U 22 P514m 1917 14011950R NLM DSDTfiDbT 7 NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE LIBRARY. Section No. 113, W. D.S.G.O. No. <2 39?:*3> NLM050980697 r UBP^RY MAR 1 G 1921 8di£.:;om. General's Offi.c? ^ Making a Soldier BY MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM A. PEW (retired MASS. N.G.) 1)1 COLONEL OF THE LATE EIGHTH MASS. INF., V. S. V. BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED Copyright, 1917, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved UL Made in the United States of America The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. - C AUTHOR'S PREFACE The Training School, Massachusetts National Guard, has been in operation four years. The School was established to fit young men to become subalterns in the militia after a two years' course of study and training. The course includes a camp of instruction held for three days in the autumn, and for a week in the summer of each year; also monthly conferences during the winter, at which the cadets are assembled for a twenty- four hour period of instruction. In connection with the conferences there is a correspondence school. One student is chosen yearly from every military organization in the state. The following lectures were given informally to the cadets of the Training School at the monthly conferences; as they were not originally intended for publication, no attempt was made to preserve the various sources from which some of the matter was taken. The author regrets the impossibility of determining how much has been borrowed from better writers and scholars. William A. Pew. Salem, Massachusetts. September, 1917. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. The Effect of Discipline . II. Definition of Discipline . III. Knowledge and Ideas IV. Interest . V. The Struggle VI. Habits VII. Military Habits I. SELECTION of habit H. DEMONSTRATION OF HABIT HI. GENUINE PRACTICE . TV. ALLOW NO EXCEPTIONS VIII. Instincts .... IX. Pugnacity, Emulation, and Play i. pugnacity n. EMULATION m. PLAY .... X. Self-Assertion and Self-Abasement XI. Gregariousness and Fear . i. gregariousness n. FEAR .... XII. Preparedness and the Militia . INTRODUCTION Shortly before the American Revolution, Tim- othy Pickering wrote a drill regulation for the use of the militia. In the introduction he said: "To remedy the want of experience, as much as possible the militia should be let into the ground and reason of every action and movement." The purpose of these talks is to let you into the ground and reason of military education. The kind of soldier that interests us is one who finds satisfaction in serving a cause, and who has learned to expend his energies to the best ad- vantage for that cause. He must be physically developed, trained to conserve health, and he must perform with technical skill his part in every incident. Besides these qualifications, he must have the mind of a soldier. We wish you to know how the mind of a sol- dier is attained, and what there is in human nature out of which it is built. In reference to this phase of soldier-making I intend, so far as I am able, to let you into the ground and reason of the training which produces such a mind. 7 8 INTRODUCTION To attain the right kind of mind is the impor- tant step. There is an ideal mind, which is char- acterized by a tendency to correct action and su- preme satisfaction in such action. This doing and feeling is shot through and through with energy, abandon, restraint, and sen- timents of loyalty. The training of mind and body for correct feeling and action is the impor- tant part of military education. Much of correct action depends upon acquiring correct habits, but the emotional tone, which furnishes most of the driving force of our activities, comes from culti- vating and training our inherited habits, which are called instincts. There is undoubtedly an in- tellectual satisfaction in doing what we consider right, but, with most men, the main satisfaction comes from the functioning of instincts. The farmer who keeps a dog to protect his premises trains the animal to certain habits, but he relies principally upon the nature of the beast. To a larger extent a nation trains its fighting force in correct military habits, but the energy of a sol- dierly mind comes, in a large measure, from hu- man nature. We shall, in these talks, discuss sol- dier-making in connection with habits and human nature. MAKING A SOLDIER MAKING A SOLDIER i THE EFFECT OF DISCIPLINE E begin this course of lectures by reciting a few horrible examples of the low effi- ciency of militia and afterwards let you into the ground and reason of these failures. A few con- trasts between disciplined and untrained masses illustrate what every soldier ought to know. Fritz Reuter describes a rising of the Mecklen- burg peasants in 1813 against the French in "Ut de Franzosentid":— "The Landsturm (levee en masse) was called out; the Herr Amtshauptmann commanded in chief, and, under him, Captain Grischow. "A single French regiment would have driven the whole pack like chaff before the wind, say the would-be-wise. It may be so. On one and the same day the cry went through the whole of lower Germany from