THE WAR DEPARTMENT.
My next trip was to the War Department, where I was shown the Rules and
Regulations governing the army, and navy.
The army was organized in twenty-five corps of eighty thousand men
each, besides the ladies' army corps of an equal number; each corps
composed of three divisions of foot infantry and one division of
mounted infantry. Each division was composed of three brigades of
infantry, one regiment of sharpshooters and one regiment of artillery;
each brigade of three regiments and each regiment of twelve companies,
one hundred and fifty men each. The company was divided into three
sergeants' commands and those into three corporal squads. Each company
consisted of one hundred and thirty-five privates, nine corporals,
three sergeants, one company clerk, one lieutenant and a captain. Four
companies composed a battalion, commanded by a major, and the regiment
by a colonel. There were no lieutenant colonels; the senior major
taking charge of the regiment in case of death or disability of the
colonel until the regiment elected an officer to fill the vacancy. All
vacancies above the rank of colonel were filled by the corps commander,
all vacancies up to and including that of colonel by the votes of the
men, but the colonel had to be chosen from the majors, a major from the
captains of his battalion. The lieutenant succeeded to the captaincy
without a vote-but the lieutenant had to be chosen from the sergeants
and company clerk and the sergeant from the corporals of his command.
The corporals were elected by the privates of the squads, so that any
soldier could rise from the ranks through merit to high command.
The corps commander holds the rank of lieutenant general, the general
of division that of major general, and the commander of a brigade that
of a brigadier general. The regiment of sharpshooters was chosen from
the best rifle shots in the division and in war time received double
pay for they were always at the front of the division and the first to
engage the enemy. A one-pounder rapid-fire gun was attached to every
company and was operated by the lieutenant assisted by the company
clerk. In the artillery regiment there were twelve batteries, six
three-inch caliber guns and one one-pounder rapid-fire gun to each
battery, and as they were under the direct control of the general
commanding the division he could mass them to fire on any point of
attack. The privates were paid fifteen dollars a month, the corporals
twenty dollars, the sergeants twenty-five dollars, company clerks
thirty dollars, lieutenants forty dollars, captains sixty dollars,
majors eighty dollars, colonels one hundred dollars, brigadier generals
one hundred and fifty dollars, major generals two hundred dollars and
the lieutenant general three hundred dollars a month, and officers and
privates were allowed the same rations and the same amount of clothing.
No fixed ration was issued on account of climatic conditions-but plenty
and no waste was the rule and every captain and lieutenant had to sit
at meals with his men and eat the same food. No violation of this rule
was allowed and as a result of this common sense regulation the men
were well fed and provided, for every colonel was held to account for
the welfare of the men under his command and every officer up to the
rank of field marshal could be reduced to the ranks for violation of
the rules and regulations governing the army. As there was a mailbox
under the control of the Minister of Information in every military post
in which complaints were posted to be sent to the President it had a
very salutary effect in keeping the officers attentive to their duty,
as no officer wanted to lose his position and salary and be a private.
All trivial violations of the rules by non-commissioned officers and
privates, such as insolence, drunkenness, filthy habits and disorderly
conduct, could be punished by the captain with three days on bread and
water-but no pay could be forfeited for any offense, for no fines were
allowed in the republic. For serious offenses committed by either
officer or private in time of peace, such as sodomy, crimes against
nature, adultery, seduction, larceny, embezzlement or any other felony,
the accused was sent to the district court for trial and on conviction
was dismissed the service and committed to prison for the term of years
provided by the law for the crime he had been convicted of and five
years additional for perjury, he having violated his oath of office
that he would be honest and upright in all things so help him God, and
any officer could be reduced to the ranks for conduct unbecoming a
gentleman as the result of a trial before a jury of twelve men drawn by
ballot from any other command than his own. No sashes, jewelry or
regalia of any kind was permitted to be worn.
Officers and privates were dressed alike and the insignia of rank was
worn on the collar, and no revolvers, bayonets, sabres, swords, rapiers
or lances were allowed to be carried-but every officer was required to
carry a rifle so that he could not be marked out by the enemy's
sharpshooters and to set an example of good shooting to his men when
under fire. Every soldier seriously injured in the service of his
country in time of peace as well as in war, received the same pay and
care as if he was still in the service and if he was killed or died
from disease his father and mother or either of them, as long as they
lived. The army was truly a great industrial army, for every officer
and man was required to work eight hours a day and for six days in the
week, at remunerative labor, and two hours on Sundays at rifle
practice. The rules and regulations governing the army applied equally
to both sexes. Both boys and girls, when drafted into the army, were
first sent to the headquarters of the army corps to which they were
assigned, the boys mostly afterward to the department of railways,
mines, commerce and agriculture and the girls to the department of
finance, manufactures, education and information, distributed all over
the republic so as to become acquainted with the people in general, by
so doing wiping out sectional feeling and realizing that God was their
father and that they all belonged to a common brother- and sisterhood
united together under a government for the people, of the people, and
by the people. I paid a visit to the navy yard and inspected two
battleships that were undergoing some slight repairs to their machinery.
