Page:The history and achievements of the Fort Sheridan officers' training camps.djvu/214

 212 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION

What Major Koehler said to a member of the "Reveille" staff concerning Fort Sheridan and other camps is also worthy of note:

"In my opinion, the camp measures up to all the others 1 have visited in every respect, and the material found at all the training camps gives us the assurance that we can count on a large number of capable and con- scientious officers who need only experience to qualify them for the seri- ous profession for which they are training.

"There is so much splendid material to draw from that it must be a difficult matter for the authorities to determine, not whom they shall select, but whom they shall drop. It has been my experience that, in the beginning, there were a number of men who were of the opinion that the training was to be of the 'fuss and feathers' variety. It is needless to say that these young men are no longer to be found in any of the camps."

When the time came for Major Koehler to leave Fort Sheridan and pro- ceed to some other officers' training camp, further west, every man, however weary as a result of the Major's astounding driving power, w^as loathe to see him depart.

The influence of such a leader was to have a great effect on the future armies of the United States. All his time could not be devoted to one group of men. He must press on to make every moment count — an equal period for that w^ould help to make of the coming National Army a fearless multitude of well-nigh perfect men w^hose work towards furthering the righteous cause at stake could not help but be tremendous.

From Major Koehler and the infantry — those men who, w^ith 20 out of the 28 organizations of the Camp, comprised far more than half of the attend- ing candidates — let us turn to that smaller group which filled but six of the 28 — the artillery. The artillerymen, as is alw^ays the case in countries of un- preparedness, commenced training under a serious handicap. For three w^eeks after the Camp reorganization their work w^as greatly retarded because of lack of proper equipment. They w^ent ahead w^ith those subjects w^hich were studied alike by all of the organizations, and they had for study copies of "Drill and Service Regulations for Field Artillery " (at least, each squad had a copy and some individuals who owned their own), but guns and horses w^ere sadly lacking. There w^ere but four 3-inch guns with caissons and limbers available for the instruction of the six batteries of the Camp. They w^ere the ones which belonged to Battery "C " of the First Illinois Field Artillery and fortunately had been kept at the Fort since the mustering out of that organiza- tion the preceding Fall. Instruction in nomenclature and use went on in spite of the handicap. Each training battery, during these three weeks of gun famine, had one hour a day to be spent in the presence of the four valuable pieces.

During the first week Captain Morley of the Michigan-Wisconsin camp and Captain Osborne of the Illinois, instructed each battery of their respective regiments at the guns. They talked on the subject of artillery in general, and of different types of American field guns of past and present use. They ex- plained in detail the American 3-inch gun, pointing out and naming every

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