the Vistula to the Elbe, from the Baltic to Berlin, 'The French are com- w 11 12 Making a Soldier ingl' "The Stemhagen folk marched on Ankershagen; the French were said to be in Ankershagen. The Malchin folk marched on Stemhagen; the French were said to be in Stemhagen. Yes, it was a queer medley. In the market-place at Stemhagen the pike-men were divided into companies; Droz and the miller were to manage them because they were the only ones who understood anything about war; but the burghers would not obey their com- mands, because the one was a Frenchman and the other a miller. Nobody would stand in the rear rank. Deichert, the shoemaker, objected because Bank stood in the front; Groth, the tax-gatherer, because Stahl the weaver, who was in the front, always sent the reverse end of the pike into his ribs in leveling bayonets, and he could not put ' up with it. "At last they were all beautifully in rank and file, and when Captain Grischow commanded, 'Left wheel,' out they came into the Branden- burg road, and marched on in a splendid heap of confusion; and when they were outside the town gates, everyone looked for a dry path for him- self, and they marched one behind the other, like geese among the barley. A halt was made at the Owl Hill to wait for their commander, the Herr Amtshauptmann. The Herr Amtshauptmann was too old to walk, and he could not ride, so he The Effect of Discipline 13 drove to battle; stately he sat in his long basket- carriage with his sword lying by his side. When he arrived he received a 'Vivat' from his troops; and then he made them a speech, and said: 'My children! We are not soldiers, and we shall make plenty of blunders, but that will do no harm. Whoever likes to laugh, may do so. But we will do our duty, and our duty is to show the French that we are at our post. It's a pity that I know nothing about the art of war, but I will look out in good time for a man who does—Herr Droz, come up here by my side, and when the enemy comes, tell me what I am to do. I will not for- sake you, my children. And now forward, for the Fatherland! " 'Hurrah!' cried his people, and away they went against the enemy. The cavalry was sent out to reconnoiter, and rode in front, and In- spector Brasig and the Ivenack town clerk had pistols; these they fired off every now and then, probably to frighten the French, and in this way they reached Ankershagen, but they did not meet the French. When this was reported to the Herr Amtshauptmann, he said: 'Children, it seems to me that we have done enough for to-day, and if we go back at once, we shall be home again by daylight. What say you, eh?' "The idea was good. Captain Grischow com- manded, 'Right about face,' and they all went H Making a Soldier home except half a company of pikes, and two fowling pieces, who fell upon the Kittendorf pub- lic house and there did wonders. "As they were marching back, Stahl came up to the Amtshauptmann and asked, 'By your leave, Herr Amtshauptmann, may I lay my pike in your carriage for a little while?' " 'Certainly.' "Then Deichert came, and Zachow came, and many came, and at last all came, with the same re- quest; and by the time the Herr Amtshauptmann drove into the town, his innocent basket-carriage looked like an engine of war, like some scythe- chariot out of the Persian and Roman times. "Rathsherr Herse just let a corps of sharp- shooters fire 'at 'em' three times in the market- place, and then every one went home quite satis- fied. My uncle alone was dissatisfied. 'Heinz,' he said again to his adjutant, 'there's no good in all this.' " Compare the above experience to the marching of the Third German Army Corps in the cam- paign of 1870, after the German nation had been trained for fifty years to arms: "When Prince Frederick Charles took over the command of this corps, he compelled the men to wear their packs all through the drill season, in peace times. The men accordingly were accus- tomed to march considerable distances bearing The Effect of Discipline 15 heavy weights on their backs. Their muscles were hardened, and they could withstand the fatigue of the march without experiencing any serious dis- comfort. I stopped at the entrance of the village and saw them pass; although it was the middle of a hot day, there was no suggestion of straggling. Regiment after regiment went by without a wave in the uniform rate of marching. Step was not maintained, but each man forged ahead, march- ing at ease, maintaining his distance and interval in the endless column. The impression was of the onward movement of an irresistible mass, each unit of which had been prepared by physical train- ing to do its part, and by practice, to hold its place in the great machine which was moving on Paris. The genius behind the training which made such marching possible, knew that war for infantry was largely a matter of legs and maintaining dis- tances." The same impression was produced in 1914, upon Richard Harding Davis, who describes the entry of a German army into Brussels:— "It moved into the city as smoothly and com- pactly as an express train. There were no halts, no open places, no stragglers. It has been in active service three weeks, and so