Part 176

In a fixed camp he is charged with the foraging, with reconnoitring the ground for it, posting the escorts, &c.

In sieges, if there are two separate attacks, the second belongs to him; but if there be only one, he takes either from the right or left of the attack, that which the lieutenant general has not chosen.

When the army is under arms, he assists the lieutenant general, whose orders he executes.

If the army marches to an engagement, his post is at the head of the guards of the army, until they are near enough to the enemy to rejoin their different corps; after which he retires to his own proper post; for the major generals are disposed on the order of battle as the lieutenant generals are, to whom however, they are subordinate, for the command of their divisions. The major general has one aid-de-camp and one brigade major.

Brigadier GENERAL, is the next rank to that of major general, being superior to all colonels, and having frequently a separate command.

GENERAL of a district, a general officer who has the charge and superintendance of a certain extent of country, in which troops are encamped, quartered, or cantoned. He is entitled to have three aids-de-camp and one brigade major.

He receives reports, &c. from the major general, respecting the troops in his district; reviews and inspects them, likewise orders field days of the whole, brigaded, or by separate corps, when and in what part he pleases, making the necessary reports to the war-office, commander in chief, &c.

Colonel GENERAL, an honorary title, or military rank, which is bestowed in foreign services. Thus the prince of the peace in Spain was colonel general of the Swiss guards.

Brigade major GENERAL. As England and Scotland have been divided into different districts, each district under the immediate command of a general officer, it has been found necessary, for the dispatch of business, to establish an office, which shall be solely confined to brigade duties. The first brigade major general was appointed in 1797. Since which period all orders relative to corps of officers, which are transmitted from the commander in chief to the generals of districts, pass through this channel of intermediate communication.

By the British regulations, it is particularly directed, that all general officers commanding brigades, shall very minutely inspect the internal œconomy and discipline of the several regiments under their order. They are frequently to visit the hospitals and guards. On arriving in camp they are never to leave their brigades till the tents are pitched, and the guards posted; they must always encamp with their brigades, unless quarters can be procured for them immediately in the vicinity of their camp. General officers must not at any time change the quarters assigned them, without leave from head quarters.

All general officers should make themselves acquainted, as soon as possible, with the situation of the country near the camp, with the roads, passes, bridges, &c. leading to it; and likewise with the out-posts, that in case they should be ordered suddenly to sustain, or defend any post, they may be able to march without waiting for guides, and be competent, from a topographical knowlege of the country, to form the best disposition for the service. They should instruct their aids-de-camp in these particulars, and always require their attendance when they visit the out-posts.

All general officers, and others in considerable command, must make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the country, the quality of the roads, every circuitous access through vallies or openings, the relative height of the neighboring hills, and the course of rivers, which are to be found within the space entrusted to their care. These important objects may be attained by maps, by acquired local information, and by unremitting activity and observation. And if it should ever be the fate of a country, to act upon the defensive, a full and accurate possession of all its fastnesses, &c. must give each general officer a decided advantage over the commanding officer of an enemy, who cannot have examined the ground upon which he may be reduced to fight, and must be embarrassed in every forward movement that he makes. Although guides may serve, and ought always to be used in the common operations of marches, there are occasions where the eye and intelligence of the principal officers must determine the movements of troops, and enable them to seize and improve every advantage that occurs as the enemy approaches.

General officers on service abroad, or commanding districts at home, may appoint their own aids-de-camp and brigade majors. The latter, however, are to be considered as officers attached to their several brigades, not personally to the officers commanding them. The former are their habitual attendants and domestic inmates. In the selection of aids-de-camp and brigade majors, too much attention cannot be given to their requisite qualifications; and that general would not only commit an act of injustice against the interests of his country, but deserve the severest censure and displeasure of his sovereign, who through motives of private convenience, family connexion, or convivial recommendation, could so far forget his duty, as to prefer an unexperienced stripling, to a character marked by a knowlege of the profession, a zeal for the service, and an irreproachable conduct.

In the day of battle the station of a general is with the reserve, where he remains so situated that he can see every thing which is going forward; and by means of his own observation, or through the communications of his aids-de-camp, is enabled to send reinforcements, as the exigencies of the conflict may require.

The celebrated Marshal Saxe has made the following remarks on the necessary qualifications to form a good general. The most indispensible one, according to his idea, is valor, without which all the rest will prove nugatory. The next is a sound understanding with some genius; for he must not only be courageous, but be extremely fertile in expedients; the third is health and a robust constitution.

“His mind must be capable of prompt and vigorous resources; he must have an aptitude, and a talent at discovering the designs of others, without betraying the slightest trace of his own intentions. He must be seemingly communicative, in order to encourage others to unbosom, but remain tenaciously reserved in matters that concern his own army; he must, in a word, possess activity with judgment, be able to make a proper choice of his officers, and never deviate from the strictest line of military justice. Old soldiers must not be rendered wretched and unhappy, by unwarrantable promotions, nor must extraordinary talents be kept back to the detriment of the service, on account of mere rules and regulations. Great abilities will justify exceptions; but ignorance and inactivity will not make up for years spent in the profession.

“In his deportment he must be affable, and always superior to peevishness, or ill-humor; he must not know, or at least seem to know, what a spirit of resentment is; and when he is under the necessity of inflicting military chastisement, he must see the guilty punished without compromise or foolish humanity; and if the delinquent be from among the number of his most intimate friends, he must be doubly severe towards the unfortunate man. For it is better, in instances of correction, that one individual should be treated with rigor (by orders of the person over whom he may be supposed to hold some influence,) than that an idea should go forth in the army, of public justice being sacrificed to private sentiments.

