Soldiers and Sailors by Old

“Well boys though I am your uncle so busy has my life been that I have seen but very little of you. During my present visit we shall become better acquainted with each other. You want to hear about soldiers and sailors. You have seen privates on parade a recruiting sergeant with stripes on his arm and an officer with epaulettes on his shoulder. You have seen too a jolly Jack-tar just come home from a cruise rigged out in his holiday clothes check shirt blue jacket and white trousers. You have read perhaps a little about engagements and sea-fights and remember the names of a few famous generals and admirals and now you want to hear more about soldiers and sailors. You shall know all that I can tell you; but mind! let us have no confusion. Do not all of you ask me questions at once! Speak one at a time or if you like it better let one of you be spokesman for the rest. You shall have all the information that I can give you.” “Thank you!—thank you uncle! That will be the very thing; for we know that you can tell us a great deal.” “I am as you know neither commander-in-chief of the army nor lord high admiral of the navy nor do I see any likelihood at present of my being appointed either the one or the other; but having seen a good deal of the land and sea-service and noticed the habits and conduct of men from the raw recruit to the general officer;—from the sailor before the mast to the ‘Red Flag at the Fore’—I must have been dull indeed to have picked up nothing. It becomes no man to be vain of his knowledge and therefore I will not boast of mine; but ask me what you will and I will answer to the best of my ability.” “Please to tell us which are the bravest men soldiers or sailors.” “The bravest! That is a puzzling question which the seven wise men of Greece were they here could not answer. Never yet did a red-coat go where a blue-jacket was afraid to follow nor a son of Neptune brave a danger that a son of Mars would not willingly have faced before him. Weigh one golden sovereign against another in a pair of scales and they will not give a more even balance than the bravery of a soldier weighed against that of a sailor.” “How many kinds of soldiers are there?—for some are very different to others.” “Why let me see in the cavalry there are life-guards horse-guards dragoon-guards heavy dragoons light dragoons lancers and hussars; and in the infantry there are foot-guards infantry of the line light troops fusiliers highlanders riflemen and the staff-corps. I have said nothing of the engineers and artillery nor indeed of the marines who have more to do with the navy than the army.” “They say that one Englishman can beat ten Frenchmen. Is it true?” “Not a word of truth in it. A brave man is a match for a brave man of the same size all the world over if he have equal skill. It is skill more than strength that enables one man to overcome another and tactics more than bravery (though both are necessary) that enable an army or a fleet to obtain a victory. I will try to make this clear to you before I have done.” “Now do tell us uncle all about soldiers and sailors from the beginning to the end.” “That would take me a month to do. I mean to give you anecdotes in abundance about military and naval commanders that you may see the advantage of knowledge and skill; at the same time I will try to mingle with them many details that will be interesting to you of the navy and the army.”