Page:America Fallen!.djvu/213

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Capture of Pittsburg
201

them. Without these, your 10,000,000 men, Mr. Secretary, as I told you in Washington, would be merely a mob, 10,000,000 strong.

"Take the question of artillery alone. Without it, to send an army to battle with the superbly equipped German troops would be to send the brave fellows to certain slaughter. To equip an army of 4,000,000 men with field artillery alone would call for 20,000 3-inch guns; and the equipment with howitzers and machine-guns, to say nothing of rifles and ammunition of all kinds, would be on the same scale.

"Where are we going to obtain all this matériel? Practically all the arsenals, depots, gunshops, rifle factories, and powder works of the United States lie in that part of the country which is held by the enemy.

"So the question of how long it would