man how to
shoot, to march, to take care of himself in the open, to be alert,
resourceful, cool, daring and resolute, and to fit himself to act on his
own responsibility (individual initiative). If he already possesses
these qualities there is very little difficulty in making him a good
soldier (nor should it take a long time). All the drill necessary to
enable him to march and to fight is of a simple character. _Parade
ground and barrack square maneuvers are of no earthly consequence in
real war._ When men can readily change from line to column, and column
to line, can form front in any direction, and assemble and _scatter_
(deploy), and can do other things with speed and precision they have got
a fairly good grasp on the essentials."

No amount of long drawn out drill will give him battle instinct or
battle sense; not until he goes in under fire and faces up to what he
sooner or later has got to encounter,--drill or no drill--does he
acquire it.

Leaving out the non-essentials and endless repetitions of drill during a
war crisis (and by the non-essentials the writer means a cut and dried
program from 5.00 A. M. to 10 P. M., with "manual of arms by the
count"--all dress parades, reviews and other ceremonies, marching or
"hiking" with a full infantry pack in a temperature of 109 deg. in the
shade, to see how men can _intensively_ endure such heat, or, in other
words, a persistent effort to break these men down and determine whether
they have any courage, endurance or guts)--it should take less than
three months to make an alert, steadfast, reliable and efficient battle
soldier in time of war, and not more than six months in time of peace if
more perfection is arrived at, unless it is desired to specialize in
artillery, engineering and the Scientific Corps. Much less time was
taken during the Civil War. Most of these intensive training sharps and
cranks harp incessantly about the absolute necessity for a long period
of "_discipline_". The writer is nearly a crank on that subject, for
discipline is the real, true and vital basis on which to build for a
battle soldier. Then employ most of the few weeks, taken as a limit for
training, in discipline alone--making that the one objective upon which
to concentrate the intensive effort, devoting the balance of the time to
sufficient tactical drill to readily handle them under fire, and no
more, or until the first deployment and the shrapnel or machine gun fire
of battle demons