even mur-
mur.
In spite of our losses, however, when
peace ensued in 1856, England stood in
a better position for war than two years
previously when the great struggle COM
menced. The $4,000 men who disem-
barked in the Crimea in September,
1854, had practically all disappeared, but
they had been replaced by another ST.
900, with 96 field cannon, or treble the
number landed in 1854. 1t is strange how
Glow our countrymen are to learn. While
the indescribable miseres were still
fresh in the public mind-even before
the treaty of peace was signed-the Cab
met was considering what retrench-
navy. Nor is this extraordinary when
we reflect that in those days no British
cabinet, so far as know, had ever un-
derstood war; and that our expenditure
was at the time about three millions
sterling a month; but the misfortune
was, we commenced to reduce the army
without considering what the military
policy of the country was to be.
In 1887, our hospital arrangements
were as unsatisfactory as those which
I have described in regard to the regi-
mental system. In practice. at all events,
nothing beyond a bare diet, and medi-
cine, was allowed for the sick, all the
articles now termed medical comforts"
being obtained, if at ALL at the expense
CT the officers. One good result spring.
fng from the sufferings Of our soldiers
in the Crimea was the increased atten-
tion given to the care of the sick and
wounded men. 1t was furthered in a
marked degree by the exertions of
women Miss Nightingale and the ladies
who accompanied her to the east, did
great service in ameliorating the posi-
ton of the soldier when in hospital. In
March, 1855, the Queen, after a visit to
the sick and wounded at Chatham, while
eulogizing the attention being paid to
the men in the hospital added "the
windows being so high no one could look
out OF them, and that the wards are like
prisons" The immediate result of the
interest evoked was the erection of the
great military hospital at Netley and,
somewhat later, the Herbert hospital at
Woolwich.
The same influence brought about the
acquisition of the land on which Alder
shot Camp now stands, and many other
important changes in the army. Dur
ing visit to the troops collected in AL
dershot Camp in the summer of 1856. the
queen pointed out that she had that day
seen regiments which, after IS years
foreign service in trying climate, had
spent hut seven months in England.
when they had been dispatched to the
Crimea, and then, after but one year at
nome, had been put under orders for
India, where at that time the tour Of
service was for twenty years.
Immediately following the return of
our troops from the Crimea came the
revolt of the Sepoys, beginning in the
spring of 1857. which was not put down
Tor TWO years, during which time both
the Queens and the East India Com
pany's soldiers performed a succession
of heroic deeds. Two years later the ex-
citement of some senior officers in the
french army, consequent on the at
tempt made by Orsin on the French
Empefor's life, an attempt which was
arranged in London, gave rise to the
lear OF invasion, the result of which
mas been the formation of an auxiliary
army OF 100000 volunteers, which has
grown steadily in numbers and efIicien-
cy up to the present date. In 1870 i'm
perlal troops We're withdrawn from our
larger colonies, and, 10 years later there
was a further concentration, it being
recognized that imperial garrisons are
to be maintained only at certain coaling
stations held to enable the navy to pro-
tect our mercantile fleets.
In 1871. Mr.. Cardwell. then secre+arv
OF state for war, carried out the aboli-
ton of purchase in the army. In that
system, bad and unjust as ii was, there
were good points the principal one be-
ing that it secured rapid flow of pro-
motion, though this was obtained at the
expense of the individual officer. Under
the new system the state has ha6 10 take
over that charge, to the enormous in
crease of the non reflective vote: but on
the other hand it has abolished that
quasi-right of ownership in a commits
sion which existed and while it lasted
rendered difficult the practice of seec-
tlcn, to which we have only just now