CHAPTER VII[ToC]
CHRISTIAN HEROISM
A Picture in "Punch"—Tommy's Deep-rooted Religion—Courage of Chaplains—A Shell in His Back—Stories of Christian Soldiers—First Clergyman Soldier to Die—Driver Osborne—A Church Parade of Four—"Tell My Wife I am Ready "—Duty overcomes Fear.
There was a time when men thought that the reckless devil-may-care man made the finest soldier; that the hard drinker, the hard swearer, the riotous liver came out best in a fight. Wellington wrote of his "collection of ruffians" in the Peninsula: "It is impossible to describe to you the irregularities and excesses committed by the troops. We are an excellent army on parade, an excellent one to fight, but we are worse than an enemy in the country." How greatly times have changed since then!
Sir George White once said that recklessness and lawlessness will carry men a certain distance, but when men are half fed, when nights are wet and cold, and when nerves are broken down by shot and shell, then the lawless man disappears. It is when he is called upon to take the place of a comrade shot on a lonely picket that the man who has disciplined himself proves the true soldier.
General Nogi, who commanded the Japanese forces at Port Arthur, held the same view. His words may well be borne in mind at this time:
"Only he who has conquered himself in time of peace can aspire to be a fighting man under the Sun flag. The brilliant and faithful deeds of the soldier on the battle-field are nothing but the flowering and fruition of the work and training of his daily life in time of peace. A man whose life is in disorder in time of peace would have a rather difficult task if he tried to perform with correctness and success the duties of a true soldier on the field of battle."