Recent Reads : T. Roosevelt "The Rough Riders"

Recurring theme - how smokeless gunpowder helped the Spaniards.

No troops could have behaved better than the colored soldiers had behaved so far, but they are, of course, peculiarly dependent upon their white officers. Occasionally they produce non-commissioned officers who can take the initiative and accept responsibility precisely like the best class of whites, but this cannot be expected normally nor is it fair to expect it. With the colored troops, there should always be some of their own officers. Whereas, with the white regulars, as with my own rough riders, experience showed that the non-commissioned officers could usually carry on the fight by themselves, if they were once started no matter whether their officers were killed or not.

With all volunteer troops, and I am inclined to think, with regulars too, in time of trial, the best work can be got out of the men only if the officers endure the same hardships and face the same risks. In my regiment, as in the whole cavalry division, the proportion of loss in killed and wounded, was considerably greater among the officers than among the troopers and this was exactly as it should be. Moreover, when we got down to hardpan, we all, officers and men, fared exactly alike as regards both shelter and food. This prevented any grumbling. When the troopers saw that the officers had nothing but hard track, there was not a man in the regiment who would not have been ashamed to grumble at faring no worse. And when all alike slept out in the open in the rear of the trenches, and when the men always saw the field officers up at night during the digging of the trenches and going the rounds of the outpost, they wouldn't tolerate in any of their number either complaint or shirking work. When things got easier, I put up my tent and lived a little apart. For it is a mistake for an officer ever to grow too familiar with his men, no matter how good they are. And it is, of course, the greatest possible mistake to seek popularity, either by showing weakness, or by mollycoddling the men. They will not respect a commander who does not enforce discipline and who does not know his duty and who is not willing both himself to encounter, and to make them encounter, every species of danger and hardship when necessary. The soldiers who don't feel this way are not worthy of the name and should be handled with iron severity until they become fighting men and not shams. In return, the officers should carefully look after his men; should see that they are well fed and well-sheltered and that, no matter how much they may grumble, they keep the camp thoroughly policed.