Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/788

 752 ARMY rule, and composes the mass of all infantry; real light infantry has become much more pop- ular since the American civil war, and the late wars between Prussia, Austria, and France, and the tendency in all armies is to the numeri- cal increase of this force. Cavalry is divided into heavy and light everywhere except in America, where it is all light. Cuirassiers are always heavy; hussars and chasseurs, always light horse. Dragoons and lancers are in some armies light, in others heavy cavalry; and the Russians would also be without light cavalry were it not for the Cossacks. The best light cav- alry in Europe is undoubtedly that of the Austri- ans, the national Hungarian hussars, and Polish uhlans. The same division holds good with reference to artillery. Light artillery is still subdivided into horse and foot, the first espe- cially intended to act in company with cavalry. The Austrians have no horse artillery; the English and French have no proper foot artil- lery, the men being carried on the limbers and ammunition wagons. The infantry is formed into companies, battalions, and regiments. The battalion is the tactical unit ; it is the form in which the troops fight, save in a few excep- tional cases. A battalion must not be too strong to be commanded by the voice and eye of its chief, nor too weak to act as an inde- pendent body in battle, even after the losses of a campaign. The strength, therefore, varies from 600 to 1,400 men ; 800 to 1,000 forms the average. The division of a battalion into com- panies has for its object the fixing of its evolu- tionary subdivisions, the efficiency of the men in the details of the drill, and the more com- modious economical administration. The num- ber of companies in a battalion varies as much as their strength. The English have ten of from 90 to 120 men, the Russians and Prussians four of 250 men, the French and Austrians six of varying strength. Battalions are formed into regiments, more for administrative and disciplinary purposes and to insure uniformity of drill, than for any tactical object ; in forma- tions for war, therefore, the battalions of one regiment are often separated. In Russia and Austria there are four, in Prussia three, in France two service battalions, besides depots, to every regiment ; in England, most regiments are formed, in peace, of but one battalion. Cavalry is divided into squadrons and regi- ments. The squadron, from 100 to 200 men, forms the tactical and administrative unit ; the English alone subdivide the squadron, for ad- ministrative purposes, into two troops. There are from three to ten service squadrons to a regiment ; the British have in peace but three squadrons, of about 120 horse; the Prussians four, of 150 horse; the French five, of 180 to 200 horse ; the Austrians six or eight, of 200 horse; the Russians six to ten, of 150 to 170 horse. With cavalry the regiment is a body of tactical significance, as a regiment offers the means to make an independent charge, the squadrons mutually supporting each other, and is for this purpose formed of sufficient strength, viz., between 500 and 1,600 horse. The British alone have such weak regiments that they are obliged to put four or five of them to one brig- ade; on the other hand, the Austrian and Russian regiments in many cases are as strong as an average brigade. The French have nom- inally very strong regiments, but have hither- to appeared in the field in considerably reduced numbers, owing to their poverty in horses. Artillery is formed in batteries ; the formation in regiments or brigades in this arm is only for peace purposes, except in America, where it is used exclusively during war. Four guns is the least number in a battery ; the Austrians have eight, and the French, Prussians, English, and Americans six guns for each battery. Rifle- men or other real light infantry are generally organized in battalions and companies only, not in regiments; the nature of the arm forbids its union in large masses. The same is the case with sappers and miners, they being be- sides but a very small portion of the army. The French alone make an exception in this latter case. "With the regiment the formation of most armies in time of peace is generally considered complete. The larger bodies, brig- ades, divisions, and army corps, are mostly formed when war breaks out. The Russians and Prussians alone have their army fully or- ganized and the higher commands filled up, as if for actual war. In war, several battalions or squadrons are formed into a brigade, consisting of from four to eight battalions for infantry, or from six to twenty squadrons for cavalry. With large cavalry regiments these latter may very well stand in lieu of brigade; but they are very generally reduced to smaller strength by the detachments they have to send to the divisions. Light and line infantry may with ad- vantage be mixed in a brigade, but not light and heavy cavalry. The Austrians very generally add a battery to each brigade. A combination of brigades forms the division. In most armies it is composed of all the three arms, say two brigades of infantry, four to six squadrons, and one to three batteries. The French and Rus- sians have no cavalry to their divisions ; the English form them of infantry exclusively. Un- less, therefore, these nations wish to fight at a disadvantage, they are obliged to attach cavalry and artillery respectively to the divisions when- ever the case occurs, which is easily overlooked or often inconvenient or impossible. The pro- portion of divisionary cavalry, however, is everywhere but small, and therefore the re- mainder of this arm is formed into cavalry di- visions of two brigades each, for the purpose of reserve cavalry. Two or three divisions, sometimes four, are for larger armies formed into an army corps. Such a corps has every- where its own cavalry and artillery, even where the divisions have none ; and where these latter are mixed bodies, there is still a reserve of cav- alry and artillery placed at the disposal of the commander of the corps. It has been found