far there is not apparently a chin-strap or horseshoe missing. It came in with the smoke pouring from the cook- stoves on wheels, and in an hour had set up post- 16 Making a Soldier office wagons from which mounted messengers galloped along the line of the column, distribut- ing letters, and at which soldiers posted picture cards. "The infantry came in files of five with two hundred men in each company, and the lancers in columns of four, with not a pennant missing. The men of the infantry sang 'Fatherland, My Fa- therland', between each line of the song taking three steps. At times two thousand men were singing together in absolute rhythm, the beat of the melody giving way to a silence broken only by the stamp of iron-shod boots, and then again rising. When the singing ceased the bands played marches. During seven hours the army passed in such a solid column that not once might a taxi-cab or a trolley pass through the city. Like a river of steel it flowed, gray and ghostlike, and then, as dusk came, and as thousands of horses' hoofs and thousands of iron boots continued to tramp forward, they struck tiny sparks from the stones, but the horses and men who beat out the sparks were invisible. "At seven this morning I was awakened by the tramp of men and bands playing jauntily. Whether they marched all night I do not know, but now for twenty-six hours the gray army has rumbled by with the mystery of a fog and the pertinacity of a steam roller." The Effect of Discipline 17 The men above described, if not Brandenburg- ers, were descended from the kind of men who in the year 1813 picked their way through the mud of the German roads like geese in a barley- field, and went home at night discouraged or satisfied by the efforts of one day's campaign. We shall see that discipline concerns itself in acquiring, among other habits, the habit of pre- cisely executing the daily routine duties required on a campaign: the prompt obedience of orders that have for their object the feeding, clothing, and care of men: the practicing in times of peace the things which must be done in war, until they become second nature: the acquisition of collective confidence, courage, and strength, which make the actions of a real army suggest the movement of an express train and the pertinacity of a steam roller. There are two episodes in American history, which occurred in the year 1814, one illustrates the folly of depending upon untrained citizens to resist invasion, the other shows how discipline imparts to men the tactical cohesion necessary to win. The first is the account of a week's campaign in Maryland resulting in the battle of Bladens- burg, the utter rout of an American army by a force numerically inferior, and the occupation of Washington by two hundred English soldiers. 18 Making a Soldier The second episode is the story of how Gen- eral Scott spent the spring of 1814 hammering into shape a body of recruits near Buffalo, and how they later made good at Chippewa, where they defeated a body of English regulars and Canadians superior in numbers. In the Maryland campaign, General Ross with some forty-five hundred troops landed on August 18 at Benedict, near the mouth of the Patuxent River. His mission was to co-operate with a de- tachment of the English navy in destroying an American flotilla of small boats under Commo- dore Barney, which had been driven out of the Chesapeake, and had taken refuge in the Pa- tuxent. The City of Washington is situated on the Potomac River just west of its junction with the East Branch. The Patuxent flows south and into Chesapeake Bay. In their upper courses the Patuxent and the East Branch are parallel streams, some fifteen or twenty miles apart. In 1814, a road crossed the East Branch running due east from Washington to Upper Marlboro on the Patuxent. Another road ran north from Washington along the west bank of the East Branch, and crossing the river at Bladensburg, swung south to Upper Marlboro. On the East Branch below Bladensburg there were no bridges except at Washington. The Effect of Discipline 19 Barney's flotilla lay at Pigs Point on the Pa- tuxent, near Upper Marlboro. The British naval contingent moved up the Patuxent and the land forces moved on a road parallel to the west bank. When the British forces arrived in the vicinity of Upper Marlboro, the American flotilla was blown up by order of the Secretary of the Navy. This part of their mission having been arranged by an obliging enemy, and finding themselves only a few miles from Washington, with no serious opposition, the land forces abandoned their naval base on the river and proceeded in the direction of the Capital, taking the northern road through Bladensburg. These troops had served with Wellington on the Spanish Peninsula and were well-seasoned veterans. The abdication and banishment of Na- poleon to Elba had released them for service in America. They left Bordeaux on June 2. They landed much debilitated as the result of close con- finement during a sea voyage of seventy days. The weather was exceedingly sultry and march- ing told severely upon them. Lieutenant Gleig, who was a subaltern, has left an interesting nar- rative of the events