The herald., 1898-08-21
ASAWOMAN SEES THEM
IRON DISCIPLINE AND KINDNESS
General Grant the Exponent Of One
Kind Of Military Training, Fitz-
hugh Lee Of Another
(From the Only Woman Correspondent at

From the Only Woman Correspondent at
the Front)
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, August TO-
Especial Correspondence to The Herald.)
To a woman ignorant Of strategy and the
science of war, personality appeals more
than to man. The woman is very apt to
base her estimates upon moral and social
qualities, as we'll as upon intellectual and
martial. To her mind the courtly Lee or
Mcclellan, the Puritanical Stonewall Jack
son, the magnanimous Rawlins and Far
rasut appeal more, far more, than the
fighting Joe Hooker or the reckless Mosby.
In the present struggle with Spain the same
process of valuation of the different leaders
Is going on.
II is not necessary for men to do actual
fighting in order to earn a reputation,
praiseworthy or otherwise. Thus at one of
the camps 1 saw General Coppinger going
day by day. hour by hour from tent to tent,
from man to man, looking as carefully into
the welfare of each individual soldier as if
1t were his own. I met him also in the
hospital, where yellow and typhoid fevers
menaced every caller and found him well
coined everywhere as an angel OF mercy.
It required no further evidence to under
stand his popularity and to predict for him
a glorious and enviable future. On the
other hand, General Fred Grant busted him.
self with his command with it would seem,
the sole purpose of making 1t perfect
lighting machine To him the individual
was lost sight of. Drilling and marching
went on with disregard of personal comfort.
The results were perceptible In the almost
mechanical precision of the force, and yet
l failed 10 see the enthusiasm. the almost
fanatical devotion and love which found
everywhere in Coppinger's command, and
It occurred to me that in fierce battle the
moral qualities of the latter might posi-
bly, be more efficient and more tremendous
in heroism than the merely mechanical ex-
cellence of the former. During the war i'm
mortal feats have been accomplished and
nearly every one has been the result of in
tense enthusiasm and utter forgetfulness
of self, rather than the absolute discipline
Of the actors.
A curious side light Is thrown upon this
question by the poor Cubans whom I am
meeting every day, who have neither
money, arms, ammunition. drill nor disci-
pline. They are sustained by devotion to
leaders. When they talk of an absent gen.
eral like Garcia or Gomez they invariably
shed tears. When they are in camp
the men are apt to sleep around their Of
ficers very much like faithful hunting dogs
around their masters. And when one of
their command dies they mourn in a man.
ner that is almost heart-breaking to see.
And yet these little men have already shown
courage. patience and indomitable will
which have won the respect of every stu
dent of the war.
Ii is possible to combine the two different
schools Of thought and conduct and no one
does it more successfully than that prince
of all soldiers, Fitzhugh Lee, whom l saw
drilling the troops at Camp Cuba Libre
before l left America, and who promised
that should see him review his troops
again before Havana. l have heard one
of his men call him the sunlight of the
camp" and during my brief stay in jack
sonville, Fla, in the neighborhood of his
command, found that there was always
happy smile and a brighter atmosphere
wherever he went. He drilled his troops
and had them under a discipline that was
admirable, but in all the wearisome and an
noying tasks of the soldiers life his inspir-
ing presence and kindly words took away
two-thirds of the burden.
From what have seen of General Shat
ter 1t would not be fair as yet to form
Judgment. He is able, thoughtful, genial
and generous. He is weighed down by
physical disabilities. He is too stout man
and too weak physically to have en-
tered tropical war. 1t meant, and he
knew it well, distress and suffering from
the beginning to the end. He therefore
deserves additional credit for what some
suffering here in Cuba for the young ath-
lete with digestion like an ostrich. But
for a man past the meridian OF life, weigh
ing over three hundred pounds, who has
already spent thirty years of his life in
constant and wearing labor, to go through
the same experience is heroic. Skaters
example recalls that of General Wiz fiel
Scott, who, almost at the close of his
career, went forward at the call of duty.
Two other commanders at Santiago have
justly become famous, Brigadier-General
Wood and Colonel Roosevelt. Their
achievements have taught more lessons
than a regiment of school masters. They
belong to the class which the demagogue
for thirty years has denounced as effemi-
nate. enervated. soulless, selfish and unpa-
triotic. Roosevelt labored under the addi-
tional stigma of being a civil service crank
and a reformer. He had had no military
education and when he announced his de-
termination to enter the army many were
the covert sneers and many the jokes
which were leveled at his head. And vet
both men have proved themselves lions in
action, sages in defense and executives of
surprising ability. Their influence upon
their men was marvellous. After every
battle the first question OF the wounded
was. ''Ts Roosevelt hurt?" and the next
'How did Wood come out?' To the soldier
he welfare of the nation depended largely
upon these two heroes.
Where there has been so much unpar-
donable incompetence or neglect as there
has been in the commissary department 1t
is but just to notice the brilliant exception
to the apparent rule. This is Major Smith.
without whom there would have been far
more suffering and disease in the camps
than there has been. He was the first to
display common sense in regard to the
emergencies of the hour. He welcomed
every supply and used 1t as swiftly as re-
ceived. no matter whether 1t came from the
Red Cross, the Daughters of the American
Revolution. the Womens National War
Relief or the smallest auxiliary in Yapank.
Ha answered all correspondence and did