Private soldier

“ I have not the least idea; a private soldier never has. I remember marches and counter-marches at night, heartrending marches on roads crowded with troops, among dragoons, gunners with their guns, carts of all sorts, and ambulances and wounded men who were being attended to. ”

“ Imagine yourself with two other people lying in three inches of water with two blankets supported by rifles over your head, and you have their condition. And they started again in the cold, rainy darkness, wet and chilled to the bone, still singing. But that is the private soldier all over. Put him in really happy circumstances, and he grumbles himself hoarse; give him something really to grumble at, and he is cheerful ”

“ The life of a private soldier, when on service similar to that in which the British troops were engaged in the Peninsula, is but too often one of such vicissitude, hardship, and privation, that to see the poor fellows occasionally placed in situations where they can enjoy something approaching to the comforts of a domestic hearth, far from the din of war, must, I conceive, yield to others, as it never failed to do to me, a degree of pleasure far beyond the power of language to express. ”

“ Do not, I beg of you, change one particle from what you have been as a private soldier, unless it is to have your pants fit better, and wear a collar. Of course, you will be thrown among officers more than you have before. Imitate their better qualities, and do not compete with them in vices. Always remember that when a volunteer army is mustered out, all are alike. ”

“ Equality, however, resumed its sway at the end of each military campaign; each officer, on returning into private life, enjoyed only the rights common to all; and the colonel or starshine often made the ensuing campaign as a private soldier. ”

“ This difference,—that there was now one more of those who proclaim that the private soldier in the German army is a man forced into a yoke, the prey of every whim of his superiors, a man exposed to the bad humor of those above him, one who has to suffer, without a sign of resistance, undeserved harshness and [128] injustice. Such a man was now this young recruit. ”

“ Individuals stood distinguished by their personal spirit and vigour, not by the valuation of their estates, or the rank of their birth. They had a personal elevation founded on the sense of equality, not of precedence. The general of one campaign was, during the next, a private soldier, and served in the ranks. They were solicitous to acquire bodily strength; because, in the use of their weapons, battles were a trial of the soldier's strength, as well as of the leader's conduct. ”

“ It must be kept in mind that the private soldier is supposed to be a mere machine, which, if not in working order, may somewhere along the line produce friction. This machine is supposed to know nothing but his duty and obey orders,—the instructions of his superiors. If placed on outpost duty and told that there is nothing in front of him but the enemy, to keep a sharp lookout, and to warn of the approach of danger, he is not expected to ask questions. ”

“ The reason for teaching these things to the private soldier lies in the accumulated experience which shows that on many occasions all the officers and non-commissioned officers of a battery have been blown to pieces by the enemy’s fire, and there have remained only a few private soldiers to do their own work and that of their officers as well. ”

“ Many a time I have taken the packets of cartridges from the pouches before we had gone a quarter of a mile and stowed them away between the buttons of my tunic—there they had ribs and breast bone to rest against. Why don't the people whose business and interest it is to get the best out of the private soldier give the private soldier a chance? ”

“ The private soldier’s vocation has risen, in many branches of the military service, from a trade to a profession, and now, more than ever before, is extensive training and a high order of intellect necessary for the command of armies. Wars have become shorter, sharper, more decisive and more terrible ”

“ The private soldier takes his share of the loot, and is generally the instrument of the cold and ordered killing; but it is the officer-class which most profits in goods, and it is the higher command which dictates the policy. ”

“ There are interesting stories told of the tricks resorted to by some patriotic youths to smuggle themselves into the ranks as private soldiers under the first limited calls for troops. Then very many well-known instances in which the privilege of being accepted as a private soldier was not only sought with irrepressible zeal, as if it had been a most valuable office, but in which it was obtained by very questionable means, such as buying off with heavy bribes and then fraudulently personating more fortunate applicants who had actually been enrolled. ”

“ There is something pathetic, as well as absurd, in picturing these middle-aged citizens in time of war, clad in antiquated uniforms, handling unaccustomed weapons, and painfully, if conscientiously, struggling to acquire a knowledge of new regulations and modern drill. To sum all up, it may be true that Providence is still on the side of the big battalions, but chiefly, we think, when those battalions are well officered, well trained, and animated with all the virtues of the soldier. ”

“ The officer was a patriot when he gave his ability to his country and risked his name and fame upon the fortunes of war; the private soldier was a patriot when he took his place in the ranks and offered his body as a bulwark to protect the flag ”

“ At the time I wrote, "It must be admitted that the training of our barrack-rooms is not favourable to the acquirement of decent manners and gentlemanlike demeanour, and that until we elevate the profession of arms in England, and remove the stigma popularly impressed from the rank of a private soldier, we cannot expect to induce the needy members of the more respectable classes in society to enter as volunteers ”

“ Each officer was henceforth but a private soldier, subject to exercises and fatigues, very contrary to his former manner of life, and exposed to the greatest privations, for there was no pay, and many of that number had soon no resource to depend 71on but the contributions of their more fortunate comrades. ”

“ It is but justice to an enemy, and it affords an impressive example to the military servants of every State, to remark an instance of fidelity in the private Soldiery of the garrison, at this critical moment. ”

“ Commanding officers are responsible for the conduct of the troops under their command, and the articles of war and the regulations of the army provide ample means for restraining them to the full extent required for discipline and efficiency. Soldiers were called into the field to do battle against the enemy, and it is not expected that their force and energy shall be wasted in protecting private property of those most hostile to the government. No soldier serving in this army shall be hereafter employed on such service. ”