from the British point of view. He says:—"The second day, we marched six miles, during which a greater number of sol- diers dropped out of the ranks and fell behind from fatigue, than I recollect seeing in any march 20 Making a Soldier on the Peninsula." They were hampered by a lack of cavalry, which they attempted to improvise by seizing horses from the farmers. In this way they mounted some fifty soldiers who did duty as cavalry. The country over which the British troops marched was intersected with streams and woods. It was peculiarly adapted to defense and guerrilla warfare. In most places the road was so far from the river that the British infantry could not be supported by the naval detachment. Lieutenant Gleig served in the advance guard dur- ing the march from Benedict. He tells us that he expected to find the road obstructed by broken bridges and fallen trees, and that the advance would be harassed continually by hostile fire, and a repetition of the tactics from which the British suffered on their march from Concord and Lex- ington. He says that until they reached Upper Marlboro, the only hostile body met were two American riflemen, who represented themselves as friendly inhabitants hunting squirrels with bay- onets. The lack of initiative on the part of American forces, and their failure to contest the advance, were powerful factors in determining the English to attempt a raid on Washington, after their mission against the American flotilla had been accomplished by the co-operation of the American Navy Department. The first and only serious opposition was encountered at Bladens- The Effect of Discipline 21 burg, where the American forces were drawn up in three lines on the west bank of the East Branch. The bridge and its approaches were commanded by American artillery consisting of twenty-six cannon. The British had no guns, except three small pieces called "grasshoppers" which had no appreciable effect on the result. Lieutenant Gleig's description, somewhat abbreviated, is:— "Our advance guard rushed the bridge. The fire of the American guns was very effective. We cleared out the American skirmishers on the bank. Their falling back on the first line threw it into confusion and before their infantry had fired a shot, the whole first line fled leaving the guns on the road. Our first line deployed, and covering the whole front advanced against the American second line. Our first line was too thin and was forced back to the bank of the stream and hung there. Our second brigade crossed, the Forty- fourth Regiment turned the American left, and the second line ran. The Fourth Regiment came up and defeated the rest. The fight lasted from one until five in the afternoon. About two-thirds of the British force was engaged. Their loss was five hundred men in killed and wounded. With the exception of a party of sailors from the gun- boats under the command of Commodore Bar- ney, no troops could behave worse than the Ameri- cans did. The skirmishers were driven in as soon 22 Making a Soldier as attacked, the first line gave way without offer- ing the slightest resistance, and the left of the main body was broken within a half-hour after it was seriously engaged. Of the sailors, however, it would be an injustice not to speak in the terms which their conduct merits. They were employed as gunners, and not only did they serve their guns with a quickness and precision, which astonished their assailants, but they stood till some of them were actually bayoneted with fuses in their hands, nor was it till their leader was wounded and taken and they saw themselves deserted on all sides by the soldiers that they quitted the field." General Ross moved his troops to the vicinity of Washington where they encamped. The rout of the American army was complete. Ross at- tempted to open negotiations for the ransom of the city. It is said that the only official he could find was a janitor of one of the public buildings, who refused to negotiate, because the questions in- volved were beyond the jurisdiction of a janitor. The city was occupied by a few troops. The Capitol, White House, Treasury, Arsenal, bar- racks, rope-walk, a newspaper office, and several private residences were burned. The English justified the destruction of private property by the fact that some one fired a shot from the Sewall house at General Ross which killed his horse. On the night of August 25, Ross left the city, retrac- The Effect of Discipline 23 ing his march without molestation to Benedict, which he reached on the 29th and re-embarked on September 6. The American Government had early definite in- formation, that the troops which left Bordeaux were intended for operation in the Chesapeake, but preparations were delayed. On July 4, the President's Cabinet held a meeting to consider the situation. A few days later a request was issued for ninety-three thousand militia to be organized at home and held in readiness. An immediate call was made for fifteen thousand. On July 2, the Tenth Military District, consisting of the State of Maryland, District of Columbia, and a part of Virginia, was created, and the command assigned to General Winder. As stated by the