Bellville [Tx] Countryman, July 3, 1861
At a recent large gathering of volunteers in a Southern State, where field operations were performed as if in sight of an enemy, the general officer in command made a short speech to the men, which is very apropos just now.
“All that you have heard in the way of shooting, all your zeal and patriotism, will be of no avail in the day of battle without a thorough knowledge of company drill. Where the men in each company are steady and well drilled, the whole army will be steady and well drilled likewise. To have a battalion or brigade act like a machine is to be effected only by company drill.”
And he might have added that to have a well drilled company, each man must first go through a thorough course of drilling in the “school of a soldier,” or of equal drill. Simple as it may seem, unless each man knows how to ‘keep step’–’to dress to the right’ or ‘to the left’–to face properly–to ‘keep proper distance in ranks’–to step the same length of step, whether in common, quick or double quick time, etc., the company cannot as a company manÅ“uvre correctly. Two or three deficient members spoil the appearance of an otherwise good company, and embarrass its movements. To endeavor to drill a company, as such, ere its members have learned individually what they must know to be a good soldier, is like teaching a boy geometry before he knows what arithmetic. is.–News.