Intermission

“ If I were a general in the field I should allow no war correspondents with the troops except reliable men, who would agree to see the war out, to send no despatches until the conclusion of an operation, and to observe any interdiction which might be necessary then. ”

“ When there is any possibility of a force coming in conflict with an enemy, its commander, when halting for the night, should first decide on his dispositions in case of attack, and then arrange the quartering of his command and the position of the outposts accordingly.... Command, co-operation, and inter-communication will be facilitated by placing the advanced troops along well-defined natural features, such as ridges, streams, the outer edges of woods, etc., or in the vicinity of roads, but this must not be allowed to outweigh the necessity for making the best tactical dispositions possible. ”

“ An old European officer, one who has followed the profession of arms from his very boyhood, said to me to-day: 'In one essential respect, sir, I believe that in a short time these colored soldiers will surpass any we have in our army—I mean in subordination—without which no army can be effective. We are in the habit of carrying our citizenship with us into the field, and that begets an amount of undue familiarity between officers and men that is often destructive of obedience. ”

“ In estimating our strength every enlisted man and every commissioned officer present is included, no matter how employed; in bands, sick in field hospitals, hospital attendants, company cooks and all. Operating in an enemy's country, and being supplied always from a distant base, large detachments had at all times to be sent from the front, not only to guard the base of supplies and the roads to it, but all the roads leading to our flanks and rear. ”

“ But in our day,—when armies bivouac, when their division into several corps gives greater mobility, when they take position near each other in obedience to orders given them while out of reach of the general's eye, and often when there has been no time for thorough examination of the enemy's position,—finally, when the different arms of the service are intermingled in the line of battle,—under these circumstances, all orders of battle which must be laid out with great accuracy of detail are impracticable. ”

“ For no commander can go forward along the line of his advance and leave a large undestroyed force close to one side of that line, and so situated that it can come out when he has passed and cut off his communications; for it is by communications that an army lives, especially when it is marching in hostile country. ”

“ In short, every impediment which an officer, acting on the defensive, can throw in an enemy’s way, ought to be scrupulously attended to. Independently, therefore, of the means which he adopts for the immediate protection of his posts, he must look beyond that point; and as nothing checks the ardour of troops more than an unexpected obstacle, within an hundred yards, more or less, of the place attacked, he must, on his arrival at the outpost, throw up some temporary impediment at that distance. ”

“ When a party is discovered approaching thus, and are near enough to distinguish signals, all that is necessary in order to ascertain their disposition is to raise the right hand with the palm in front, and gradually push it forward and back several times. They all understand this to be a command to halt, and if they are not hostile it will at once be obeyed. ”

“ An interference on their part with the action of subordinates is permissible only in case of obvious misunderstandings or mistakes, which would cause the combat to take a course other than that intended. The larger the unit commanded by an officer, the greater the latitude that must be allowed him. The leaders should concentrate their attention upon the general execution of their special tasks as part of the whole scheme, rather than upon supervision of details. ”

“ In a state of dispute the preponderating Power may concentrate or be induced to concentrate in one theatre of operations, and so secure the local or temporary command sufficient for obtaining the special object in view, while the weaker Power takes advantage of such local concentration to operate safely elsewhere. ”

“ While, therefore, you will permit no interference by the persons under your command, with the relations of Persons held to Service under the laws of any State, you will, on the other hand, so long as any State, within which your Military operations are conducted, is under the control of such armed combinations, refrain from surrendering to alleged masters any Person who may come within your lines. ”

“ When personnel of the armed forces of one Party, in proximity to personnel and equipment of the armed forces of the other Party, detect interference with their command and control networks which could cause harm to them or damage to their equipment, they may inform the relevant personnel of the armed forces of the other Party if they believe that the interference is being cause by such personnel and equipment of the armed forces of that Party. ”

“ A messenger carrying despatches, in whatever form, from one portion of the army, or from a besieged place, to another portion of the same army, or its government—if captured while doing so, in the enemy’s territory, or in the territory occupied by the enemy, is treated by the capturing enemy as a spy. ”

“ The methods of organization and the methods of fighting have alike changed. It is only those who have had responsibilities as leaders in the present war whose instructions can be accepted as authoritative. ”

“ The squadron of men-of-war and transports was collected, the commodore’s flag hoisted, and the expedition sailed with most secret orders, which, as usual, were as well known to the enemy, and everybody in England, as they were to those by whom they were given. It is the characteristic of our nation, that we scorn to take any unfair advantage, or reap any benefit, by keeping our intentions a secret. ”

“ There is an occasional tendency towards undue interference on the part of our officers, who are some of them men of more money than brains, although I wouldn't for the world have it known that I said so. ”

“ Individuals, whether belonging to the army or not, who happen singly to fall in with the enemy are, by the urgent necessity of the circumstance, left to their own discretion, and may, so far as concerns their own persons, do everything which a commander might do with respect to himself and the troops under his command. ”

“ The army and navy and the troops designed for the internal security are subject to special laws, in the matter of military offences, both for the maintenance of discipline and for the form of the trials and the nature of the penalties. ”

“ Interdicts and excommunications, weapons in themselves so terrible, would, he foresaw, be armed with double force, when employed in a cause so much calculated to work on the human passions, and so peculiarly adapted to the eloquence of popular preachers and declaimers. ”

