II. To each of those departments let there be attached a military instructor, (under the authority of the United States,) who should receive the pay and emoluments of a colonel of infantry, and have the brevet-rank of a brigadier-general. These instructors to be gentlemen of established character and reputation, and who have received a regular scientific military education.
III. Let the officers of each brigade of militia in the United States be required to assemble annually at stated periods, either in camp or rendezvous at some central point in the brigade, there to remain six days, for the purpose of military instruction. Let each instructor attend in succession at the several camps or places of rendezvous in his department, and devote himself assiduously to the instruction of the officers there assembled. One portion of the day might be devoted to practical drills, and field evolutions—also to the turning off, mounting, and relieving guards and sentinels, while the remainder could be most usefully employed in explaining and illustrating the principles of tactics generally, of artillery, of permanent and field fortification, the duties of troops in camp and in garrison, and such other branches as time and circumstances might permit, by means of familiar explanatory lectures.
IV. Let each officer receive from the government a reasonable allowance for his expenses while attending the instruction, and also while going to, and returning from, the camp or rendezvous.
Some of the principal advantages that would result from the adoption of the foregoing plan, I conceive would be as follows; viz.:—
1. The same system of tactics and discipline would pervade the whole mass of the militia—the instructors being imperatively required to adhere to one system. This would be a very important advantage.
2. By this means the country, in the course of a few years, would be furnished with a well organized military force, of at least one million of men, composed of the best materials in the world for soldiers; the whole of which, the officers having been regularly and correctly instructed, might be rendered, in the course of a few weeks, after being called into service, perfectly competent to the efficient discharge of all the duties of the field. This assertion is not founded upon conjecture. An experience of nearly fifteen years in military instruction, has convinced me, that any of our regiments of militia, in their present state of discipline, if brought into the field and placed under competent officers, could, by three weeks instruction, be prepared for discharging all the duties of regular troops. The instruction, then, in time of peace, of the officers, becomes an object of great importance;—that of the privates is of secondary consideration. There is no difficulty in making soldiers, when officers understand their duty, and are disposed to perform it.
It may perhaps be objected to the foregoing plan, that the time proposed for the officers to remain in camp or rendezvous is too limited to admit of their deriving much advantage therefrom. In answer to this I will observe, that a due share of experience in this species of instruction, has fully convinced me, that they would acquire more correct military information in six days, under a competent and systematic instructor, than they usually acquire under the present system, during the whole period from eighteen to forty-five years of age; and that, after attending two or three similar courses, the great body of them would be perfectly competent to the correct, efficient, and useful discharge of all the duties of the field. From the best calculation I have been able to make, I feel confident, that the whole necessary expense of carrying this plan into full and effective operation, would not exceed six hundred thousand dollars—it would probably fall short of that sum. Whether the expense, then, is to be considered as disproportionate to the object in view, and therefore to constitute a barrier to its accomplishment, must be decided by the sound discretion of the representatives of the people. It appears to me, however, to bear no greater ratio to it, than does a grain of sand to the globe we inhabit. The cultivation of military science must also be viewed as of the first importance in a system of military defense for our country. The plan already detailed, is calculated for the general dissemination of practical military information throughout the community, but is not adapted to the investigation of principles. This can only be done at seminaries, where it constitutes a branch of regular attention and study; and where theory and practice can, in due proportion, be combined. At those seminaries would be formed our military instructors, our engineers, and our generals; and from those, as from so many foci, would all the improvements in the military art be diffused throughout the country.
In the lectures delivered in 1818, Capt, Partridge, in view of the Inevitable disintegration by frost and moisture, and the improvements in the science of attack, anticipated the insufficiency of permanent fortifications—of works of masonry, no matter how expensively or strongly constructed—to the defense of our principal harbors against the attacks of a foreign foe; his reliance was on the general diffusion of military science and training amongst the militia, on an efficient navy, and the following plan of marine defense.
I. At the most important and exposed points on our seaboard, let one or two principal works of the most permanent kind be erected: these works to be kept in perfect repair, to be plentifully supplied with all the munitions of war, and the gun’s and carriages well secured from the weather by means of pent houses.
II. In the vicinity of all the most exposed and vulnerable points on the seaboard, let spacious and permanent arsenals be constructed, in which, let there be deposited ample supplies of cannon, mortars, gun carriages, materials for platforms, and other munitions of war, where they would remain perfectly safe from the weather.