Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/789

 ARMY 753 best in the United States to separate the cav- alry from the infantry entirely, and form it into separate corps under separate commanders. Napoleon was the first to attach cavalry to his other corps, and, not satisfied therewith, he or- ganized the whole of the remaining cavalry into reserve cavalry corps of two or five divisions of cavalry with horse artillery attached. The Russians have retained this formation of their reserve cavalry, and the other armies are likely to take it up again in a war of importance, though the effect obtained has never yet been in proportion to the immense mass of horse- men thus concentrated on one point, except in America, as heretofore stated. Such is the modern organization of the fighting part of an army. But, in spite of the abolition of tents, magazines, field bakeries, and bread wagons, there is still a large train of non-combatants and of vehicles necessary to insure the effi- ciency of the army in a campaign. To enable the commanders of armies, army corps, and divisions to conduct, each in his sphere, the troops intrusted to them, a separate corps is formed in every army except the British, com- posed of officers exclusively, and called the staff. The functions of these officers are to re- connoitre and sketch the ground on which the army moves or may move ; to assist in making out plans for operations, and to arrange them in detail, so that no time is lost, no confusion arises, no useless fatigue is incurred by the troops. They are therefore in highly important positions, and ought to have a thoroughly fin- ished military education, with a full knowledge of the capabilities of each arm on the march and in battle. They are taken in all countries from the most able subjects, and carefully train- ed in the highest military schools. The English alone imagine that any subaltern or field officer selected from the army at large is fit for such a position, and the consequence is that their staffs are inferior, and the army is incapable of any but the slowest and simplest manoeuvres ; while the commander, if at all conscientious, has to do all the staff work himself. A division can seldom have more than one staff officer attach- ed ; an army corps has a staff of its own under the direction of a superior or a staff officer ; and an army has a full staff, with several generals, under a chief, who in urgent cases gives his orders in the name of the commander. The chief of the staff in the British army has an adjutant general and a quartermaster general under his orders ; in other armies the adjutant general is at the same time chief of the staff; in France the chief of the staff unites both capa- cities in himself, and has a different department for each under his orders. The adjutant gen- eral is the chief of the personnel of the army, receives the reports of all subordinate depart- ments and bodies of the 'army, and arranges all matters relative to discipline, instruction, for- mation, equipment, armament, &c. All subor- dinates correspond through him with the corn- mar der-in- chief. If chief of the staff at the 49 VOL. i. 49 same time, he cooperates with the commander in the formation and working out of plans of operation and movements for the army. The proper arrangement of these in European ar- mies is left to the quartermaster general ; the details of marches, cantonments, and encamp- ments are prepared by him. A sufficient num- ber of staff officers are attached to headquarters for reconnoitring the ground, preparing pro- jects as to the defence or attack of positions, &c. There are also a commander-in-chief of the artillery and a superior engineer officer for their respective departments, a few deputies to represent the chief of the staff on particular points of the battlefield, and a number of or- derly officers and orderlies to carry orders and despatches. To the headquarters are further attached the chief of the commissariat with his clerks, the paymaster of the army, the chief of the medical department, and the judge advo- cate or director of the department of military justice. The staffs of the army corps and divi- sions are regulated on the same model, but with greater simplicity and a reduced personnel; the staffs of brigades and regiments are still less numerous, and the staff of a battalion may consist merely of the commander, his adjutant, an officer as paymaster, a sergeant as clerk, and a drummer or bugleman. To regulate and keep up the military force of a great nation, numerous establishments besides those hitherto named are required. There are recruiting and remounting commissioners, the latter often con- nected with the administration of national es- tablishments for the breeding of horses, mili- tary schools for officers and non-commissioned officers, model battalions, squadrons, and bat- teries, normal riding schools, and schools for veterinary surgeons. There are in most coun- tries national founderies and manufactories for small arms and gunpowder ; there are the va- rious barracks, arsenals, stores, the fortresses with their equipments, and the staff of officers commanding them ; finally, there are the com- missariat and general staff of the army, which, for the whole of the armed force, are even more numerous and have more extensive du- ties to perform than the staff and commissariat of a single active army. The staff especially has very important duties. It is generally di- vided into a historical section (collecting mate- rials relative to the history of war, the forma- tion of armies, &c., past and present), a topo- graphical section (intrusted with the collection of maps and the trigonometrical survey of the whole country), a statistical section, &c. At the head of all these establishments, as well as of the army, stands the ministry of war, or- ganized differently in different countries, but comprising, as must appear from the preceding observations, an immense variety of subjects. Such is the vast machinery devoted to recruit- ing, remounting, feeding, directing, and always reproducing a modern first-class army. The masses brought together correspond to such an organization. Napoleon's grand army of 1812,