RECREATION 



VOL. XXIV. 



FEBRUARY 1906 



No. 2 



FIELD SPORTS IN THE ARMY 



By ROBERT N. REEVES 



HE War Depart- 

 ment, so slow to 

 act, yet so mighty 

 when it does act, 

 has finally awak- 

 ened to the im- 

 portance of phy- 

 sical training in 

 the American 

 army, and more 

 has been done by 

 it to encourage 

 army athletics 

 during the past few years than during 

 all the former years of our national life. 

 The United States, however, has not 

 been the only nation to sin against the 

 physical welfare of its warriors. It 

 seems but to have followed the bad ex- 

 ample set by the nations of Europe, 

 which have done nothing, until within 

 a comparatively recent period, toward 

 establishing a system of physical train- 

 ing in their various armies. For cen- 

 turies the question of training the indi- 

 vidual soldier physically has not re- 

 ceived in any country the attention that 

 it should have demanded. If a soldier 

 marched with precision, kept accurate 

 step and true alignment, he was not en- 

 couraged to take any further exercise 

 that would increase his strength or af- 

 ford him healthful recreation. 



The ancients seem to have had a 

 much finer appreciation of the value of 

 physical training among their soldiery. 

 In Greece and Rome everything was 



done that possibly could be done to im- 

 prove the strength and agility of the in- 

 dividual soldier, and in their competi- 

 tive athletic games the victorious sol- 

 dier was crowned by the state with the 

 highest civic and military honors. Even 

 during the middle ages jousts and tour- 

 naments were encouraged that the 

 strength and prowess of the knights 

 and soldiers might be properly put to 

 the test. But with the invention of gun- 

 powder and a change in the mode of 

 warfare, the notion arose among na- 

 tions that in the presence of powder 

 swiftness and strength were useless vir- 

 tues. Nothing was done to overcome 

 this false notion until about the year 

 1850, when France introduced physical 

 exercises into her military service. Ger- 

 many, Austria, and England followed. 

 In the United States, however, nothing 

 was done toward establishing a system 

 of physical training in the army until 

 1890, when three gymnasiums were 

 erected — one at David's Island, New 

 York; one at Jefferson Barracks, Mis- 

 souri ; and one at Cleveland, Ohio. 

 Prior to that time the ordinary drill of 

 the enlisted man and the "settings up" 

 that the raw recruit received were the 

 only physical exercises insisted upon by 

 the government. As for general field 

 athletics, that was unthought of. Save 

 for an occasional game of baseball, out- 

 door sports were, for the most part, un- 

 known among the enlisted men. 



The excellent results obtained at the 



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