when the moment arrived to deliver, whether by fire or by shock, the decisive blow. Cavalry. Artillery. Engineers. The cavalry underwent little change in its organization and tactics, which remained as in the drill-books founded on Frederick's practice. But except in the case of the hussars, who were chiefly Alsatians, it was thoroughly disorganized by the emigration or execution of the nobles who had officered it, and for long it was incapable of facing the hostile squadrons in the open. Still, its elements were good, it was fairly well trained, and mounted, and not overwhelmed with national guard drafts, and like the other arms it duly evolved and obeyed new leaders. In artillery matters this period, 1792-1796, marks an important progress, due above all to Gribeauval (q.v.) and the two du Teils, Jean Pierre (1722-1794) and Jean (1733-1820) who were Napoleon's instructors. The change was chiefly in organization and equipment--the great tactical development of the arm was not to come until the time of the _Grande Armee_--and may be summarized as the transition from battalion guns and reserve artillery to batteries of "horse and field." The engineers, like the artillery, were a technical and non-noble corps. They escaped, therefore, most of the troubles of the Revolution--indeed the artillery and engineer officers, Napoleon and Carnot amongst them, were conspicuous in the political regeneration of France--and the engineers carried on with little change the traditions of Vauban and Cormontaingne (see FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT). Both these corps were, after the Revolution as before it, the best in Europe, other armies admitting their superiority and following their precepts. In all this the army naturally outgrew its old "linear" organization. Temporary divisions, called for by momentary necessities, placed under selected generals and released from the detailed supervision of the commander-in-chief, soon became, though in an irregular and haphazard fashion, permanent organisms, and by 1796 the divisional system had become practically universal. The next step, as the armies became fewer and larger, was the temporary grouping of divisions; this too in turn became permanent, and bequeathed to the military world of to-day both the army corps and the capable, self-reliant and enterprising subordinate generals, for whom the old linear organization had no room. The starting point of modern warfare.