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"Over to the right, a scant 300 yards away, the Russians had apparently succeeded in getting the range. As I watched through the glasses I saw shrapnel burst over the battery there and watched a noncommissioned soldier fall with three of his comrades. I was told that one had been killed and three wounded.

All-bakers, grocers, butchers, lawyers, carpenters, booksellers, chemists-took their turn at military training at regular hours of the day, under the auspices of Monsieur Lavigne, a former noncommissioned officer in the dragoons, now a draper, having married the daughter and inherited the business of Monsieur Ravaudan, Senior.

The 39th and 59th Regiments were to parade, at the same hour, to act as support to the attacking party. A hundred sailors from the ships of war were to accompany them. The attacking party numbered 1014 rank and file, besides officers and noncommissioned officers. This was exclusive of the two regiments forming the supports. The attacking force was divided into three columns.

It is well-known that officers in the army are more difficult to hypnotize than noncommissioned men. The enlisted man, by a process of indoctrination and conditioning, is taught to obey and follow orders without reasoning. The transference of authority to the hypnotist is readily accomplished because of this conditioning process.

To the Senate of the United States: In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant, requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a statement of the effective force composing the military establishment of the United States; also a statement of the different posts and garrisons at and within which troops are stationed, and the actual number of officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates at each post and garrison, respectively; also to designate in such statement the number of artillerists and the number and caliber of ordnance at each of the said posts and garrisons," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the documents accompanying it, contains all the information required.

This morning a group of some 250 Austrians, taken during the action last night, are in this village. They are divided in squads of twenty-five, each in charge of an Austrian noncommissioned officer. The men had had six hours' rest before I saw them. These prisoners are Rumanians from Transylvania. They are young, well-set-up troops.

The noncommissioned officer told us an unknown number of the defenders, running probably into the hundreds, had been buried so deeply beneath the ruins of the fort in the last hours of the fighting that the Germans had been unable to recover the bodies.

Each noncommissioned officer must be conversant with the signals and commands and the proper methods for instantly putting into effect the orders of his platoon commander. Each private must be trained until he instinctively does the right thing in each phase of the action.

The designation "So-and-so's" squad or platoon may also be used. The noncommissioned officers next in rank are assigned as guides, one to each platoon. If sergeants still remain, they are assigned to platoons as additional guides. When the platoon is deployed, its guide or guides accompany the platoon leader.

However, he had no objection to our going to a certain specified point within the zone of supposed safety. With a noncommissioned officer to guide us we climbed up a miry footpath to the crest of a low hill; and from a distance of perhaps a hundred yards we looked across at what was left of Fort Loncin, one of the principal defenses. I am wrong there.