Part 8

1 to 1-45 School of the soldier without arms. 2 to 2-45 Same. 3 to 3-45 Same. 4 to 4-30 Callisthenics. 4 to 5-00 Drill for officers and instructors. 7 School to last from ½ to ¾ of an hour at first, later the time to be extended.

4th and 5th Days and Morning of the 6th Day.

The same as above except that the drill from 9 to 9-45 A. M. and 2 to 2-45 P. M. will be in the manual of arms.

Some camp guards will probably be necessary. This should be done by platoon and this time on guard used to the utmost to teach this duty.

[Sidenote: 2d week]

2d Week.—During this week drills will be in the school of the soldier without and with arms, the proportion with arms steadily increasing.

Commencing Thursday one-half hour each half-day will be pointing and aiming drill.

A. M.

6-30 to 7-45 Drill for officers and instructors. 7-00 to 7-30 Callisthenics. 8-00 to 9-15 Drill—school of the soldier. 9-30 to 10-15 Verbal. 10-30 to 11-45 Drill.

P. M.

1-00 to 2-00 Drill for officers and instructors. 1-30 to 2-00 Callisthenics. 2-15 to 3-45 Drill 4-00 to 4-30 Callisthenics. 4-00 to 5-00 Drill for officers and instructors. 7-00 School.

[Sidenote: 3d week]

3d Week.—Squads combined in pairs.

Drill will be with arms. Part of each drill will be pointing and aiming drill and extended order, close order work being continued. Beginning Thursday an aggregate of half an hour daily will be given to bayonet exercise. The drill must be varied, change made every 15 or 20 minutes.

A. M.

7-00 to 7-30 Callisthenics. 6-30 to 7-45 Drill for officers. 8-00 to 10-45 Drill. 11-00 to 11-45 Verbal.

P. M.

1-00 to 3-45 Drill. 4-00 to 5-00 Monday and Wednesday—estimating distance. Tuesday and Thursday—intrenching, using the small tools. Friday—Instruction in guard duty by company. 7-00 School.

[Sidenote: 4th week]

4th Week.—Squads are combined into full platoons. Five or six men are selected from each company to form the signal detachment of the company. These men are required to do at least one hour’s work a day at this from now on until thoroughly proficient, and excused from a corresponding amount of other work, preferably police and close order in the afternoon.

A. M. Each drill to be divided approximately 7 to 11 as to time as follows: DRILL 30 minutes pointing and aiming drill.

20 minutes bayonet exercise. 1 hour close order drill. Remainder of time extended order drill.

11 to 12 All non-commissioned officers have gallery practice and instruction in use of range finder.

P. M. The best officers of the company 1 to 4 for the work take one-half DRILL the non-commissioned officers of the company for work in patrolling. The two sections alternate as to days. Remainder of company will be divided into groups. All must have gallery practice at least 5 shots per man P. M. daily. Only one group at target 1 to 4 at a time. DRILL Each group to have estimating distance twice during week. Each group to have individual cooking twice.

Each group to have one hour’s instruction during week in first aid and care of feet on a march.

All to be taught to form for and pitch shelter tent camp.

If the necessary masks and plastrons are available practice in bayonet fencing at least three times during week for each group. If no fencing rifles are available, poles the length of the rifle and bayonet, with a good pad fastened on the end, answer the purpose. If masks are not available bayonet exercise and close order drill will fill up the rest of the time.

In arranging this work the best man for it should be put in charge of each class of work.

4 to — Company formed with full kit, except rations and ammunition, and marched first day about twenty minutes, lengthening the time each day by 10 minutes.

7 P. M. School.

5th Week.

[Sidenote: 5th week]

A. M. 7 to 11 Drill same as last week.

11 to 12 Same as last week.

Gallery practice same as last week.

Patrolling same as last week.

First aid, same as last week.

Estimating distance, once during week.

Bayonet fencing or exercise for at least one hour during the week.

P. M. 1 to 4 Each platoon to be posted as a picket of an imaginary outpost line and men instructed twice during week.

11 to 12 Each squad as above once as a sentry squad.

A wall prepared and men given instruction in scaling it.

Any time left over to be used as thought best.

4 to 5 March with pack as before, giving instruction in advance and rear guard.

7 School.

6th Week—Company.

