150; Doughty's Letter, March 15, 1786; also, November 30, 1785.] It was almost impossible to train such troops, in a limited number of months or years, so as to enable them to meet their forest foes on equal terms.

The discipline to which they were accustomed was admirably fitted for warfare in the open; but it was not suited for warfare in the woods.
They had to learn even the use of their fire-arms with painful labor.

It was merely hopeless to try to teach them to fight Indian fashion, all scattering out for themselves, and each taking a tree trunk, and trying to slay an individual enemy.

They were too clumsy; they utterly lacked the wild-creature qualities proper to the men of the wilderness, the men who inherited wolf-cunning and panther-stealth from countless generations, who bought bare life itself only at the price of never-ceasing watchfulness, craft, and ferocity.
The Regulars Superior to the Militia.
The regulars were certainly not ideal troops with which to oppose such foes; but they were the best attainable at that time.

They possessed traits which were lacking in even the best of the frontier militia; and most of the militia fell far short of the best.