Part 6

Men should be taught to do this for themselves but as it can be so much more surely and better done as above described the men should be permitted to do it themselves only in emergencies where sanitary troops are not available.

[Sidenote: Protection of head and neck]

In marching in very hot weather the men must be instructed in the importance of protecting the back of the neck from the direct rays of the sun. It would be well if our men were issued a small piece of cloth of suitable color with some means of readily attaching it to the hat to afford this protection. The Japanese soldiers used such an attachment in Manchuria with good results.

There must be an air space between the top of the hat and the man’s head. The hat must be ventilated and in very hot weather a wet sponge or cloth or green leaves should be carried in the hat. The shirt collar, if not very loose, should be unbuttoned.

[Sidenote: Bathing]

Besides bathing the feet the men should bathe their whole bodies frequently. Anyone familiar with our “regulars” on the march and who has seen them break for the water to bathe as soon as possible after a day’s march knows that it requires no order to get this done. But sometimes we must camp where there is no water available for bathing. Men should at least wash the crotch with a wet towel, especially if there is a tendency to chafe. Talcum powder should be used in such cases.

[Sidenote: Drinking]

Men should be carefully taught the disabling effects of alcohol if drunk the night before or during a hard march, especially if the march be made in hot weather. The men must also be instructed to care wisely for their diet and to avoid the excessive drinking of water on the march. Too little water is as bad.

[Sidenote: Personal hygiene]

All this instruction should be carefully given the men by their company officers under the general supervision of the regimental surgeon. The surgeon, with the approval of the colonel, should prepare an outlined scheme for instruction in first aid and in personal hygiene, having special reference to the soldier’s care of himself in the field. The surgeon should then instruct such company officers as have need of the instruction; the company officers then instruct the men. A part of the examination of the company at the end of its indoor period should be on these subjects.

[Sidenote: Muscle development]

The muscles must be _properly_ developed. It is not the strongest man who can best stand the march; it does not require great physical strength. The man’s muscles must be flexible, he must be trained to use them and be able to use them without causing physical pain.

Marching as fully equipped infantry in the ranks is a very different proposition from walking along the road independently, and for the private in ranks with his load it is different from what it is for the officer with his.

Many men of great strength are often what is called “muscle bound.” Others have certain muscles overdeveloped others underdeveloped. When muscles usually unused are brought into play, or when a man is forced into a constrained position, if it be kept up continuously for some time, serious pain and discomfort results and often ends in a physical break down.

A good course in callisthenics or in gymnasium training is the best thing for the new man. It loosens him up, brings into play the different muscles, renders them flexible and gives the man control of himself. Then practice in marching, carrying his equipment, strengthens the necessary muscles and accustoms the man to the necessary constraint.

[Sidenote: March training]

The training of the company for marching consists, then, in getting the men’s muscles in proper condition by physical drill, in theoretical instruction as outlined above, and actual practice. Most of the actual practice is and should be gained at the regular daily drills and exercises. In these, if they are properly conducted, the man gets enough preparation.

[Sidenote: Practice marches]

Devoting one day each week to a practice march is believed a mistake. In many of our posts a command going out on the roads can not leave them, there is no chance for instruction except very imperfect instruction in advance and rear guard work and practice in marching.

The physical part, the mere practice in marching can be just as well gained in the regular exercises, and to devote one-fifth of our field training period to the other instruction is excessive. It prevents some of the other necessary training being given and it ignores relative values.

What are wanted are men physically fit. Four to six hours a day of correct and rational training will make them as much fit without this weekly practice march as with it and give more time, all of which is needed, for necessary work.

[Sidenote: Yearly march]

There should, however, be one march every year of from 200 to 300 miles. This is necessary for instruction in camp expedients, to train the men to care for themselves on long marches and to give them experience in field service.

It would be better could it be held late in the season. The command should march to some point where they could have maneuver work and training in the larger units and on the ground more unfamiliar than their home reservation. But the march should be held, if it be only out and back.

[Sidenote: The officers]

Even with the men well prepared much of the success of the march depends on the officers. They must understand how to conduct a march and care for their men and conscientiously perform their duty. They must try to get the man’s point of view, think of the man’s comfort and health.

[Sidenote: Marching gait]

[Sidenote: Halts]

Every officer who may be responsible for the uniformity and rate of march should carefully train himself to take a suitable gait and strictly maintain it. No one thing is more trying than an unsteady pace and many good officers are unable properly to lead a column on on the march for this reason. The halts must be regulated to suit conditions. In very hot weather or when climbing steep hills they must be more frequent than once an hour.

