The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-07-24
CHAPTER VII
The War In the Zoe.

of the foe is like organizing
fire department when the |
streets Of city are already In
flames. This is what the chiefs of the
armySWere trying to do-had been do
ing day and night desperately ever
since the troops had come together
And In Washington in the archives of
congress there were lying sheaves of
reports, gathering dust, that had de-
manded nothing except the chance 10
do it in time.
Here were regiments of militia so
organized" by their states that if they
were permitted to go into battle as
they were 40 companies of infantry
would face the enemy without single
cannon to protect them. OF all the
eastern militia cavalry in that camp
only one regiment had machine gun
company. TABLES II and Is, pages
228, 229, Annual Report Division of
Militia Affairs, q. s. A., Oct. 1, 1914.
." 1.-THE states which send their in
fantry into active service without hav-
ing made every possible effort to sup
ply it with an adequate field artillery
support will see in the needless sacri-
fee of that infantry the cost Of their
shortsightedness In time of prepare
tion."-A. L. Mills, Brigadier General,
General STAFF, u. s. Al
Even the regular army was efficient
only in those things that could be
maintained and perfected by the steady
personal efforts of officers and men.
In everything that depended on legis-
lation 1t was lacking. Instead OF $50
men to company Of infantry some
had only sixty-fve. Its troops Of cav
airy were not full. 1t had no siege ar
tillery corps. 1t was a skeleton army
which, according to optinists, was TO
be clothed with substance when war
arrived. Now war had come, and to
clothe that skeleton with unframed
men would have meant that for every
sixty-fiye skilled soldiers there would
be eighty-five utterly useless ones in
each company.
Shortage of men was not the only
curse that was. laid on the army by
the policy of neglect. In the enemy
headquarters two or at the most three
orders were sent to department chiefs
for every movement. In the American
headquarters the STAFF had to deal with
units Every problem had to be han
died in detail by men who should have
been free to direct one great, compre-
hensive movement. Every order issued
by the commanding general demanded
| intolerable duplication.
The general had under him command
ers Of brigade who had commanded
posts that contained only fragments Of
regiments. Their brigades, never as-
sembled in any one place, not only did
| not approximate to war conditions, but
had to be disrupted and divided and
reformed before the general could dare
TO offer them in battle. Hardly a bri
gade commander had under him troops
| that he had known and trained and
| handled himself.
| With exception Of those who had
been on the Mexican border, when a
part of the small army had been mo-
bilized In a body for the first time,
these men had tried TO prepare them
selves with the best that congress
would give DEMONSTRATIONS and COM
panies and single batteries instead Of
assembled armies because the politi-
clans would not let the army come to-
gether.
The forty-nine army posts Of the
United States, long a subject OF de-
rision among all except those who fat.
tened on them, might well have been
Gymbolized now in that camp by forty
nine Skeletons skeleton army wait.
Ing to lead the other skeleton army to
death. L"While the men who wish tc
spend the army and navy appropria-
ton upon unnecessary army posts OF
unfit. navy yards have such a voice as
well as a vote. e., in the house OF
congress-"a great deal of waste and
extravaganza is sure to result Henry
L. Stimson, Former Secretary Of War
To none was this better known thar
to the enemy. The invaders command
er, standing idly with his hands In his
pockets, was able to say confidently
They'll not bother us seriously.
. 1