Under such conditions a few
men of the highest excellence are worth more than many men without the
special skill which is only found as the result of special training
applied to men of exceptional physique and morale. But nowadays the most
valuable fighting man and the most difficult to perfect is the rifleman
who is also a skillful and daring rider.
The proportion of our cavalry regiments has wisely been increased.
The American cavalryman, trained to manoeuvre and fight with equal
facility on foot and on horseback, is the best type of soldier for
general purposes now to be found in the world. The ideal cavalryman of
the present day is a man who can fight on foot as effectively as the
best infantryman, and who is in addition unsurpassed in the care and
management of his horse and in his ability to fight on horseback.
A general staff should be created. As for the present staff and supply
departments, they should be filled by details from the line, the men
so detailed returning after a while to their line duties. It is very
undesirable to have the senior grades of the Army composed of men who
have come to fill the positions by the mere fact of seniority. A system
should be adopted by which there shall be an elimination grade by grade
of those who seem unfit to render the best service in the next grade.
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