Part 126

EXCAVATION, the act of cutting or otherwise making hollows; also the cavity formed. In military matters, it is generally applied to the place from whence the earth or other substance has been taken by mining.

EXAMPLE, any act or word which disposes to imitation. The example of a superior officer has considerable influence over the mind of an inferior; but in no instance does it appear more important than in the good and bad behaviour of a non-commissioned officer or corporal. These characters, therefore, should be particularly correct in their duties, tenacious of every principle of military honor, and remarkable for honesty. Old soldiers should likewise direct their attention to the strict observance of rules and regulations, as young recruits always look up to them for example.

EXAMINATION, a scrutiny or investigation of abilities, conduct, &c. All officers of artillery and engineers should undergo an examination in mathematics, fortification, and gunnery, prior to their having commissions. Surgeons and assistant surgeons should be examined before a medical board.

EXAUCTORATIO, in the Roman military discipline, differed from the missio, which was a full discharge, and took place after soldiers had served in the army 20 years; whereas the exauctoratio was only a partial discharge: they lost their pay indeed, but still kept under their colors or vexilla, though not under the aquila or eagle, which was the standard of the legion: whence instead of legionarii, they were called subsignani, and were retained till they had either served their full time, or had lands assigned them. The exauctoratio took place after they had served 17 years.

EXCELLENCY, a title absurdly given to kings and emperors, in Europe, and with equal falsehood and absurdity given to governors, ambassadors, generals, and other persons.

EXCHANGE, in a military sense, implies the removal of an officer from one regiment to another, or from full to half pay, and vice versa: It is usual on these occasions for individuals belonging to the latter class to receive a pecuniary consideration. See DIFFERENCE.

EXCHANGE of prisoners, the act of giving up men, that have been taken in war, upon stipulated conditions which are subscribed to by contending powers.

EXCHANGE, in a general sense, signifies any contract or agreement whereby persons or things are exchanged for others.

EXCHEQUER. The public office from whence all monies are issued for the use of the English army. With respect to the militia, it is enacted that the money paid for that particular service, shall be kept apart from all other money.

Officers belonging to the exchequer, are not to take any fees for receiving, or issuing such money.

EXCITE. See ANIMATE.

EXCUBIÆ, in antiquity, the watches and guards kept in the day by the Roman soldiers. They differed from the vigiliæ which were kept in the night.

EXECUTER, Fr. The French use this verb technically. They say, exécuter et servir une piéce. See the particular method of so doing, under TIRER le canon, to fire a gun or cannon.

EXECUTER, Fr. to execute, to put to death.

EXECUTION. Military EXECUTION is the pillaging or plundering of a country by the enemy’s army.

Military EXECUTION also means every kind of punishment inflicted on the army by the sentence of a court martial; which is of various kinds. When a soldier is to be punished with death, a detachment of about 200 men from the regiment he belongs to form the parade, when a file of grenadiers shoots the prisoner to death.

Every nation has different modes of military execution.

EXEMPT, men of 45 years of age are exempt from serving in the militia. An aid-de-camp and brigade major are exempt from all regimental duties while serving in these capacities. Officers on courts martial are sometimes exempt from all other duties until the court is dissolved. The people called Quakers, and all others who are religiously scrupulous, are by the laws of the U. States exempt from militia duty, an indulgence which they have hitherto repaid with extreme ingratitude.

EXEMPTION, the privilege to be free from some service or appearance. Thus officers in the British militia who have served during the war, according to prescribed regulations, are exempted from being balloted for.

EXEMTS, Fr. so called originally, from being exempted from certain services, or entitled to peculiar privileges.

EXEMTS du ban et arriere ban persons exempted from being enrolled for that particular service, were so called. They consisted of the domestic attendants belonging to the palace, those attached to the princes and princesses of the blood; all persons actually serving his majesty, together with the sons of officers who were in the army.

EXEMTS des gardes du corps. Exempts belonging to the body guards. They were twelve in number, and held the rank of captains of cavalry, taking precedence of all captains whose commissions were of a younger date to the brevet of the exempts.

These brevet commissions were given away under the old government of France.

EXEMTS des maréchaussées. Certain persons employed to keep the public peace. Maréchaussée means in a literal sense, marshalsey. But the functions of the exempts were of a nature peculiar to France. They held their situations under commissions, bearing the great seal, which were forwarded to them by the secretary at war. The privileges they enjoyed were to be exempted from all taxes, &c. but they could not institute any species of criminal information without the concurrence of the greffier or sheriff.

EXERCISE, in military affairs, is the practice of all those motions and actions, together with the whole management of arms, which a soldier is to be perfect in, to render him fit for service, and make him understand how to attack and defend. Exercise is the first part of the military art; and the more it is considered the more essential it will appear. It disengages the human frame from the stiff rusticity of simple nature, and forms men and horses to all the evolutions of war. The honor, merit, appearance, strength, and success of a corps depend wholly upon the attention which has been paid to the drill and exercise of it, according to prescribed rules and regulations; while on the other hand we see the greatest armies, for want of being exercised, instantly disordered, and that disorder increasing in spite of command; the confusion oversets the art of skilful masters, and the valor of the men only serves to precipitate the defeat: for which reason it is the duty of every officer to take care, that the recruits be drilled as soon as they join the corps.

The greatest advantage derived from the exercise, is the expertness with which men become capable of loading and firing, and their learning an attention to act in conformity with those around them. It has always been lamented, that men have been brought on service, without being informed of the uses of the different manœuvres they have been practising; and that having no ideas of any thing but the uniformity of the parade, they instantly fall into disorder and confusion when they lose the step, or see a deviation from the straight lines they have been accustomed to at exercise. It is a pity to see so much attention confined to show, and so little given to instruct the troops in what may be of use to them on service. Though the parade is the place to form the characters of soldiers, and to teach them uniformity, yet when confined to that alone, it is too limited and mechanical for true military use.

The great loss which the British troops sustained in Germany, America, and the West Indies, during the war of 1783, from sickness, as well as from the enemy, was chiefly owing to a neglect of exercise. An army whose numbers vanish after the first 4 months of a campaign, may be very ready to give battle in their existing period; but the fact is, that although fighting is one part of a soldier’s business, yet bearing fatigue, and being in health, is another, and at least as essential as the first. A campaign may pass without a battle; but no part of a campaign can be gone through without fatigue, without marches, without an exposure to bad weather; all of which have exercise for their foundation; and if soldiers are not trained and enured to these casualties, but sink under them, they become inadequate to bodily fatigue, and eventually turn out a burthen to the country.

It is not from numbers, nor from inconsiderate valor, that we are to expect victory; in battle she commonly follows capacity, and a knowlege of arms. We do not see, that the Romans made use of any other means to conquer the world, than a continual practice of military exercises, an exact discipline in their camps, and a constant attention to cultivate the art of war. Hence, both ancients and moderns agree, that there is no other way to form good soldiers but by exercise and discipline; and it is by a continual practice and attention to this, that the Prussians arrived at that point of perfection which was long so much admired in their evolutions, and manual exercise.