ty--depravity--greed--selfishness--low cunning--trickery,
treachery--atrocity--and the most desperate crimes--not stopping short
of black-jacking--garroting--sand-bagging--robbery and frequent murders.
To mingle with them was to know their types--their methods--habits,
resources, etc. All this knowledge was of incalculable value to the
writer when the plunge was made into darkness and the depths of an
uncertainty--of an adventure the outcome of which could be but
problematical or only to be guessed at.

[B] Note--Men who had been paid large bounties during the draft
period to take the place of men who were _long_ on money, but
were _short on gall_--and who had no stomach for a fight of any
kind.

All this applied to Lawton, who, although he was not a graduate of West
Point, had had the same campaign and battle experience as the
writer--and as Lieut. Colonel Commanding the 30th Indian Volunteer
Infantry had developed in him all of the necessary elements at
Chickamauga--Missionary Ridge--Dalton--Resaca--Kenesaw Mountain and in
his march with Sherman "from Atlanta to the sea"--which, as essential
factors would fit into our problem--and which, many years later, he
fully exemplified in the Philippines by his push, energy, iron will,
resourcefulness, well-balanced judgment and quick, decisive action which
strongly marked every movement in his campaigns, and characterized him
as the personification of an ever ready and perfectly trained--although
not _intensively_ trained--soldier--the magnificent soldier without
frills, furbelows, fuss or feathers--that he was--

Training of the "Rough Riders"

Too much stress has been given to a long, intensive training as
absolutely necessary to fit men to become good, reliable battle-service
soldiers, or to enable them to tackle either purely military problems,
or such problems as confronted us in our long, exhaustive pursuit of
those deserters. Perfection of drill and military training is one thing
through a continuous and harassing barrack or field training. To fit men
to become alert, resourceful, obedient soldiers for quick and ready
service through discipline and a minimum of tactical drill is altogether
another thing when a war is fully on. Theodore Roosevelt in his
Autobiography (p. 250) says: "The reason why it takes so long to turn
the average citizen, etc., into a good infantryman or cavalryman is
because it takes a long while to teach the average untrained