The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-12-12
100000 IN ARMY.
GREATEST NUMBE, THAT EVER
WORE UNIFORM OF UNCLE
SAM AT ANY ONE TIME.
Some Interesting Facts Regarding the
Present Armed Forces OF This
Country.

Columbia, Dec. S---OfficiaI figures
obtained through the National Council
of Defense show that chere are $780,
600 men in the armies Of the United
States. This information is con-
tanned in statement which has been
issued by the South Carolina Council
Of Defense. It is the first time that
these facts have been presented. Tho
statement follows: tsA
THE latest official figures put the
number of enlisted men in the armies
three hundred and sixty thousand.
This is the force that has grown in
eight months out of an army that on
April numbered only 10000.
Most of them are still in the train.
ing camps. Many Of them are not
yet disciplined troops. fully equipped
and armed for battle.
But there they are, 1,360,00O OF
them, already one Of the biggest fac
tors Hindenburg is reckoning with FOR
she campaign Of 1918.
ITO lead them there are over SO, 900
officers. When the graduates, Of the
second training carap get their first
orders the number will be over 1o0,-
Ooo-as many officers as there were
privates nine months ago.
The whole military establishment.
with the marines and the auxiliary
forces thrown in, numbers a million
and half. The expansion that has
taken place is as if Grand RAPIDS had
grown in eight months to be virtual
ly as big as Philadelphia.
Since Xerxes led his million ana a
half Of assorted Asiatics across th,
Hellspont, Europe has seen many a
campaign conducted on the grand
scale. American battles have been
fought as stubbornly. but with small
er forces engaged. There were O.
100000 enlistments in the federal
army in the civil war. But many of
this number were reenlistments. The
highest total engaged at any one
time was reached the last year of
tho war. On March 81. 1865. the Uu-
ion army comprised $4,000 men.
For the Spanish war an army Of
2I0,OO0 was raised Only 10000 saw
service.
The present American army is the
largest armed force the Western
Hemisphere has ever seen-unless
the Mound Builders were more nu-
n'erous and pugnacious than we have
any reason to beliave they were. IL
the whole army could be gathered To-
gether today and Lined UP in a solid
iMantry column, four breast, It would
roach across Ohio, from Cincinnati to
Toledo, and on to the Michigan line.
"A million and a half of men! 1t is
as if the entire population Of the
State OF South Carolina, or of The
States Of Nebraska and Wyoming nat
together-men, women and children
were suddenly to be converted into
young men clad in olive drab AMI or
ganized into companies and battal-
IONS
when Great Britain entered the
war it was with much smaller army.
The first expeditionary force numbers
ed barely a hundre I thousand. The
Kaiser called it contemplate little
army. Yet without it's work ut Mons,
Paris might have fallen. One hun
dred thousand men. and the encour-
agement they brought to the French,
were enough to avert defeat in the
first year of the war.
ut is the hope of the Allies tba.
another new force. ten or twelve
times as great, will be enough in tho
fourth year of the war to insure vic-
tory
IF it is not enough. America has
the men and the nachinery to make
greater effort"