“I believe if Kitchener had been chief in command he’d have shot some of those officers who surrendered. If the army is to be reformed it is with this class of young man they will have to start. Let him understand that soldiering is hard, stern business, and not play. The average officer hasn’t a mind above golf or cricket. He knows nothing of drill. He can’t ride. The mounted infantry is a farce. A Boer’s horse is a part of him. If there is a body of them, and you watch them through a glass, each man is off, has taken cover and led his horse away before you can say ‘knife.’ But watch a body of British. They have to wait for orders before they dismount; cover has to be pointed out to them; they have no initiative. Napoleon got his officers from the ranks. Who would make such a good officer as a sergeant-major? Instead of glory when they come home—glory and guzzling—some of the officers should get three years—you know where.”
This is what the colonials have begun to think of the imperial officers, and it is a growing opinion. Let me not be understood to infer that there are no worthy or intelligent officers; there are hundreds of them who understand all the details of war thoroughly, but they are tremendously hampered by the men of the other class. The British Empire has not the advantage of the great reserve of leaders, men who, like General Fitzhugh Lee, General Joseph Wheeler, and hundreds of others, have had years of experience in actual war. These are the men who are the mainstay of a nation while the younger generation are getting their baptism of fire.
CHAPTER V.
American and British Tactics
American Officer at Siboney.
