No uniform would be required, and the only expense would be the loan or purchase of 500 or 1000 short muskets, which could be used in turn at the different schools for drill or parade. A simple musket can be manufactured very cheaply, which will answer for all purposes.
The care and cleaning of the arms, the escorting and carrying them from school to school, or point to point, as required, should be the military duty of the pupils; thus expense will be saved, and the duty of prudent soldiers to take care of their equipments and do their own work inculcated.
These different school drills, always in charge of the teachers, should be visited in turn by the instructors, who would exercise a close and careful supervision over them.
Every ten companies or schools should be formed into a regiment, officered by those selected as the most capable, and who had passed the necessary examination.
Occasionally on Saturdays the regiments, in rotation, should be exercised by the instructors, in battalion movements, field manœuvres, skirmish drills, camp duties, &c. These Saturday exercises should not be compulsory, but would be eagerly looked for by the boys as an amusement.
In the proper seasons they could be marched to the suburbs for their exercises, and thus a pleasant holiday, with healthy amusements, be given them under proper guidance. Any father will appreciate the advantages of such exercises and enjoyment to his boys.
In the summer season it should be found out which of the boys could not swim, and had no parents able to teach them. All such should be classed together, and means taken to instruct them in this most requisite art.
If found desirable to teach them to move together in large masses, (in which our militia are certainly deficient,) it can be accomplished by organizing two, three, or more regiments, into a brigade, to be commanded by the chief instructor, he selecting for his staff the most intelligent of the scholars who could relieve him of much of the labor which the systematic working of this large military department would render necessary. Thus those assigned to the staff would be learning the technicalities of the department and the duties of aids, secretaries, &c.
These staff officers, and any other of the pupils who showed a decided talent, should be assisted in acquiring knowledge in the military science by means of lectures, &c., from the chief instructor. An orderly system once organized, with the incentive to improvement by promotion for correct deportment, and of military disgrace for ungentlemanly and unsoldierly conduct, would soon render this military instruction of great assistance to teachers in the schools. Let the boys understand that disobedience or improper behavior debarred them from military honors and the whole tone of their conduct would be improved.
Of the exigencies of this war, if complicated by foreign interference, it is impossible to foresee, but every one is aware of the importance of early training upon the destinies of nations, and but few will deny the value of a well-trained battalion of selected elder boys, in case of INVASION or trouble, by their relieving the fatigue of regular troops in mounting guard at the least exposed positions, at the camps, on baggage, or for convoys; likewise to act as drill-masters for the recruits.