The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-23
TAKE TIME FOR INVASION
OLD CAMPAIGNER SAY
HASTE IS FOOLISH
SAYS


Raw Recruits and Volunteers From
the Guards Need Drill and a
Practical Insight Into the Work
of q Campaign-should Take
Long Marches--Cuba Too I'm
healthy During the Rainy Season.
NEW YORK. May 22.-Gen. George
W. Wingate Is high authority in all
that pertains to the national guard
he Is best known to army and guar ds-
men as the father Of rifle practice in
this country 1t was he who built
Creedmoor and introduced the system
Which has since been copied into the
regular army, and has made mark smen
of the regulars, who. when they first
competed with guardsmen at Creed
moor made 135-the lowest score Of all
the fifteen teams that entered, and not
more than one-third of the top score
'Men Of my age will understand me
when l say that I hope the army will
not be driven forward by any desire to
emulate the great deeds Of the navy to
make premature invasion of Cuba"
said the general. Men of my age will
remember how the cry ON to Rich
mond! drove the army of the Union to
advance when it was net ready. The
result was Bull Run.
RECRUITS NOT FIT.
1.-The volunteers now in the field are
not fit to campaign anywhere, but
especially not in Cuba. Before Scott
marched en- the city of Mexico he spent
six months in preparing his men. The
result was that his march was distin-
guished by success sion Of victories If
our boys go down to Cuba now in their
oh t1onxr xxrll1 Ia
not from bullets Of the Spaniards, but
by reason of the climate. The Span
iards are all In fortified cities. They
will stay there, and our troops will
have to camp in the dsadly lowlands
about them. It would be madness to
send troops to Cuba before the end Of
the rainy season. I don't think the
government really means 1t. I judge
that Porto Rico, where the conditions
are much better. is really our objective
point, but I'm afraid of a foo ish thing
being done to satisfy public clamor or
because the army Is anxious to catch
UP with the navy
1.-The volunteers now in the field have
the best of stuff in them, but they are
not soldiers; they are not disciplined,
they can't march, they don't under
stand maneuvers Another thing,
they have no proper equipments. Their
uniforms are all wrong for Cub a-won't
DO at all; their blankets are not worth
anything. They have no proper shoes.
The Women's Auxiliary corps recently
gave the soldiers at Hampstead 5000
worth Of underclot hing which they
needed. think that was a reflection
OIL the state Of New York.
LONG MARCH.
II think a good way to train the
volunteers would be to start them out
on g. 100-mile march, making so many
miles day and gradually increasing
the distance. By that means, biv-
ouacking each night in a different
place, the regiment would learn how
to take care of itself on the march,
how to pitch camp and make itself
comfortable. 1t would grow Injured to
heavy marching order, and learn to
take care Of arms and equipments.
If it had some regulars along to give
1t tone, 1t would get more instruction
in a week than in three months Of
present camp life.
'"The troops also need handling by
brigade and division, so that they will
learn the necessity Of obeying orders
and being at the place directed at the
time directed. Without this, maneu-
vering on an extensive scale is inn
possible. Another thing our boys need
before they make a move on Cuba is
training in fire discipline A soldier
can only carry from sixty to eighty
rounds Of ammunition for the Spring
field rifle, forty-five caliber with which
the national guard is armed. The reg
ulars are armed with the Krag-Jorgen-
son, and can probably carry 100 rounds,
caliber being smaller. Either one of
these men can fire all his ammunition
in half an hour, and one. of the faults
of green soldiers In battle Is that they
begin firing too soon, and keep it up
when there is nothing to shoot at.
ITO prevent this it Is necessary that
the fire should be under the strict con-
all modern armies. The officers in
charge Of the firing indicate the OBJ
ject, give the elevation and tell the
number Of shots each man shall fire.
If the men are not trained to yield
implicit obedience, the result Is that
they will be without ammunition when
it Is most necessary A recent report
of the inspection at Camp Black shows
that from rs to 40 per cent of the men
are not only recruits, but are not even
supplied with uniforms. Half the vol
unteers know nothing at all about the
use of the rifle.
Cali that goes to demonstrate that
the volunteers at present are wholly
unsuited for campaigning anywhere,
especially in Cuba. Now, then, we
have regular army which for this
purpose would muster about $4,000 men.
They ought not to be used in Cuba
during the rainy season. The negro
troops and immunes could stand the
climate, probably, but they are only
a handful, and the Spaniards have So
900 troops in Cuba. They are poor in
arms, equipment and discipline, but
Manila shows that they will fight, and
~, -
cities.
INVASION is FOLLY.
"I have known Cuba and the Cubans
for a long time 1. speak a little Span
ish. I am a property owner of Sancto
Spiritu and know what 1 am talking
about when I say that to attempt
campaign in Cuba at the present time,
which is the beginning Of the rainy sea-
sen, would be madness for our govern
ment. During the rainy season it rains
at least once, and often three or four
times a day. The rain comes without
any warning-in bucketfuls. Between
rains the sun shines out about 100 de-
grees Fahrenheit in the sun and 50
to 100 degrees in the shade. The eff
feet Of the heavy rains, alternated
with great heat, is to give the unac-
climated man a chill. In the cane
fields shelters are erected to which the
negroes run when the sudden rain
comes down.
yellow fever would not do us so
much harm. 1t belongs in the cities,
and we could probably beat it by clean
ing up, same as Ben Butler did at New
Orleans. But yellow jack is only one
of the Cuban fevers. Rain and heat
create decomposition and miasma. The
soil of Cuba is rich black loan, pro-
duced by the decay Of vegetable mat
ter. No one can sleep on 1t In safety
min d. d lao In l,oa,.