Excerpt from The American ArmyThe manuscript of this volume was begun before the outbreak of the present war in Europe, with a view to setting forth the conditions and methods of administration of the American army, and the urgent need of nationalizing and organizing our military resources while there is no war-cloud on our horizon. During all the earlier years of the Republic, the limitless faith in the ocean barriers guarding our coasts prevented a hearing of those who urged a definite military policy for the nation. Leviathan passenger ships, each capable of trans porting a brigade such as fought the battles of the Civil War, have changed all that. We are now at peace with the world and the prayers of every American household are for a continuation of that desirable status for all time, but our interests are too great for us to occupy forever the safe side of every question.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.