The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-16

About the Changes I'm Military
Equipment and Soldier Life Since
the Days OF the Civil Wharf.-The
Power of the Infantry and the
ARTILLERY.
The veteran Of the Civil war would
find himself again a member of the
awkward squad were he now to enlist
and undertake either the manual of
arms, the evolutions of the platoon,
company or regiment. The breech load
er is quite a different thing from the
old Springfield Misunderstanding affair,
with which he played or worked, and
the boys no longer bite off the greasy
end Of the cartridge In loading. The
difference between the army today and
th1rty-seven years ago Is told to the
Milwaukee Sentinel by Capt P. H. Ray,
of the Eighth infantry, regulars, who
enlisted in Wisconsin regiment in
81. and went into the regular service
at the close of the war:
'The chief point of difference In the
conditions which surround the soldier
Of today compared with the soldier Of
the Civil war;" said Capt. Ray, "in-
cludes the change in the personal equa-
ton of the individual soldier, the in
crease IN the sense Of personal respon-
sibility which each man In the ranks
will feel when in front of the enemy
in the present war. This is the most
important change and it means much
to the soldier Of the republic because
1t means that there must be better dis
cipline, more GOODNESS and greater eff
cheney among the men Of the rank and
file, as we'll as among the officers of the
line, than was known to the troops
during the great Civil war. These
changes are due to the form Of battle.
and the conditions which naturally re-
suit from the Improvements in power
Of guns which widens the fighting dis
lance between the lines drawn up in
battle array
Veterans View of Modern Army.
The march of progress and invention
the captain says, has brought many
important changes in the fighting pow-
er of armies, but in respect to food sup
plies and the transporting of troops
and equipments little change has been
dwelt upon at the present time" says
Capt. Ray, "is the discipline required
specially among the NOM commissioned
officers and the men in the ranks. I'm
like the, soldiers of the Civil war, the
troops under the flag of the republic
In the present contest will not fight
shoulder to shoulder, in single lines of
battle. That old system of fighting had
an important influence in affordine
moral support to the individual Soldiers
OF the line. Under the modern system
of extended formation of the lines. each
soldier stands alone even under fire.
and, although backed by other lines Of
MS company and regiment he will nor
nave the moral support which the
shoulder-to-shoulde method Of fight
ing In the old war gave to the boys
In the ranks. Thus it will be seen that
In the present conflict courage and
GOODNESS Of the individual man is more
to be required, and herein lies the
necessity for the best discipline and the
incubation of the sense of personal re-
sponsibility devolving upon every man
In the ranks. In the old war the cor
poral and sergeants were merely fife
cIosers and important to the line only
in respect to its evolutions. At present
these non-commissioned officers have
charge of the firing lines, give, orders
for firing and when to cease firing, and
must. therefore, be of a better grade
or men than the non-commissioned Of
ficers Of the old war"
Power of Artillery and Infantry.
The change in the power of guns
OF all caliber," said the captain, "has
moved the danger line between con-
tending armies to a much greater dis
lance. This is true, first, as to artil-
lery, the long range guns which first
come into action. In the old war we
had the twelve-pounder Napoleons,
which were effective at a range of
about 1.200 yards. The modern high
power rapid-flre gun has increased the
distance between the contending forces
by 800 to 600 yards, and this means that
the point of dangerous contact has been
moved a considerable distance, all of
which, as can be shown in Speaking
of the infantry arm, has an important
influence upon the fighting of armies.
In addition to the high-power guns
we now have effective machine guns,
or rapid fire machines of the Maxim
stamp. While these are not very val
liable weapons of warfare in offensive
campaigns, for defense of positions,
where these machine guns can be
planted for service, they are most eff
feetive.
I'm the matter Of infantry equip
to increase the distance between COM
batants by hfgher-power rifles, which
makes the danger line much farther
from the enemy than it was when we
used the old Misunderstanding guns of
the last war period. We now have the
five-shot repeating rifles of higher pow
err, which means that the engaging
lines will be 300 to 400 yards farther
apart than in the old days. Then
we had no metallic cartridges and
forty rounds of ammunition was about
all the individual soldier could carry.
We now have metallic cartridges, and
each soldier will carry into action 200
rounds of ammunition, 100 rounds in
his cartridge belt and 100 rounds in his
haversack. These repeating rifles,
quick firing and quick loading, have
made unnecessary and somewhat inef-
fective for field service the rapid-fire
guns, which are so important in de-
Tense. 1t is difficult to utilize the ma
chine guns upon a rapid moving tar
get. Regiments can be moved quickly
ever the field, and with each soldier
capable of firing 200 rounds within
remarkable short time, the power Of
destruction is brought up to q very
high point"
In regard to the question of the de-
equipped with rapid fire guns, Capt.
Ray calls attention to interesting points
with respect to the progress in arms
and fighting force of armies, all of
which bears upon the point of the i'm
portance of more GOODNESS and personal
| bravery of the troops. 1t is the sup
position of the laymen that with the
destructive forces of modern arms 1t
Is certain that the slaughter of men.