“A modern general should always have before him the example of Manlius; he must divest himself of personal sensations, and not only be convinced himself, but convince others, that he is the organ of military justice, and that what he does is irrevocably prescribed. With these qualifications, and by this line of conduct, he will secure the affections of his followers, instil into their minds all the impulses of deference and respect; he will be feared, and consequently obeyed.

“The resources of a general’s mind are as various as the occasions for the exercise of them are multiplied and chequered; he must be perfectly master of the art of knowing how to support an army in all circumstances and situations, how to apply its strength, or be sparing of its energy and confidence; how to post all its different component parts, so as not to be forced to give, or receive battle in opposition to settled plans. When once engaged, he must have presence of mind enough to grasp all the relative points of disposition and arrangement, to seize favorable moments for impression, and to be thoroughly conversant in the infinite vicissitudes that occur during the heat of a battle; on a ready possession of which its ultimate success depends. These requisites are unquestionably manifold, and grow out of the diversity of situations, and the chance medley of events that produce their necessity.

“A general to be in perfect possession of them, must on the day of battle be divested of every thought, and be inaccessible to every feeling, but what immediately regards the business of the day; he must reconnoitre with the promptitude of a skilful geographer, whose eye collects instantaneously all the relative portions of locality; and feels his ground as it were by instinct; and in the disposition of his troops, he must discover a perfect knowlege of his profession, and make all his arrangements with accuracy and dispatch. His orders of battle must be simple and unconfused, and the execution of his plan be as quick as if it merely consisted in uttering some few words of command; as, the first line will attack! the second will support it! or such a battalion will advance and support the line.

“The general officers that act under such a general, must be ignorant of their business indeed, if, upon the receipt of these orders, they should be deficient in the immediate means of answering them, by a prompt and ready co-operation. So that the general has only to issue out directions according to the growth of circumstances, and to rest satisfied, that every division will act in conformity to his intentions; but if, on the contrary, he should so far forget his situation as to become a drill serjeant in the heat of action, he must find himself in the case of the fly in the fable, which perched upon a wheel and foolishly imagined, that the motion of the carriage was influenced by its situation. A general, therefore, ought on the day of battle to be thoroughly master of himself, and to have both his mind and his eye rivetted to the immediate scene of action. He will by these means be enabled to see every thing; his judgment will be unembarrassed, and he will instantly discover all the vulnerable points of the enemy. The instant a favorable opening offers, by which the contest may be decided, it becomes his duty to head the nearest body of troops, and, without any regard to personal safety, to advance against his enemy’s line. [By a ready conception of this sort, joined to a great courage, general Desaix determined the issue of the battle of Marengo.] It is, however, impossible for any man to lay down rules, or to specify, with accuracy, all the different ways by which a victory may be obtained. Every thing depends upon variety of situations, casualties of events, and intermediate occurrences which no human foresight can positively ascertain, but which may be converted to good purposes by a quick eye, a ready conception, and a prompt execution.

“Prince Eugene was singularly gifted with these qualifications, particularly with that sublime possession of the mind, which constitutes the essence of a military character.

“Many commanders in chief have been so limited in their ideas of warfare, that when events have brought the contest to issue, and two rival armies have been drawn out for action, their whole attention has devolved upon a straight alignement, an equality of step, or a regular distance in intervals of columns. They have considered it sufficient to give answers to questions proposed by their aids-de-camp, to send orders in various directions and to gallop themselves from one quarter to another, without steadily adhering to the fluctuations of the day, or calmly watching for an opportunity to strike a decisive blow. They endeavor, in fact, to do every thing, and thereby do nothing. They appear like men, whose presence of mind deserts them the instant they are taken out of the beaten track, or are reduced to supply unexpected calls by uncommon exertions; and from whence continues the same sensible writer, do these contradictions arise? from an ignorance of these high qualifications without which the mere routine of duty, methodical arrangement, and studied discipline must fall to the ground, and defeat themselves. Many officers spend their whole lives in putting a few regiments through a regular set of manœuvres; and having done so, they vainly imagine, that all the science of a real military man consists in that acquirement. When, in process of time, the command of a large army falls to their lot, they are manifestly lost in the magnitude of the undertaking, and from not knowing how to act as they ought, they remain satisfied with doing what they have partially learned.

“Military knowlege, as far as it regards a general or commander in chief, may be divided into two parts, one comprehending mere discipline and settled systems for putting a certain number of rules into practice; and the other originating a sublimity of conception, that method may assist, but cannot give.

“If a man be not born with faculties that are naturally adapted to the situation of a general, and if his talents do not fit the extraordinary casualties of war, he will never rise beyond mediocrity.

“It is, in fact, in war as it is in painting, or in music. Perfection in either art grows out of innate talents, but it never can be acquired without them. Study and perseverance may correct ideas, but no application, no assiduity will give the life and energy of action; those are the works of nature.

“It has been my fate (observes the Marshal) to see several very excellent colonels become indifferent generals. I have known others, who have distinguished themselves at sieges, and in the different evolutions of an army, lose their presence of mind and appear ignorant of their profession, the instant they were taken from that particular line, and be incapable of commanding a few squadrons of horse. Should a man of this cast be put at the head of an army, he will confine himself to mere dispositions and manœuvres; to them he will look for safety; and if once thwarted, his defeat will be inevitable, because his mind is not capable of other resources.

“In order to obviate in the best possible manner, the innumerable disasters which must arise from the uncertainty of war, and the greater uncertainty of the means that are adopted to carry it on, some general rules ought to be laid down, not only for the government of the troops, but for the instruction of those who have the command of them. The principles to be observed, are: that when the line or the columns advance, their distances should be scrupulously observed; that whenever a body of troops is ordered to charge, every proportion of the line should rush forward with intrepidity and vigor; that if openings are made in the first line it becomes the duty of the second instantly to fill up the chasms.