Secretary of War, "not on the ground of distinguished pro- fessional service, but because General Winder was a native of Maryland and a relative of the Gov- ernor." General Winder was a lawyer in Balti- more, who volunteered at the beginning of the war, was made a lieutenant-colonel, was capturedt and about a year afterward exchanged, and made a general. Two days after the British landed, General Winder's call for the militia was approved. On August 21, some troops were mustered and on the 22d were reviewed by the President. Gen- eral Winder with a brigade of militia proceeded 24 Making a Soldier toward Marlboro over the lower road. Mr. Monroe, the Secretary of State, with a companion reconnoitered the British advance, and reported the result to everybody including General Winder. As the two scouts disagreed as to the number of the enemy and their intentions, the result was not especially illuminating, but helped to throw the American militia and the inhabitants of Washing- ton into a panic. On the evening of the 23d, Winder, fearing a night attack, retreated across the East Branch and into Washington. The next day, hearing that the English were making for Bladensburg, he moved his forces to that point and joined some of the Maryland mili- tia which had assembled there the previous day. The total American force at Bladensburg was in the vicinity of seven thousand. We were about eighty-six thousand "shy" of patriotic citizens springing to arms in response to the July request for ninety-three thousand militia. Commodore Barney and his sailors were left behind in Wash- ington to blow up the bridges that crossed the East Branch in case of a British advance in that direction. Barney's command, whose action was the only redeeming feature on the American side that day, would have been eliminated from the fight, had not the President on his way to Bladens- burg met Barney and asked him what he was do- ing. Barney replied that he and his command The Effect of Discipline 25 had been left behind to do the work which "any damned corporal" could accomplish. The Presi- dent asked him why he did not leave it to a cor- poral and come on to Bladensburg. Barney took this suggestion as an order, and trailing along be- hind Winder's army arrived in time to take part in the battle. Winder described his army "as sud- denly assembled, without organization or disci- pline, or officers of the least knowledge of service." Our army, in the presence of the President and his Cabinet, was formed for battle in three lines. After formation and while waiting for the enemy, the Secretary of State took it upon himself to change the formation without consulting the com- mander. Some of the artillery was posted to com- mand the crossing of the river and was especially effective against the first onrush of the British. The advance guard, without waiting for recon- noissance, attempted to rush the bridge with the usual English bull-headed determination. In this attempt they lost many men. After the battle began there was little team play or maneuvering on the part of the Americans. The various lines offered little support to one another and were successively attacked and turned. The mass of our army, struck by a panic, streamed west toward Georgetown and Rockville. They ceased to exist as an organization, and were scattered over twenty miles of territory to the north, west, and south of 26 Making a Soldier Washington. The President and his Cabinet were scattered in the same rout. The difference in the morale of the troops engaged is illustrated by their losses. The American force of seven thousand men was annihilated, as an organization, after the loss of eight killed and eleven wounded. The contrast between the behavior of our troops at Bladensburg, and at Chippewa is most refreshing. During the first half of the nineteenth century, General Scott looms large as the con- spicuous professional soldier of America. He saw clearly that the problem of tactics was one of co- hesion and team play, and that training for effi- ciency consists in developing and organizing the powers of each unit in a military establishment. He considered units to be, the individual man, the Company, the Regiment, the Brigade, and the Di- vision. The work he emphasized was the training of each of these sub-divisions to its full capacity, as an entity, and as a unit in a larger team. The object of his work was to create a machine, stand- ardized in all its parts, and capable of being man- euvered to deliver the maximum of fire and shock tactics against an enemy. The standardization of thinking and feeling was conspicuous in his scheme of instruction. On March 24, 1814, General Scott joined Gen- eral Brown's command at a camp some miles east of Buffalo. The force there assembled consisted The Effect of Discipline 27 of seven regiments recently recruited in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York. They were organized into two brig- ades, commanded, respectively, by Scott and Rip- ley. The training of these troops was left to Gen- eral Scott, the senior brigade commander. In his autobiography, he describes the work as fol- lows :— "Service of outposts, night patrols, guards, and