Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-07-23
killed and wounded. A second attack
was equally unsuccessful.
Our Army Up to Date.
Baltimore American.)

tDditlmoEe Amerlcan.)
Inc total strength of the army of the
united states in camp and field, regular
I and volunteer, is now $4,000 men. OF
tnls NUMBER, the volunteer army con-
sists OF $4,000 and the regular army of
44OD men, or about 1900 short of its
legai equipment. Only a few regiments
OF the volunteer army have VET been
sent TO the front, but those which went
as portion Of Skaters army to santi
ago. got into the hardest part of the
I fight. and suffered some pretty heavy
losses at the hands of the Spaniards.
IL was, for nearly every man of them.
INST experience under fire, but not a
volunteer failed in his duty. The COM
mander OF the army spoke in high terms
OF their work. and commended them for
their heroism.
Inc resi- or the war will give the VOL
unteer forces something more to do,
though whether they will see much
hot fighting, time alone can tell. The
military expedition to Porto Rico will in
clude number Of the regiments fur
nished by the States. and several others
have gone TO the Philippines to aid Ad-
miral Dewey. II, after the capture of
San Juan. the next move is on Habana.
the volunteers will have another chance.
and II Blanco does as much fighting as
he says he will, there may be some pref
" hot work about the Cuban capital,
before 1t decides TO surrender.
The first call for troops issued by Pres
ident Mckinley on April 28d, at the
time the war began, was for a hundred
and twenty-five thousand men. The
second call. which came month later,
on May 18th, was for seventy-hve thou
sand more, making the total call for
volunteers two hundred thousand men,
or this number, as has been stated 49,
900 are In field, camp. or at home, walt
Ing for orders TO march so tina. the gov
eminent Is only 1900 short OF the num-
Der called for. Enlistments under the
second call have not been pressed with
much energy, and the government is
probably of the opinion that II has now
on hand as large an army as 1t will need,
at least for the present. Events may
prove this to be wrong and a third call
may be necessary. 1t would have been
good policy at the start to have made
the call larger. and then In the months
that have passed away since the war
broke out, the government could have
armed equipped, and well-drilled an
army, which would have been large
enough for all emergencies, and which
would have convinced Spain and the
rest OF the world that the United States
meant to carry on this war in a strong
decisive manner, with q force large
enough to overwhelm any army that
Spain could put in the field
Most OF the States in the Union made
a prompt and full response to the Presi-
dents call. Maryland is included in
this list. Some of the States. however
are still very short in their quotas and.
as a rule. these are States that have
paid no attention to local military or
CARNATIONS, ana given no support to a
National Guard. They simply had no
enlisted men to send when the Presi-
dent called for troops. The war should
teach them a lesson which all the States
should learn. A liberal support OF a
State military organization is the duty
If every commonwealth