Discipline must be strict, no straggling allowed. Running to catch up, “backing and filling” is productive of a big sick report.

Whenever conditions permit the intervals between units should be increased, especially when the weather is hot and roads dusty. It renders a steady, uniform pace easier to maintain, and thus tires the men less.

The other rules for marches given in our service regulations should be carefully observed.

[Sidenote: The first few days]

Much of the success of a long march depends on the first two or three days, until the men get into the swing. Where practicable the first day’s march should be a little less than average, the second a short one, after that our trained regulars can keep up the average march six days a week. On starting out it is the second day’s march that is the most trying to the men. This should be borne in mind and all practicable allowances made.

An excessively long march should never be made just for practice. It does not fit the man for another but the reverse.

VIII

THE NATIONAL GUARD

In training the infantry of the national guard we have a very different problem from that of the regular regiments.

In these regiments the same proportional attention should be given to those things that should be habits as in training the regulars and the necessity for varied instruction in order to keep the interest of the men is even greater.

[Sidenote: Scope of the instruction]

My observation leads me to believe that the greatest weakness of many of our national guard captains lies in the narrow scope of the instruction given and in its monotony. There is a lack of variety at each meeting. The men lose interest.

When the recruit first joins the guard he generally does it for the best of reasons and is interested in the work. But after going to the armory for a few times and drilling in a few movements over and over again he loses interest, then he cuts drill and possibly ends by trying to get discharged.

There are many things that should be taught, and you can only hope for success by varying the work and holding the interest of your men. Do not put more time than necessary on non-essentials.

[Sidenote: The recruit]

Of course the recruit must first be taught the school of the soldier and he must have the necessary instruction in close order drill. But even early in his course there is a chance for variety; early in the game give him a rifle for part of the time and as soon as he has had a little drill in the manual of arms teach him sighting and then pointing and aiming drill. As soon as he is far enough along let him fire a score at gallery practice each drill. At first devote the most time to drill without arms but increase the time with arms until all the drills are with arms and you get him in the company for close order drill.

The following should be taught as carefully as practicable:

[Sidenote: Essentials for the guard]

1. Target practice on the range. If the gallery practice and pointing and aiming drill recommended below be well done, comparatively little of this will answer. But it cannot be omitted, every man should have some practice. Where possible some of this practice should be in “field firing.” In many cases there is a tendency to give known distance firing an exaggerated value to the neglect of other training.

2. The mechanism of the deployments, the advance by rushes even after the line is mixed, control of fire, and all these directed by signals only; verbal commands should not be used.

3. Estimating distance must be taught.

4. Pointing and aiming drill and gallery practice, so that the man will always bring his piece up properly, look through the sights and pull the trigger only after careful aim, must be practiced until the necessary habit is formed.

5. There must be frequent close order drill. Knowledge of this is necessary for the orderly movement of troops and it is our greatest aid to discipline. But to be an aid to discipline it must be exact, otherwise it has a reverse effect. It is just as easy to do it correctly as to do it approximately if you only teach it so at the beginning and then give the subject attention ever afterward and do not allow the drill to become sloppy.

6. The use of the bayonet must be taught and practiced.

7. The men must be taught simple intrenching and the various uses of sand bags.

8. First aid and personal hygiene.

9. Patrolling; especially the combat patrols and those with advance and rear guards and outposts. As many as possible should know how to read a map.

10. The company musicians and two or three privates should know the flag signalling.

But the captain may say: all these are practicable with the regulars who have all the time needed and daylight in which to work and ground to work on; but how are we to do these in an armory at night?

[Sidenote: Required equipment]

Every armory should have a place fixed for gallery practice if it is only a backing for the target against the wall in one of the corners. And no company should be without a sand table; a relief map is also very desirable.

With this equipment let us see what we can do.

The ordinary drills of course are on the armory door.

[Sidenote: Estimating distances]

The principles of estimating distance should be taught the company and the men urged to practice it for themselves. Groups are formed and go anywhere it is convenient for this purpose. Occasionally, if found practicable, the company goes out. Officers and non-commissioned officers in this same way should learn to use the range finder.

[Sidenote: Patrolling]

Patrolling can be well taught on the sand table or relief map. Pile up your sand, forming any desired terrain; with yellow strings mark the roads and with blue ones the streams, little bridges, etc., can be made with a jackknife, houses represented by blocks, forests with little pieces of evergreen—you have your outdoors.

