The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-08-14
NOT ALL NJ. A. GENERALS.


To the Editor of the Eagle:
i notice in Sundays Eagle, in a local
article on the boyhoOd relations of ex-
Mayor Aldrich and General Shafter that
it is stated that General Shafter is the
only civilian appointee who is a major
general in our army. To the great ma
bority a cadet graduating from the mill
kary school at West Point is a West
Pointer. By the same reasoning I pre-
sumo that all citizens of both sexes who
graduate at any schools in that town are
also West Pointers. In the war depart
ment officers deriving their commissions
through the representative system by
graduation from the national military
academy are borne on the register as NJ.
AS. and in army parlance are called
academy men.
All officers appointed from the enlisted
men are termed army men. Sometimes
they are called rankers. as coming from
the ranks IN the English army this term
is opprobrious 10 distinguish the most ef-
fcient officers in their army from the
Titled nothings. In our army there used
10 be a little of the same spirit But
since our higher officers have taken adj
vantage of the law for filling vacancies
In excess of the NJ A graduates from
the most worthy enlisted men. and are
nnlistng their sons a.-d relatives on
dead sure thing for a commission. the
ranker is no longer so rank
The third and last source of differing
the army is from civil life direct. Such
officers are officially designated a civilian
nppointee and slurringly a mustang
The mustang generally has heavy po-
)itical pull and is more feared than re-
spected unless his manly qualities are
superior.
To return to N. A. generals: Adjutant
General Corbin and the following major
generals from the regular army. to say
nothing of brigadiers and colonies are CT
villains or volunteer appointees and were
never in the academy; J. c. Breckenridge.
H. W. Lawton. y. \ Miles, J. r. Brooke.
f. S. OTIS. J. J. Coppinger J. Z. Wade.
W. Il. Shafter. J. {. Bates and A. r.
Chaffee- The people never knew but little
Of the regular army and cared less. No
one or several statesmen or generals ere
ated H. 1t Just growed" Steuben. De
halb and Pulaski tried to make il Ger
man. after the model of the Great Fred
erck in the Revolution. Gates. Stirling.
Scott and Porter finally remodeled it rs
English by the end Of the war of 1872.
After the -Crimean war certain officers
tried 10 introduce French features but
aside from few Announcements fol. man
and beast it remained essentially English
and in the main is so today It is Just
as ridiculously aristocratic and unrepub-
lican as any army in Europe Up TO the
end OF the Civil war the enlisted man
had no rights that a commissioned officer
need respect. He Wa lashed with the
cat, bayonetted. sabred and generally
1Ifated on the scale Of inherited English
Brutality. Jef Davis. Henry Wilson and
Charles Sumner were for their time great
Teformers Of The army.
Yet this little army. 50 shamefully treat
ed and neglected. has from the begin
ming rendered the greatest service as con-
servator Of military science. national de-
fender and as an invaluable pioneer Of the |
powerful complex and broad wave Of
civilization that has swept from the Ohio
10 tb- Pacific between the sea and the
lakes v'ssain the past century. leaving in
It's wake states. cities and social methods
that eclipse the brightest pages OF history.
This army seldom turned its back upon
an enemy except in obedience 10 orders /
on any ield, from the Miami 70 Dade's
massacre. thence 10 the Fort Kearney
massacre 10 the humiliation of the Sev-
enth cavalry on the Big Horn. II has de-
feated the veterans of Wellington and
called forth the praises OF British officers
In Mexico il performed a work under dif- |
6eultes Of climate, defensible territory, |