

MILITARY AND NAVAL ORGANISATION. 



255 



e weight of ordnance. The strength and equi 

 page of a 9-pounder Armstrong battery of fiek 

 artillery on active service may be adduced as 

 a specimen : 



Officers 8 



Non-commissioned officers and men 256 



Artificers 13 



Riding horses 75 



Draught horses 212 



Bat horses (pack animals) 8 



9-pounder Armstrong guns 6 



9-pounder rocket carriage i 



Ammunition wagons 18 



Spare gun carriage I 



i forge wagon, i store wagon, 2 general service wagons, 

 i store cart 5 



iunition 1272 rounds for guns. 



102,960 rounds for small-arms. 



100 rockets. 



10 sets of artificers' tools. 

 6 months' materials for repairs. 



As the above includes neither the food nor tents 

 for the men or horses, it may be imagined what 

 are the impedimenta of an army, when forty bat- 

 teries are by no means an extraordinary force of 

 artillery. 



In siege works, where very heavy ordnance and 

 mortars are brought into operation, under the 

 collective title of siege-train, a different and tem- 

 porary organisation of the artillery takes place. 

 In the field, the artillery of the army is collected 

 into divisions, with the horses picketed round, so 

 that it may be put in motion at a minute's notice. 

 This formation is called the Park of Artillery. 



Engineers. The corps of Royal Engineers is 

 an important and the most scientific adjunct of 

 the army. The officers undergo very high train- 

 ing in pure and applied science ; the men are 

 only admitted if proficient in some trade of a 

 constructive character, as proved by actual trial. 

 Formerly, the men were styled Sappers and 

 Miners, and at a still earlier date Military Artif- 

 icers, the officers only being called Engineers ; 

 but in 1857 the term Royal Engineers was ex- 

 tended to the whole corps. Officers and men are 

 highly paid ; and from the experience they obtain 

 in scientific duties, are in high request in colonies 

 and civil life for many important situations. From 

 this cause many leave the corps prematurely. 

 The men embrace the following trades : car- 

 penters, joiners, masons, bricklayers, smiths, 

 wheelers, coopers, painters, plumbers, engine- 

 fitters, miners, printers, harness-makers, sur- 

 veyors, draftsmen, photographers, tailors. From 

 this it will be seen how various the work is which 

 the corps is called on to perform. In time of 

 peace the engineers are the general artificers of 

 every garrison and camp, in addition to their 

 prime duty of keeping the fortresses in repair. 

 In war-time, if on the march, they form bridges 

 over rivers, render roads practicable, throw up 

 field-works to cover the army ; in attacking a 

 place they take the principal part in forming the 

 approaches and batteries. They also construct 

 mines, and in case of assault provide means of 

 crossing the ditch and scaling the walls. In 

 defensive works, they countermine, to prevent the 

 mines of the besiegers from doing mischief, and 

 repair the ramparts as fast as the enemy's fire 

 damages them. The strength of the engineers 

 consists of about 5000 men, of whom the privates 

 are called Sappers. The organisation is in forty 



companies and two troops of train. Four com- 

 panies are employed on the Ordnance Survey 

 six form an instructional depot at Chatham, and 

 the remaining companies are distributed at home 

 and in the colonies. Besides these forty com- 

 panies, however, there are 260 officers employed 

 in India, who have no men of the corps under 

 them, the non-commissioned officers and men 

 there being native Indians. The functions of the 

 engineer train are to carry the intrenching and 

 other apparatus of the corps, and more especially 

 the train of pontoons for bridging rivers which 

 obstruct the march of an army. The uniform of 

 the corps is a scarlet tunic ; blue facings ; Oxford 

 mixture trousers, with scarlet stripe ; fur busby of 

 black sealskin, with white plume and blue bag. 

 In some foreign armies the pontonniers are 

 organised as a distinct body. 



Military Train. This is formed for the purpose 

 of providing armed transport for the army in time 

 of war. It is a corps of mounted infantry, and 

 during peace is maintained in somewhat a skeleton 

 condition. It is, however, capable of unlimited 

 expansion in the field. Its duties are to carry the 

 provisions, the wounded, the tents, and the reserve 

 ammunition. In the Peninsular war the Duke of 

 Wellington found the necessity of organising a 

 transport corps, which was called the Royal Wagon 

 Train ; but we forgot that lesson, and entered the 

 Crimea without any proper transport, until Colonel 

 M'Murdo enrolled the Land Transport Corps, 

 which, two years after, was remodelled into the 

 Military Train. 



Occasional Corps. The necessities of actual 

 warfare generally lead to the formation of tempor- 

 ary, local, or peculiar forces, such as foreign 

 legions of mercenaries ; and in the Russian war, 

 the expensive Army Works Corps of navvies, 

 organised by Sir Joseph Paxton, the organisation 

 and status of which was, however, purely civil, 

 its duties being to make railways, and throw up 

 earthworks at spots not actually under fire ; 

 native transport corps, such as the Coolie corps 

 in China, or the corps of Fantee men and women 

 engaged in the late Ashantee war. 



Staff. No matter how gallant, strong, or well 

 disciplined an army may be, it can perform no 

 efficient service unless its operations be directed 

 jy a properly organised staff of commanders. 

 For this purpose, from two to four regiments are 

 sanded together as a brigade under a brigadier- 

 eneral or major-general, who has a brigade-major 

 :o assist him, in somewhat the capacity of an 

 adjutant ; two or more brigades are associated, 

 with perhaps some batteries of artillery, and com- 

 janies of engineers and military train, to form a 

 division, under a lieutenant-general, whose staff 

 consists of an assistant-adjutant-general and an 

 assistant-quartermaster-general ; two or more 

 divisions, including all arms, are thrown together 

 nto a corps d'armJe, as the command of a 

 general. For his staff he has a deputy-adjutant- 

 ^eneral and deputy-quartermaster-general, with 

 heir subordinates ; and an assistant military 

 secretary. Over all the corps d'armte is the 

 commander-in-chief, who may be a general or 

 ield-marshal. His staff is brilliant and numer- 

 ous, having at its head his adjutant-general, 

 quartermaster-general, and military secretary. 

 Besides these officers, every general officer, ac- 

 cording to his rank, has one or more young 



197 