A scale must be provided and one end of the table marked as north.

The instructor takes a squad to the table and starts out, for instance, by stating: “Smith, your regiment has reached this point (just off the table) moving north in hostile territory. The colonel sends for you and gives you this order—‘Corporal, I have heard rumors that there is a force of the enemy in that village northeast of here. I want to know whether that is true. Take your squad and move along in the general direction of this main road, find out and report. The regiment will remain here for several hours. Be back here by 3 P. M., it is now 10 o’clock.’” The instructor tells Smith to do just as if he were on the ground. Smith inspects his squad, gives his instructions to his men and then proceeds. He can tell the instructor his formation, and what he does from time to time, or each of the men, provided with a match and a scale, may be required to move his own match. There are many ways of doing it. The instructor must give information of the enemy, either orally or at certain points place lead soldiers or something to represent the enemy.

The thing aimed at is to find out how Smith and the other men would act under various conditions, point out their errors and show them how to correct these, and give the reasons. An infinite number of such problems can be devised.

This sand table is especially good for teaching the work of a combat patrol. Form your field of battle and along one flank have a varied terrain with houses, clumps of trees, little hills, etc. The instructor moves a light rod along to represent the firing line and the patrol leader solves his problem. Whenever any error is made the movement stops until the mistake is pointed out and explained.

[Sidenote: Security]

In the same way are treated advance and rear guards of the strength of a company and a company as advance or rear party. Outposts are established, the sentinels being represented, and routes of the patrols selected.

[Sidenote: Entrenching]

Entrenching can be taught by constructing trenches to scale on the sand table terrain. I have seen elaborate field works with bomb proofs constructed in this way by the men of one company, but this is not recommended for any but the officers; it is better to limit this work to the simpler trenches. With a round piece of stove wood for a log and with a good jack knife, or better a hatchet, you can make your loop holes for the head log. With a lot of small Bull Durham tobacco sacks, filled with sand, you have your sand bags, the varied uses of which should be taught.

The officers should have a war game map for their patrol problems and for war games.

[Sidenote: Bayonet fencing]

Bayonet fencing should be practiced if you have the necessary equipment. If not, and a place is available for it, suspend by a rope something to represent a man, a sack full of straw will do, so that it can be made to swing through a small angle back and forth and to right and left. Let the men practice the thrusts, lunges, cuts, etc., against this, another man giving the dummy a motion. This should come after training in the bayonet exercise.

I would propose a system something like the following for your company drills:

Recruits by themselves until they can be put in the company; their work has already been discussed.

[Sidenote: Essentials at every drill]

After the company is formed give 15 or 20 minutes of snappy, precise close order drill then a little manual of arms. Then have the company deploy, two or three times at least, from different formations. Then go through an attack formation the best you can, all the company in the line, no support, an advance of 40 yards being represented by one of five, etc. Then try it holding out a support and putting it in so as to mix squads and advance as before. Remember, no verbal commands, all this to be done by signals.

Have little posters on one wall of your armory at the proper height; have a few minutes pointing and aiming drill, impressing on the men the importance of always taking careful aim.

[Sidenote: Group work]

Then divide your company into small groups. One group at the sand table, one receiving first aid instruction, another bayonet work, another gallery practice, etc. The group at the sand table may be larger than the others and may stay there for the rest of the evening, the others should change every 15 or 20 minutes. The sand table group should change each drill and once during the night if practicable, that is, if there is time for one group to finish its problem and give another a chance that same evening, it should be done. Nearly all the company should fire a score at the gallery every night.

If there are a few men in the company who are poor at the manual of arms they can be put in one group and be given one of their turns in drill in the manual.

One group may have to be taught how to make the pack. Instruction in guard duty may be necessary for another. Verbal instruction can be given in several subjects with great advantage where a good instructor is available; in that case all except the group at the sand table can be assembled.

The whole course cannot be covered at one drill. The captain should so arrange his groups that all in turn get instruction in the whole course, that all get a variety each night, that where men have a special deficiency it receives attention, that the first part, the essentials for the whole company, be never slighted, and that as many as practicable of the company get gallery practice at every drill—one score will answer fully.