sentinels was organized; a system of sanitary police including kitchen, etc., laid down; rules of civility, etiquette, and courtesy,—the indispensable out- works of subordination,—prescribed and enforced, and the tactical instruction of each arm com- menced. Nothing but night, or a heavy fall of snow or rain, was allowed to interrupt these ex- ercises on the ground to the extent, in tolerable weather, of ten hours a day for three months. As relaxation, both officers and men were thus brought to sigh for orders to beat up the enemy's quarters, but the commander knew that such work could not be effectually done without the most la- borious preparation." General Scott had no textbooks except one copy of French Tactics and one translation of the same. "He began by forming the officers of all grades, indiscriminately, into squads and personally in- structed them in the school of the soldier and company. They were then allowed to instruct 28 Making a Soldier squads and companies of their own men, a whole field of them under the eyes of the general at once, who, in passing, took successively many com- panies in hand each for a time. So, too, on the formation of battalions, he instructed each an hour or two a day for many days, and afterwards carefully superintended their instruction by the respective field officers. "The Brigadier-General's labors were about the same in respect to lessons on subjects alluded to above, other than tactics, measures of safety for a camp near the enemy, police, etiquette, etc. The evolutions of the line, or the harmonious move- ment of many battalions in one or more lines with a reserve were next daily exhibited for the first time by an American army, and to the great de- light of the troops themselves, who now began to perceive why they had been made to fag so long at the drill of the soldier, the company, and the battalion. Confidence, the dawn of victory, inspired the whole line." On July 3, Brown led his small force across the Niagara River and captured Fort Erie. On the 3d and 4th, Scott chased the retreating English, who met reinforcements at Chippewa Creek. Scott then retired behind Street's Creek. On the 5th of July, Scott's brigade enjoyed a dinner which had been scheduled as a celebration for the pre- vious day. In the afternoon he paraded his troops The Effect of Discipline 29 for grand evolution on the plain between Chip- pewa and Street's Creeks. The American forces were clad in a uniform of cadet gray. This was accidental and resulted from the inability to ob- tain the regulation blue when they were mustered. On account of this uniform, Riall, the British com- mander, thought he was opposed by a body of Buffalo militia, and about the time Scott was cross- ing Street's Creek, he deployed his forces for an attack. As the head of Scott's column crossed the creek, he was advised by General Brown of the situation and the prospect of a fight. As Riall saw the American column, after crossing the bridge, deploy under fire, he is said to have exclaimed in surprise, "Damn it, those fellows are regulars and not militia." General Scott formed his command with an interval in the center. As he expresses it:— "The battalions of Leavenworth and McNeil, thus formed, pointed to an obtuse angle in the center of the plain, with a wide interval between them, that made up for a deficiency in numbers. To fire, each party had halted more than once, at which the Americans had the more deadly aim. At an approximation to within sixty or seventy paces, the final charge (mutual) was commenced. The wings of the enemy, being outflanked and to some extent doubled upon, were mouldered away like a rope of sand." 30 Making a Soldier Riall commanded in this battle some fifteen hun- dred regulars and six hundred militia. Scott's force numbered thirteen hundred. The English lost five hundred and fifteen and the Americans two hundred and ninety-seven. General Scott's comment was, that by the battle of Chippewa the pulse of America recovered a healthy beat. In honor and in commemoration of this victory, the tarbucket hat and the gray cloth worn by our soldiers were adopted as the uniform of the cadets of the United States Military Academy. In the War of 1812 the regular army had to be created, and was unable to furnish a standard of skill or discipline to the militia. The soldiers who fought at Lundy Lane and Chippewa were drilled by General Scott during the war. He was compelled to teach the officers of his regiments the elements of squad drill before he led them against the enemy. During the thirty years which intervened be- tween the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, we had a corps of officers in the regular establish- ment, trained in that army, most of whom en- joyed the additional advantage of being gradu- ated from the Military Academy at West Point. In the Mexican War, under skilled officers, a force of less than five thousand volunteers, sup- ported by a few regular troops, overthrew the Mexican army of four times its number. In this The Effect of Discipline 31 war the regular establishment from its officers fur- nished able commanders and in every field set an example of