Part 282

The general orders and field regulations have prescribed the soundings with which all generals, and other persons, are to be received; when they pass along the line, or the line before them, the trumpet soundings will be the same as when the president or governor of a state appears.

The trumpet flourish, in drawing swords, is used regimentally on their own ground, and is the sounding used in receiving a major general; it is repeated twice for a lieutenant-general, and to all superior generals the march is sounded.

In parade, to receive the president, or the commanding general, the trumpets are assembled on the right of their regiments, (whether single or in line) in two ranks, and the staff beyond them.--The staff does not march past.

On all occasions of exercise, and manœuvre, trumpets are behind their troops and squadrons, unless otherwise detached.

If the president sees a brigade, he will be received at the point of his approach in the manner already directed, by the general commanding it. If a single regiment, in the same manner by its commanding officer.

After passing in parade, and in movements, and exercise, it will depend on the commanding officer of the regiment, to place the other field officers at the head of squadrons, or to assign them the superintendance of wings, in order the better to assist.

In general, regiments manœuvre at too great a distance from the person inspecting them; they ought to terminate many of their movements and formations within 20 or 30 yards of where he stands.

Cavalry regiments, when dismounted, and formed in line, will have an interval of six paces between each.

When the regiments dismount, field officers, and adjutants, do not dismount, but remain on horseback.

When the dismounted line advances in front, at close ranks, general officers, and commanding officers of regiments, are behind the centre; other field officers are behind the flanks of the battalion.

When the dismounted line is at open ranks, field officers are on the flanks of the battalion, in a line with the men, and general officers, and commanding officers of regiments, are in front.

In passing on foot, all mounted officers are in front of the regiment, except the adjutant, who is in the rear.

General principles in MARCHING.--Where a large body is marching in column, or columns, through narrow ground, and when its parts are to be assembled beyond the defile in several lines, in a compact manner behind each other--such parts are not to begin to assemble when the leading one does, but the head of each line is successively first to come up to the ground on which it is to stand, and when it there halts, its proper followers (and not before) move into line with it, and thereby do not impede the bodies that are behind them, which are still in the defile, and are to perform the same operation.

When a new line to be marched, or formed upon, is taken up by guides, commanding officers of squadrons, of regiments, and all other persons whatever, will take care that during such operation they do not stand upon, or obscure the direction of that line. Too many guides should not be thrown out. In movements in column, commanding officers of squadrons, and regiments, should keep wide of the flanks, that the pivot leaders may more correctly follow each other, and that they themselves may the better see, and distinguish the relative situation of the whole.

We shall conclude our remarks on the principles of marching, by quoting a remarkable passage out of marshal Saxe’s Reveries, which may serve to undeceive many with regard to the over-rated importance that is given to the expert handling of the firelock.

He justly remarks, that the manual and platoon exercise does extremely well to render the soldier easy under arms, but it should not engross the whole of our attention on that account. It is, perhaps, of all others, the least important branch in military acquirements, after the soldier has been taught to carry his firelock on his left shoulder, to prime and load with accuracy and dispatch, and to fire in platoon.

When once a soldier has been rendered master of these essential requisites, (and it requires little to make him so) the full possession of his legs and feet becomes the principal object of his attention.

The secret of all manœuvres, and the consequent issue of engagements, depend upon the legs. Hence the necessity of moving to time and measure, and the wise practice of teaching the cadenced step. Whoever attempts to drill a recruit without paying attention to this important object, must be ignorant of the first elements of war.

Il n’en est pas seulement aux elemens a qu’on appelle le métier de la guerre.--He does not even know the first rudiments of what is called the art of war.

These observations ought to be strongly impressed upon the minds of those persons who are too apt to devote all their time to the firelock, and consequently to neglect the more necessary object of marching, &c. Officers, in particular, should be taught to feel the justness of those principles of movement, by which large bodies are enabled to act together. The motions of the firelock are easily learned, but the various changes to which the human frame must submit in marching, require something more than mere mechanical operation.

