Organization: How Armies are Formed for WarFoster, Hubert
History
Organization: How Armies are Formed for War
Foster, Hubert
Armies -- Organization
The Infantry Companies had three Officers--_Captain_,
_Lieutenant_, _Ensign_--and two _Sergeants_, three _Corporals_, a
_Quarter-Master-Sergeant_, and two _Drummers_.
The Artillery was at this time of little account. The lighter guns--
3-to 6-pounders--were attached in pairs to each Regiment, like our
Machine Guns to-day. This practice survived during the eighteenth
century. The heavier guns--9- to 12-pounders--with a few larger
ones up to 20-pounders, were drawn by teams of horses or oxen,
driven by civilians on foot. They formed, with the wagons carrying
ammunition both for guns and match locks, the _Train_, controlled
by the _Waggon-Master-General_. Each gun was served by a _Master
Gunner_ and two _Under-Cannoneers_, while the train was managed by
_Waggon-Masters_, assisted by _Furriers_ (French _Fouriers_) and
clerks, and a number of artificers of all sorts.
The Head-Quarters of the Army consisted of a _General_ as C.-in-C.,
with a Second-in-Command, naturally called the _Lieutenant-General_,
who commanded the principal Arm--the Cavalry. There was a
_Sergeant-Major-General_ who commanded the Infantry, and was, as his
name implies, the Chief Staff Officer of the Commander-in-Chief, as the
Sergeant-Major was the Staff Officer of the Colonel of a Regiment. In
these titles the Sergeant has long been dropped, and the (_Sergeant_)
_Major-General_ is still, as in the “New Model,” the junior rank of
General Officer. A _Master-General of the Ordnance_ controlled the
Artillery, Engineers, and Train.
The two Generals of Horse and Foot had each a Staff, consisting of an
_Adjutant-General_ and a _Quarter-Master-General_. Under the _Master
of the Ordnance_ there were a _Comptroller of the Ordnance_, and an
_Engineer-General_ with several assistant Engineers, but no men.
The list of Administrative Officers on the Head-Quarters Staff is
interesting, as showing the antiquity of many of our military titles:
The Judge-Advocate-General.
Two Provost-Marshals-General--one for the Horse, one for the Foot.
The Commissary-General of Victuals.
The Commissary-General of Horse Provisions.
The Waggon-Master-General, in charge of Train and baggage.
Medical Officers.
The Chaplain to the Army.
Two Treasurers-at-War (or Paymasters).
The Muster-Master-General.
The Scout-Master-General, who was what we should call the Chief
Intelligence Officer; he had two Assistants and twenty Scouts.
THE ARMIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century the Armies of
Europe much resembled those of the seventeenth, of which the “New
Model,” just described, is an example. They were formed of a number of
Regiments of Cavalry, and separate Battalions, or at most Brigades,
of Infantry, accompanied by a long train of guns and motley wagons
carrying food and baggage. These were drawn by teams of oxen and horses
hired in the country, driven by wagoners on foot.
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