and practised in all the scientific and difficult parts of the profession; a body which shall serve as the cadre or framework of a large army, capable of imparting to the new and inexperienced soldiers of the republic that skill and efficiency which has been acquired by practice.  How far have we accomplished this object, and what will be the probable operations in case of another contest with a European power?  New and inexperienced troops will be called into the field to oppose a veteran and disciplined army.  From these troops we shall expect all the bravery and energy resulting from ardent patriotism and an enthusiastic love of liberty.  But we cannot here expect much discipline, military skill, or knowledge of the several branches of the military art.  The peaceful habits of our citizens tend but little to the cultivation of the military character.  How, then, are we to oppose the hostile force?  Must human blood be substituted for skill and preparation, and dead bodies of our citizens serve as epaulements against the inroads of the enemy?  To some extent, we fear it must be the case; but not entirely so, for government has not altogether neglected to make preparation for such an event.  Fortifications have been planned or erected on the most important and exposed positions; military materials and munitions have been collected in the public arsenals; a military school has been organized to instruct in the military sciences; there are regularly kept up small bodies of infantry and cavalry, weak in numbers, but capable of soon making good soldiers of a population so well versed as ours is in the use of the musket and the horse; an artillery force, proportionally much larger, is also regularly maintained, with a sufficient number of men and officers to organize and make good artillery-men of citizens already partially acquainted with the use of the cannon.  But an acquaintance with infantry, cavalry, and artillery duties is not the only practical knowledge requisite in war.  In the practical operations of an army in the field, rivers are to be crossed, bridges suddenly erected and suddenly destroyed, fieldworks constructed and defended, batteries captured and destroyed; fortifications are to be put in order and defended, or to be besieged and recaptured; trenches must be opened, mines sprung, batteries established, breaches made and stormed; trous-de-loup, abattis, palisades, gabions, fascines, and numerous other military implements and machinery are to be constructed.  Have our citizens a knowledge of these things, or have we provided in our military establishment for a body of men instructed and practised in this branch of the military art, and capable of imparting to an army the necessary efficiency for this service?  Unfortunately this question must be answered in the negative; and it is greatly to be feared that the future historian will have to say of us, as Napier has said of the English:—­“The best officers and soldiers were obliged to sacrifice themselves in a lamentable manner, to compensate for the negligence and incapacity of a government always ready to plunge the nation into a war, without the slightest care of what was necessary to obtain success.  Their sieges were a succession of butcheries; because the commonest materials, and the means necessary to their art, were denied the engineers."[43]