“ No less important is it for the inspector to be present at an interment, in order that by his presence nothing may be done by his subordinates, or by any other person, which should be contrary to the dignity of the interment or to the regulations. ”

“ In the preface to the French regulations, it is emphasized that intrenching a position ought neither to impair the spirit of the offensive nor hamper the movement to the front. “Intrenchments are a means to an end, but not the end itself. ”

“ Recognising the immediate necessity for action, and the danger of leaving the flank of the unit on our left exposed, I was compelled to act on my own initiative, being the only other officer in the company.{17} The difficulties of commanding a full company in action, without any other officers in the company, are great; but when that action takes place in the dark, over unknown ground, it becomes mere luck if things go well. ”

“ When companies act as opposing forces, each practice should be based on a definite supposition and object, a scheme should be drawn up and executed as far as is possible in conditions of actual warfare, and a mounted officer should be detailed to act as umpire. ”

“ To provide, on the accident of your death, against anarchy, dispersion, and the consequent danger to your party, and total failure of the enterprise, you are hereby authorized, by any instrument signed and written in your own hand, to name the person among them who shall succeed to the command on your decease, and by like instruments to change the nomination, from time to time, as further experience of the characters accompanying you shall point out superior fitness ”

“ While subordinate officers or soldiers are pausing to consider whether they ought to obey, or are scrupulously weighing the evidence of the facts upon which the commander in chief exercises the right to demand their services, the hostile enterprise may be accomplished without the means of resistance. ”

“ When such parties consist of a regular advanced detachment from the enemy’s forces, that challenges you on your approach, your out-scouts must instantly give the name of the power or general against whose troops you are marching, or make them imagine, that you are returning from some secret expedition which had been undertaken in his favor, or that you came out of a neighboring state. As you draw near, proper measures must be adopted to get upon its flanks, so as ultimately to surround the whole guard, and to prevent any information from being forwarded to the main body of the enemy. ”

“ All officers should be fully impressed with the absolute necessity of pushing entirely beyond the enemy's present line, if they should succeed in penetrating it, and of getting back to their present line promptly if they should not succeed in breaking through. ”

“ When a halt was made with the view of assaulting the enemy, or in his presence, these would be strengthened or their positions changed under the direction of engineer officers. The second was, the use made of the telegraph and signal corps. Nothing could be more complete than the organization and discipline of this body of brave and intelligent men. ”

“ For a long time the officers are indulgent to irregularities—have they not just left their own dear women behind them?—but at length the word of command rings out, and everybody not connected with the army has to go back. ”

“ I had governed my crew with a rigid hand, never overlooking an offence, but I had, at the same time, always been mindful of justice, and I was gratified to find, both on the part of officers and men, an apparent forgetfulness of the little jars and discords which always grow out of the effort to enforce discipline, it matters not how suavely and justly the effort may be made. ”

“ This method should be confined to directions about firing; orders for movement should invariably be given by commanders by word themselves or signal, and men should not be allowed to repeat these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on service, as a signal may be seen and acted on by someone for whom it was not intended. ”

“ Concentration of force is one of these rules, and a statement of the inevitable disadvantages of dispersion is valuable. The examples chosen from sea and land warfare illustrate the working of the law with admirable precision. ”

“ The High Contracting Parties and the Parties to the conflict shall require military commanders, with respect to members of the armed forces under their command and other persons under their control, to prevent and, where necessary, to suppress and to report to competent authorities breaches of the Conventions and of this Protocol. ”

“ We—the officers—made a point of imposing no discipline whatever upon the men, this extending even to non-interference in their increasingly frequent disputes. We held—and rightly, I am convinced—that anything calculated to give an outlet to their feelings would make them less likely to become a prey to gloomy thought. ”

“ The functions of such an officer, as marked out by the evidence of existing necessities, may be divided into the ordinary and the extraordinary. The immediate necessities are those which arise from the want of a trustworthy person who maybe looked up to for counsel and direction to survivors in the event of a death, §§ 121, 122, 123, 124, and guide a change of the practice of interment. ”

“ In the British Service alone has the important principle been adopted of separating the duties on the Lines of Communication into two independent branches, that of their Protection, and that of their Administration, thus leaving the Officer charged with their administration to concentrate his attention on this vital matter. ”

“ He may assemble and organize an overwhelming force in the interior on his own side of the line, and, concealing his purpose, make a sudden assault upon some one of our posts so distant from any other as to prevent the possibility of timely succor or reenforcements, and in this way our gallant Army would be exposed to the danger of being cut off in detail ”

“ It is not intended to adopt heroic measures nor would it be desirable for an operator to deliberately look for interference; the Department simply wants the actual interference which an operator experiences in his regular work. A great deal of interference is caused needlessly and every operator should use a little care in testing when he might cause interference. If you are going to test, do not send by the hour or even fifteen minutes without listening in for possible interference. ”

“ The men were under tolerable command, and no symptoms of insubordination were known to have shewn themselves; they seemed to be aware of the consequences that would [128] ensue to their cause if order and submission were not rigidly exacted, and they were therefore taught to obey their officers as a duty indispensable for their security. ”