Little We Learned and Much We Didn’t
based on patriotism, nor a bounty, can be relied upon to supply men for a prolonged war.
Fourth: That the draft, selective or not selective, with voluntary enlistments and bounties, is the only sure reliance of the government in time of war.
Fifth: That short enlistments are destructive of discipline, tend to disgust men with the service, and force the government to resort to either a bounty or the draft.
Sixth: That when a nation attempts to combat disciplined troops with raw levies, it must maintain an army of at least twice the size of the enemy, and even then have no guarantee of success.
These facts are the A. B. C. of military horse sense—and likewise the X. Y. Z.
The Continental government acted without foresight in creating a system of volunteer militia, and the new Federal government displayed no hindsight by continuing it. Looking backward, and with complete power to remedy evils, it disbanded our regular army—except 80 men—and raised 700 men to serve
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