El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-02
Army Maneuvers
By
Frederic
]. HaSkin
EDUCATION FOR NATIONAL GUARDSMEN
OF GREAT ASSISTANCE DURING WARS

abundant opportunity for the holding
! of army maneuvers on a large scale,
| and this is conceded TO be one of the
prime necessities in the successful
training of the officers who are to di-
rect the battles which this country may
have to fight All military authorities
! agree that the problems of handling
J large masses Of men successfully can
not be mastered except under actual
! battle conditions in the field. The hand
! ling of supplies the control Of large
! units of men, and all the other problems
! incident to a heavy campaign in the
| field never have been learned from
books. The entire trend of the mill
/ tary thought of the world today is in
favor of learning the larger duties of
the battlefield under conditions as near
~ apprOximating real warfare as can
be had
Victory Confirms Theory.
History is full Of proofs of the cor
rectness of this theory. 1t is a well
known fact that the Boer war was
distinct failure from the British stand
point until the arrival of Lord Kitch-
ener. When he reached the scene OF
conflict, trained soldier as he was, his
training a matter of field experience,
the first task to which he addressed
! himself was that of perfecting his
transportation facilities, and so organ
izing his administrative work that when
be got down to the serious business of
fighting there would be no failure OF
his army through the lack of rations
or of improperly handled transportation
facilities.
Wherever victories have been echiev-
ed they have been won not less by the
plodding mastery of administrative de-
tail than by the brilliant conduct of
the troops in the field. This was as
strikingly illustrated in the Russo
Japanese war as in the case of Kitch-
ener's experience.
Mimic Fights Advance Cause
From the earliest times military
maneuvers of one kind or another have
been practiced by the armies that have
" on the world battles. JOsephus says
that the Roman army practiced war
games in times of peace as strenuOuSly
as they fought in times of war. The
modern war game of field maneuvers
ONES its origin to the Prussian king,
Frederick William 1, father of Fred
erick the Great. He was noted for his
harshness, his eccentricities, his love
for tall soldiers, yet he was neverthe-
less awarded the cobriquet The Drill
Master OF Europe"
After Frederick the Great took
charge of his fathers armies, he was
as enthusiastic over the war game as
his father had been, and in none of the
campaigns that made him one Of the
foremost captains of all history, did he
display greater zeal or enthusiasm than
in the mimic fights through which
he carried his troops.
After the time of Frederick the Great
the Prussians did but little in the way
of continuing the training derived from
military maneuvers. Then came the
great battle of June, in which the Prus-
slams suffered a humiliating defeat. This
served to rekindle their zeal for mill
tary movements.
While they were fighting these sham
battles the rest of Europe looked on
in a half amused way, thinking that it
was all to 10 purpose But after 50
years of peace Prussia entered the lists
against Austria, and although the lat
ter country was the richer, more popu-
lous and the Weather nation, with a
larger army. which was fresh from the
battlefield of two great wars, the Prus-
SLAMS emerged from the war in triumph
Four years later the Prussian army was
sent into the field against France,
whose military force was regarded as
the best in the world, and Prussian
arms again were triumphant Thus was
the value of field maneuverS proved to
the satisfaction of all Europe, and they
of army training.
Practice in Oklahoma
In the United States the earliest ap-
Proclamation Of field maneuvers took
place in 1889, when general Merritt
modified some troops in Oklahoma for
the purpose of working out some mill
tary problems he had in mind. In 1896
some small maneuvers were held at the
Cavalry school at Fort Leavenworth,
IN
country were held in 1902 at Fort Ri
ley, Kans- when 5000 regulars and Ma
tional guardsmen were modified for
the purpose of field practice. Since then
important maneuvers have taken place |
in various parts of the country. the !
largest of which were those held on |
the Bull Run battlefield in Virginia, a /
few years ago. The maneuvers held last !
year around Boston constituted the +
first attempt to work out a large cam
paign under conditions approXimating 1
an attack by foreign foe.
In the maneuvers that take place on !
the battlefieldS OF Gettysburg and I
Chickamauga today it is impossible even !
to approximate the conditions under |
which the battles on those fields were /
fought. The vast changes that have
been wrought in ordnance and in rifles !
since the civil war have made the !
problem entirely different. Except for |
the inspiration that service on such /
historic ground may give there is but !
little reason why maneuvers should be