Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-10-02
THIS WAR AND CIVIL
WAR CONTRASTED
Confederate Veteran Thinks We Have
Wasted Time.

Writing TO the baltimore sun, from
annapolis, under subscription of
Confederate Veteran one of the
Vets of 81, has the following to say:
THE country at large recognizes
the great craftsmanship of President
Wilson, but ! apprehend that a MILF
tary critic would severely criticize
military action Delving into memory
without looking it up in history, as l
remember, Fort Sumpter was fired on
on the 18th of April. 1861 President
Lincoln then called for $4,000 ninety
day troops and on the 18th of April
the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment
arrived in Baltimore and was driven
back and took steamers from Havre
de Grace for Annapolis and arrived
at Annapolis on the 21st. In the
n eantime the South was modifying
her troops, and Stonewall Jackson
took possession OF Bolivar Heights.
On the 21st of July, just three months
after the landing at Annapolis, the
Battle of Bull Run was fought, numer-
Gus skirmishes having occurred pre-
vious thereto. The fad with the mill
tary men today is preparedness.
When the infantrymen are taught the
facings and the manual of the piece,
with the splendid spirit of American
soldiery, they are prepared.
THE government is spending hun
dreds of thousands of dollars at the
different camps. They are erecting
buildings for the soldiers to live in,
they are furnishing them with chefs
to do the cooking. installing laundries
at the camps and making the life of
a soldier a luxury Among other
things, they are teaching them how to
dig trenches. The proper place to
teach them this is upon the battle
field, where tn work will be accurate
and practical.
"They have now at Chattanooga
1900 graduate physicians. During
the Cicil War, when the physicians
were appointed, they were supplied
with medicine chests and surgical in
struments and put right to work in
the field Speaking of this question
of cooking and furnishing laundries,
| beg leave to state that / lived on
farm where my father had four
women servants, and one male ser
want in the house. l went into the
Confederate Army, cooked my own
rations and washed my own clothes.
None of the men in the present army
Lad an easier time in life than / had
at home, and yet these military au
thorities are calling for preparedness
and contributing to the effeminacy
rather than the hardihood of the
soldiers.
"In the winter of go | slept in an
oren fly tent until the early part of
January, SO, The winter of SO, and
a cold winter it was, / spent in an
open tent until the middle of Janu-
airy. The open-air life made me
physically fit for anything. and now
at n years of age | am capable of
doing the work of man of 45.
General Scott was old when the
Civil War broke out, but he was equal
to the occasion, and he had for a
short time mobilization camps for the
purpose of drills and the gathering
together of his armies notwithstand-
ing his age he was better military
man than any of the present-day Off
GERS. After these men have received
temporary instructions, in order to
save men and to save the armies of
the Entente, they should be in the
fields now, and the first installment
should be on the Riga front assist
ing the Russians in resisting the at
tacks of the Kaiser; and there, as the
defensive army is falling back and be-
ing pursued, would be a great deal
of open-feld fighting, land for this,
above the soldiers of all other ma
tions, the American soldier is para
mount
president Wilson has done great
deal in the way of craftsmanship.
Now he should take the bull by the
horns, abolish these expensive camps
and send fhe soldiers to the 'front.'