Owing to the time it takes to complete a problem or task on the sand table, often but one group can use it in an evening. The size of the group working should not, however, be increased. Only small parties can be advantageously instructed. For this reason the sand table must be worked to the limit and because of this and the number of things to be taught on it and because some officers are not very expert in forming suitable terrain on the sand table, it is an advantage to have the relief map also. The latter can then be used for patrolling and work of covering detachments and the sand table for the field engineering.

[Sidenote: Brush work]

At most stations small twigs can be collected and used to make hurdle revetments, fascines and gabions for use on the sand table. They can be constructed to the reduced scale and this brush work learned nearly as well as outside with normally sized faggots.

Have the officer or non-commissioned officer best qualified give the instruction in each class. The instructor has much to do with success; some are specially good at one thing but poor at another.

With such a course of instruction well given throughout the year and with a week or ten days of good camp work annually, and suitable school work for the officers, there is no reason why the national guard should not possess the efficiency required of it to be a valuable military asset.

[Sidenote: No callisthenic drill]

Sufficient of the callisthenic or setting up exercises for the proper development of the soldier should be shown the recruit and the latter told of the advantages of practicing them for a few minutes every morning or evening, or both. Tell him what it will do for his health and appearance and urge him to get busy. There is no use drilling these exercises in the armory. A few minutes once a week or less often will do no good and wastes drill time of which the guard has none to spare.

The detailed sergeants should help in all drill work but especially should be valuable in teaching camp expedients, care of equipment, etc.

[Sidenote: Use of schools for N. C. O.]

I believe that in nearly every state the officers pursue a theoretical course each winter and generally there is a non-commissioned officers’ school as well. In the latter school there should be thoroughly taught, giving importance and precedence in the order stated:

Infantry Drill Regulations,

Manual of Guard Duty,

Small Arms Firing Regulations, and parts of Field Engineering.

Parts of the Field Service Regulations should be read carefully in connection with the study of the same subject in Infantry Drill Regulations. If more time is available map reading should be taught, and, if time remains, then applied minor tactics on the map. Attempt no more than you can _thoroughly_ do in the time available and make the course progressive.

[Sidenote: Schools for officers]

The school for officers should first cover thoroughly the above course but take more of Field Service Regulations and include the Manual of Courts Martial. Map reading should be thoroughly learned by all and the remaining time put on tactics. Beginning with minor tactics study some good problems with their solutions, then solve others to be criticised by some competent person. I have found it satisfactory to use problems in this way in connection with the drill regulations. Study a subject, for example an advance guard, then read a few tactical problems on the same subject, then try solving one, and so on.

As you progress use larger and larger forces. But do not attempt the brigade until you can handle the regiment correctly. Do not cover too much ground in one season and acquire only confusion. Each term get something positively fixed in your mind so that you can use it; there will be more winters.

Much attention should be given to acquiring facility in giving correct verbal orders.

Studying tactical problems correctly solved and solving others for yourself is the best way to learn tactics after you know the principles laid down in your manuals. Beware of “normal form” solutions, they are misleading and apt to be wrong. Apply general principles with common sense. Advantage should be taken of the officers detailed as inspector-instructors to plan and conduct this work as well as to help in the instruction of the men. Only those thoroughly competent for this instruction work should ever be detailed with the national guard.

There should be a camp of instruction each year. If properly conducted this is very valuable.

[Sidenote: Camps of instruction]

Nearly all national guard infantry needs training for individual men and officers and work in the company, battalion and regiment. When formed in divisions or larger forces for maneuver campaigns the men in ranks and junior officers get but little instruction. Except a little camp experience, it is chiefly walking, the object of which they know nothing, and most of the officers are not yet ready for this class of work. It is a camp of instruction, not a campaign, they need. They must apply on the ground what they have learned in the armory.

I believe the best results can be obtained from camps of not more than three regiments. The special needs of each regiment should be considered in forming the program. The work should be planned so as to give instruction to each in the most important things in which it is deficient. Special consideration should be given to what can not be learned in the armory and must be done out of doors.

Most of the program should be made up of practical drills and exercises in which all get instruction from private to colonel, and where their interest can be held and the best instruction given. Small maneuvers of company, battalion and regiment are what are needed.

Tactical walks for officers and non-commissioned officers are an excellent means of instruction—these supplement the other exercises.

The big maneuvers are very largely for general officers and very little for regimental officers. We need the foundation before we build the superstructure.

As much ground should be covered during the camp as is consistent with efficient instruction. No attempt should be made to cover the whole art of war in a week as it only results in confusion of ideas and gives little or no benefit.