the incidents related in this chapter took place a few years back during a certain man?uvre season, and for obvious reasons it is impossible to indicate the men, forces concerned, or locality more closely than that. the forces concerned were an army corps advancing from the south, and one advancing from the north, toward each other, with a view to trying conclusions under man?uvre conditions. the story concerns scouts of the blue force, advancing from the north—it was one of these scouts of the blue force who told the story. it must not be taken as a typical story of army life, for the circumstances under which these men were placed were exceptional, agreeably so; it is, however, sufficiently typical for relation, in that it embodies things actually accomplished by soldiers of the army of the republic. like most things that happen both in man?uvres and in war, it could never happen again.
the blue force, with at least fifty miles to go after leaving barracks, knew that the red force would have further to travel, since the limits of the man?uvre area were clearly marked out on maps supplied to the officers taking part, and each force knew from what garrison the force opposing it was coming. beyond this, though, neither officers nor men of the blue force knew from what direction the "reds" would attack, and the composition and strength of each arm of the "reds" was for the "blues" to find out; that is what cavalry patrols and scouting parties are for: to ascertain the strength and disposition of the enemy; and, in order to make the man?uvres as much like real war as possible, each side was kept in ignorance, as far as might be, of the movements of the other.
there were two days of steady marching, through days that were not too warm and nights that were decidedly cold. marching in column, this business, with plenty of dust along the roads and the squadrons closed up so that one's horse's nose was not far from the tail of the horse in the next rank. in the cool weather the horses travelled well, and the cavalry got into camp fairly early in the afternoon, when the bivouacs were made and the men rested and ate, after seeing to the needs of their horses. late in the afternoon of the second day a canvas town came into view after the troops had passed over a small river, and here the regiments went into camp. at twelve o'clock that night the man?uvre period was to start, and no action of any kind bearing on the actual man?uvres might be undertaken until midnight had passed, though commanders might make their plans and allot their units and men to the various parts they intended the latter to play in the struggle for points in the game. the troops themselves looked forward to an exciting time: in the blue army, every man knew that he was to capture a "red" if the chance came his way; he must act as in real war, except that the cartridges would be blank and the business would be one of sport with the grimness of war left out.
in a certain regiment of chasseurs which formed part of the blue army, lieutenant lenoir received his orders with regard to special reconnaissance duty, and, acting on these orders, he gathered together corporal jean and trooper jacques, both qualified as signallers, whose first names will serve for the purposes of this narrative. he also collected from their respective troops certain men more than usually efficient in scouting duty, known respectively as pierre and guillaumette—or little billy—from one peloton, henri and l'anglais (the latter from his english way of drinking beer when he could get it, a trick acquired in his native lorraine, though his fellows gave him his nickname because of it, and from another peloton more good men to the number of four). lenoir would have liked to take more, but he knew that for the success of the plan with which he was entrusted a small body of men would get through with less chance of being seen—the smaller the better, down to a certain point. so he took the minimum possible. they obeyed the rules of the game thoroughly, for it was not until the stroke of twelve that the men were given permission to saddle up; all they knew at that time was that they were going out on detachment duty of some kind, away from the army itself, and that was enough for them. detachment duty is always welcome, and lenoir had a reputation among the men of being one of the best officers in the regiment, although a very quiet man, comparatively speaking.
the men were a good crowd, too. the signallers knew their work thoroughly and were keen soldiers; the scouts chosen were men who took actual pleasure in solving problems of country, second-year and re-engaged men, who took soldiering seriously and enjoyed work like this. altogether it was a very contented and very keen little party that set out from the camp a quarter of an hour after midnight, with lenoir leading into the black and rainy night that came on them as they rode. they went steadily on for some time—it was three in the morning when lenoir halted his men under shelter of a tree that branched out over their road and told them the object of their journey. he explained, by the aid of the map, what they were expected to do.
the line of country that would be chosen by the "reds" had been carefully calculated: the commander of the "blues" had estimated that, with a view to avoiding rivers and hills, and keeping to open ground, the commander of the red army would bring up his men—or, at least, most of them—by the western side of the man?uvre area, leaving a large stretch of country unoccupied to the east. it was the business of this patrol to go down by way of the eastern boundary of the man?uvre area, get on to the "reds" line of communication, and cut it, thus preventing (in theory) the sending up of stores, and (also in theory) reducing the red force to such a state as regards stores and ammunition that it would be forced (once more in theory) to surrender. the scheme bespeaks the way in which modern military plans are thought out, and how one calculates on probabilities. the "blue" commander assumed that such a course as bringing the men up the western side would be adopted by the commander of the "reds": he was not certain of it, but assumed it to such an extent that he considered it worth while to waste a cavalry patrol on it; supposing he were wrong, then he only lost half a dozen men or so and one officer from his effectives; supposing, on the other hand, that he were right, he would have accomplished a movement that would render ineffective anything his "enemy" might do.
