The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-03-30

and hatchcts, were dismayed and ter
ror-stricken. What would have been
their position if. after being presented
with firearms and taught to shoot, they
had also been taught that the right
way to win a battle was to shoot as
little as possible and to run at the enc
my with their spears? The tactical
instruction given of late years to the
British army is not without resem
blance to the kind of teaching which is
here imagined. The British infantry
went out to South Africa armed with
two weapons of offence, the bullet and
the bayonet. 1t had been taught to
rely neither upon the one nor the other,
but upon both. 1t had to face an enc
my who relied entirely upon the bullet,
and the result was that which was eX-
pectcd by those who had considered
the problem. In few cas's where the
British could advance up hillside,
which almost invariably gives a certain
amount of shelter to those who ascend
it, the Beers were so astonnde,l by the
magnificent courage displayed that
they ran away. But after the first two
or three battles, as they had time for
reflection, and as with their first sue
cesses their spirits rose, the Beers dis
covered that the light way to meet a
charge was to lie still and shoot; and
the later charges of the British have
been disastrous failures accompanied
with terrible loss.
II the soldiers of an army have been
taught to expect a charge and to ex-
pect to succeed in and by that opera
ton, what must be the effect upon
them of series of attempts ending un-
fortunately? They cannot but see that
something has been wrong with their
training, and cannot but lose confidence
either in their leaders or in those who
have been responsible for their instruc-
ton. They will say to themselves
either that their tlrill-book was wrong
or that their general does not know
his business; and as the general is q
person whom they have seen, while the
drill-book is piece of anonymous lit
erature, they are much more likely to
lay the blame upon the man to whom
they naturally look, because he is the
authority in whose hands they are.
This discovery, that method of fight
ing which has been taught to the
troops does not produce the effects
which were promised from it, is a most
dangerous form of surprise, and may
very soon demoralize a whole army.
What is the truth about the bullet
and the bayonet, and about the instruc-
tion given in peace to the British army
on this subject? The bayonet has been
for thirty-five years an exploded super
stition. Even in the days Of "Brown
Bess," the actual use of the bayonet
was rare exception. Wellington, who
perhaps knew something about fight
ing, relied mainly upon the fire of his
two-deep line, which usually made an
end of the attempts of his opponents to
charge. Napoleon also, by no means
an incompetent judge, said: shooting
is the thing; everything else matters
little" But there have been men in
the British army ready to forget the
practice of Wellington and the opinion
of Napoleon because Souwarotf, a bril-
liant but certainly eccentric personal
itv, is reported to have said: The bull
let is fool, but the bayon t is wise"
The bullet of Souwaroff's time, though
Napoleon and Wellington "elied MAIN
lv upon it, was no doubt erratic in its
ways, but under the influence of Whit
worth it acquired wonderful stcadiness
and persistence; while Dreysc and his
successors have enabled the modern
soldier to discharge sixty bullets, guar
antccd to 90 exactly where they are
aimed, anywhere within mile, during
the time required by SouwaroH's con-
temporaries to send forth one solitary
bullet which had no more than half
chance of hitting a barn door at the
other side of 4 spacious farmyarl.
In 1864 the bullet was only at the
beginning of its modern education. A
Prussian captain, who had not been
brought up in the school of Souwaroff,
was with his company in the village of
Luntlby, when he heard that company
OF Danes was marching to attack him.
He made his men lie down behind
hlnk and waited for the Danes, who at
700 yards from the village formed
small column and set out to attack.
The P.'nssian captain waited until the
Danes were 200 yards off, and then let
his men bcgi to fire. A quarter of an
hour later the surviving Danes were
retreatiny, leaving l0l dead and
wounded, and twelve prisoners. Three
Prussians were wounded. That little
skirm!sh made no great sensation in
the newspapers at the time, but it was
a decisive battle. 1t settled the cues
tion between the bayonct and the bull
let. The moral was drawn 10y compe-
tent judges somewhat as follows:
rihemcn posted upon ground suitable
for their weapon, the bullet, having in