for grand evolution on the plain between Chippewa and Street's Creeks. The American forces were clad in a uniform of cadet gray. This was accidental and resulted from the inability to obtain the regulation blue when they were mustered. On account of this uniform, Riall, the British commander, thought he was opposed by a body of Buffalo militia, and about the time Scott was crossing Street's Creek, he deployed his forces for an attack. As the head of Scott's column crossed the creek, he was advised by General Brown of the situation and the prospect of a fight. As Riall saw the American column, after crossing the bridge, deploy under fire, he is said to have exclaimed in surprise, "Damn it, those fellows are regulars and not militia." General Scott formed his command with an interval in the center. As he expresses it:

"The battalions of Leavenworth and McNeil, thus formed, pointed to an obtuse angle in the center of the plain, with a wide interval between them, that made up for a deficiency in numbers. To fire, each party had halted more than once, at which the Americans had the more deadly aim. At an approximation to within sixty or seventy paces, the final charge (mutual) was commenced. The wings of the enemy, being outflanked and to some extent doubled upon, were mouldered away like a rope of sand."

Riall commanded in this battle some fifteen hundred regulars and six hundred militia. Scott's force numbered thirteen hundred. The English lost five hundred and fifteen and the Americans two hundred and ninety-seven. General Scott's comment was, that by the battle of Chippewa the pulse of America recovered a healthy beat.

In honor and in commemoration of this victory, the tarbucket hat and the gray cloth worn by our soldiers were adopted as the uniform of the cadets of the United States Military Academy.

In the War of 1812 the regular army had to be created, and was unable to furnish a standard of skill or discipline to the militia. The soldiers who fought at Lundy Lane and Chippewa were drilled by General Scott during the war. He was compelled to teach the officers of his regiments the elements of squad drill before he led them against the enemy.

During the thirty years which intervened between the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, we had a corps of officers in the regular establishment, trained in that army, most of whom enjoyed the additional advantage of being graduated from the Military Academy at West Point.

In the Mexican War, under skilled officers, a force of less than five thousand volunteers, supported by a few regular troops, overthrew the Mexican army of four times its number. In this

war the regular establishment from its officers furnished able commanders and in every field set an example of skill, fortitude, and courage. These results were attributed by General Scott to the influence of military education. He said to the Senate of the United States:

"I give it as my fixed opinion that but for our graduated cadets the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would, have lasted some four or five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than victories falling to our share; whereas in less than two campaigns we conquered a great country and a peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish."

It was the spirit of West Point which was responsible for the victories of Cerro Gordo, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec, and it will be the same spirit and the same standards of discipline and training infused into the militia by contact with the regular army that can and must make the Guard a military asset of national value.

II

DEFINITION OF DISCIPLINE

HE meaning of the word discipline will vary

THE

with our understanding of what constitutes a soldier and how he is made. If soldier means for us simply a man with a gun, then the process of making a soldier is a simple matter. If we conceive of the finished soldier as one having a confirmed habit of obedience, and disregard all the mental life that lies back of this habitual response, our idea of discipline will still be comparatively limited. The soldier will be one who has the habit of subconscious obedience, and discipline will be the process leading to that condition. This is the historical conception of discipline which underlies our Drill Regulations. Modern learning, however, will not let us rest satisfied with so simple a definition. There is more to a soldier than an habitual type of response to a given signal. There is a soldierly way of thinking, feeling, and willing, as well as of acting. General Schaff's book:-"The Spirit of Old West Point"-shows that the author's idea of

a soldier is not limited to the narrow vision of a man with a gun. He sees the beginning and the end of military training, and its effect upon the nation. The cadets sweep by in perfect alignments, the embodiment of physical vigor; the man and the gun are there, but the meaning is more. The martial spectacle not only pleases the author, but its sights and sounds call from hidden depths associations, which awaken deeper and more reverent sentiments of love and veneration for the Academy.

To him the cadet picture suggests a list of heroes, who have been giants in his country's cause and honor. He thinks of courage, service, and the fellowship of officers, who, drawing inspiration from the four short years of cadet life, developed into leaders. He remembers those who in loyalty and devotion gave themselves freely to the cause they served. He sees a vision of the purpose of the Academy, the great influence of its atmosphere turning the sunny side of youth to courage and honor with the injunction-be stead. fast. In the author's mind, all these things blend in the idea of a soldier.

The history of a life of action is the story of practical problems met and solved. The capacity to make correct solutions depends in part upon organized experience. All industrial training seeks to increase power by imparting knowledge of the