e people were foolishly convinced of the efficacy of
their militia system, which they loudly proclaimed to be the only proper
mode of national defence. [Footnote: Marshall, II., p. 279.] While in the
actual presence of the Indians the stern necessities of border warfare
forced the frontiersmen into a certain semblance of discipline. As soon
as the immediate pressure was relieved, however, the whole militia
system sank into a mere farce. At certain stated occasions there were
musters for company or regimental drill. These training days were
treated as occasions for frolic and merry-making. There were pony races
and wrestling matches, with unlimited fighting, drunkenness, and general
uproar. Such musters were often called, in derision, cornstalk drills,
because many of the men, either having no guns or neglecting to bring
them, drilled with cornstalks instead. The officers were elected by the
men and when there was no immediate danger of war they were chosen
purely for their social qualities. For a few years after the close of
the long Indian struggle there were here and there officers who had seen
actual service and who knew the rudiments of drill; but in the days of
peace the men who had taken part in Indian fighting cared but little to
attend the musters, and left them more and more to be turned into mere
scenes of horseplay.

Lack of Military Training.

The frontier people of the second generation in the West thus had no
military training whatever, and though they possessed a skeleton militia
organization, they derived no benefit from it, because their officers
were worthless, and the men had no idea of practising self-restraint or
of obeying orders longer than they saw fit. The frontiersmen were
personally brave, but their courage was entirely untrained, and being
unsupported by discipline, they were sure to be disheartened at a
repulse, to be distrustful of themselves and their leaders, and to be
unwilling to persevere in the face of danger and discouragement. They
were hardy, and physically strong, and they were good marksmen; but here
the list of their soldierly qualities was exhausted. They had to be put
through a severe course of training by some man like Jackson before they
became fit to contend on equal terms with regulars in the open or with
Indians in the woods. Their utter lack of discipline was decisive
against them at first in any contest with regulars. In warfare with the
Indians there were a very f