The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-22

The American regular is dlHerellC
from anything l have yet
in the armies of Europe. The Russian
has abundance of courage; the German
is unequalled for discipline; the French
man is a lusty antagonist when all goes
well, and of them all the Hungarian
has the most dash and pluck com
bined. l leave out Tommy Atkins, Tor
he is u first cousin. The American
soldier is of a different composition
from any Of these. To get an idea OF
the American regular the European
would have to make a composite pic
ture containing something of the Boer
of South Africa and something of the
English officer who has seen rough
work in India.
The ground element of the European
soldier is the peasant. In America there
are not and never have been peasants,
and consequently our enlisted men
have wholly lacked the element of DO
cile servility which makes discipline IN
continental armies comparatively easy.
The American regular gets a MN
imum pay of $13 a month-small, to be
sure, considering the average rate OF
wages in civil life. Yet not only is it
sufficient to attract good men to the
service, but it holds them practically
for life.
The quality which impressed me most
in the regulars at Tampa was the aV-
erage intelligence and good sense. Of
course | do not compare them here
with picked volunteers. but with troops
of European armies. In America there
are nc guard or elite troops in the Eu-
rOpean sense, and one regiment of reg
ulars is presumably just as good as
any other. at least from the command
ing generals point of view. | have
never heard a regular officer curse a
man or even use offensive language to
him; on the contrary, / have been
struck by the wholesome relation be-
tween officers and men. | cannot say
as much for certain volunteer regi-
ments at Camp Alger.
1t is frequently imagined that men
accustomed to much liberty and a high
standard of personal comfort are there
fore more difficult to control than are
troops like those of Russia, who are
accustomed at home to be treated much
like cattle.
My experience does not tally with
this view. l could give several illus
trations from the little that has hap
pened to the United States in this war.
For instance, l doubt if any troops in
Europe were eve for so long a time
compelled to live in discomfort so eX-
IRENE and so unnecessary as the bulk
Of the regiments about Tampa. l have
already retailed much of what l saw
while living in the camp, and do not
propose to reopen that painful chapter.
During that time, however, l did not
hear of any serious breach of disci-
pline. There must have been plenty of
muttering among the men, but no at
tempt was made to influence h~eadquar-
tnr~ o,nxyo1 fror11 :, a Tho onro
panies in the regiment whose guest I
"a and the men had ample oppor-
tunity of ventilating the grievances
they felt, but they preferred to suffer
like men rather than expose themselves
to the charge of worrying about mat
terS of mere comfort. In some of the
regiments where I happened to have
the opportunity of noting the matter
I found the average height of the men
decidedly higher than what prevails
in Europe. l have seen guard mount
ings where every man appeared to be
five feet min inches in height. Both
officers and men seem to be decidedly
superior in this respect to average for
eign regiments I have seen. The Rus
slams have perhaps the largest proper
ton of tall men, but outside of the
Guards l doubt if m regiment of the
Russian army has so large a proper
ton of well built, tall men as say the
First or Twenty-frst United States
regular infantry.
I made the reference to the compos-
lite picture of Boer n Englishman
because the English officer represents
the spirit of the enterprise, courage and
high breeding. The Boer, on the other
hand, typifes the element of silent,
logged, unpublished, clear eyed, home
spun, and cares less still for being
governed against his will. The Ameri-
can soldier is worried by very few
rules, and these few are such as he
can thoroughly understand. l was SO
fortunate as to accompany the first
American expedition which had fight
ing with Spaniards on Cuban soil. The
transport used carried two companies
of the First regular infantry, and we
were gone about six days. The men
during that time had apparently as
much liberty as though on a, picnic
Guard was mounted at night, for rea-
sons that all could understand, but
during the day officers n men were
at liberty to seek rest and recreation
as much as they chose. The marshes,
rule made during that voyage was tha1
no one should smoke between decks
This was ordered not from any prece.
dent in the navy, but for the very gooG
reason that u cargo "a largely made
up Of hay bales, which We're on the
same deck as the sleeping quarters OF
a large portion of the men.
Not a single man had a bunk or E
hammock during the entire trip. There
was room for very few down below
Most of the two companies had to slee1
on h two upper decks. which in thi:
particular craft were open to thu
weather Tins whon II roipo1 49,. ::
did rain very hard off the Cuban coas,
the men sleeping on the decks had t.
get up and stand huddled together
through the night-at least, until thu
rain was past. Most of them wert
drenched through several times.
However, most of them were so slaf
to get away from Tampa and see some