Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/681

] ancestors, and made them, whether individually or as a nation, such formidable assailants. It may be questioned whether, in a purely military aspect, Mahmoud did not lose more than he gained by the destruction of the janissaries and reorganisation of his army on modern models, and whether any amount of drill and science will compensate for the old fanatical spirit. But some such reforms were necessary; Turkey could not continue to hold a place in Europe, yet live the life of an Eastern nation and of an age long past. Her new armies have showed themselves formidable on many occasions ; her artillery promises to rival that of most Western nations ; and if the Osmanli character is in some respects ill-suited to the scientific and far-seeing character of modern warfare, it still retains enough of its old religious fanaticism to make her more than ordinarily dangerous in a defensive and, as it would seem to her, a holy war. In a notice of the military forces of Turkey mention must be made of her vassal states, Egypt and Tunis, each of which is bound to furnish an auxiliary contingent in war. The military forces of Tunis and Tripoli are too insignificant to require special notice : her contingent is from 2000 to 4000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and 8 guns, and during the Crimean war she did actually send about 4000 men to the seat of war in Asia Minor. Egypt is now pledged to furnish an army corps of 30,000 men complete with cavalry and guns. In the Crimean war she furnished first one and afterwards two divisions, amounting to about 21,000 men; and during the insurrection in Crete she furnished a contin gent of 10,000 men. The Egyptian army is almost the creation of its present ruler, Ismail Pacha, who on his accession found only two infantry regiments and a few detachments of irregulars. It now consists of 15 infantry regiments of 3 battalions each, 3 rifle battalions, 4 cavalry regiments, 2 regiments of field artillery, and 3 of garrison artillery, and 1 battalion of sappers ; and numbers on war strength aboiit 52,000 infantry, 2500 cavalry, and 144 guns. The peace strength is little more than half this. These troops are all organised and drilled on European principles, mainly after French models. Many of the highest officials are actually old French officers. In addition to these, Egypt maintains a force of abotit 8000 sandschaks or irregular troops, who receive a higher rate of pay, but are required to arm, clothe, and feed themselves, and are permanently stationed on her frontiers. In case of war Egypt can raise about 10,000 irregular cavalry among the tribes that are subject to her.

 AMERICAN ARMY. The army of the United States of America is the last that calls for notice. Threatened by no powerful or war like neighbours, the United States are saved from that ruinous competition in armaments which presses on the industry of European countries. The American army is little more than a police force, of which a few regiments serve as a reserve to the civil power in the great towns, while the rest are dispersed in small posts along the fron tiers or among the Indian districts. By an Act of 1870 its strength was limited to 30,000 men. It consists of 10 regiments of cavalry, each of 12 companies or troops; 25 regiments of infantry, of 10 companies each ; 5 regiments of artillery, and one engineer battalion. The cavalry, broken up in small detachments, partake more of the character of mounted police than of that of European cavalry. They are armed with swords and breech-loading or repeating rifles, and trained to act on foot as well as on horseback ; and the whole cavalry drill is assimilated as closely as possible to that of the infantry. The infantry are organised after the old English fashion in single battalion regiments of 10 companies. The army is raised entirely by voluntary enlistment ; the term of service is three years, but it is now proposed to extend it to five, and re-engagements are encouraged. Two regiments of cavalry and three of infantry are composed of negro soldiers, but commanded by white officers. The officers of the army are furnished by West Point Academy, a military school equal to any in Europe. The course of instruction lasts four years, and includes all subjects of general education besides purely professional ones. West Point is sought by young men of the best families in America, and the number educated there considerably exceeds the requirements of the army. It is thus the means of spreading a certain military educa tion throughout the country, and it was to this West Point training that the Southerners owed the large number of excellent officers that were found in their ranks in the war. For military purposes the territory of the United States is divided into ten departments, and those grouped into four military divisions : the South, comprising the depart ments of the South and of Texas; the division of the Missouri, comprising the departments of Dakota, the Platte, and Missouri; the division of the Pacific, comprising the departments of Columbia, California, and Arizona ; and the division of the East, comprising the departments of the East and the Lakes. By the constitution of September 1787 the President is Commander-in-Chief of the army and militia of the Union, and Congress has power to raise and support armies, to make rules for their government and regulation, and to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. The Articles of War, by which all troops when mustered into service are governed, were enacted in 1806, and are a close but somewhat improved copy of those in force in the English army, and much of their army regulations is identical with the old general regulations and orders of the royal army. The military history of the United States is as strange as the rise and rapid growth of the nation. In 1790 the rank and file of the army, as fixed by Act of Congress, amounted to 1216 men; and in 1814 an English expedition of only 3500 men was able to seize and burn Washington, the capital of a country which even then numbered eight millions of inhabitants. In 1861, at the commencement of the war of the secession, the whole regular force amounted to only 14,000 men. In April of that year the President called out 75,000 volunteers for three months to defend the capital, which was threatened ; and in May a further call for 42,000 was made. In July two calls for 500,000 each were authorised by Congress, and as even this vast force proved insufficient for the gigantic struggle which America had now embarked in, it was found neces sary to introduce the conscription. In October 1863 a levy of 300,000 men was ordered, and in February 1864 a further call of 500,000 was made. Finally, in the begin ning of 1865 two further levies, amounting in all to 500,000 men, were ordered, but were only partially carried out in consequence of the cessation of hostilities. The total number of men called under arms by the Government of the United States, between April 1861 and April 1865, amounted to 2,759,049, of whom 2,656,053 were actually embodied in the armies. If to these be added the 1,100,000 men embodied by the Southern States during the same time, the total armed forces reach the enormous amount of nearly four millions, drawn from a population of only 32 millions,- figures before which the celebrated uprising of the French nation in 1793, or the recent efforts of France and Germany in tJ e war of 1870-71, sink into insig nificance. And within three years the whole of those vast forces were peaceably disbanded, and the army had shrunk to a normal strength of only 30,000 men. 