Robert Goldthwaite Carter

“ Corporal Charlton had proved himself a very invaluable man. As a soldier he was wonderfully resourceful and active; in action he was intense, energetic and decisive. With his intelligence and good, horse sense, he would, even without the complete education which some men have without sense—have made a good all round commissioned officer—a credit to the regiment and to the Army— It is a pity that we did not have more of his type with which to build up the army with practical men of his caliber—instead of having so much over educated material. ”

“ Too much stress has been given to a long, intensive training as absolutely necessary to fit men to become good, reliable battle-service soldiers, or to enable them to tackle either purely military problems, or such problems as confronted us in our long, exhaustive pursuit of those deserters. Perfection of drill and military training is one thing through a continuous and harassing barrack or field training. To fit men to become alert, resourceful, obedient soldiers for quick and ready service through discipline and a minimum of tactical drill is altogether another thing when a war is fully on. ”

“ Military bent, instinct or intuition— Military aptitude and spirit—and any one or all of these must necessarily be combined with good, sound, common sense. All, or any one of these elements must either be inherent or latent and ready for development—for it is—and has been found—absolutely impossible to develop these essentials in any one man by a mere process of military education or intensive training— Unless a man possesses one or more of these necessary requisites or material to work on, such education or training is so much wasted effort or labor lost. ”

“ With no cover except the shell-mangled, disemboweled bodies which we rolled up in front of us and used for breast works, behind which we sought the only shelter we had for 30 long winter hours in the half frozen mud—the plane of fire just grazing our heads on that bullet-swept terrain—and the bodies being whipped, frazzled and torn to pieces in front of our noses by terrific rifle and shrapnel fire as we vainly endeavored to relieve our weary frames by turning over from right to left or on our backs and stomachs. ”

“ It is pitiful therefore to see men struggling along in uniform—absolutely incapable of acquiring battle instinct or battle sense (simply because they cannot be taught) and the requisites for a rough and tumble soldier in the field, capable of commanding men under all circumstances of the emergencies and crises continually arising to test out a man's military resources—and his ready adaptation to the problems before him, etc.—because of the lack of just those elements that go to make up the ever ready soldier. ”

“ Could anything be more pitiful or pathetic than to see an over educated, over trained soldier of twenty or thirty years' service who has never been "tried out" when he first makes this discovery? The writer has seen it! These men when faced up with responsibility, and an emergency, exigency or crisis arises—always "fall down". They are soon led to recognize their absolute unfitness for the military profession, for a military command or to handle any problem growing out of a military position requiring ripe experience along the lines of ready judgment, rapid action and quick decision. ”

“ All the study of a life time involving such problems, or military knowledge, would be of no avail to some men,—whether civilians or soldiers—unless they possessed, at the same time, plenty of resourcefulness and horse sense and could readily adjust themselves to the ever changing conditions of those same problems. The factors never remain fixed or constant. It is the same in battle and with the factors controlling it—which accounts for the lack of success of many so called soldiers by their failure to get away from fixed rules. ”

“ Nothing so surprises a man of mediocre caliber—one who has been mistakenly or wrongfully steered into a military career without there being the slightest evidence of his fitness for it—one who has been stuffed full of the theory of war and of battle conditions, as to—suddenly butt up against the real article—a genuine wild-cat battle with all of its quickly varying conditions and phases. ”

“ One's complete education, and years of the most violent intensive training ever devised by any military machine of West Point Manufacture would have accomplished absolutely nothing along the lines we worked to secure the unqualified success—that was expected and demanded of us by such an exacting soldier as Mackenzie. There was nothing the writer had so laboriously studied and learned in his course at West Point that could by any construction or stretch of the imagination, have fitted in, or been of the slightest use in this problem. ”

“ This he has got to face, not as a highly organized or perfectly educated human being, trained, or over trained to the last limit for a specific purpose, but, on his individual initiative, and his combative instincts or fighting senses—without which no highly educated or purely intellectual human machine could long withstand the strain, for, until a man goes in under fire he cannot know, or even guess at his power and resources—his balance and morale which iron discipline combined with moderate, common sense training alone has inspired. ”

“ Any boy who had ever used a shot gun could load and blaze away into the close lines. The line officers and file closers were veterans. The battle discipline was flawless— We touched elbows with men who had acquired the battle sense and instinct in the hell of rifle fire—shell—shrapnel and close up canister guns of the 12 pdr Napoleon type. A few days after a bloody reconnoissance across the river, in which one of our regiments lost 289 men killed, wounded and missing in 20 minutes, we had a few days' drill—and that was all we ever got. ”

“ The man who does not possess it is an exception to the rule— The point is, however, whether he has that amount of physical and moral courage to a degree which, without common sense and the military spirit—would make his acts a military success. The writer thinks not— Too much stress has been laid on the mere physical brute courage of the soldier. Without it is combined with good military sense—it is doubtful if possessing courage alone could ever make a success of anything in which any of the military elements cited enter as a factor. ”

“ It applies to any other military problem where the element of common sense must enter as a determining factor. It enters into all walks of business where business sense is so absolutely necessary. It entered into this problem of the pursuit of deserters. All of our varied campaign and battle service, and experience and knowledge gained during that great Civil War—and our practical activities in scouting and campaigning after wild, hostile Indians subsequent to that war entered into this chase and capture, as Military factors—without which we would have been as helpless as two children. ”

“ Parade ground and barrack square maneuvers are of no earthly consequence in real war. When men can readily change from line to column, and column to line, can form front in any direction, and assemble and scatter (deploy) , and can do other things with speed and precision they have got a fairly good grasp on the essentials."
No amount of long drawn out drill will give him battle instinct or battle sense; not until he goes in under fire and faces up to what he sooner or later has got to encounter,—drill or no drill—does he acquire it. ”