skill, fortitude, and courage. These results were attributed by General Scott to the influence of military education. He said to the Senate of the United States:— "I give it as my fixed opinion that but for our graduated cadets the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would, have lasted some four or five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than victories falling to our share; whereas in less than two campaigns we conquered a great country and a peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish." It was the spirit of West Point which was re- sponsible for the victories of Cerro Gordo, Mo- lino del Rey, and Chapultepec, and it will be the same spirit and the same standards of discipline and training infused into the militia by contact with the regular army that can and must make the Guard a military asset of national value. II DEFINITION OF DISCIPLINE THE meaning of the word discipline will vary with our understanding of what constitutes a soldier and how he is made. If soldier means for us simply a man with a gun, then the process of making a soldier is a simple matter. If we conceive of the finished soldier as one having a confirmed habit of obedience, and disregard all the mental life that lies back of this habitual re- sponse, our idea of discipline will still be com- paratively limited. The soldier will be one who has the habit of subconscious obedience, and dis- cipline will be the process leading to that condi- tion. This is the historical conception of disci- pline which underlies our Drill Regulations. Modern learning, however, will not let us rest satisfied with so simple a definition. There is more to a soldier than an habitual type of re- sponse to a given signal. There is a soldierly way of thinking, feeling, and willing, as well as of acting. General Schaff's book:—"The Spirit of Old West Point"—shows that the author's idea of 32 Definition of Discipline 33 a soldier is not limited to the narrow vision of a man with a gun. He sees the beginning and the end of military training, and its effect upon the nation. The cadets sweep by in perfect align- ments, the embodiment of physical vigor; the man and the gun are there, but the meaning is more. The martial spectacle not only pleases the author, but its sights and sounds call from hidden depths associations, which awaken deeper and more reverent sentiments of love and veneration for the Academy. To him the cadet picture suggests a list of he- roes, who have been giants in his country's cause and honor. He thinks of courage, service, and the fellowship of officers, who, drawing inspira- tion from the four short years of cadet life, de- veloped into leaders. He remembers those who in loyalty and devotion gave themselves freely to the cause they served. He sees a vision of the purpose of the Academy, the great influence of its atmosphere turning the sunny side of youth to courage and honor with the injunction—be stead- fast. In the author's mind, all these things blend in the idea of a soldier. The history of a life of action is the story of practical problems met and solved. The capacity to make correct solutions depends in part upon organized experience. All industrial training seeks to increase power by imparting knowledge of the 34 Making a Soldier elements handled and by practical experience in handling these elements. I call the result of this combination of knowledge and practice organized experience. An important and often preponderat- ing element entering into the correct solution of a problem is the personality of the actor. A per- son with self-control, of a courageous spirit, and with a capacity for considering problems from an impersonal and detached point of view has the making of a valuable man, when he has mastered a subject and acquired organized experience in handling its details. It is the purpose of West Point to develop this sort of power. The Military Academy expects her sons to be- come soldiers, and attempts an education which imparts knowledge of the art of war, and as far as possible offers practical opportunities for or- ganizing this knowledge and making it experience. This is apparent to a casual visitor. As a part of the curriculum, however, there is an unseen pro- cess of character-building. It is sometimes called the "Spirit of Old West Point working in the cadets." Whatever called, it is the educating of the students in conformity to certain standards. The correct performance of a military duty is characterized by self-control, a determined spirit, and a detached point of view which place the suc- cess of a cause above personal considerations. West Point attempts this kind of education. Definition of Discipline 35 Power of this sort is essential for success in any active calling. Vocations other than the military stand in equal need of it, but its absence is not so apparent, because failure in business or profes- sional life is not so far reaching as in war. In most colleges the curriculum stores memory with interesting and helpful nuggets of informa- tion, and the students follow trails that lead to an understanding of various subjects, but the race usually stops short of the goal of a complete