it was their business, lenoir explained, to get quite down to the southern limit of the man?uvre area, so as to cut the line as nearly as possible to neutral ground, for the further back they got the less likelihood there would be of encountering any strong force left for the purpose of protecting the line. they were to ride warily, avoid hills, and keep in hollows, and at the same time they were to keep an eye out for any bodies of troops that they might see. their business was to run from everybody whom they might see during the following day, for it would not do to risk the capture or loss of a man while on the journey; every man would be needed at the journey's end.
all this was explained by the aid of the map, and, realising the importance of their mission, the men were more keen than ever over its fulfilment. they mounted again and rode on, lenoir always leading; at times he halted them that he might consult his map with the help of an electric torch where two roads branched, or where there was any uncertainty about their direction. the rain passed off; the stars came out and paled as dawn grew; they halted in the grey of early daybreak down under the shelter of a hill. before them was a tiny valley through which a stream flowed, and beyond an unbroken range of other hills of which the crests showed no signs of human occupation. a short distance along the way they had come was a farm-house built into a nook of the hills, while open country marked the way ahead, beyond the base of the hill under which they had camped. they gave their horses water at the stream, and, since lenoir said they would halt there for nearly two hours to rest the horses, they got out their own food, after feeding their mounts, but did not off-saddle or remove any equipment, for the men as well as their officer knew that they were parallel now with the enemy's force.
jacques and l'anglais went out to collect firewood, for they thought it worth while to make coffee during their halt. these two passed well out of sight of the rest round the base of the hill, and walked suddenly and unsuspectingly on to two of the scouts of the enemy's force, who, being a little more quick than either jacques or l'anglais, informed them that they were prisoners and must come with them. jacques, however, temporised; he pointed out to these scouts of the "reds" that he and his companion were, like their captors, mounted men, and they certainly could not walk and leave their horses to break loose and perhaps damage themselves. they had tied their horses up round the corner, said jacques, and if their captors would only come with them they would get the animals and follow as prisoners without trouble. the two "reds" hesitated a bit, but finally saw reason in this, and, thinking that their two prisoners were quite alone, followed without dismounting round to where the horses were supposed to be tied. so well was lenoir's little camp located that the two "reds" followed jacques and l'anglais almost into it before they perceived that they were in the vicinity of a force far stronger than their two selves. when they grasped the situation fully, they put spurs to their mounts, turned, and fled. jacques grabbed at the bridle rein of one, but missed, and l'anglais was so lucky as to secure the helmet of the other man, which he tied to his saddle by way of a trophy. the two "reds," who were well mounted, went off round the base of the hill and vanished; apparently they formed a patrol on the extreme flank of the red force, for no other men appeared to reinforce or replace them while the little party of "blues" remained halted.
the men of the blue patrol got their firewood and made coffee, which at that hour of the morning was more to them than food. more quickly than he had at first intended lenoir bade them tighten girths and mount, for he feared lest the patrol which they had encountered would carry news of their presence, and bring down on them a greater force from which it might be impossible to escape.
through the early hours of the day they rode, sometimes on roads, sometimes across country. the average of their course took them over two miniature mountain ranges, and on the second of these little hill ranges they saw, very far off, a body of cavalry advancing across country. corporal jean, together with jacques, got down from their horses and set up a heliograph, with which they tried to "call up" the troops away on the plain. they could get only fragmentary answers from the other people's heliographs; lenoir sat on his horse beside them and waited for a coherent message, but evidently the cavalry force would not trust them, nor reveal its own identity, for all jean could get out of it, after persistent calling up, was the query, "who are you?"
