The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-02-08
ARMY CRAFTSMANSHIP.

| The success of American soldiers In
! the battles of the past has been due, IN
| large degree, to individual marksman-
1 ship. 1t was that which caused such
| loss to the enemy at Bunker Hill and
would have won that battle but for the
| fact that the minute men did not have
| enough powder to last them. When
Packenham, brother-in-law of the
| Duke of Wellington, led his brigade of
PeninSular veterans against Jackson at
New Orleans, it was craftsmanship,
not discipline or strategy, which drove
the brave Britons back with a loss of
$500 killed and wounded. Jackson's
troops shot to some purpose. During
the civil war the individual marksman-
ship was probably the best the world
ever saw and accounted for the dread
full mortality of the battles. In those
years. be it remembered, the American
boy, North and South. early learned
the use of the gun. The country was
full of game and the young men were
always after it. Even the city-bred
youth, when summer came, had
chance with the fowling piece. So,
when American armies were recruited
the enlisted man could generally be de-
pended upon, in firing his musket, "a
come somewhere near his mark. 1t
took 1000 bullets to disable one man at
Waterloo, but only about 300 at Get
tysburg, circumstances that show the
difference between an old world army
which only knew the gun as military
volleying weapon and a new word
army which knew it as an arm of pre-
cision.
But unluckily the American is losing
his skill with the rife and to a large
extent with the shot gun. There is not
much big game left. East of the Rock
les a rife is now practically useless;
and west of them there is more use for
the fowling piece. Fewer people want
10 hunt: vastly fewer have the chance
to hunt The cities are filing up and
the summer resorts for city people are
not, as a rule, places where game
abounds. SO marked is the change
that even the army feels it. as witness
this story, embracing a general order
of General Chaffee, which we take |
from the Washington Post:
American soldiers in the Philippines |
must shoot with more accuracy. This is |
the burden of an order recently issued (
by General Chaffee, copies of which have
been received at the War Department.
The general points out that, as the I'M
avoidable result of the lack of regular
target practice, both officers and men in
the division of the Philippines have fall
IN Tar below the desirable proficiency IN
his important branch of a soldiers quail
fcat:ons
I'm service in these islands," says Cen
eral Chaffee. you are called upon to
an enemy unusual in civilized
warfare, and whether he rushes your po-
sition in daylight or under the cover Of
night, with bolos and daggers, fires
upon you from places more or less ac-
,urately and rapidly your casualties will
De very few, and the fact that you are
ible to do this is certain in your ranks
o make nervous man collected, and a
'rave man more courageous"
To the end indicated. General Chaffee
las ordered a number of exercises to be
by all the enlisted men of the
lrmy of the Philippines using the car
zine or rife. The chief failing noted has
,een an involuntary tremorf in the unac-
shoulder muscles of the men
when aiming. causing the shot to defect
'ery considerably. A great portion OF
he enlisted force now in the Philippines
$ new material, and the officers
throughout the command have been in
tructed to conduct exercises intended to
tTensthen these unsteady muscles so
hat they will be firm whether the SOL
lier when shooting is standing, kneeling
II lying fiat on the ground.
If craftsmanship is not improved we
shall lose one of our fine advantages
over the soldiers of Europe. If it can
not be made what it was then the
American soldier should be kept from
alling behind the European by a sever
ar course of discipline