I
Gates had left the regular army in 1890, those parts of him which had
not been frozen having been well fried. He took with him nothing but an
oaken constitution and a knowledge of the plains and the best wishes of
his fellow-officers. The Standard Oil Company differs from the United
States Government in that it understands the value of the loyal and
intelligent services of good men and is almost certain to reward them
at the expense of incapable men. This curious practice emanates from no
beneficent emotion of the Standard Oil Company, on whose feelings you
could not make a scar with a hammer and chisel. It is simply that the
Standard Oil Company knows more than the United States Government and
makes use of virtue whenever virtue is to its advantage. In 1890 Gates
really felt in his bones that, if he lived a rigorously correct life
and several score of his class-mates and intimate friends died off, he
would get command of a troop of horse by the time he was unfitted by
age to be an active cavalry leader. He left the service of the United
States and entered the service of the Standard Oil Company. In the
course of time he knew that, if he lived a rigorously correct life, his
position and income would develop strictly in parallel with the worth
of his wisdom and experience, and he would not have to walk on the
corpses of his friends.
But he was not happier. Part of his heart was in a barracks, and it was
not enough to discourse of the old regiment over the port and cigars to
ears which were polite enough to betray a languid ignorance. Finally
came the year 1898, and Gates dropped the Standard Oil Company as if it
were hot. He hit the steel trail to Washington and there fought the
first serious action of the war. Like most Americans, he had a native
State, and one morning he found himself major in a volunteer infantry
regiment whose voice had a peculiar sharp twang to it which he could
remember from childhood. The colonel welcomed the West Pointer with
loud cries of joy; the lieutenant-colonel looked at him with the pebbly
eye of distrust; and the senior major, having had up to this time the
best battalion in the regiment, strongly disapproved of him. There were
only two majors, so the lieutenant-colonel commanded the first
battalion, which gave him an occupation. Lieutenant-colonels under the
new rules do not always have occupations. Gates got the third
battalion--four companies commanded by intelligent officers who could
gauge the opinions of their men at two thousand yards and govern
themselves accordingly. The battalion was immensely interested in the
new major. It thought it ought to develop views about him. It thought
it was its blankety-blank business to find out immediately if it liked
him personally. In the company streets the talk was nothing else. Among
the non-commissioned officers there were eleven old soldiers of the
regular army, and they knew--and cared--that Gates had held commission
in the "Sixteenth Cavalry"--as _Harper's Weekly_ says. Over this fact
they rejoiced and were glad, and they stood by to jump lively when he
took command. He would know his work and he would know _their_ work,
and then in battle there would be killed only what men were absolutely
necessary and the sick list would be comparatively free of fools.
The commander of the second battalion had been called by an Atlanta
paper, "Major Rickets C. Carmony, the commander of the second battalion
of the 307th ----, is when at home one of the biggest wholesale
hardware dealers in his State. Last evening he had ice-cream, at his
own expense, served out at the regular mess of the battalion, and after
dinner the men gathered about his tent where three hearty cheers for
the popular major were given." Carmony had bought twelve copies of this
newspaper and mailed them home to his friends.
In Gates's battalion there were more kicks than ice-cream, and there
was no ice-cream at all. Indignation ran high at the rapid manner in
which he proceeded to make soldiers of them. Some of his officers
hinted finally that the men wouldn't stand it. They were saying that
they had enlisted to fight for their country--yes, but they weren't
going to be bullied day in and day out by a perfect stranger. They were
patriots, they were, and just as good men as ever stepped--just as good
as Gates or anybody like him. But, gradually, despite itself, the
battalion progressed. The men were not altogether conscious of it. They
evolved rather blindly. Presently there were fights with Carmony's
crowd as to which was the better battalion at drills, and at last there
was no argument. It was generally admitted that Gates commanded the
crack battalion. The men, believing that the beginning and the end of
all soldiering was in these drills of precision, were somewhat
reconciled to their major when they began to understand more of what he
was trying to do for them, but they were still fiery untamed patriots
of lofty pride and they resented his manner toward them. It was abrupt
and sharp.
The time came when everybody knew that the Fifth Army Corps was the
corps designated for the first active service in Cuba. The officers and
men of the 307th observed with despair that their regiment was not in
the Fifth Army Corps. The colonel was a strategist. He understood
everything in a flash. Without a moment's hesitation he obtained leave
and mounted the night express for Washington. There he drove Senators
and Congressmen in span, tandem and four-in-hand. With the telegraph he
stirred so deeply the governor, the people and the newspapers of his
State that whenever on a quiet night the President put his head out of
the White House he could hear the distant vast commonwealth humming
with indignation. And as it is well known that the Chief Executive
listens to the voice of the people, the 307th was transferred to the
Fifth Army Corps. It was sent at once to Tampa, where it was brigaded
with two dusty regiments of regulars, who looked at it calmly, and said
nothing. The brigade commander happened to be no less a person than
Gates's old colonel in the "Sixteenth Cavalry"--as HARPER'S WEEKLY
says--and Gates was cheered. The old man's rather solemn look
brightened when he saw Gates in the 307th. There was a great deal of
battering and pounding and banging for the 307th at Tampa, but the men
stood it more in wonder than in anger. The two regular regiments
carried them along when they could, and when they couldn't waited
impatiently for them to come up. Undoubtedly the regulars wished the
volunteers were in garrison at Sitka, but they said practically
nothing. They minded their own regiments. The colonel was an invaluable
man in a telegraph office. When came the scramble for transports the
colonel retired to a telegraph office and talked so ably to Washington
that the authorities pushed a number of corps aside and made way for
the 307th, as if on it depended everything. The regiment got one of the
best transports, and after a series of delays and some starts, and an
equal number of returns, they finally sailed for Cuba.