"don't tell them," said lenoir, "but ask them that yourself."
this jean had already done, but he tried it again with no better result than before. by this time they could see that the cavalry signallers who had stopped to answer them were getting left far behind by their main body, and jean, finding that he could get no satisfaction out of them, packed up his own heliograph and mounted again. they went on down the hill into a shallow valley through which flowed another little river. at the foot of the hills they halted, and guillaumette went back on foot to the top of the hill to keep guard while the others rested. after half an hour one of the others relieved him from this duty, and both men reported that the country all round was clear of enemies, or friends. this was as lenoir had anticipated, for he had judged by this time they would be well behind the main body of the advancing red force.
they made of this a long halt for the sake of their horses, which had already done the equivalent of a day's work. it was late in the afternoon, and the power of the sun had almost gone, when they slung their saddles on their horses again, and girthed up. the valley through which the little river flowed lay level before them for miles, and they rode down it toward where a curve of the hills on either side prevented sight of their destination. that curve seemed ever to recede as they rode, and the sun dropped over the crests of the western hills, leaving the men chilled and tired. by order of lenoir, who set the example, they dismounted and trudged on, leading their horses—all save l'anglais, who left his reins on his horse's neck and trusted to the animal to follow him. l'anglais and his horse were good friends.
dusk fell on them as they mounted again; on their left the little river had been companion of their journey since leaving the last range of hills, but now they turned away to the right and ascended slightly from the valley. suddenly the ground fell away from before them, and they went down past three houses to a railway station and goods yard, in which stacks of forage and other stores, covered by waterproof sheets, lay with only one man to guard them, one who was unsuspecting of surprise and easily captured. lenoir left here all his men with the exception of pierre and l'anglais, and these he took with him away out to the other side of the village. beyond the houses the officer and his two men sat down on the ground, waiting. at last the moon rose, and they espied a tent almost concealed among trees. within the tent they found a corporal and a squad of men belonging to a squadron of train, all asleep. lenoir wakened the corporal and informed him that he and all his party were captured, and that the stores under their charge were subject to the orders of the officer commanding the blue army.
that was the end of the task. with his little squad of scouts lenoir had captured the unguarded stores of the red force, and had thus rendered ineffective anything that they might accomplish in the matter of field operations. theoretically the red force was beaten on its first day in the field, but in actual fact the stores went up from the captured base to the red army, as if no capture had been accomplished, for it would not do to go to the expense of moving out two army corps from barracks for the purpose of man?uvres, and then cancelling the man?uvres because a cavalry patrol had, by means of hard riding and good cross-country judgment, achieved a theoretical victory. practice has shown that in real war a chance for such an achievement as that of lenoir's patrol does not occur in one out of a thousand situations, and in actual war, also, no commander would be so foolish as to leave his chief supplies in charge of a corporal and squad of men of a squadron of train. adequate protection is always afforded to lines of communication by an attacking force in war.
the incident is noteworthy, however, in that it affords an example of the way in which military plans are thought out. the commander responsible for the conception of lenoir's mission judged exactly what line of country would be clear for such an advance. he could not know whether or no his judgment would be at fault, but he saw that the plan was worth the risk of an officer and a dozen or so of men, whose absence would not materially weaken his force. some slight psychological knowledge must have been his as well, for even on man?uvres a commanding officer usually protects his lines of communication, and the base from which his stores are sent, more effectually than did this red commander. again, the way in which lenoir chose his men is noteworthy. he picked the best scouts from the squadron to which he belonged; possibly, had he chosen to look throughout the whole regiment, he might have obtained even better men to accompany him, but he chose men whom he knew to be good riders, careful of their horses, and able to undergo a long march. the two signallers represented a minimum that he must take if he wished to send or receive messages to or from any other force. as a matter of fact nothing occurred to render it necessary that any individual scout should be placed in a position where the exercise of initiative would be an essential; neither were the signallers called on for special exertions, or for the full exercise of their special department of knowledge, but they might have been. lenoir chose his men with a view to compressing the greatest possible effectiveness into the smallest number compatible with the accomplishment of his mission. he chose them also with a view, not to what they actually did as individuals, but with a view of the demands that might have been made on them. as the affair turned out, they simply had a quietly good time in this "base" village until the man?uvres concluded; lenoir saw to it that the horses received all necessary attention, and for the rest he left his men to their own devices. and one may trust a soldier, either conscript or volunteer, to make life worth living when given such a chance as this.
it was a week or more before the scout of the red force got his helmet back. he met l'anglais by appointment in the canteen devoted to the use of the blue cavalry, and received back the headgear undamaged. it may be said in conclusion that he compensated l'anglais in the usual fashion—and any soldier will know what that means.
