Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-05
AMERICAN SOLDIERS
FIGHTING MEN MORE EFFICIENT
THAN DURING CIVIL WAR.
Weapons Of Longer Range and Greater
Accuracy-Signal Service anG
Surgical Advance.
From Harper's Weekly.

u A brigader general who had seen service
in the civil war. in fighting Indians, in
Cuba. in the Philippines and in China,
stood on knoll near headquarters at Fort
Riley, Kan, in the early part of last Oc-
tober. peering through his binoculars at a
great cloud of dust made by regiment of
cavalry as it dashed furiously across the
plain In enc of the sham battles by the
regulars in the ten days maneuvers there.
The frecracker rattle of the guns of six
regiments of infantry followed by their
swift rushes across the plain and their
plunges to the ground the roar of half a
dozen batteries of field guns, throwing i'm
ag1nary shells and hurting defiance at one
another. came as music to his ears.
The gray and wind-tanned brigader could
repress his enthusiasm no longer and he
turned to friend. who had left the army
at the close of the civil war and who was
nus guest at the maneuvers, and said:
Best soldiers in the world, colonel."
Hardly that. general, replied the COL
onel. There were no better soldiers, and
there never will be better soldiers than the
men in the army in the last two years of
the civil war;
Quite right, of course. But what 1
meant was that the American private SOL
der, equipped and trained as he is today
is the best lighting machine known and
that he can do 100 per cent more works.
loo per cent more efficient-than he could
when we were fighting in the south He
shoots further, he further he hears
futher-yes, he marches further and en-
dureS more than when we were youngsters
winning our first shoulder straps. I'll prove
it to you. The morale is 100 per cent i'm
proved over the old days.
Weapons Then and Now.
For week the active man of military
service and the active man of business who
had come back to smell powder and renew
the martial spirit of his youth went into
every detail of the maneuvers They took
Krag-Jorgensen rifle and had a private
hit a tree more than mile away The
Springfields of dozen years ago couldn't
shoot more than 1,5U0 yards, or three
quarters of the distance, the Krags shoot
Then the general told of the new SPRING
fields which have been adopted by the
army to supplant the Krags, and his
eyes snapped as he did so. Out in the
Philippines and in China he told how
scores OF the men, as they warmed to their
work and grew excited, were found
shooting air. instead of cartridges out of
their guns. In the excitement they for
got to recharge the magazines
All that is gone now. The brand-new
Springfield is entirely encased in wood. and
the soldier can handle it in comfort at all
times. 1t is lighter than the Krag End
weighs only seven and one-half pounds
But most important of ALL when the SOL
der has fired all of the cartridges 10 his
cnp, ne is unable to go through the mo-
tons of shooting the weapon again-that u.s.
he can't shoot air-until he has recharged
the gun The barrel has also been short
ened to the length of the carbine and
hereafter the infantry and cavalry will
carry the same weapon. Whether TIE SOL
der Is a mounted infantryman or a dis
mounted cavalryman, or just a plain in
fantryman or cavalryman, his gun will be
the same, and only one kind of ammunition
needs to be supplied
Then. too, the private soldier of today
II was seen at glance is more than 100
times as efficient as a shooter when it is
realized that he carries with him I'm his
compact belt $50 cartridges where he used
to carry only fifty. Right there is the secret
or his ability to march farther and to go
long on hikes, where his range of action
formerly was limited to the necessity of
keeping closer in touch with his anmuni-
ton supply.
Electric Work in the Field.
Soon there came along the signal CORPS
with their telegraph instruments and their
wires and their flags and other parapher-
mana. In the midst of rush across the
country a regiment was stopped suddenly,
the order was given to wheel and to rush
to distant part of the field There was
no aid rushing up and dashing back to the
general in command. The signal corps had
received word that more men were de-
manded in weak spot in the line The
general at once telegraphed to stop the
regiment that was making headWay in
forced PUSHES, with open spaces between
the men. to retrace its steps and to strength
en- force that had been outfanked.
THAT'S the kind of work we did in China -
shouted the br1gadier. With a whoop and
a cloud of dust the men disappeared In
less than a half hour there was more sig
mailing and telegraphing, and back the regi-
ment charged. 1t was difficult to see them
most OF the time, and the opposing force
was practically out of sight
How did they know they were needad
just them asked the colonel. "Our glasses
in the old days were not able to detect the
movements that have just been so prompt =.
ly checked"
The brigadier handed over his binocula m
and said:
LongDistance Photography.
You observe. we see three times as far
we used to see in the old times That
telegraph we used constantly in the march
to Picking. Every one OF the camps was
equipped, especially at night. 1t was the
wonder of the other forces. And now they
say that they are perfecting a system of
photOgraphing twenty miles away by cleo
tricity. Well have that too. Fancy the
advantage 1t would have been to take a
picture over mountain twenty miles away
In fighting Indians in the time of Custer
and Crook. Lawton might have got old
Geronimo sooner if he could have taken his
picture several times as he was fleeing into
the mountains of Mexico. When the wire
less telegraphy is perfected Wen have that
in operation. To some extent We'll use the
telephone
The Hospital Corps passed by. The gem
eral stopped them ''Show this man how
you operate with those frst-aid- to- the-in-
jured packages you carry" he said. One of
the men dropped to the ground. He was sup
posed to be wounded in the leg Out came
the bandages and the appliances for stop
ping the flow of blood. In a few minutes
he was bound up and ready to be put in the
stretcher to be carried Off. PITY we didn't
have such fixings in the old days." said the
colonel. Many life would have been
saved"
One Of Horace Greeley's Rules.