140 
VOLUNTEER AD JUT ANGIES. 
BY 
CAPTAIN G. OSBORN, R.A, 
It is easy to find an excuse for this paper were it needed ! The dearth 
of R.A. officers who are willing to take Volunteer Adjutancies appears 
to "be due to the lack of information on the subject in the Regiment 
generally. This militates against the efficiency of our gallant Volun¬ 
teer Artillery, and it becomes one’s duty, after serving with the 
Volunteers, to do anything in one’s power to increase the popularity of 
these appointments by relating one’s experiences and promulgating 
them. I trust in this short paper to shew that there is, in a Volunteer 
Adjutancy, scope for work, ability and ambition sufficient to satisfy 
the most insatiate thirst, at any rate for five years. 
The position of Adjutant, as regards his duties to the Colonel and 
the corps as a whole, is very different to that of an Adjutant of regular 
troops, being in many particulars more onerous, . The greatest amount 
of tact is necessary in dealing with officers whom he knows to have less 
military knowledge than himself, yet to whom he must shew deference 
owing to their rank in the corps being higher than his own. He is 
bound to instruct them in whatever he finds them requiring instruction, 
he has not to deal with purely military men, but with men of every 
kind of civil occupation. 
To many artillerymen the Volunteer officer is somewhat of an 
unknown quantity, but it may be taken as true, that in most corps the 
Volunteer officers are the natural leaders of men in the locality in which 
their corps is raised ; either by reason of their rank and position or 
their wealth, and the fact of their employing a number of men, their 
athletic tastes, or their love of command and soldiering. Those who 
do not find themselves successful as Volunteer officers generally leave 
the service before they attain the highest ranks, as such men are disin¬ 
clined to continue the expenditure of no small amount of time, work 
and money fruitlessly. Those who know the Volunteer officer best 
will be ready to grant, that, to find a more suitable body of men for 
regimental officers of our Volunteer army, would be impossible. The 
present dearth of officers is much to be regretted, as it naturally tends 
to keep some men in the commissioned ranks, who would gladly retire, 
having become inefficient from one cause or another. 
Some officers openly confess, that, owing to the important civil posi¬ 
tions they hold, they have not time or thought to give to learning up 
the intricacies of tactics or complicated drill, nor can they do much 
3, YOL. XX, 
