AMERICAN ARMY TRANSPORT.
WHILE the attention of the world is mainly centred on the sea passage to Cuba and the acquisition of a port of landing for the American troops, the United States Government are busied with preparations for the second and far more difficult stage in the movement of their forces. They have not only to improvise an army, but also to improvise an army transport, as the troops in Cuba will be at a greater disadvantage in try- ing to come to close quarters with the Spaniards, should the latter elect to carry on a guerilla warfare, than the Spaniards have been in trying to force the fighting with Gomez and Macao. The American Generals might, it is true, imitate the magnificent indifference of the English authorities in the Crimea, who disembarked twenty thousand men on the shores of the Crimea without a transport waggon, a want which the late Sir Daniel Lysons supplied in part by cap- turing a Russian convoy against orders. But though news of a " corner " in mules has already been telegraphed to Europe, there is every indication that the Washington Government are determined to render their troops mobile, and, therefore, effective.
Though the United States have only engaged in one " foreign " war, that against Mexico, its army inherits the best traditions of transport service of any civilised nation. For nearly a century North American migration has been conducted not by sea, but by land ; and the settlement and occupation of a vast continent has been effected by a civilised population, who never hesitated to move for thousands of miles, carrying their household goods and families in the " prairie-schooners," the mule-waggons or ox-waggons of the States. At the same time, the pioneers of trade never shrank from penetrating with trains of hardy pack-mules into unknown deserts and among the hostile Indians of the plains. Traders and settlers alike spent their lives as transport officers; it was their normal occupation in time of peace; and though the railway has now superseded the pack-mule and the waggon, the old traditions and aptitude are still maintained by the regular army in the frontier posts of the West.
The origin and growth of this " national " system of trans- port forme one of the most attractive chapters of Colonel Henry Inman's story of the " Old Santa Fe Trail."* The author has inserted it mainly as a picturesque and striking feature in the story of American expansion at the expense of the old colonies of Spain; but the methods which he records will now be revived on a gigantic scale, and the story has a practical bearing on one of the problems of the hour.
The stream of Anglo-Saxon migration to the South-West plains passed through prairies where the wild horse was, next to the buffalo, the most numerous of all large animals. Yet the pioneers and the settlers who followed them made practically no use of the horse as their transport animal.
With every means of feeding horses, with herds of thousands of wild horses moving round them on the prairies, they sought elsewhere for the motive power to carry a nation into and across the wilderness. The South-Western fringe of civi- lisation awaiting these migrants from New England was prac- tically a part of Old Spain,—for Mexico was Spanish to the core ; and the Mexicans had almost discarded the horse for their national transport animal, the mule. Pack-mules took the place of our English pack-horses, and were, like them, almost the sole means of moving goods. The American pioneers and traders bought up the Mexican mules, adopted the Mexican system, hired Mexican drivers, and contented themselves at first by performing escort duty and fighting desperate battles in defence of their property with the Indians of the plains. From the Mexicans the quick-witted Americans soon learnt the management of the mule-train, but it is doubtful if even Yankee wits ever succeeded in improving on the methods of Spain so long as pack-mules remained in favour. The equipment was, and where pack-mules are re- tained still is, somewhat complicated. On the mule's back was laid a soft sheepskin, over this a large straw-mattress-like saddle, on this the pack of goods, and over all a waterproof cover. But the average time taken by the Mexican arrieros to load each mule was only five minutes, and the mules so loaded would travel fifteen miles a day. Those who have met any of the old pioneers will remember their constant references in con- versation to the cleverness of the mules and the "cowardice" of the Mexican arrieros. The latter certainly did not shine as fighting men during the frequent night attacks of the Indians. They were more commonly found hidden between mules and saddles under cover from the Indian arrows, and maintained that they were hired to load mules, not to act as escort. The mules were far leas liable to panic than their owners. Un- like horses and oxen, they were seldom stampeded by the cunning devices of the Indians, though they would some- times " bolt " at the bark of a prairie-dog. On the march each animal knew its place, and in two days it also learnt to recognise its own pack and saddle. These were taken off every evening and arranged in a kind of rampart round the camp. The mules were then turned loose to graze on the prairie, unless an Indian surprise were feared. In the morn- ing at the usual hour every mule would come up and stand by its own saddle and pack. If another animal made a mistake the proper bearer would kick the mistaken claimant in the ribs. Bell mules, called inacires, led the different troops.
In the second stage of prairie transport the mule was abandoned for the ox, and the methods of South Africa triumphed over those of Spain. As soon as the prairie grasses grew in May there was such abundant food on the route that difficulties of providing forage did not exist. By this time a population destined to fill whole States was moving to the West. They needed a transport animal capable of drawing the greatest possible weight. As it was no more difficult to feed an ox than a mule the former took the place of the latter, and the invading Anglo-Saxons of the East " trekked " across the prairies in waggons drawn by a dozen oxen. These waggons would carry two tons, and the oxen drew them equally well through rivers, marshes, and sands. Later the ox-teams were replaced by mule-waggons, and though the tradition of the management of bullock-teams still lives, the mule is the transport animal par excellence where the railways do not supersede all other means of car- riage. American enterprise bred mules not only larger but far more numerous than those of Mexico. Size was the great object, and for some time American mules were sold by weight. These were destined for draught, and not used as pack-mules. At night the waggons were arranged in a corral, with wheels interlocking, as in the Dutch laager.
• London: MILOMillall and 0o. (14‘.1
During General Custer's expedition waggons only were used as transport. Eight hundred accompanied the force in fours abreast, the distance covered by the whole eight hundred being only one mile. But it was in the Mexican War that the facility of the transition from the conditions of peaceful life on the plains to a state of war was best seen. Fifty thousand men with complete transport marched across the prairies. Thousands of mule-waggons, bullock-waggons, and pack-mules accompanied them, mainly drawn from the normal supply for frontier trade and locomotion. With them came the experienced drivers and " packers." Bollocks were also driven for food, grazing as they went. Prairie discipline learnt in the caravans fell easily into line with military life. " The discipline was as perfect as that of a garrison, the waggon-master being under the orders of the chief of the escort." The horses were less satisfactory than the mules and oxen. One night more than a thousand horses were stampeded by a pack of wolves.
Though the train has generally superseded the "prairie- schooner " and the pack-mule, the art of managing the latter has been purposely maintained by the United States War Department. The services of one of the most noted "packers " were, by the suggestion of General Sheridan, retained to teach the art to the officers and men at several posts. He received a large salary, and, later, was sent to the large cavalry station at Fort Riley, in Kansas. To this gentleman the English War Office were most glad to apply for instruction daring the Zulu War. He came to Natal, and there instructed our troops in the methods of packing mules for army transport. It is believed that there are at the present time in the United States, mainly in Kansas, Missouri, and Kentucky, enough mules to provide transport for seventy thousand men. Horses are so cheap that it does not pay to feed them on the ranches; and should bullock- trains be in favour the Texas steers will be available in tens of thousands. Cuba is in parts much intersected by light railways from the sugar plantations. Bat, failing rail- ways, the United States possesses not only the finest material for army transport, but the most competent drivers and packers in the world.
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