I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your report of the
9th ultimo, relative to your pursuit of deserters under Special
Orders No. 280, Fort Richardson, Texas, dated November 29,
1871,--which resulted in the capture of ten deserters.
The Department Commander desires me to express to you his
_gratification at your success_, and his _special commendation
for the zeal and ability displayed by you_.
The good conduct and faithful services of the enlisted men
composing the detachment, and Mr. Rhodes, citizen guide, is
deemed a proper subject for a letter of commendation to the
Post Commander.
I am Sir, very respectfully, your ob't servant,
(Signed) H. CLAY WOOD,
_Assistant Adjutant Gen_
Military Experience and Common Sense vs. Military Education and
"Intensive Training"
If a man is not endowed with good common sense, or it is not an inherent
trait--no amount of training he might receive at West Point or any other
Military institution for the purpose of educating that sense into him,
or cultivating what little sense he possesses--especially the military
or fighting sense--or, any effort to convert him into a practical
soldier, could make him one, and the time and effort will have been
worse than wasted-- It is simply impossible to supply in him by mere
education what he is lacking through nature's gift--and this
truth--absolutely axiomatic--applies to all walks of life-- Good sense,
combined with a liberal education well directed along right lines, makes
for success in all pursuits, whether as President, lawyer, doctor,
minister, the business man or the professional soldier-- But all the
education in the wide universe, unaccompanied by good sense, spells
defeat for any class--and would not rescue a man from common
mediocrity-- The world's trail is strewn with such senseless wrecks--
They are mere human derelicts on the ocean of life--and the more a man
of that type is educated or over educated the worse it is; and the more
accentuated does his failure become--the more apparent his lack of
common sense, and the more liability there is to wreckage-- In no other
profession does this become so painfully apparent or more pronounced
than in that of the professional soldier, when some desperate effort is
being made to create--manufacture, or transform a little man in uniform,
a parvenue or a man of mediocre caliber--into a great commander of
men--one whose horse sense is particularly lacking--or which cannot by
any amount of education or training be developed--and worse still when
he himself through an over supply of egotism or conceit is not, nor can
he be made aware of his failing, but bungles along until disaster
overtakes him and his command, and every thing connected with him and
them--
The writer claims that there has not been, nor is there now sufficient
care taken in the selection of candidates for entrance to the Military
Academy. Little or no heed is taken of their aptitude or fitness for a
Military career--and that there are in the service to-day many officers
who, from this lack of fitness and deficiency in common sense, are an
incubus to the Army--and should be "canned"-- Competitive examinations
in Congressional Districts develop a class of bright students--some
honor men ranking high in their class studies and highly specialized
along certain lines, but who, from lack of inherent qualities, fail in
the essentials that go to make up an alert, well-balanced, clear-headed,
resourceful, decisive, "cracker-jack"--rough and tumble soldier in the
field-- It is not in them-- Those who have had campaign and battle-field
experience--have all seen this-- Entrance to West Point on certificates
or diplomas from High Schools do not altogether fill the bill
either--for they are apt to be guided by political favoritism or
Congressional pull rather than a selection on general merit and fitness
for a military life[A]--based generally upon good health--a sound body
and a clear, receptive mind--"Mens sana in corpore sano" but, above all
things the one dominating desire to adopt the Army as a life career
alone--combined with plenty of good, sound--horse sense--West Point
will do the rest in the way of preparation and training-- Many of the
College and School systems are not uniform or in any way co-ordinated
with the class instructions at West Point--and much that these students
have gone over in Freshmen--Sophomore--Junior or even Senior courses
have to be undone--gone over again--or entirely reversed-- The writer
has seen a College junior utterly fail or "fall down" at his preliminary
examination for lack of thoroughness and drill in the _three "R's"_--
All this is a waste of time-- If then, the student's bent is not
inclined to an Army life--and his heart is not in it--but to
the law, medicine or the ministry--there is more waste and loss of
time--in trying to convert a good minister, lawyer, doctor or grocer
into a mighty poor soldier-- All of these qualifications, and
predilections--the individual tastes and preferences of the young
candidates should be considered, looked into and carefully weighed in
selecting, educating and launching men into a career where they, by
rapid promotion, are bound to become the future ranking officers and
commanders of our Armies-- Many a slip and disaster have occurred in an
Army by misplaced judgment--slowness of decision and lack of common
sense in trying to fit a "square peg into a round hole" or by educating
a man for the service and permitting him to attain high rank and high
command before it shall have been discovered that he not only does not
possess the necessary qualifications for the same but is absolutely
deficient in good sense--good judgment, decisive action, or even the
ordinary military instincts to maintain the high standard of efficiency
and success pertaining thereto--and upon which all depends-- In a
garrison of 10 troops of Cavalry and three Companies of
Infantry--Mackenzie had not only carefully gone over the entire roster
from which to select two officers upon whose experience and good
judgment he could absolutely depend for the performance of a duty in
which he not only wanted but expected and demanded decisive results, but
he had revolved all the possibilities and probabilities of dismal
failure had he selected any other than Lawton and myself.
