In the Trenches i?9 



never respect a commander who does not enforce 

 discipline, who does not know his duty, and who is 

 not willing both himself to encounter and to make 

 them encounter every species of danger and hard- 

 ship when necessary. The soldiers who do not feel 

 this way are not worthy of the name and should be 

 handled with iron severity until they become fight- 

 ing men and not shams. In return the officer 

 should carefully look after his men, should see that 

 they are well fed and well sheltered, and that, no 

 matter how much they may grumble, they keep the 

 camp f horoughly policed. 



After the cessation of the three days' fighting we 

 began to get our rations regularly and had plenty of 

 hardtack and salt pork, and usually about half the 

 ordinary amount of sugar and coffee. It was not 

 a very good ration for the tropics, however, and was 

 of very little use indeed to the sick and half sick. 

 On one or two occasions during the siege I got my 

 improvised pack-train together and either took or 

 sent it down to the sea-coast for beans, canned to- 

 matoes, and the like. We got these either from the 

 transports which were still landing stores on the 

 beach or" from the Red Cross. If I did not go my- 

 self I sent some man who had shown that he was a 

 driving, energetic, tactful fellow, who would some- 

 how get what we wanted. Chaplain Brown de- 

 veloped great capacity in this line, and so did one 



