The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-10
Some Valuable Views From An Off
GERS Standpoint.
HAPHAZARD FIGHTING
CRIMINAL CARELESSNESS IN
SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS.
Regulars Went to the Front Just as
They Came From the Barracks
and Observation-Disclosures From
Wearing Heavy Clothing In Hot
Climate.

Lieutenant John H. Parker, in the
American Monthly Review of Reviews:
4 The United States has not had an army
4 since 1866. Fragments of regiments 1t
has had, and in some cases whole reg1-
ments. There has been no such thing
as a brigade, division or corps. The
/ isolated fragments were splendid, but
there was no opportunity to study the
problems of organization and supply on
a large scale in practical way. The
usual routine of business gradually be-
came such that not wheel was turned
in the quartermaster's department nor
nail driven without express permis-
sion, previously obtained, from the
quartermaster general at Washington
The ordinary repairs, for example, to
public property were required to be eS-
timated for from three months to a
year in advance. If any energetic Of
ficer ventured to disobey this rule, his
energy was forthwith diverted into the
channels of official explanation of his
unapproved action, and it took a vast
deal of energy to prevent the money
cost of such expenditure of material
from being charged against the luck
less wight who dared to disregard the
official routine.
In the commissary department there
was a similar. system. and the same re-
marks apply to all the other staff de-
partments Of the army. The admins
tration had become a bureaucracy, with
everything centralized, because the
whole army for 30 years had been adj
ministered as one body, without the
subdivisions into organizations which
are inevitable in war time.
CAME AS A SURPRISE.
War became reality with great sud
denness Those who have grown gray
in the service, andswhose capacity, hon.
esty and industry have never been nor
cannot been impeached, found them
selves confronted with the problem of
handling nearly 100000 men, and they
had no authority to change the SyS-
TEN of supply and transportation. The
minutest acts of officers of these de-
partments were regulated by laws of
congress. enacted with a view to the
small regular force, and with no pro-
visions or notifications for war. In
authorizing the formation of large vol
unteer armies, congress did not author
ize any change in the system of ad-
ministration, or make any emergency
provision. AS before, every detail of
supply anf transportation had to be
authorized from the central head. Is
it any wonder that under such circum-
stansces as those encountered in Cuba
a system designed for peace and $4,000
men weakened in some respects when
the attempt was made to apply it to
$500, 900?
The great wonder is that it did the
work as well as it did; and that it did
accomplish the work, after fashion,
was due to the Superhuman eXertionS
of the chief officers of the supply de-
partments and their able assistants.
OUR TROOPS AT SANTIAGO.
With less than $4,000 effective fighting
men. the Fifth corps captured in 20
days $4,000 of the enemy, in a fortified
city, well provisioned and well equipped
with all the munitions of war. 1t con-
quered for the United States a terri
tory about equal to that of New Eng
land, and drove from the shelter of a
land-locked, mine-defended harbor, a
formidable fleet of the enemy, to fall
an easy prey to our vigflant and in
vincible squadron.
In the1 ace of such achievements it
seems idle to seek for any lessons
bought by sufferings of our own troops.
it would seem that the military student
should seek in the mismanagement of
our adversaries to discover lessons in
administration. But We should expect
to find in the tactics of the victorious
army an object lesson of careful recon-
noissance, skillful preparation for the
attack by energetic artillery fire,
prompt support of the troops occupy
ing the captured position, and an early
opportunity for the troops exhausted
by the charge to rest, reOrganize and
recuperate.
The unexpected happened. The feed
ing of our troops was not well done, the
reconnaissance was made after the pO-
sition was captured, and the exhausted
troops who made the charge, instead of
being relieved or supported, were COM
PEELED to hold on to the captured posi-
ton, not merely for an hour or two,
but for II weary days, until slow-mov-
ing diplomacy should decide whether
or not Santiago, already virtually in our
hands, should surrender.
The troops had been ordered to carry
three days rations, but had not been
able to do so. and this fact was we'll
known to everybody; yet it was three
days before any food to- amount to any
thing reached the firing line, and a full
artion was seldom if ever issued to the
troops in Cuba. Even after the sur
render placed unlimited wharfage at
our disposal within two and a half
miles of the camps, easily accessible,
over excellent roads some one or more
article was always short or missing.
REAL WEAKNESS OF OUR ARMY.
Now. it has ben a notorious fact for
many years that promotions to the sup
ply departments of the army were to be
had largely as a. result of influence"
In the last so years many appointments
in them have been made which have
had their origin in pull" Neither
party alone is to be blamed for this, for
the same conditions have obtained under
both Republican and Democratic adj
In q country where not
a postal clerk, mail carrier, or messen-
ger could be named except for fitness
previously determined under competi-
tive examination and civil service rules,
the feeding, clothing and transporta-
ton of our army has been in the hands
of departments in which the appoint
ments were often the reward Of favor
ties or put at the disposal of two-penny
politicians In the nature OF things,
would an intelligent public expect such
20 exhibit the fOrethought
energy and activity necessary for so
great an emergency?
COSTLY MISTAKES AT SANTIAGO.
The corps that went TO Santiago was
virtually the regular army. Every regi-
men that went to Tampa went there
ready services. Their equipment was
just as complete on April 20 as it was
on June g. They wore the same CLOTH
ing to Cuba that they had brought
from Sheridan. Assinniboine and Sher-
man. They brought with them their
wagons and mules, their tents and
camp eouipage. There should have been
no problems 10 solve in regard to them,
and yet there were many. Owing TO
delays in the supply departments they
wore winter clothing for their service
in the torrid zone, and drew summer
cothing there just in time TO return