Hble Sert—
[Signed] Z M Pike
The Honl.
Wm. Eustis
Secy War Dept—
Lieutenant-Colonel Pike's "despair of ever being called into service" was of short duration. He was soon to be called upon to lay down his life for his country on the battlefield. From April 3d, 1812, to July 3d of that year he had been deputy quartermaster-general. He was promoted to the colonelcy of the 15th Infantry July 6th, 1812. The war was upon us. Colonel Pike's qualifications for the command of a regiment may be best estimated in the terms of his military biographer, General Whiting, who says, pp. 309-311:
Probably no officer in the army, at that time, was held in higher estimation. This was not because he had seen much actual service, for he had hardly been in the presence of the enemy before the day on which he fell. It was on the promise, rather than the fulfilment, that the public mind rested his character for boldness and enterprise; and his fitness to direct and control men had been determined, to an extent that warranted much confidence, by his expeditions in the north-west and the south-west. He had there given such proofs of those qualities, as established a reputation in advance. He had exhibited, moreover, an indefatigable activity in the drill of his regiment, requiring of all under his command an unwearied devotion to duty, and an exact and prompt obedience to orders.
His regiment became an example of zeal, discipline, and aptitude in movements; his men had an unbounded belief in his capacity, and his officers looked up to him with unusual respect and affection. He inspired that confidence in all under his orders, which is almost a certain evidence that it is merited.
At the opening of the war of 1812, we were almost without any fixed guides in tactics and discipline. The standard of the latter part of the revolution, and of subsequent times, "Old Steuben," which had been approved by Washington, and had led to some of the best triumphs of the closing years of that glorious period, had become obsolete, even before any substitute was provided. Hence, when new regiments came into service by scores in 1812, nothing was prescribed for regulation or for drill. The old regiments had their forms and customs, which preserved in them the aspect of regulars. But even these presented no uniform example. Some adopted the "nineteen manœuvres" of the English; others, the ninety-and-nine manœuvres of the French; while a few adhered to old Dundas; and fewer still to older Steuben.
Nothing was laid down by the proper authority; therefore all manner of things were taken up without any authority at all. Amid this confusion, or wide latitude of choice, General Pike, though brought up in the old school, was often tempted, by his ambitious desire for improvement, to run into novelties. With a prescribed rule, he would have been the most steady and uncompromising observer of it. But, in such a competition for beneficial change, he most naturally believed himself as capable as others of changing for the better.
In this spirit of innovation, the 15th regiment underwent many changes, and exhibited, even in times when novelties and singularities were no rarities, perhaps the widest departure from common standards of any regiment in service. Adopting the French system of forming in three ranks, his third rank was armed in a manner peculiar to itself, having short guns, being the ordinary musket cut off some inches, and long pikes. It was said, by the wags of the day, that his own name suggested the manner, and the regiment was often called "Pike's regiment of pikes."
These pikes presented a formidable appearance on drill and dress parade, when the men could display their tactics with the precision of automata. They were even retained in the assault of Fort York. But at the first engagement after the fall of General Pike, the men threw them away, together with the cut-off pieces, and picked up English muskets to fight with. The experiment of putting his regiment on snow-shoes which Pike tried—doubtless remembering their serviceability to himself and his company on the upper Mississippi in the winter of 1805-6—does not seem to have proven any more lasting or decided a success.
Colonel Pike's sword was stronger than his pen, as we know; but he could sharpen either weapon on occasion, as the following spirited repulse of a newspaper attack on his regiment will show:[M-16]