[Sidenote: 6th week Company]

A. M. One hour close order, remainder 7 to 11 extended order drill. DRILL Much practice in attack as explained in Chapter IV. 11 to 12 Same as last week. P. M. Gallery practice as last week, 1 to 4 except on Friday.

Friday whole company as support of an outpost, sentinels and patrols carefully instructed.

Each non-commissioned officer, twice during week, to conduct a patrol, instructing privates.

Bayonet fencing and wall scaling as last week.

Estimating distance as last week. Remainder of time teaching men brush work, hurdle revetment, fascines, etc. 4 to 5 Same as last week. 7 School. Saturday, formal inspection by company.

7th Week—The Company.

[Sidenote: 7th week Company]

A. M. As last week except that time 7 to 11 given to close order may be reduced DRILL to 15 minutes daily.

7 to 11 At least two days must be given DRILL to maneuver of company against company.

All the men must fire 20 shots during the week at gallery practice at such times as found practicable without interfering with the prescribed program. P. M. Monday. Outpost, company as a 1 to 5 support.

Friday. Practice march with instruction in patrolling, advance and rear guard, and attack and defense, either one company to work against another or enemy to be outlined.

Estimating distance drill while out. Men must not march more than 10 miles nor less than 6. Packs will be carried.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

1 to 3-30 Patrolling at least once during week by each non-commissioned officer as leader.

Remainder of time to brush work, filling and piling sand bags, making loopholes and intrenching.

P. M. Drill in dark as training for night 9 to 10 work.

School as last week.

Saturday, formal inspection by company.

8th Week—Battalion.

[Sidenote: 8th week Battalion]

A. M. Drill by Battalion. Not more 7 to 11 than one hour of this time per day should be devoted to close order. Gallery practice, same as last week.

P. M. Tuesday and Thursday.

1 to 5 March and instruction by battalion similar to that by company last week. Distance marched about 10 miles.

Monday.

1 to 5 Tent pitching and making camp, including the large tents.

Wednesday and Friday.

1 to 3-30 Field engineering.

Work same as last week.

9 to 10 Night drill.

6 Monday, Wednesday, Friday, battalion dress parade. Each battalion once during week. School as usual.

Saturday morning, battalion review and inspection.

[Sidenote: 9th week target practice]

9th Week. Target practice on the range with ball cartridges.

If the pits are not large enough so that each company can have three targets, only part of the companies should go at a time so as to give that number of targets. It should be completed by end of 9th week and may have had to come earlier for some companies.

If the range is right at the instruction camp it would be much better to have the companies shoot only a couple of hours a day beginning with 7th week and reduce the other instruction by that much, but so that at the end of the 9th week the work accomplished is the same.

10th Week.

[Sidenote: 10th week]

A. M. 7 to 11 Battalion drill all but 15 minutes daily, extended order work. Battalion against battalion at least twice. P. M. Monday, battalion outpost instruction. 1 to 5 Wednesday, march by battalion with packs. Instruction as before. Tuesday and Thursday from 1 to 5 and Friday from 1 to 3 instruction by company. Gallery practice, pointing and aiming and estimating distance, each once. Bayonet work for one hour. Wall scaling once. Two patrol problems for each non-commissioned officer. Balance of time field engineering work as before.

Friday 9 to 10 P. M. Night drill by battalion.

Battalions in turn have battalion dress parade on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Saturday morning battalion review and inspection.

School, 7 P. M.

11th Week.

[Sidenote: 11th week]

Regimental work. Colonel uses it to best advantage.

One afternoon practice march. Regimental dress parade 4 evenings. School, 7 P. M. as before.

Saturday, regimental review and inspection.

12th Week.

[Sidenote: 12th week practice march]

A seven days’ practice march under war conditions with as much instruction as possible in field service, care of men, especially the feet, and of course in loading wagons, making and breaking camp.

Marches, especially the first two or three, must not be long.

13th Week.

[Sidenote: 13th week]

Work each forenoon from 7 to 11-30 in what, by careful observation, the colonel finds is most needed.

No work in the afternoon except as follows:

Each man to have gallery practice once, ten shots. Each man to estimate distance once. Companies to have bayonet work for at least two half-hour periods each week and pointing and aiming drill once for some length of time.

Dress parade by regiment three times during week.

Regimental review and inspection Saturday.

School as usual.

[Sidenote: Results of training]

This regiment can be used at the end of this three months. It will not be completely nor even well trained but it is believed to be the best that can be done in that time.

