Like sheep to the slaughter

Now that military credentials have become a political football in the current presidential race, it’s worth remembering that having led soldiers in battle can be a mixed blessing in a campaign. This is from pp. 379-380 of Teddy Roosevelt’s Autobiography:

The men of the regiment always enthusiastically helped me when I was running for office. On one occasion Buck Taylor, of Texas, accompanied me on a trip and made a speech for me. The crowd took to his speech from the beginning and so did I, until the peroration, which ran as follows: “My fellow-citizens, vote for my Colonel! vote for my Colonel! and he will lead you, as he led us, like sheep to the slaughter!” This hardly seemed a tribute to my military skill; but it delighted the crowd, and as far as I could tell did me nothing but good.

At a regimental reunion, Roosevelt goes on, one of his ex-soldiers admitted that he had recently had “a difficulty with a gentleman” and killed him. He was pleased that the judge had let him out in time to meet his old colonel.

“How did it happen? How did you do it?” asked Roosevelt.

Misinterpreting my question as showing an interest only in the technique of the performance, the ex-puncher replied: “With a .38 on a .45 frame, Colonel.” I chuckled over the answer, and it became proverbial with my family and some of my friends, including Seth Bullock. When I was shot at Milwaukee, Seth Bullock wired an inquiry to which I responded that it was all right, that the weapon was merely “a .38 on a .45 frame.” The telegram in some way became public and puzzled outsiders.