Evening star., 1936-05-17
Past Made an Open Book
By War College Library
It's Research Staff Digs Up Details That
Make Pageants and Celebrations
Historically Accurate.

ments. News agencies and newspapers
all over the United States have used it
as the highest court of appeal in
controversial historical matters. A
members Of the Harvard faculty was
a guest of the library recently, study
ing military attire.
States and cities staging commemo-
ratiVe pageantS or expoSitions ask for
detailed descriptions Of the trappings
of American men of arms for three
centuries. ranging from the velvets
and buckles of the pre-revolutionary
era, through Indian scouts, the early
militia of every State, and the blues
and grays Of the War Between the
States.
Texans, celebrating the hundredth
anniversary Of the Battle Of the Ala.
mo this year with an exposition, re-
Gently received information about
their own Texas rangers regalia, in
which they won their independence
from Mexico, from the War College
Library. A steel engraving in one VOL
ume, showing narrow street leading
from the Alamo a century ago. led to
the reconstruction Of reproduction Of
San Antonio scene by exposition
heads.
THE morning mail may bring a re-
quest for the meaning Of an in
herited decoration and the circum-
stances under which the ancestor
earned it. or for the notes of bugle
calls in the Austrian Army. The staff
has a translation section of three
enlisted men. Or some one may phone
to inquire if the British really used
thousands of cats and ducks during
the Great War to detect the approach
of deadly gases, which they did.
The Great War has suddenly become
history. Miss Wootten says, rather
than a cataclysmic event, which most
of us remember as the background
of the tea-dance vogue and four
minute oratory in movie houses. His
torians all over the country, analyZng
its militay aspects, refer to the library
with increasing frequency.
Trench mortars, ordinarily identified
with the World War, were used as
early as the eighteenth century in
Europe, Col. Thomas recently discov-
cred. Previously it was thought a
plumber originated this deadly methoH
of short-range attack not long before
the Great War, experimenting with
gas pipe, but an engraving Of the iden-
tical weapon is in a book dated l745.
The percussion method Of firing, not
originated until later, was not used.
the colonel explains, but otherwise the
mortar picture might have been
snapped on the western front in 1918.
Two still unanswered questions are
the most often asked, Miss Wootten
says. They concern the origin Of ritual
at military funerals and the supersti-
ton that lighting three cigarettes on
one match is bad luck. Nobody knows
about the later.
Research into funeral customs has
led to the finding of many strange
practices among all races in the past,
but the origins have disappeared into
the area of unwritten history.
The custom of firing three volleys
over the graves of officers has been
traced further back than guns and
gunpowder. The early Romans called
vale" meaning farewell. three times
at the interment ceremony, but 1t is
thought that this custom may have
originated in the Near East, where the
pomp of burial and entombment first
reached elaborate proportions.
GADDLED mounts of deceased war
riors, with boots slung over the
saddle, heels pointing 70 the rear. sig
nifying that the march is ended, ap-
parently have been led behind funeral
biers ever since horses were used in
warfare. American Cavalry drill reg
ulations still require that at funeral
Of q mounted officer his horse, in
mourning caparison. shall follow q
hearse.
The Turks put mustard seed in the
nostrils of the dead soldiers charger
in order that its tears might be taken
as a token Of grief. In the Orient.
there Is an old superstition that the
soul Of the warrior rides into the other
world on the back Of his horse. and
that, therefore. the mount must be
handy. Sometimes the steed is sacri-
feed at the grave, an equine variation
Of the suttee theme. Today at the last
rites Of Air Corps officers a formation
with blank file is flown over the
grave. following the same tradition.
Changing methods of warfare now
present fresh problems, such as the
apparently innocuous regulation re-.
quiring all officers Of the Army to don
spurs If he is wearing boots. This re-
suits occasionally In the sight of a
pilot climbing out Of his airplane with
spurs on, If some military function.
where boots are regulation, requires
his immediate attendance. The new
est branch Of the service conjectures
that the spurs are for the purpose Of
keeping their feet from slipping of the
rudder bars, Col. Thomas says.
The War College library Is the ref
erence source Of officers assigned as
students to the college. the post
graduate" school Of the Army, who are
determining military methods Of the
future In the light Of iascoes and vic
tories Of the past, as well as providing
information to authors, historians or
merely those who want TO masquerade
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