The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-07-03


do you stable your mounts on top
Of your guns in the nilish p shouted a
regular gleefully. But he and his fell
lows helped good naturally enough.
"We never had horses till now"
growled one Of the militiamen, who
was STOPPING to tug at a trace chain.
1t made his face fiery red. state
wouldn't give Us any, and we didn't
have stables anyway In our armory.
So we couldn't break in any mounts"
Nor you couldn't break yourselves
in, chum, guess" spoke another reg
ular. How the devil did you get gum
merry practice? Haul your little gun out
by hand to the firing ground?'
The militiaman fumbled at the trace
again. Didn't IRE IT," he said with
out looking up. They didn't think
much Of artillery at home; thought
that infantry was all they needed.
They sort of thought we just had a
little toy to play with"
You amt going to be lonely, mtlish.''
grunted the regular, saunterfng of.
''Tie necktie around your horses and
then go over yonder. You'll find three
other batteries from three other states
that never had no horses, never had
no mounted drills and never qualified
as gunners." EUnderstated. Annual
reports for 1915 show many practically
useless batteries.1
A grizzled colonel Of cavalry rode by.
Under his shaggy eyebrows he shot
glance at the helpless battery and
swore. He dated back to Indian times,
and they said Of him in the army that
he knew nothing except cavalry tao.
tics and horses. But he knew them,
and he was breaking his old heart over
the militia cavalry that had come IN
der his command.
Some he had that were good enough
to win his full praise, but none Of these
was full as to quota of men. The colo
mel of the best of the regiments was
riding at his side It was an organized
force of rich men, each of whom had
brought his own mount, trained as
carefully as any cavalry horse and
perfectly equipped. Zine, sir, fnel"
said the old Indian fighter. But, oh!
Wait till you see what arrived last
week. They can ride! Yes, sir, they
can ride. Heaven knows how they
learned it, for they didn't ever have a
mount except what they hired In livery
stables. A rich state, too, and one
that did its infantry well, sir. It was
supposed to be a regiment Of cavalry
that we were TO get. Do you know
what arrived7 Two squadrons! And.
sir, they came afoot. They served a
state that evidently prefers horseless
cavalry" [Annual report militia or
ganization, 1915. An eastern seaboard
state
He chewed the cigar and threw It
away. Look over there!" he contin-
ued. ''See those chaps? They were
among the first to come to us. Yes,
sir. The entire cavalry, force Of that
state came out-the entire force, you
understand. Do you want to know
how many there were? Three troops
hree-troops- confound me, sir! Not a
whole squadron. But as these three
1 troops were in three different parts of
the state they hadn't even been drilled
to move together In their little three
troops as one body. We're just get
ting 'em so that they can ride In
| squadron without smashing into some
other troop and crumpling the whole
outfit to hades." TABLES given in war
department statistics, 1851
Even while the old cavalry leader
was swearing a delegation of civilians,
sent to visit the camp officially, was
| gathered at headquarters. The visitors
were haggard and worried; but, with
the ever ready optimism of the ex-
traordinary American race, the most
worried one OF them all said: "a splen-
did army. Looks fit to fight for its
life. We are sure that you will give a
good account of yourselves, general,
against any force"
The major general did not reply. In
the immediate line of his vision lay
| the sanitary camp. There, beside his
own regulars. lay sanitary troops of
the stats militia that had come into
camp without ambulance companies,
| without field hospitals, without medi-
| cal supplies. He thought of one regi-
ment "a regiment on paper, seven COM
panies in reality that had appeared
without even its service outfit OF shoes
and overcoats. Two whole state diyi-
sions, had they gone into action on
their own strength, would have had
no ambulances at all to carry of their
| wounded. One division, formed from
state that had done better than most
with its militia, arrived for war with
two field hospitals short and lacking
seven full ambulance companies. Even
the richest state of the seaboard groups
had left it's organized force short both
field hospital and an ambulance com
pany. Not one of all the militia forces
from all the states had ambulances
enough. Extracted from tabulated re
turns to war department Report on
militia organization, 1851
The soldier looked up at the sky
Lord, Lordv' he muttered, not i'm
piously. IAN extravagant land. As
4 IL