Blue Shirt and Khaki: A Comparison

by James F. J. Archibald

Lord Roberts was confronted by the same difficulty in South Africa, and he met it in a masterly manner. The army supply corps that handles the commissary department has been a marvel of efficiency. The work of supplying the British army in the field in South Africa has been done much better than the same work was done by the American force at Tampa or in Cuba; and had it not been for the brilliant management of Colonel (later General) John F. Weston, who was in command at the base of supplies, General Shafter would certainly have been compelled to withdraw from the positions that had been won after hard-fought battles. Colonel Weston ignored all forms of the regular routine; his one object was to feed the men on the fighting line, and feed them he did.

One day I heard one of his officers complaining that he could not get some of his papers receipted, showing a delivery of rations to a certain brigade, and Weston answered, in a characteristic manner, “Damn the receipts! You give rations to anybody who wants them, and after it’s all over I’ll receipt for the whole bunch; and if the government doesn’t like it the government can have me—but the men won’t go hungry.”

Every time I had an opportunity of going to the supply depot I secured all the tobacco I could buy to give to the men at the front. It was an article worth more than its weight in gold, and there was no greater pleasure than to have the chance of making some of the men happy. There was a regulation against allowing one person to purchase more than a pound of tobacco at one time. I asked permission of Colonel Weston to be allowed to buy more; but he was loth to sell it to me until I explained that I did not use it myself, but wanted it for the men. After my explanation he would not sell it at all, but gave me all I could carry. During this time the government held his receipt for all this tobacco, and it really was equivalent to so much money. Colonel Weston’s contempt for governmental red tape saved hundreds of lives in the Santiago campaign; and instead of asking for an accounting for the lack of receipts, the Washington government made him the head of the subsistence department, where he has done the best work in rationing our army at home and in our island possessions that has ever been known.

Before the change in the head of the commissary department was made, things were not so well done. We cannot do better than to look toward England for some valuable points in the conduct of this department, especially in the matter of army supplies for the warmer or tropical countries. They have had more experience than we in feeding their forces on foreign service, and consequently they have brought the business to a state that borders on perfection. In strategy, fighting, and the movement of troops they have been found lacking; but one of the things they have done well is the feeding of their men.

It is a colossal business to supply over 200,000 healthy men, with field and mountain appetites, when they are 7,000 miles away from home, and where there is an active enemy seeking to destroy their communications. It would be a great task to feed that number of men at home, where there is no difficulty in transportation; but when a month’s time must be occupied for the delivery of the food stuffs, the problem becomes most serious.

Camp of a transport train in General French’s supply column.

The quartermaster’s department of the British army has to provide the rations for the men and forage for the animals; besides this, it is called upon to furnish the transportation of the food stuffs, as well as of the army itself. The paymaster’s work is also included in this department. After the quartermaster’s department has put the supplies on the ground, it falls to the lot of the Army Service Corps to deliver it to the various commands in the field.

The Army Service Corps is one of the features of the British army which American authorities would do well to study. It is an armed and drilled commissary corps, of about 4,000 officers and men, which handles the entire work of that branch; but it is a fighting corps as well, when occasion requires. This last feature is of great value, in that it does away with the necessity of a detachment of men being drawn off as a special guard for every wagon or two. The Army Service Corps acts as its own convoy where only an ordinary one is required. When on home duty, it presents a spirited appearance, with a military aspect fully equal to that of the artillery. Its wagons and mounts are of the same type as those of the artillery, and its general equipment is similar.

This corps is one of the few departments that has done well its entire duty during the South African campaign. The reason is obvious—there was no theory regarding the appetite of a robust soldier; it was a solemn fact, just as evident at Aldershot or on Salisbury Plain as in the field. It has been just as real in Egypt or India during the past years of peace as at the present moment at the Cape. The British soldier ate as heartily when he was fighting fanatic dervishes as when he fights the Boer; consequently that department was not compelled on the field to test antiquated methods or to experiment with new theories, only to find them wrong.