“ Gentlemen who had been brought up in the enjoyment of competency served as private soldiers: numbers were cut off by fatigue and the sword; others perished of want in foreign countries; and the wars of La Vendée and of the Chouans, and the revolutionary tribunals, swept away thousands. ”

“ They were in no sense refined, nor to be admitted to the outer-door mats of decent folk, because they happened to be private soldiers in Her Majesty's Army; and private soldiers of our service have small time for self-culture. Their duty is to keep themselves and their accoutrements specklessly clean, to refrain from getting drunk more often than is necessary, to obey their superiors, and to pray for a war. ”

“ Our citizen soldiers are unlike those drawn from the population of any other country. They are composed indiscriminately of all professions and pursuits—of farmers, lawyers, physicians, merchants, manufacturers, mechanics, and laborers—and this not only among the officers, but the private soldiers in the ranks. Our citizen soldiers are unlike those of any other country in other respects. ”

“ But if any other course, in any one's opinion, be better than this, [136] let him, even though he be a private soldier, boldly give us his sentiments; for the safety, which we all seek, is a general concern." ”

“ These are to authorise you, by beat of drum or otherwise, to raise volunteers to serve for soldiers in your own company in Our Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, which we have appointed to be raised, and whereof you are colonel; which company is to consist of one hundred private soldiers, three serjeants, three corporals, and two drummers. And as the said soldiers shall be respectively raised in the said company, they are to be produced to muster, to the intent that they may be received into our pay and entertainment ”

“ The truth appears to be, that the French soldiers have a stronger sense of honour than those of almost any other service; but that the officers, having risen from the ranks, have brought with them to the most exalted stations, no more refined or liberal sentiments than those by which the private soldiers are very frequently actuated ”

“ If they assumed an air of superiority to the rest of the service, so much the more did they look down upon the mere civilian, whom they considered as belonging to a very subordinate class and order of mankind. To mark the sense of this difference of condition in a hundred little ways, and by a hundred petty observances, was part of a military education, and became a more unerring test of the soldier in society, than even the cockade and the cross-belt. ”

“ In one word, the soldier is in all respects under the government and protection of the same power to which he owes his duties and to which he renders his service, and his pay and treatment are regulated according to the requirements and interests of that service. ”

“ And as a striking proof of the loyal and law-abiding spirit of the citizens, I may mention the fact, that all the government property above alluded to is defended by two soldiers, a corporal—who, by the way, has a wooden leg—and a high private. ”

“ But it is certain that the surest foundation upon which the fidelity of an army can rest, especially in a service which imposes hardships and privations, is the personal interest of the soldier in the issue of the contest. ”

“ In total war it is necessary that a civilian make sacrifices of his property and profits with at least the same fortitude as that with which a drafted soldier makes his traditional sacrifices of comfort, security and life itself. ”

“ Everything is made so clear that the benighted civilian of the anti-West Point sort, the fearfully and wonderfully bepistoled swashbuckler of the frontier, the gilded whiskey-soldier of the National Guard and even the self-taught strategist of the press can comprehend it all without a special revelation from Heaven. ”

“ I understand, however, that all the new dollars were coined abroad.
Articles 179 to 188 relate to the armed forces. The army must not deliberate; no privileged corps; no one but a soldier can be promoted to a military grade. In my time the majority of officers had never been soldiers. The National Guard is composed of those citizens who are not in the active army. ”

“ A soldier servant of the above class will devote himself to making what he can, within the limits of strict integrity, out of a juvenile master; but woe betide the adventurous wight whom he detects poaching on his preserve! On the whole, therefore, the ensign is not badly off, for the veteran is, after all, really honest, and money to almost any amount may be trusted to his supervision; as for tobacco and spirits, he looks upon them, I am afraid, as contraband of war, a fair and legitimate forfeit if left within the scope of his privateering ingenuity. ”

“ Personal courage, disinterested friendship, and patient self-sacrifice, no mean qualities in themselves, are doubly valuable when enlisted in the cause of one’s country on the side of law and justice, and hence we consider the soldier, no matter what may be his rank, who bravely and intelligently risks and loses his life in defence of his nation’s integrity, deserving of a high meed of praise. ”

“ Nothing at all for them in fact, save a ribbon and a barless medal, good quarters, perfect safety, staff pay, weekend leave, with a few extra days thrown in as a reward for their valuable services, and—a soft job!
They are the militaresques of our armies. The men who try hard to be soldiers, and who only succeed in being soldier-like beings erect upon two legs, with all the outward semblance of a soldier. Yet even their lives are not safe. They run grave risks by day and by night in the service of their country. ”

“ He was a strict disciplinarian, and perhaps did not distinguish sufficiently between the volunteer who "enlisted for the war" and the soldier who serves in time of peace. One system embraced men who risked life for a principle, and often men of social standing, competence, or wealth and independence of character. ”

“ Indeed, no comparison is necessary; for a country instinctively forges the weapons that will serve it best. It is sufficient to say here that the American Regular officer cannot be bettered from the point of view of bravery and competence; and he must incur our additional respect as a man who has had the courage and breadth of vision to follow the calling of a soldier in a country where regular soldiering is—or was—popularly regarded as a superfluous and socially unremunerative profession. ”

“ The operations in which you are engaged will, for the most part, take place in a friendly country, and you can do your own country no better service than in showing yourself, in France and Belgium, in the true character of a British soldier.
Be invariably courteous, considerate, and kind. Never do anything likely to injure or destroy property, and always look upon looting as a disgraceful act. You are sure to meet with a welcome and to be trusted; and your conduct must justify that welcome and that trust. Your duty cannot be done unless your health is sound. ”