American Rifle - Alexander Rose [130]
The outbreak of war with Spain in 1898 caught the army off guard and critically undersupplied. Nevertheless, Americans were chipper since, for the first time since the War of 1812, they had a real European army to fight—even if it belonged to a Great Power that was long over its powerful greatness. (Spain did manage to field a force of 150,000, however, six times larger than the U.S. Army.) At the time Ordnance had stockpiled some 50,000 Krags (in addition to those already issued), but by August of that year the armed forces had swollen to 275,000 men, overwhelmingly National Guardsmen who had volunteered for overseas service.39
All could be given Springfields from the vast reserve, but they were equipped to fire only traditional black-powder rounds. When it came to smokeless cartridges, Ordnance had 4.5 million on hand, which amounted to just 60 rounds per Krag, hardly enough for even a single engagement considering that the rifle could fire around 50 shots in three minutes. Even Ordnance officials estimated that each man should carry 175 rounds as standard, and that 300 rounds at a minimum were needed for a battle.40
The shortage had been caused partly by the financial panic of 1893 and the resulting depression, which prevented private manufacturers from fulfilling their contracts, as well as by delays in selecting the optimum smokeless mixture. Ordnance eventually managed to extricate itself temporarily from the bottleneck by reserving Krags for the regulars and Springfields for the Volunteers, apart from those serving with the Rough Riders. Colonel Leonard Wood, commanding the Riders, had realized (according to Theodore Roosevelt) “the inestimable advantage of smokeless powder,” and by agitating for Krags, he managed to get them for his men. Even so, because the Krags were issued so shortly before sailing, the Riders had to drill without cartridges.41
Arms-makers were told to urgently devote more resources to turning out smokeless .45 rounds so that at least the Springfield-armed Volunteers would have modern ammunition. Consequently, the earlier a Volunteer departed for the front, the less likely he was to be carrying smokeless rounds. Thus when the first complements of Volunteers arrived in Cuba, they were greeted by Spanish troops whose first-rate modern Mausers shot into the billowing, sulfurous clouds of smoke coming from the Americans, at once obscuring the latter’s line of sight and revealing their position. If the Spanish took cover, it was difficult for the Americans to return fire, and the Volunteers took heavy losses. By July, when the fighting had moved to Santiago, Springfield-armed troops had been transferred away from the front line and combat was left mostly to soldiers with Krags and smokeless rounds.
This experience showed that while the progressive emphasis on marksmanship and self-initiative still had its adherents, and while diehards remained convinced that officer led discipline created efficient soldiers, small wars in the real world confounded (and confirmed) the assertions of both. Thus General Shafter of the Fifth Army Corps proudly claimed that 80 percent of his men “wore on their breasts the marksman’s badge” and that in two hours’ fighting they had fired fewer than ten rounds apiece—presumably to great effect.42 Several officers also testified that their riflemen had displayed a heroic willingness to rely on their own enterprise and a can-do spirit instead of dully waiting for orders. Private William Beatty—an “experienced hunter and good shot,” according to his regimental chief—of the First Colorado decided to sally out alone from his outpost to take care of a Spaniard who had been plaguing the regiment all day. After stripping off his uniform and negotiating a ditch, Beatty shot him at 150 yards.43 While William Church and his fellow progressives had predicted an end to martial barbarism thanks to the marksman’s unerring aim, it was discovered that sharpshooting did not necessarily make for gentlemanliness; if anything, it could extend the killing to targets previously held sacrosanct.