The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1900-03-09
KILLING BRITISH OFFICERS.
1t is Dangerous to Hold a Commis

1t is Dangerous to Hold Ccmmis-
sion i'll the British Army Today.
The unusual casualties among the Eng
llsh officers in South Africa cause as much
concern in military circles in England as
the actual defeat of the armies. One of
the first principles of modern army regu-
lations is supposed to be the protection
OF the high officers. for us they are the
directing heads of the whole campaign,
they are essential to the success of the
movement. Consequently the high
o1hcers are expected to stay under cover
i'll the rear, while the subaltcrns and
non-commissioned officers are chosen to
expose themselves to the bullets of the
paign the disproportionate number of
hlgh-ranking officers killed by the Beers
seems to upset many military PRINCIPLES.
Military tactics, however, fail to take
INTO consideration the personal courage
and ambition of the officers. From
an evidences so far obtained from the
held 1t IS apparent that the British Of
hcers exposed themselves to the bullets
OF the enemy to encourage and lead their
men IN the different charges. While mill
tary regulations demand that the officers
shall stay III the rear to direct the battle.
there is no way to enforce the rule, and
it is hardly possible that an officer would
pe coiirt-martlaled for bravery and eager
hess Ill pressing to the front We had
the same difficulty in Cuba before Santi-
ago, and at the battle OF San Juan hin
and later in the Philippines. The Of
hcers could not be restrained in their on
thuSlasm, and they pressed to the front
with an eagerness that made it hard for
the prlyates to keep pace with them. The
Spanish did not have orders to pick off
the officers, but, even as matters stood.
the casualties among this class We're
much greater than should have been tho
case wv
Regiments such as the Gordon High
landers, the Kings Royal Rifles, and the
Dublin Fusiliers hardly need the encour-
agement of officers to lead them in dcs-
perate' charges, and the unusual exposure
OF the officers seems unnecessary. The
Lee Metford and Mauser rifles. with
when the British and Beers are respect
lively armed, will kill at distance of
over two miles, and for geo Yards the
bullets travel in an absolutely straight
line, while the old rifles of former wars.
with their weak gunpowdcr. killed only
at a snort distance, and made 1T Eeces-
sary for the marksmen to aim high in or
der to shoot at a distant mark. This
trajectory of the bullet, Or arched curve,
through which it had to travel to hit a
target 5OO yards off, made it matter of
extreme difficulty to aim straight. This
was illustrated in the Crimean war, when
the Russians fired no fewer than a.
OOO,OOO shots, and only killed $4,000 men
or about one in every thousand.
During the recent terrible battle at the
Tugela, which resulted in the withdrawal
of Gen. Buffers army to the south of
that river, the crucial point in dispute
was Spionkop. During the occupation
and subsequent abandonment of that
strategic point by the British. though
the number of troops employed in this
movement was small as compared with
the whole, the list of dead and wounded
showed G6 casualties among the British
officers who led the assault and cndeav-
ored to hold the hill-a frightful proper
ton, considering the number of troops
engaged. Twenty-seven officers were
killed outright, 33 were wounded, and 6
reported missing. Immediately previous
to the engagement on Spionkop, Gen.
Lyttleton had reported loss of 10 Off
GERS of his command killed or wounded.
When the analysis of this one battle is
compared with the analysis of any battle
in any previous war of Great Britain. it
would appear that the remark attributed
to prominent Boer general was full Of
Hateful truth: 1T will be unsafe" said
he, ito accept a commission in the Brit
ish army during this war."-Collier' S
Weekly.