One was a second-class battleship and her dimensions and armament were
as follows: Length five hundred and twenty-five feet, breadth of beam
seventy-five feet, draught of water twenty feet and six inches, height
of gun deck from the water line twelve feet; armament: ten twelve-inch
caliber guns mounted in turrets on the center line of the ship. The
turrets were bolted to the deck, five of them forward and five aft, and
were eighteen feet in diameter, eight feet high, with a slope from deck
to parapet of thirty degrees and made of armor steel twelve inches
thick. One gun in each turret and the guns could swing around on
four-fifths of the circle, so that every gun could be brought to bear
on an enemy either to port or starboard. No other guns were carried in
time of war and no cruisers, torpedo boats, or torpedoes were used, for
experience in war had shown that they were useless waste of men and
money. The battleship was propelled by rotary engines developing fifty
thousand horsepower, driving the ship at a sustained speed of thirty
knots an hour. The ship had four propellers, two on each side at the
stern, and the boilers were heated by petroleum with automatic feed.
The engineer informed me that they had tried gasoline and other
explosives (for the rotary engines worked well with them) but they
endangered the safety of the ship and the lives of the crew. There were
only two decks in the ship, the lower deck just above the waterline and
the gun deck; the lower deck floor was two-inch steel and was not
divided into compartments, having no partitions, so that if solid shot
or shell entered the side of the ship it could not scatter a shower of
steel splinters to kill or wound the men, and for further protection
against fragments of shell heavy woolen blankets were hung on the
inside from the ceiling. A double partition of two-inch steel ran bow
to stern through the center of the ship, reaching from the floor of the
hold to the lower deck, with a space between the partitions of four
inches filled in with concrete, and the gun deck was supported by heavy
steel pillars, as the space between the lower deck and the gun deck was
twelve feet. A fireproof platform four feet wide with a railing four
feet high of netting, encircled the smokestack about twenty feet above
the gun and connected with it by a rope ladder. It was the lookout
station and the Captain's post in battle from where he directed the
action.
There was only one smokestack on any battleship and no bridge or
superstructure or any inflammable material above the waterline, and the
officers and men eat at the same tables and partake of the same food.
If any officer or private objected to it or violated this rule, he was
dismissed the service, for it was considered injurious to the service
on board ship to keep any discontented person. The crew consisted of
two hundred privates, fifty corporals, five sergeants, ten lieutenants,
ten captains, one chief engineer with two assistants, one lieutenant
commander and the commander, who was captain of the ship and had the
same rank and pay as a colonel in the army.
The gunner and assistant gunners held the same rank and pay as captains
and lieutenants in the army. The chief engineer received the same as
the commander and took orders only from him, and his assistants
received the same pay as majors in the army, and the sergeants,
corporals and privates the same pay as in the army. The gunners and
assistant gunners were chosen from among the crew for the best
shooting, for it was justly held that victory in a naval battle rested
mostly on the shooting qualities of the man behind the gun.
The other battleship was rated first class and her dimensions were as
follows: Length, six hundred and thirty feet, breadth of beam ninety
feet, draught of water thirty feet. Armament: sixteen twelve-inch
caliber guns in single turrets and placed in the following manner:
forward on the lower gun deck, five guns; one on the center line of the
ship near the bow and two on each side further back. Five guns aft on
the lower gun deck; one on the center line of the ship near the stern
and two on each side in the same way as in the first part of the ship.
Three guns forward on the upper gun deck, one on the center line of the
ship and one on each side nearer amidships; three guns aft on the upper
gun deck in the relative positions. All the guns were placed so that
twelve guns could be brought to bear on an enemy ship. The lower gun
deck was twelve feet above the water line and the upper gun deck two,
and they were constructed and equipped as those on the second class.
The first class battleships carried one hundred and two more men than
the second class, consisting of six gunners, six assistant gunners,
eighteen corporals and seventy privates. No additional force was
required for the Engineer department of the ship. I inquired of the
Chief Engineer what make of engine they used and he replied that it was
the Hammond & Co. Rotary Engine and added: "We are indebted for this
engine to a countryman of yours named Leonard Hammond, who perfected it
so that at present it is in universal use and has revolutionized the
industries of the world by its saving of fuel and the low price at
which it call be manufactured, so that it has consigned every other
make of engine, reciprocal and turbine, to the scrap pile, and of the
most notable benefits derived from it has been in the shipping not only
in economy of fuel, but also in the small space they occupy so as to
give more room for cargo and in the almost total absence of vibration,
and in the battleship from their being on the propeller shaft at the
stern far below the water line."
The battleships remain for ten months of the year in the rivers and
harbors, where the officers and men are kept busy dredging, building
levees, wharves and breakwaters, and they take a cruise to different
parts of the earth during the months of December and January, and
during that time engage in gunnery practice. A battery of three-inch
caliber guns is taken on board each battleship for that as the big guns
will not stand continual firing and are only used on special occasions
to see if the gunners have improved. The men are highly pleased with
the service and the majority of them re-enlist. On inquiry I was told
that they had thirty first-class and thirty second-class battleships
and that they kept them always together so that they could strike an
enemy with force, but as they held no people in subjection and had no
colonies or outlying possessions there was at the present time very
little danger of war-but if it should come they were ready to fight and
to strike hard. As I left the navy yard I thought what a pity it was
that the people inhabiting the other countries of the earth were not
governed as these people are, for then there would be no need of
battleships and the kindly earth would slumber lapped in Universal Laws.