Can we have even this much time without great sacrifice and loss? It is very doubtful, and yet it is not believed practicable to use volunteers with less training except in fortifications.

The work has been very strenuous for all; the weaklings will have been eliminated. Any one fit for a soldier in war could have stood the strain, and the others had better be eliminated before taking the field.

If at the end of our 13th week we find we have more time, the work for the week following should be reduced to three hours per day and the schools, after that we may resume the long days of work.

XI

RECRUITING

The method of recruiting has a decided influence on effective training. It is much harder to train a company whose recruits dribble in a few at a time than one, all of whose recruits for the year come in at once.

[Sidenote: When recruits should join]

The best results can be obtained if these recruits can all be had in the fall. As stated before, the course of instruction should run from November 1st to October 31st. In the indoor season all that part of the instruction course that can be given, should be. It should be preparatory to the outdoor work. The foundation of sound training should be laid during this season; the recruit can then be given his elementary instruction and be ready to begin the outdoor work with the company. The outdoor season is none too long in which to go through properly the whole course of work that should be taught outside.

If recruits are received late in the spring or summer they are not prepared to do the work with the company, they get only part of it and that in a way that does not give good results. It is like trying to teach Algebra first, then Arithmetic. Another drawback to this method is that it results in the captain’s not having all his company for this outdoor work. Our present peace strength is so low that correct training in parts is difficult and when much below this the training is very imperfect.

[Sidenote: Recruit depots]

Most, if not all, good captains very much prefer to have their recruits directly on enlistment to having them go to a depot for several weeks. The training they receive in these depots, in value, is out of all proportion to the time spent. In their companies, from the very start, while learning the recruit drill they are learning much else of value. The recruit is better off and more contented. In his company there is a personal feeling for him and interest in him not found at the depot.

The instruction and ways of doing things first learned are those of his company, not always the case at the depot. The few movements taught at the recruit depots must be taught exactly right if precise close order drill is to be had, it is harder to change a recruit’s ways of doing anything than to teach him the right way from the start. It has been suggested that if the depots are kept up, all drill thereat except callisthenics be prohibited.

Recruits dribbling in, waste effort. It is as much bother to a company to train and get one recruit into the company as a squad of eight. The large number of men held at these recruit depots would give a very desirable increase in strength to our companies if we could have them. The vaccinations that are attended to at the depots could just as well be done at the posts.

[Sidenote: Plan of recruiting]

The following is offered as a plan of recruiting that it is believed, would improve that branch of the service and greatly improve the training of our infantry:

All recruiting stations and recruit depots in time of peace to be abolished.

Each regiment in the U. S. to be assigned a permanent district within which its recruits are to be found. The regiment may never be stationed inside this district but its recruits are all to come from there.

Early in November of each year, each regimental commander to select a few recruiting parties composed of an officer and three or four men from his regiment to beat up this district for recruits. They should visit the small towns as well as have stations in the larger ones. Before enlistment the recruits to be physically examined by a doctor, either of the Medical Corps or one hired in the district.

These recruits are to be sent directly to their regiments in detachments as enlisted and their training commenced.

As there are many young men who will not enlist for service in the U. S., but do want to go on foreign service, each home regiment will, in addition to getting its own recruits, be given the task of getting a certain number for the Philippines, Hawaii and Panama, the number being allotted by the War Department. Men reënlisting should be sent, as far as practicable, to foreign service. These latter will be sent to designated posts and held long enough to be properly equipped, vaccinated, etc., and then be sent to their regiments.

Large cities like New York and Chicago should not be assigned to a single regiment but three or four regiments to have stations there and part of the outlying districts to be theirs to beat up.

These recruiting parties to remain out until they have completed their quotas then to return to their stations, but never later than February 1st.

[Sidenote: Advantages of plan]

This plan offers several advantages and some disadvantages, but is believed to be an improvement.

Its advantages are:

All the recruits of the company come in at one season and that the best one.

They come directly to the company on enlistment.

Companies can be larger without increasing strength of army.

The officer enlisting them belongs to the regiment as does his recruiting party and will exercise more care to get only suitable men.

The recruiting will be more widely distributed and as the men go back to their homes knowledge of the service, and trained men in case of war, will be generally distributed.

Fewer men from the slums of the big cities and more from small towns and rural districts.