MARCH of a train of artillery.--It has been observed in page 192, of Muller’s Treatise of Artillery, that the French march their artillery much in the same manner that the British do, with this difference, that the French artillery is divided into brigades. In page 191 of Muller’s treatise on Artillery, we find the following detail of a march of English artillery:--

1. A guard of the army. 2. The company of miners, with their tumbrel of tools, drawn by two horses. 3. The regiments of artillery front guard. 4. The kettle drums, drawn by four horses, and two trumpeters on horseback. 5. The flag gun drawn by 17 horses, and five twelve pounders more, by 15 horses each. 6. Eleven waggons with stores for the said guns, and one spare, by three horses each. 7. Six nine pounders, drawn by eleven horses each. 8. Nine waggons with stores for the said guns, and one spare, by three horses each. 9. Five long six pounders, by seven horses each. 10. Seven waggons with stores for ditto, and a spare one, drawn by three horses each. 11. Five long six pounders, drawn by seven horses each. 12. Six waggons with stores for ditto, and a spare one, by three horses each. 13. Four long six pounders, by seven horses each. 14. Five waggons with stores for ditto, and a spare one, by three horses each. 15. Two howitzers, by five horses each. 16. Four waggons with stores for ditto, by three horses. 17. Six short six pounders, by two horses each. 18. Three waggons with stores for ditto, by three horses each. 19. Six royals, with their stores, in four waggons, by three horses each. 20. One 12 pounder carriage, by seven horses; one nine pounder carriage, by five; one long six pounder carriage, by five; two short, by two; one short and one long limber, by one horse; and two forges, by two each. 21. Twenty ammunition carts, by three horses each. 22. Nineteen waggons with musquet cartridges, and one spare, by three horses each. 23. Thirty waggons with powder, and one spare, by three horses each. 24. Thirty waggons with musquet shot, and one spare, by three horses each. 25. Twenty-five waggons with intrenching tools, and one spare, by three horses each. 26. Twenty-five waggons with small stores, and one spare, by three each. 27. Six waggons for artificers, with four spare, each by three. 28. Thirty-two baggage waggons, nine by four horses, and 23 by three. 29. Thirty pontoons, and three spare carriages, each by seven. 30. The artillery rear guard. 31. The rear guard from the army.

It must be observed that there are parties of gunners and matrosses marching with the guns: there are likewise some parties of pioneers interspersed here and there to mend the roads, when they are spoiled by the fore carriages.

We shall now present our military readers with an extract from a French work, which has appeared since the Memoires D’Artillerie, par M. Surirey de Saint Remy, and which may put them more especially in possession of the French manner of marching their artillery, than Mr. Muller has afforded.--We must however, at the same time, refer them for more copious information to the third volume of Saint Remy, page 187 to 201.

In the last edition of the Dictionnaire Militaire, the following observations are made on this important operation.

When the troops in the advanced camp of the army begin to assemble, the commanding officer of the artillery repairs to head-quarters, and communicates with the commander in chief.--Utensils, stores, and ammunition, are forwarded to the camp, and every soldier is provided with ten or twelve rounds of ball cartridge, before he commences his march against the enemy.--These articles having been distributed, the waggons and horses return to the train of artillery, and proper dispositions are made to connect the whole line of march.

The horses belonging to the train are narrowly inspected by the lieutenant-general of artillery, who marks or rejects them according to his judgment, and sends one report of their actual state to government, and another to the master general of the ordnance. He gives directions to the captain-general of the waggon-train to arrange matters in such a manner with each provincial commissary belonging to the park, that the different captains may know what brigades fall under their immediate superinterdance. The latter must not on any account leave the brigades with which they are entrusted during the march.

The ammunition waggons having been loaded, and the horses harnessed in, they are distributed into different brigades, and put in motion to join the main army, according to the following order:--