[A] Theodore Roosevelt in his "Letters to His Children"--pp.
87-89, referring to his son "Ted" entering West Point, says: "It
would be a great misfortune for you to start into the Army or
Navy as a career and find that _you had mistaken your desires_
and had gone in without fully weighing the matter. You ought not
to enter _unless you feel genuinely drawn to the life as a
life-work_. If so, go in, but not otherwise." * * "Mr. Loeb
(Secretary to President Roosevelt) says he wished to enter the
army _because he did not know what to do_, could not foresee
whether he would succeed or fail in life, and felt that the army
_would give him a living and a career_. Now, if this is at
bottom of your feeling I should advise you not to go in. I
should say _yes_ to _some boys, but not to you_." If all fathers
had given as good advice to their sons who have been aspirants
to that kind of military glory which would give them "_a living
and a career_", we would have been saved the mortification of
"canning" some of our graduates of West Point during this world
war, who having acquired the "_career_" were not worth the
powder with which to blow them out of their O. D. (Olive Drab)
uniforms.
It is hoped that the writer will neither be charged with petty conceit,
undue egotism nor personal vanity in making these simple declarations of
facts the absolute truth of which never was, nor ever could be gainsayed
by any officer of that period in the Fourth Cavalry.
In this entire campaign after these deserters, success was dependent,
not upon any study or knowledge of tactics, strategy, or any game of
war, but largely upon good, common sense, sound judgment--almost
intuition--a ready resourcefulness and quick, decisive action-- It was
practically outside of a theoretical conception of any war problem--as
we understand it, but included within the scope of its practical
activities. No book has ever been written, or ever will be, which could
begin to lay down any cut and dried plan of action, rules, or any
fundamental principles in a case like this, or hundreds of other cases
similar to the performance of such special duties, any more than a text
book could have been written prior to 1914 on how to deal with the
German methods of conducting a war for the subjugation of the world by
trench, barbed wire and dug-out systems along the Hindenberg lines, etc.
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. There is one
word that seems to involve the main spring of a soldier's action in all
such emergencies--and that is--_Experience_--and the practical
application of that experience to all of the problems of life whether
great or small, but especially in puzzling situations like this, where
the factors are dependent on no fixed rules--are never constant--and
therefore events so shape themselves in such rapid succession that
without quick, decisive action based upon one's resources and sound
judgment gained by experience--the dependence upon study of any books
which might bear in any way upon such conditions would, not only prove a
most ridiculous farce, but would be offering a premium on commonplace
student soldiers--obtuseness and asinine stupidity.
There is such a thing in the development of a soldier along certain
lines for practical work, as _over education_, as well as _over
training_-- In the one case he thinks he knows so much that he cannot be
taught any more, and is apt, therefore, to eliminate entirely the
element of common sense--the one factor for success upon which he must
largely depend--and to neglect to apply some of the most simple and
practical principles in his earlier education--and, in the other case
he may go stale, and lose much of his spirit, enthusiasm and energy
while waiting to test out his knowledge in the real field of endeavor
and practical experience.