The men of a regiment coming from one locality, year after year, a friendly feeling for the regiment should be built up and future recruiting assisted and, in case of a great war, every section will have its nucleus of trained men.

Discipline will be improved and desertion diminished. The men will realize that their comrades are from their home section and people at home will know of their misdeeds. Besides it is pleasanter for the men to serve with those they have known before.

It cannot be asserted without a trial that this method will be cheaper than the present one but the author believes it will be.

To send out these recruiting parties will be a considerable expense but to offset this there is the cost of the present recruiting stations for rent, the difference in the cost of commutation paid and actual cost at posts, the travelling expenses incurred sending recruits to depots, often in an opposite direction from that to their future posts, the costs of keeping up these depots, a large amount, the loss of the service of all the recruiting personnel for any other valuable purpose during the year as well as the cost for the time lost in training of all the recruits.

The recruiting parties sent out by the regiments are taken from trained men at the season when they can be best spared and probably they would be absent but for a relatively short time.

If this plan be adopted the method will work better each year. The men who have gone back, and even those in the ranks, can and will help in the recruiting, and as the number of these increase recruiting will be more easily and quickly done. Each village will know that the party will visit it at a certain season and many will be ready at once.

It will be more expensive the first year or two than afterwards. The saving on deserters should be large after the first two or three years.

[Sidenote: Discussion of objections]

There are two apparent objections. That there will be no large number of recruits in hand to be sent to particular regiments in an emergency. This is of small consequence. Where the regiment is wanted for a sudden emergency, the adding of a large number of raw recruits is of no immediate advantage.

Suspending recruiting February 1st may result at first in some regiments not being filled up but this is doubtful. Most of our original enlistments at present are made in winter, and this would be offset, if it does occur, by the other advantages enumerated.

Convenience of administration and keeping records should have no weight as against efficient training for action, the only reason for our army’s existence.

[Sidenote: Possible modification]

If the infantry cannot have the above system the following modification would improve matters.

Each company to receive recruits but once during the year, each in its turn and regiments as nearly at one time as practicable. The recruits to be sent out within one week of their receipt at the depots except those for foreign service. If the peace strength of the companies be kept at 65, when the company is assigned recruits it should be filled to a strength of 80 it will then average about 65 for the year possibly a few more. It is not believed the total enlisted strength of the army would be increased at all. It would amount to having the men with companies instead of in recruit depots.

The above will enable the captains to do much better training and greater efficiency will result.

Of course those who receive their recruits in October or November would have a great advantage over the others but all could do better work.

Recruits enlisted in summer could be held much longer than others and then, about September 1st, sent to the regiments stationed in the tropics. It is more comfortable for the recruits if they can reach those stations in the fall and get their first hard drills and become acclimated while weather conditions are most favorable. This would give the regiments at home their recruits at a favorable season if not the best for all of them.

[Sidenote: Need for a change of system]

Either of the above changes can be made by a change in regulations and orders.

With our great population and military needs and very small army it is folly not to use what army we have so as to be as well prepared for war as conditions permit.

In the preceding chapter it has been shown how important it is that we have some trained men for every new regiment. We must have trained men to fill the regular army which must bear the brunt of the first attack.

The present law does not provide this. The enlistment law should be radically changed to get the best results for training, general efficiency and preparedness for war.

[Sidenote: Enlistment law]

All men should enlist for 5 years. At the end of one year’s honest and faithful service, except when serving beyond the limits of the U. S., the man should, on his application, be granted a furlough for the remaining four years; if war breaks out, or becomes so imminent as to call for mobilization, these furloughs to cease and the men to rejoin. The men to have the privilege of remaining on in the service if they so desire and of taking their furloughs at the end of any completed year of service. Discharges not to be given the men until the end of their full five years. Hence these men can not reënlist in another organization while on furlough, and there can be no doubt of their status and liability for punishment as deserters if they fail to rejoin when called.

[Sidenote: Men on furlough]

For the present, men should not be _required_ to take the furlough and reënlistment should not be prohibited, but remaining in service with the colors over two years in time of peace should not be encouraged; later, if found practicable to get sufficient recruits, reënlistment for all, except non-commissioned officers and certain mechanics who first enlist after that date, should be prohibited. Men who have enlisted with the understanding that they can remain in service until retired, provided they behave themselves properly and are physically fit, should be honestly treated; they have an implied contract at the least.