The Running Militia
My boy, I’ve made a lot of mistakes that I had rather forget. But we are now engaged in a war of such magnitude, such devilish ingenuity, that we must look facts squarely in the face. They are ugly facts, yet you can’t blink at ’em, or hide your head in the sand like an ostrich. The ostrich lays himself mighty liable to a rear-end collision. I wish you would tell these facts to every young militiaman in the United States. It won’t hurt their feelings. They are beginning to understand. Every youngster who has spent a few weeks in training camp comes to realize that courage, willingness, and the basic qualities of manhood are insufficient—he must learn how to handle himself.
The famous Light Horse Harry Lee was a great soldier, and he manfully insisted that “that Government is the murderer of its citizens who sends them into the field uninformed and untaught.”
[41]
