INFANTRY INFINITIVE. 



in a good army, it is necessary that the infantry of 

 the line should take part readily in the light service, 

 and the light infantry be ready to fight in the line, 

 from which the riflemen only are excepted. These 

 are only used as sharpshooters. In some armies, 

 there are, besides the riflemen, whole regiments of 

 light infantry; in others, as in the Prussian army, 

 each regiment has two battalions of infantry of the 

 line, and one battalion of light infantry; in others, as 

 in the French, each battalion has its grenadiers and 

 tirailleurs (sharpshooters). Infantry is divided into 

 battalions (q. v.), these into companies, these into 

 platoons. Several battalions, two or three, some- 

 times four or five, form a regiment. The tactics of 

 infantry admit three different modes of arranging this 

 species of troops in battle 1. in line, when they are 

 drawn up in line two or three men deep, an order very 

 rarely, if ever, used at present; 2. in column, when 

 several lines, three or two men deep, are drawn up 

 one behind the other (See Column, in Tactics, and 

 Square}; 3. in dispersed order. (See Sharpshooters.} 

 The excellence of infantry depends on their good 

 order in advancing and retreating, perfect acquain- 

 tance with their exercises and duties, in a just appli- 

 cation of their fire, and great calmness both in assault- 

 ing and when assaulted in the square, which is 

 acquired by experience. As long as the infantry 

 remain calm, the general need not lose hope ; but 

 all is to be feared when they are disordered, whether 

 through ardour or fear. 



In countries affording horses, men always prefer, 

 in the early periods of society, to fight on horseback, 

 and civilization only gives more importance to in- 

 fantry. Where foot soldiers exist, at this early 

 period, together with cavalry, they are considered 

 of inferior consequence. The Hebrew army, how- 

 ever, consisted, tor a long time, of infantry only. 

 (See Cavalry.) The Egyptians, likewise, seem to 

 have used cavalry little. With the Asiatics, besides 

 the use of infantry and cavalry, princes and noblemen 

 fought on chariots. The infantry was the part least 

 esteemed, and, with the Persians, consisted of the 

 heavy-armed, the slingers, and archers. Probably 

 this was one reason of the victories of the Greeks over 

 the Persians, as they had cultivated infantry more, 

 and had given up the chariots, described by Homer 

 as common in the Trojan war. Even their kings and 

 generals fought on foot. They had both heavy and 

 light infantry. The Greeks were conquered, in their 

 turn, by an improved form of infantry, the columns 

 of Philip of Macedon, which also enabled his son 

 Alexander to conquer the Persians. With the 

 Romans, infantry was the strength of the armies. 

 Their legions, consisting mostly or infantry, conquered 

 the world. With the ancient Germans and Gauls, 

 also, infantry was considered very important ; but 

 when, in the great migration of nations, the Huns, 

 and other Mongolic tribes, arrived in Europe, on 

 small and fleet horses, and carried victory with them, 

 spreading the terror of their arms far and wide, and 

 when the Franks in Northern Spain became ac- 

 quainted with the Moors, who came from Arabia, 

 and the plateau of Asia, on beautiful horses, cavalry 

 was considered as more important. When the feuda! 

 system was developed, the horse, of course, was more 

 agreeable to the adventurous knight, than the foot 

 service. The crusades, where the Europeans were 

 obliged to fight with the fine cavalry of the Seljooks, 

 favoured this tendency still more. Infantry fell into 

 total disrepute, and consisted of the poorer people 

 who cared little in whose service they fought, in 

 those times of violence and oppression, when a 

 change of rulers made no change in their sufferings 

 and no reliance could be placed upon them. Amonj 

 those people who were not in feudal bondage, am 



fought for the defence of their own liberty, infantry 

 maintained its old importance, as with the Swiss, on 

 several occasions in the fourteenth ana fifteenth 

 century ; and the penetrating Machiavelli, who 

 )urned to free his country from its numberless 

 c oreign and native tyrants, saw the great value of 

 nfantry, and urged its establishment upon a respecta- 

 jle footing. The invention of gunpowder changed 

 the whole art of war, and brought iniantry again into 

 repute. (See4rmy.) The Swedish infantry, in the 

 hirty years' war, was excellent. The arrangement 

 aecame, in the course of time, more judicious, and 

 all unnecessary manoeuvring was avoided. The 

 Austrians, at this time, employed soldiers from their 

 Turkish frontiers the Croats and Pandoores, semi- 

 savages as a sort of irregular light infantry ; and 

 other armies had troops of a similar character ; but 

 they were so rude and disorganized, because their 

 warfare was little better than legalized robbery, that 

 Gustavus Adolphus would not admit them into his 

 forces ; but Frederic the Great again established free 

 corps (q. v.) during the seven years' war. Infantry 

 remained without much change in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. Prince Leopold of Dessau, during this time, 

 first introduced, in the Prussian army, the iron ram- 

 rod, the lock-step, and several other improvements. 

 The bayonet having been invented already in the 

 middle of the seventeenth century, came more and 

 more into use, and enabled the squares to resist the 

 cavalry ; but a great change in the use of infantry 

 took place towards the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, when, in the American war of independence, 

 the people, being obliged to contend, without dis- 

 cipline, against well trained troops, adopted the 

 irregular mode of fighting, protected by trees or 

 other objects, being, at the same time, mostly skilful 

 marksmen. The efficiency of this method of fighting 

 was evident ; and when, in 1791, the French revolu- 

 tionary war began, the French sent swarms of tirail- 

 leurs against the allies, and injured them exceedingly. 

 In the wars from 1791 to 1802, the French greatly 

 improved this way of fighting, which, in the interval 

 of peace that followed, was reduced to a system, the 

 consequences of which were seen in 1805, 1806, and 

 1807, against the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians. 

 These nations, after the disasters which they suffered, 

 adopted the same system, as well as the greater use of 

 columns, particularly as the ordinary mode of arrang- 

 ing the troops before they came into the fire. Under 

 equal circumstances, well trained infantry is almost uni- 

 formly successful against any other kind of troops. 



INFERIJE, in Roman antiquities ; sacrifices 

 offered to the infernal deities for the souls of the 

 departed. Some writers have thought that they are 

 the origin of the exequies of the Catholic church. 



INFERNO (Italian for hell); the name of the first 

 part of Dante's grand poem. See Dante, 



INFINITESIMALS. See Calculus. 



INFINITIVE ; the indefinite mode, in which the 

 verb is represented without a subject. As the verb 

 expresses an action, or a state, it generally belongs to 

 a subject whose action or state is expressed ; but if 

 we wish to express the mere idea of this action or 

 state, we use the infinitive, which therefore, in many 

 languages, is employed without further change, as a 

 substantive for instance, in Greek and German 

 only preceded by the neuter article ; but, as the verb 

 expresses an action or state, under certain conditions 

 of time, the infinitive can also express the action or 

 state in the present, past or future, though thes 

 conditions are not expressed in all languages by 

 peculiar forms ; nay, some languages have not even 

 a peculiar form for the infinitive present, anil must 

 express it by some grammatical contrivance, as is the 

 case in English. See Verb. 



