The National tribune., 1902-09-04

i, a long-ran gun, and the volunteers
/ would only be in the service few months
| longer, and could not in that time learn to
| take care of and use q gun of such COM
plex mechanism as the Krag, and the
more simple Springfield was suited to their
| ineXperience.
Great stress was placed on the sharp
shooting qualities of the Regulars owing
! to target practice, a merely theoretical
| idea. In my own company l had G3
sharpshoOters out of a total strength of
81 men, and if there was any Regular
company in the whole army that could
make better showing | never heard of it.
The rife team of our National Guard
Regiment at Portland defeated the team
of the 18th U. S. Regulars in a contest
before the war, as L understand other Ma
tional Guard teams have done elsewhere.
| Almost to a man the volunteers of the
Eighth Corps were familiar with guns and
were good shots.-This is fact against
theory, experience in the field against the
ideas of men who study only consolidated
reports. Inability of the volunteers to
shoot as an excuse for not giving them
long-range weapons is an absurdity that
such military fossils as were at the heads
of the various Departments of the army
when the war broke out.
The other reason, that of the impOssi-
bility of the inexperienced volunteers un-
derstanding the complex mechanism of
the Krag in three or four months of serv-
ice, is utterly idiOtic. Any man familiar
with guns, as were most of the volunteers
before they enlisted, and especially any
man who had undergone a military train
ing of half year, as we had at this time,
exclusively of previous National Guard
| service, who could not learn all there was
to know about handling Krag rifle in
half an hour would never make a soldier
under any conditions. The average of in
| teiligence in the ranks OF the volunteers
was much higher than in those of the
Regulars. TwO-thirds of the Regulars
sent out to relieve us were raw recruits,
not the trained sharpshooters of the con-
solidated report fossils of Washington !;
yet krags were put into the hands of
these green men and denied to the vOlun-
teers of years experience. The first
Regular regiment that landed had been
recruited in New York, and had sailed
without any chance to give the men drill
or target practice. A greener lot of re-
lieved US as provost guard, and we went
to the front at once / was informed by
a witness that the first night of their
guard duty there was an alarm that
caused the entire guard to turn out, and
half dozen of the men accidentally dis
charged their pieces in trying to load
| them. This was something that had not
happened in our regiment since our first
few weeks Of service. Yet these men were
considered fit to handle Krags that were
beyond the intelligence and capacity of
volunteers.
AS for the Springfield making more
severe wound and killing more of those
hit that is true enough, but not many
could be killed with it when the enemy
kept beyond its reach and yet within easy
range of their own weapons. This was
another Washington consolidated report
| theory that did not work in actual prac-
| tice. The other reason, that the vOlun-
teers preferred the Springfield, was alb
solutely untrue. i remember what a
| storm of protest arose when papers
reached us at Maasim. when we were
making a campaign into the interior with
| Lawton. These papers contained an in
terview with Adj't-Gen. Corbin, in which
he gave these silly reasons, saving the
volunteers preferred the Springfield and
were so well satisfied that large pro-
portion of them were going TO re-enlist
A howl of derisiOn went up through the
whole brigade, and in a little while the
Afinnesotas had added one more verse to
a song of hundred verses detailing the
joys and sorrows of campaigning in the
/ Philippines. l do not remember all of it.
'ho"Sh IL poie oil this SUBJECT OF guns ana
enlistment, but the concluding lines were:
We'll hang old Corbin on bamboo stick
| And we'll all re-enlist p d. o.
Had it not been for their treatment in
this matter of equipment far greater
number of volunteers would have re-en-
listed in the new army, thus giving the
Government experienced soldiers instead
Of green men with which to continue the
war;. and men acclimated instead of can
didates for the hospital. A short time
before this incident 26 Kraes were issued
TO each company in my regiment, to be
given TO the sharpshooters. / gave one
to each commissioned officer and to
selected man in each squad. This only
served to eomplicate matters. had then
to carry two kinds Of ammunition, and as
the men were mixed up on the firing line
1t was difficult to serve them when they
ran out OF cartridges, especially n the