The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-06

Nft AllIS NIlEiil llllO AleAA4O4AeA4 ltANE II
slow and tedious. Their armament
and equipment vary. Scarcely any
two OF them have the same organiza-
ton. Some state troops go into camps
Of instruction every year; some every
other year; some do not go at all. The
states which give adequate instruction
in rife practice are very few. Before
the war with Spain it was very gen
orally taken for granted that in most
of the states the National Guard was
fully armed and equipped and ready
for active service. Not only did the
public generally believe this, but many
army officers of high rank testified to
the same effect. How utterly mistaken
We're all these f1attering opinions, our
war with Spain quickly exposed. As a
result of that experience the Chief of
Ordnance, United States army. was
forced to say: when the first call for
volunteers from the states for the war
with Spain came, it was
decided to take as many of
the regiments of the National
Guard as possible, already armed and
equipped by the states. The SUPPOSE
ton wa sthat these troops, being al
ready armed and equipped would be
ready for immediate service. This
was based upon the assumption that
the arms and equipment We're in good
ly realized during the war. 1t is prob
able that the troops would have been
ready for service as quickly by being
equipped anew"
During every generation since our
government was tablished the coun-
try has been engaged in war Every
such war has given most valuable
information based upon the teachings
of stern experience, but not yet has
gs,y
advantage of the education thus ac-
quired and make provision for the fu-
ture. During the first year of his adj
ministration as President of the Unit
ed States, Gen. Washington in a mes
sage to the Senate, referred to the
militia as follows: along with this
object (the preservation of peace and
tranquility on the frontiers) | am in
duced to suggest another, with the
national Importance and necessity of
which / am deeply impressed. / mean
some uniform and effective system for
the militia of the United States.
1 am particularly anxious it
should receive as early attention as
circumstances will admit, because it
is now in our power to avail ourselves
of the military knowledge disseminat-
ed throughout the several states by
means of many well-instructed officers
and soldiers of the late war, re-
source which is daily diminishing by
death and other causes. To suffer this
peculiar advantage to pass away I'M
improved would be to neglect an OPP
porunity"
An Anticipated Militia.
In 1892 a militia law was finally
adopted, and the same law is still on
the statute books, but has long since
been obsolete and imperative. So
primitive and out of date are the wea-
pons referred to in that law that some
of them could MT be found to-day out
side OF the walls of museums of mill
tary antiquities. This law was large
ly a failure because it required the
enrolmen. OF all persons fitted for mill
itary duty between the ages of is and
As. The law left practically every
thing to the states, and gave Con-
gress no authority over the matter.
All that Congress has done or could
do for the militia has been to make
annual appropriations, which have
gradually been increased from 5000, 900
a year to S1,000,000, which is the
amount that has been appropriated
the last year or two. This annual APP
preparation has been used for the is
suing OF arms, quartermaster stores,
and camp equipage, but the United
States has had practically no control
OF SuperV sion over the expenditure.
The experience of two wars with Eng
land and of the Mexican war mas
taught the country little of the neces-
sity for better preparation for HOSTILE
ties. When the civil war broke out,
had President Lincoln had a regular
army of 10000 men, which he could
have put into the field at once, it is
quite likely the war would have been
ended IL a very brief space of time
Both sides in that gigantic contest
were forced to rely upon volun-
teer soldiers, who required so
much time to be made fit for the
field that the contest was thereby I'M
duly prolonged, and the country since
then has been paying for the conse-
quences in the way of unnecessary mil
lions of public debt.
Gen. Miles testified after the war
with Spain that if the country had had
an effective force of $4,000 men at the
outbreak of that trouble we could have
saved the expense of calling out near
ly 600 men, the size of the volun-
teer army, and all the trouble and
enormous expense we had in equipping
an irregular and unprepared force,
which had not been to war at all, but
remained in camp. The volunteer forces
called out during the late war were
hardly ready to take the field under
conditions of actual conflict until after
the war was practically over. There is
no reason why the country should not
have a we'll organized, equipped, and
disciplined volunteer army, which
could be modified ready for action
within forty-eight hours after it was
called for by the President. The war
with Spain showed for the fourth or
fifth time the weakness of the coun-
try in the matter of it's volunteer
forces. The last time we gained this
experience it was during a conflict
with a weak power. The next time the
country is called upon to manifest its
military strength it may have a foe
man much more worthy of our power
1t is not likely when that event occurs
that we will be given one hundred
days in which to prepare our volun-
teer forces for the field.
Skaters SharpshoOters.
It has been stated upon good author
ity that the small but highly disciplin-
ed force from the regular army which
went to Cuba under command of Gen.
Shafter was an army of marksmen. if
not sharpshooters. This means that at
ranges from 200 to 1000 yards every
soldier could hit an enemy once out of
every two or three shots. On the other
hand. of the men composing the volun-
teer forces organized for that war it is
not likely that one-half of them had
ever fired a military rifle. President
Roosevelt in his first message to Con-
gress declared Nowadays the most
valuable fighting man and the most
difficult to perfect is the rifleman. g"
The soldier may be perfect in disci-
nj rld 6pfl al Fn +, IL.