These pages are written with a view of making as full and free criticism and exposition of the faults and errors as they have occurred to me, and the remedies as they have suggested themselves, as is proper for me to do under paragraph 5 of the Army Regulations, with the full knowledge that the rôle of the innovator or reformer is generally obnoxious to mankind, so given to the worship of ancestral methods in all the affairs of life, but more markedly, perhaps, in the profession of arms, the very mission of which is to maintain the order of things as they exist, so that at present I can hardly hope to have the support of perhaps even a majority of my brother officers, for the reason that they are supposed (erroneously, I think) to be the beneficiaries of the system and methods here assailed. With this prelude and the faithful promise to "Nothing extenuate nor set down aught in malice," I will proceed with my theme without apology. A careful study of the history of our country will show that neither the great patriots and statesmen who founded and secured our liberties, nor those who have followed and maintained them, have ever at any time seriously considered the subject of _a permanent military establishment_, save to declare in the Constitution "_That Congress shall have power * * * to raise and support armies_," and that "_a well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free State_," and providing at various and sundry times to this date by legislative enactments for the enrollment of "_every male citizen between the ages of eighteen and forty-five_" as the well regulated militia, and that each citizen so enrolled "_shall within six months thereafter provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein to contain not less than twenty-four cartridges, suited to the bore of the musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain the proper quantity of powder and ball; or, with a good rifle, knapsack, shot pouch and powder horn, twenty balls, suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder; and shall appear, so armed and accoutred, and provided, when called out into exercise, or into service; * * * that commissioned officers shall, severally, be armed with a sword or hanger,[1] and a spontoon; and that from and after five years from the passage of this act, all muskets for arming the militia, as herein required, shall be of bores sufficient for balls of the eighteenth part of a pound_," and "_for making farther and more effectual provisions for the protection of the frontiers of the United States_." [1] See Cullem's "Art of War," page 26, describing the "Frank" soldier of the Sixth Century.