knowledge of any one subject. The mental pabu- lum is a hash—a superficial seasoning of every- thing and depth in nothing. West Point is not so discursive in its effort for general culture as most colleges. In one subject it tries to reach the bed- rock of knowledge. The cadets are taught dis- cipline. It stays with them through every hour of every day for four years. Every period is full of its problems. The year is three hundred and sixty-five days of subordination. They learn the necessity of discipline, what it is, why and how it is taught, and are grounded in the universal faith of soldiers, that without it military success is im- possible. The A B C's of self-control are taught in phy- sical exercises, the purpose of which is to make the body an efficient machine and subordinate. By repetition the lower nerve centers and the muscles are educated until correct performances become 36 Making a Soldier habits. The subordination of the will is largely a mat- ter of imitation and pressure. First comes sub- mission to orders in the daily requirements of academic life, and later subordination to standards for the purposes of a larger life. The pleb finds patterns in the upper classmen. He is told to imitate their behavior. If he refuses, the conse- quences are sufficiently serious to modify his at- titude. The weight of public opinion is always upon the side of conformity. He submits and goes through the mill of doing things in a soldierly way, until his physical make-up is a bunch of cor- rect habits which carry him through his daily rou- tine with the minimum of demerits. So far he learns to do what he is told, to look like a soldier and act like one in the little world at West Point. Physical training is not elective. In every form of team contest the cadet learns something prac- tical of loyalty and service to his group. This is not peculiar to West Point. There is at the Aca- demy, however, a great historical background, and its daily life is in a setting charged with sug- gestions of men whose supreme purpose in life was to render service. The spirit of such men lives in the memory of their work. Unconsciously the suggestion of loyalty and service in noble lives has a powerful formative influence upon plastic youth. There is in the atmosphere a reverence Definition of Discipline 37 for soldierly greatness. Military history, as taught, is full of examples of men who failed, be- cause they lacked subordination, courage, or ca- pacity to throw themselves into a cause with the abandon that disregards personal consequences. Gradually it dawns upon cadets that their power of efficient self-expression as officers depends upon a right kind of thinking and feeling about them- selves which furnishes the imperative push be- hind action. This unseen source of strength be- comes interesting and absorbing. The personal- ities of great men are studied for correct emotional tones. As the plebs keep step with the older ca- dets, so upper classmen begin to keep step with great captains. Imperceptibly ideals grow and take possession of the mind. In a composite pic- ture of these ideals, there is always the image of physical and mental control, and the courageous spirit fighting for what it believes right to the limit of endurance—Honor, Country, and Duty are facts luminously clear. The cadets learn to know and value the spirit of service and subordi- nate themselves to its demands. In many ways the academic life puts cadets in the way of recog- nizing and copying greatness. The Academy does what Phillips Brooks once recommended in a talk, the subject of which was Washington: "Culti- vate reverence for Greatness. Teach it to your children. Cultivate perception of it. The double 38 Making a Soldier blessing of pattern and power." A man's whole range of mental life is involved in being a soldier and no part can act alone. Dis- cipline must be defined, in terms of the whole man, as the acquisition and organization of soldierly thoughts, feelings, and methods of conduct. The elements in the process will be most clear to us if we consider such a recognized course of military training as that given at the United States Military Academy. There are three steps in the process as there illustrated. First—a standard is set before the cadets. There is gradually developed in them, according to their power of absorption, an idea of what the well-rounded military character should be—not only how he should look and carry himself phy- sically, but how he should think, feel, and act un- der all situations. This imparting of knowledge of standards is primarily an intellectual process. Second—this step has to do with the valuation of standards. The task is to develop the self- respect of the cadet, in such a way that he will acquire a master sentiment to conform and mould his life to the accepted standards. The military virtues and acts which make for efficiency in war must appeal to him as supreme models of per- fection which dominate and fill him with the hope and faith of a personal growth. As the intellect is involved in acquiring ideas of the standards so Definition of Discipline 39 the feelings are involved in this valuation of stand- ards. '■