The National tribune., 1902-08-28

called upon to meet at least the first brunt
Of battle with the insurgents on anything
like an equal footing with them in the
matter of arms. More than enough Krag
rifles lay in boxes in arsenals in the
United States to have armed the entire
Eighth Corps, but they were not sent to
the islands.
to learn that these guns were manufac-
tured and packed away before the Span
ish war began, and that every volunteer
who went into battle, in either Cuba or
the Philippines, with an old Springfield
musket and black powder, might have
been armed with a Krag and smokeless
powder had the War Department simply
issued the guns and ammunition already
on hand. 1t would not then have been
neeessaFy-te withdraw from the firing line
at Santiago. a regiment of volunteers be-
cause their powder smoke drew a con-
centrated. fire from the enemy, thus prac-
/ ticaliy paralyZing the efficiency of the vol
| unteers in battle, nor would there have
been SO much fighting nor so much dissat-
isfactiOn on the part of the troops in the
Philippines.
When in April few Krags were is
sued to each company they came in the
original arsenal cases, in each of which
was printed slip giving the numbers on
the guns and the date of packing, and
these slips showed that the guns had been
packed in December, 1897, four months
before the war began, and thus they had
| been left unused while soldiers were sent
to the front to fight with Springields
| against the modern Mauser.
AMERICAN ARMS AND AMMUNITION.
So little is known practically by most
people about the differences in military
rifles that it may be well to make this
whole matter clear at this point.
The Springfield rifle formerly used in
the Regular Army, and at the time of the
Spanish war the universal weapon in the
hands of the National Guard-and still
there, for that matter, in spite of our Sc
we're lesson on the subjects practically
the Springfield rifle of civil war times
| converted into a breach-loader. 1t is Il
| single-ire gun-that is, it is loaded and
fired one cartridge at Il time. Its caliber
| is As, by which is meant the conicai bull
| let is 45-100ths of an inch in diameter.
The soldier is supplied with one waist
belt holding 50 of these cartridges, and
that is all the weight of that kind he
should be asked to carry, though 80 cart
ridges are not more than third the
number he ought to take into action. No
commander thought of letting his men 50
out with less than a hundred rounds, the
remaining 80 being carried loose in peck
cts, haversacks, or ANY old way the
men could devise. Some of them turned
up the bottoms of their blouses and sewed
them, SO as to make a continuous pocket
all around. Here was another character
| istic bit of careless negligence on the part
| of the War Department, sending men t.
war where they would be required to car
ry not less than a hundred cartridges with
an equipment that would hold but hall
that number. AZ our numbers were di
| minished by sickness, death and Othei
causes, we took up the cartridge belts OF
the absent men and issued them to the
men still in the field, with the result that
in the end nearly every man had two
| BELTS one worn over the shoulder, and
| thus could carry his hundred rounds more
| easily.
The cartridges sent over with the army
for use by the volunteers were filled with
| black powder. They were the accumu-
| latiOns of quarter of a century. Each
| cartridge has stamped on its metal base
| the date of its manufacture. One day as
| n matter Of curiosity 1 went to a pile of
| these being carted around for the use of
our battalion, and paved them over till
l had found specimens Of the make of
| every year from 1874 to 1892 including
| an Indian" as was called special kind
made for use in the Indian country years
| ago. All of these were filled with black
powder. About tn" time the fighting be-
gan there was sent over quantity of
| Springfield cartridges with smokeless
powder, but as they were issued indis-
criminatcly by the Ordnance Department
with the black POWDER they became
mixed with the latter aud their value for
| smOkeless effect was lost There were not
enough of them to be issued separately.
1t would have been money in the pockets
Of the Government to have dumped all
this old junk into the ocean and have
issued the troops nothing but smokclcss
but, being on hand, doubtless the War
| Department thought they must be used.
| Besides, anything was good enough for
the volunteers.
The Springfield Is sighted for an ex-
treme range OF 1,400 yards, but by ele-