Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-02-27

necrS formerly the First pennsylvania
Engineers, of which Company Il was
largely organized. The 103rd Engineers
was most fortunate in securing for its
commanding officer Lieut. Col. Fred A.
Snyder, who for three years had been
lecturer on engineering in the Canadian
War College.
The work done in this organization has
been truly wonderful. Every type OF
military bridge has been constructed, and
in one case, where the bridge was inn
properly put up and fell down, Colonel
Snyder insisted that it should be left
there as an object lesson to all others.
Every type of trench constructed on the
European front has been duplicated IN
the instruction series; tunnels, saps, and
counter-mines have been built, so that
there is better opportunity for the stu
dent than at any school | visited on
either front.
The instruction thus given has been
taken up and aSsimilated by the officers
III other regiments wht a9e engineers by
profession with the result that all the
engineering work in the two infantry
brigades is approaching the standard set
by the 103d Engineers.
In the 10th Infantry there was most
elaborate system of entertainments with
a definite plan of attack. It was as
sumed that@a row of houses about three
fourths of mile distant were occupied
by enemy sharpshooters, and sniper posts
were established, so carefully camou~
tagged with old cans that l was on the
point of reprimanding the commanding
officer for using his trenches as dump,
when 1 casually discovered that several
of these cans were simply designated as
protection to rifle barrels and the rest to
mislead the enemy as it had mised me.
The majOr of this regiment, coming from
the western part of the state. was as
surfing me that they could do this work
so well because they were from the btu
minouS coal region: looking down into
q twenty-foot trench. it struck me the
men working there were not from the
western part of the state, and | asked,
are all from Philadelphia
Other regiments visited showed a like
degree CT proficiency and a careful COM
prehenson of the objects to be attained
through trench warfare" The officers
in charge were able to give lucid eX
plantations both othe men at work and
to the commanding general, all of which
satisfied me that so far as engineering
instruction was concerned, the infantry
brgades had received all the instruction
that was needed on this side Of the At
lantiC
From the standpoint of military en-
gineering, I have no hesitation in saying
that the Pennsylvania artillery brigade
is entirely fit to go to France tomorrow
and can do any work; that their guns
were as well concealed as any l saw on
the French battle front, without any ar
tifcial camoufiage. OF course, there is
a little more timber here than In that
country. [ heartily favor compulsory
military service. l have never been in
favor of universal military service, but
am willing to admit that in q country the
size of this there must be selection and
those should be taken who can play the
game with the least possible loss-but 1t
should be compulsory. However, in
volunteer force like ours there is a set
OF men One-haf OF whom are playing the
game because it is game in which we
want to win, and after all, that is what
counts.
In the profession of engineering the
engineer who plays his game because he
wants to win has a broader imagination,
a quicker comprehension of the thing
that is to be done than the man that
plods along under the book and the red
tape rules that handicap any profession.
You will find, as time goes on there will
be no contribution to the fighting forces
in France that will excel in spirit and
determination the men of the 28th Di-
vision. Since | have been home q young
man walked into my office, who had on
his sleeve the insignia of sergeant OF
ordnance | congratulated him on his
promotion, but l said, DO you know
the risk you are taking?' He said. "Oh,
yes; but 1 don't want my family to
know it, He said, 81 thoroughly under
stand that when an ordnance dump is hit
we will all be sent home in boxes but
let us play the game" That is the I'M
deriving spirit that will bring success
success-and that, you will find, is the
spirit that actuates the major portion
of the division that represents this city
and state at Augusta, Ga. That d.
vision has not figured very much in the
papers because there have been no com
plants; 1t has not figured much in the
papers because it has a negligible sick
list; it has not figured much because
through the foresight of General Stew
art it went equipped and none of the men
have been suffering for lack of equip
ment. 1t is ready to go across, and let
us in imagination cross over ahead of it
and see if we can picture some~of the
things that confront it. It is not my
business to discourage people; it is my
business to encourage them. 1t can be
said concisely of this war in Europe that
it is no place for a nervous woman or
a homesick man. 1t demands the best,
mentally and physically, that everybody
contains. As a result of the three years
struggle entirely new data have been
evolved and much of the engineering
work in military science as almost ev-
erything else in war. has been RELOCATED
TO the scrap heap
will try to present to you in a brief
way some of the fundamental difficult
ties confronting the. engineers and the
way in which they have been handled
The Allied forces had no common unit
of measurement. The rst difficulty that
met the engineer officers of the French
and ENGLISH armies was to devise a sys-