III.
The exercises which I have drawn up, simple though they are, are of the nature of “Instructional Operations,” as defined by T. & M.R., 40 (12), and it is presupposed that the men have received, or are in course of receiving, sufficient instruction in the use of the rifle (musketry in all its branches), and of the bayonet (bayonet fighting), in drill in close order, and the drill grounding of extended order work, including signals (I.T., 90-96). We are then to consider ourselves to be at the stage in which the soldier is to be taught to work over broken country as directed in the latter part of para. 90, above quoted. But do not think the lessons learned at musketry instruction are to be forgotten and left behind by the men when they begin to work in extended order across country. Demand from your men that the rifle shall be deadly, and, by unceasing supervision, breed a habit among them of aiming and firing in extended order, whether with or without blank cartridge, with the same exactitude as when firing their course of musketry on the range. Take the high standard—a hundred men’s lives in one man’s bandolier, instead of a hundred bandoliers for one man’s life. The higher standard of the two is at least possible, though not common, but why not try and work towards it, so that when bullets are flying within decisive range of the enemy, it will be your men’s fire, that is the deadly close-hitting kind, that makes afraid, and not the haphazard jet of bullets whose inefficacy lets unhurt familiarity breed tolerant contempt?
In the same way, when men are in close order at any time during a field parade, keep up the same smartness, and quick obedience to orders which are exacted in close order drills, in order that the men may become truly disciplined, and not merely so in appearance, so when they come under fire without being extended, as may happen in the early and distant stages of a fight, they will, as a matter of course, submit themselves to their commander’s wishes, and ignore their own inclinations, which, just at the first experience, even with very brave men, might be for an immediate and independent rush in some direction—perhaps forward, perhaps in another direction—they will be “in hand,” and free of the liability of raw troops to suffer from sudden panic or to become a mob, full of fight, perhaps, but still a mob, and as such, a force which cannot be controlled or used in furtherance of any general plan.