The soldier's pocket-book for field service / by General Viscount Wolseley.

  • Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The soldier's pocket-book for field service / by General Viscount Wolseley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/590 (page 3)
    ■art i.] MILITARY SPIRIT AND DISCIPLINE. P e the reason of it, it is nevertheless a fact that up to the present time we ave never had an English commander who succeeded in calling forth any ;reat enthusiasm for himself or the cause in hand. We are too prone to all down before the great Duke, and think that everything he did was ight, and that his method with soldiers was the best.' Without wishing ar a moment to depreciate either the General or his great services, let anv ne read the history of his wars, and what he accomplished, and then picture 3 himself what the Duke might have done if his soldiers had had for him ie feelings that the French had for their Emperor. Napoleon was above 11 a student of character and of the passions and feelings that influence len's conduct. By means of spirit-stirring proclamations, by appeals to leir love of glory and all those points upon which he knew Frenchmen to e susceptible, he was able to extract from his soldiers everything that they •ere capable of. It is not true that Englishmen are utterly devoid of such igh sentiments, but it is only special nourishment and treatment that will levelop feelings so long ignored. Let any General arise who knows how 3 do so, and a new era of victory will be arrived at in British history. Let ffrs. of all ranks ponder on this subject, and in their own sphere, no tatter how humble that may be, let them endeavour to call out the finer nd better qualities of those serving under them. No man can respond •ith greater alacrity than the British soldier will, when an offr. who nderstands him makes an appeal to his honour, his love of country, his >yalty, and to all those subtle but powerful influences which alone can invert mobs into armies. 'The greatest talent of a General,’ says Plu- trch, ‘is to secure obedience through the affection he inspires.' In fact, you want to win battles, make yourself loved by those who serve under ou. Military Spirit and Discipline.—There has been a tendency to lake all regts. alike in their outward appearance, and to consider them so i their feelings. Machines into which the individual talents and disposition f men enter so largely, as into those called regts., are never calculated to eep time alike as watches do. The idiosyncrasies of C.Os., historical aditions, and established customs, affect the character of regts. more than light be imagined by those who draw their idea of our service from ' H. M. egulations.’ The endeavour to assimilate them has not been happy ; like emocracy, it has had a tendency to pull down the best to a level with the orst, instead of raising the latter. Military spirit is made up of trifles ; rose by any other name smells differently to military nostrils. The uardsman reduced to a linesman is not the fine guardsman any longer, ake the best Rifle battalion and clothe it in red, it would soon cease to i the dashing body it is now. No man who knew soldiers or their peculiar ay of thinking, or who was acquainted with the many little trifles that go ) make up pride of Regiment, and that form as it were the link between it