“ It has frequently happened that men, without possessing any of these basic elements, not even military sense—or instinct, or the military spirit—have undergone a military education and severe intensive training to fit them for what they have been led to believe through their theoretical instruction are the problems of battle which they have got to face up to and overcome. ”

“ It has been said that "artists and poets are born"—and "soldiers are made". True it is, however, that Soldiers are not born. There is not, and there never will be such a thing as a born soldier, not even in a hereditary sense. ”

“ Such a thing as pursuing those deserters under any cut and dried programme would have been not only ridiculous, but a blithering farce. That is why, with a man of Mackenzie's horse sense, we were left to perfect freedom of action, and our own independence or individual initiative. Therefore, while it may seem almost treason for a graduate of West Point to declare it, nothing that the writer had ever learned there was of the slightest value to him in trailing these men. ”

“ But—to educate and train a man to be a soldier certain basic elements are absolutely necessary. Ever since the world began, and hero worship and the cheers, applause and adulations were first bestowed on such warriors as Cæsar, Hannibal, Alexander and Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and on numerous other returning conquerors, it has become well known that certain elements or basic principles have been necessary upon which to build in order to develop and produce the really great soldier. ”

“ This does not imply that they were cowards— A man's supreme or best mental and physical efforts does not depend upon his size, his huge muscles abnormally developed by a long period of intensive training, or through his intellectuality acquired by years of school, college and university education, but, largely through the spirit, force, courage, discipline and morale which are behind his purpose—that purpose which must furnish the mainspring of his action. ”

“ Like "death and Taxes," we have them with us always, especially in time of wars— It is then the vultures abound— It is then we have the jelly-fish, spineless slackers, the pussy-foot pacifists—conscientious objectors, chicken hearted shirkers—and—"let George do it" fighters—coming down to the secret renegades—traitors, and Bolshevist anarchists and bomb throwers— They have always been the curse of this Nation—the natural result,—as a rule—of the "Melting Pot" that does not melt—breeding a lot of mongrel curs and hybrids that should no longer be a part of our American life. ”

“ When the word goes forth from our intensive trainers and sham battle heroes that it takes nearly a year to make of such a man an efficient engineer in the field, when for practical road building, rough pioneer work under fire, and all round resourcefulness he could give many of our West Point graduates "cards and spades", most of such enforced training, which the writer has knowledge of, is a disgrace, and the would-be trainers should be "canned" before they reach a battle line. ”

“ A man, unless he has been designated as a sharpshooter, or for "sniping"—or, has been ordered to remain under permanent or semi-permanent trench cover—is not satisfied to fight at from 1000 to 1200 yards—the range of a high power rifle,—for, under most atmospheric conditions and when in the smoke and confusion of battle, he cannot pick up his target, or see the object aimed at, or determine whether his fire is effective, therefore he is going to push forward to from 300 to 500 yards—the range of our old muzzle loading Springfield rifles. ”

“ The education of such men along military—but, more especially along the line of battle problems is an offense to the nostrils and a clear violation of common sense, besides giving most battle-service soldiers an indescribable weariness.
Courage Alone Not Effective
Courage, either in the Army or civil life, is a cheap commodity. Almost every soldier should and does possess it to a certain degree. All combative animals have it more or less. ”

“ Much less time was taken during the Civil War. Most of these intensive training sharps and cranks harp incessantly about the absolute necessity for a long period of "discipline". The writer is nearly a crank on that subject, for discipline is the real, true and vital basis on which to build for a battle soldier. ”

“ As I watched the older man's face, I saw him change color, but he maintained his nerve—replying that he would "prosecute me for false arrest and imprisonment," probably taking his cue from the wagon master—who, after more bluster and more threats of what he would do, disappeared in the distance and we never saw or heard of him again. ”

“ Some men may train for a prize fight until they can run 15 miles without breathing hard, and then, inside of three or four minutes after entering the ring begin wheezing like an old wind-broken horse. This is due to a nervous contraction of the pulmonary region, caused generally by nervous fright. They are too tense and rigid to fight effectively. The writer has seen the same thing in battle with over trained men—perfectly tense, dazed—almost speechless—from fright and nerve shock alone before they could get it under control. ”

“ Then employ most of the few weeks, taken as a limit for training, in discipline alone—making that the one objective upon which to concentrate the intensive effort, devoting the balance of the time to sufficient tactical drill to readily handle them under fire, and no more, or until the first deployment and the shrapnel or machine gun fire of battle demonstrates the fact that any and all tactical formations whether perfect or more loosely co-ordinated are soon broken up. ”

“ Hooker from command of the Army of the Potomac just prior to the Battle of Gettysburg—appointing Gen. Meade to succeed him—happened to be at Fort R—— on his annual tour of inspection of the frontier posts. After such an introduction from Mackenzie—Gen. Hardie was very informal— He was a very handsome man, then about 48 years of age— He was very courteous and had an exceedingly attractive personality— With the disparity in our ages, he seemed, at that period, to be a very "old man". ”

“ It was a problem based purely upon military experience gained by hard knocks and campaigns and in battles—seasoned up with plenty of good, sound horse sense—combined with our battle discipline and morale; courage, resourcefulness and powers of endurance entered, of course, as factors. ”

“ Charlton led— "Get after them now, Corporal—Open fire! Shoot over their heads and close to them, but not to kill"— Finely mounted—and one of the crack shots in the regiment, with carbine advanced, he was in his element and "swung out" at a gallop for the men who were trying to gain the bushes or chaparral in the distance— He was an absolutely true type of the handsome, graceful soldier and rider, with the close seat and the American or cow-boy stirrup, and the resourceful, masterful, trained cavalryman of the days closely following the Civil War— Bang! ”