CHAPTER III
GERMAN INVADERS DRIVE THE IRON INTO THE SOUL OF UNPREPARED AMERICA
The next week was one of deep humiliation for the American people. Ourgreat fleet and our great Canal, which had cost so many hundreds ofmillions and were supposed to guarantee the safety of our coasts, hadfailed us in this hour of peril.
Secretary Alger, in the Spanish War, never received half the punishmentthat the press now heaped on the luckless officials of the War and theNavy Departments.
The New York _Tribune_, in a scathing attack upon the administration,said:
The blow has fallen and the United States is totally unprepared to meetit. Why? Because the Democratic party, during its eight years' tenure ofoffice, has obstinately, stupidly and wickedly refused to do what wasnecessary to make this country safe against invasion by a foreign power.There has been a surfeit of talking, of explaining and of promising, butof definite accomplishment very little, and to-day, in our extreme peril,we find ourselves without an army or a navy that can cope with theinvaders and protect our shores and our homes.
Richard Harding Davis, in the _Evening Sun_, denounced unsparingly thoseSenators and Congressmen who, in 1916, had voted against nationalpreparedness:
For our present helpless condition and all that results from it, let theresponsibility rest upon these Senators and Congressmen, who, for theirown selfish ends, have betrayed the country. They are as guilty oftreason as was ever Benedict Arnold. Were some of them hanged, the sightof them with their toes dancing on air might inspire other Congressmen toconsider the safety of this country rather than their own re-election.
The New York _World_ published a memorable letter written by Samuel J.Tilden in December, 1885, to Speaker Carlisle of the Forty-ninth Congresson the subject of national defence and pointed out that Mr. Tilden was aman of far vision, intellectually the foremost democrat of his day. Inthis letter Mr. Tilden said:
The property exposed to destruction in the twelve seaports, Portland,Portsmouth, Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore,Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, Galveston and San Francisco, cannot beless in value than five thousand millions of dollars.... While we mayafford to be deficient in the means of offence we cannot afford to bedefenceless. The notoriety of the fact that we have neglected theordinary precautions of defence invites want of consideration in ourdiplomacy, injustice, arrogance and insult at the hands of foreignnations.
To add to the general indignation, it transpired that the Americanreserve fleet, consisting of ten predreadnoughts, was tied up in thedocks of Philadelphia, unable to move for lack of officers and men tohandle them. After frantic orders from Washington and the loss ofprecious days, some two thousand members of the newly organised navalreserve were rushed to Philadelphia; but eight thousand men were neededto move this secondary fleet, and, even if the eight thousand had beenforthcoming, it would have been too late; for by this time a Germandreadnought was guarding the mouth of Delaware Bay, and these inferiorships would never have braved its guns. So here were seventy-five milliondollars' worth of American fighting-ships rendered absolutely useless andcondemned to be idle during the whole war because of bad organisation.
Meantime, the Germans were marching along the Motor Parkway toward NewYork City with an army of a hundred and fifty thousand, against whichGeneral Wood, by incredible efforts, was able to oppose a badlyorganised, inharmonious force of thirty thousand, including Federals andmilitia that had never once drilled together in large manoeuvres. OfFederal troops there was one regiment of infantry from Governor's Island,and this was short of men. There were two infantry regiments from FortsNiagara and Porter, in New York State. Also a regiment of colored cavalryfrom Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, a battalion of field artillery from FortMyer, Virginia, a battalion of engineers from Washington, D. C., abattalion of coast artillery organised as siege artillery from FortDupont, Delaware, a regiment of cavalry from Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia,two regiments of infantry from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, one regiment offield artillery from Fort Sheridan, Illinois, one regiment of horseartillery from Fort Riley, Kansas, one regiment of infantry and oneregiment of mountain guns from Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming.
I may add that at this time the United States army, in spite of manyefforts to increase its size, numbered fewer than 70,000 men; and so manyof these were tied up as Coast Artillery or absent in the Philippines,Honolulu, and the Canal Zone, that only about 30,000 were available asmobile forces for the national defence.
As these various bodies of troops arrived in New York City and marcheddown Fifth Avenue with bands playing "Dixie" and colours flying, theexcitement of cheering multitudes passed all description, especially whenTheodore Roosevelt, in familiar slouch hat, appeared on a big black horseat the head of a hastily recruited regiment of Rough Riders, many of themveterans who had served under him in the Spanish War.
Governor Malone reviewed the troops from the steps of the new Court Houseand the crowd went wild when the cadets from West Point marched past, insplendid order. At first I shared the enthusiasm of the moment; butsuddenly I realised how pathetic it all was and Palmer seemed to see thatside of it, too, though naturally he and I avoided all discussion of thefuture. In addition to such portions of the regular army as General Woodcould gather together, his forces were supplemented by infantry andcavalry brigades of militia from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,Connecticut, and Massachusetts, these troops being more or lessunprepared for battle, more or less lacking in the accessories ofbattles, notably in field artillery and in artillery equipment of men andhorses. One of the aides on General Wood's staff told me that thecombined American forces went into action with only one hundred and fiftypieces of artillery against four hundred pieces that the Germans brought.
"And the wicked part of it is," he added, "that there were two hundredother pieces of artillery we might have used if we had had men and horsesto operate them; but--you can't make an artillery horse overnight."
"Nor a gun crew," said I.
Conquest of America: A Romance of Disaster and Victory, U.S.A., 1921 A.D. Page 6