The Daily Dispatch

The Talk about Improved Arms,

We hear a great deal in these days of "improved arms;" but while, no doubt, there has been some improvement, we question whether the exaggerations of their value have not done more harm than good. They have led men to rely on the weapon instead of themselves. The poor devils from Ohio and Pennsylvania, who, three to one, fought our troops at Philippi, were armed with Minnie muskets; yet most of their balls lodged in the trees. The improved arms of the Massachusetts Regiment, which was mobbed in passing through Baltimore, were no match for the improved men who, armed with brickbats and clubs, drove them howling through the streets. None of the battles of modern times have been as destructive of human life as those which occurred before the invention of gunpowder, when men fought with swords, spears, bows and arrows, &c., and trusted in themselves instead of their weapons. And notwithstanding all the improvements in cannon and muskets, the slaughter in the late Italian war was not to be compared to that in some of Napoleon's great battles, before any of these so-called improvements had been made.

The truth is, the old Virginia rifle, the old-fashioned musket, the double-barrel shot-gun, are all as good in the hands of a man who is bent on fight as any weapon that may be used. It is not the weapons, it is the men who use them, that decide a victory. Let a man's heart be influenced with vengeance and a love of country, and he will make the poorest weapon equal to the best "improvements." Anything that will send a ball—anything that will make a wound—is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a brave and determined man. On the other hand, the best weapons cannot supply the place of a courageous spirit and a good cause, and they who lean upon "improved" arms, and not upon valor and determination of soul, will find that they are leaning upon a broken reed.