much of the ranging and ordering of Armies for a fight we shall in the ensuing Chapter give some Advertisement touching the Dislodgings Retreats and Entrenchments of a Camp-Royal CHAP. IX Observations upon the certainty of Orders for dislodging a Camp Of Retreats when to be made in a Campagne and when to be made in narrows How to be ordered and the Reasons Of an Army forced to lodge in open Fields Of the encamping of an Army Of the forms of Trenches Of Guards due to Entrenchments and where to be placed Forms of Entrenchments when an over-powerful Enemy is very near BEing in this Chapter to speak of the Dislodgings Retreats and Entrenchments of a Camp-Royal we will first begin with the first of them An Army being to dislodge and the General having given notice hereof to the Lord Marshal he the Marshal is to do the like to the Quarter-master-General and the Quarter-master to the Provost-Marshal-General and he to the Quartermasters of the Regiments and they to the Colonels and Captains and those to their subordinate Officers who are to warn the common men Now in the first place the Provost-Marshal-General is to give order to the Provost-Marshals of the Regiments that they give Command to the Pioneers Sucklers and the rest that are not Souldiers to be in a readiness and employ themselves in the filling up of the Trenches that they are to forsake and in the firing of the Quarters and this to be done whilest the whole Camp are putting themselves into their Arms that so nothing may remain entire to give relief or any way to serve the Enemies turn after they are forsaken by themselves This being done and the one half of the Scouts sent before to make discoveries that Corner or Wing of the Army which lay next to the Enemie is first to stir seconded by the Body of the Vaunt-guard Then succeedeth the other Wing and then marcheth the Battel followed by the Artillery and Baggage covered with the Rear-guard closed with Troops of Horse serving withal as Scouts to the Army and to beat up Stragglers This hath been received for a general order of dislodgings But surely this cannot be so precisely and punctually observed but may and must suffer alterations according to the quality and condition of the Country and Ground that the dislodging is to be made in for hereby an Army may sometimes be forced to march in broken ranks at another time have liberty to do it in an entire body neither can the place of the Baggage be so ascertained to be either before or after the Middle-guard but that in some cases it may better be ordered in the Flank of the Army provided that that Flank be the securest part for the place of most security is always the most proper for the placing the impediments And thus much touching dislodgings of an Army As for the ordering of Retreats it is to be done in Battalia if the ground will allow it when the Enemy is in sight and in Front And in the first place the Rear is to march off and whilest they turn faces about from the Enemy the Van and Battel are to stand their ground as ready to receive all charges This done the Battel or Middle-guard is to move and in all points to observe the orders and manner fore-practised by the Rear and in the mean time the Van to make a stand and when the Rear and Middle-guard have again made Alt the Van it self is to retreat and to have the Wings of the Horse at the same time to move and flank with it And lest the Enemy should charge upon the Rear some numbers of Musqueteers with some Cornets of Horse are to man it And thus may a whole Army maintain and continue a Retreat so long as the Enemy shall continue in a pursuit and the ground be a Champian But if an Army in the retreat the Enemy following be to pass through any narrows as upon Dikes thorow Lanes over Bridges in this case assoon as any considerable part of the Foot is entered any of these streights the Horse are to pass in the Rear of that first Division and in the room whence these Horse departed a strong stand of Pikes well flanked with Musqueteers are to make it good against the Enemies Horse and to stand firm and keep their ground And for the bringing off of these Pikes and Shot it will be necessary that some Brest-work or half Moon or both be cast up at the point of the entrance upon the narrow wherein Musqueteers are to be lodged and if cause require some small Field-pieces as Drakes or the like to beat upon the Enemy at his approach and make good the entrance The which small Pieces may be brought off upon the Narrow in the Rear of all upon their proper Carriages with their muzzles towards the Enemy and upon all occasions to be guarded and secured by the Pikes in whose Rear they retreat Now the grounds and motives of this Order are That though during a retreat in a champian and open ground the Horse may be ordered to come up and retreat in the Rear because with a small wheeling about they may advantagiously charge the Enemies Horse in Flank if they should attempt to fall on upon that Rear and the Rear of the Foot also with faces about may the whilest receive the Enemies charge with the Body of their Pikes and gall them with the Shot wherewith they are lined Yet when an Army is to pass in any streight these Horse shall then best secure themselves by wheeling about into that Rear of the Division of Foot which hath first entered upon that streight for hereby a stand or alt may be made good against the charge of the Enemies Horse by the rest of the Pikes which are not entered upon the streight and these Pikes brought off under the favour of the Field-pieces and Musqueteers in the half Moon and behind the Brest-work formerly mentioned and they themselves brought off under the protection of the last Rear of Pikes and the Drakes or Field-pieces in the Rear of them to be secured partly by their own beating upon the Enemy as they retreat and partly by the last Reserve of Pikes and Shot when he chargeth home And the want of the making use of this order in our retreat at the Island of Rey was the visible cause of our miscarrying in it For all the while we marched in open ground though all our Horse retreated in the Rear of our Foot and the Enemy both in Horse and Foot doubled our number yet meddled they not with us but made alt when we did and marched when we did But our Forces being got up to the narrow of the Dike betwixt the Salt Pans and our Van and Middle-guard well entered upon the Dike and the Front of our Rear so close up with them that our Horse could not wheel to put themselves betwixt the Rear of them and the Front of our Rear the Enemie
to the first Requirable in the making of a War and that is Munition It remains to take some notice of Powder and Victual and so to end this our first Book And first concerning Powder Of which I shall onely speak of the choice of it and the lodging of it when it is gotten For the choice of it or the trial of it That Powder which being laid upon a smooth stone or plank or the like having fire given unto it doth mount upwards with a clear fire and flame without much smoak and without leaving any soil or mark upon the stone or plank may be received for good Powder On the contrary if upon the firing there remain any moist white substance somewhat blewish it is a sign that the Brimstone is not sufficiently purified wherewith that Powder is mixed if there remain any grains of an earthly colour it is an evidence that it was not well grounded nor cleansed if there be whitish grains it is a sign that the Salt-Peter is too salt and neither well grounded nor purified if there be seen any reddish or tawnyish grains it is a token that the Coals were not well prepared if Powder some small quantity being laid upon ones hand and there fired offend not the hand at all or very little but result with a small noise or puff it is a singular sign of excellent good powder As for the ways of trial without fire if Powder being bitten by ones teeth taste moderately salt it is a tolerable token of its goodness if it be of colour not over-black nor obscure but somewhat tending to a red it is a very good evidence of good Powder As touching the safe laying of it up It is a most-necessary providence for the ordering of Powder for the use of an Army in action that it be disposed into two or three several places and many Magazines the better to avoid the danger as well of casual fires as treasons and the Enemies surprizes And for the safe keeping and certain security of it in Towns and especially where mighty Magazines are to be provided it was the practise of a wise Republique to lay up the several materials and ingredients in several parcels as the Salt-Peter by it self the Brimstone by it self and the Cole by it self the which upon all occasions might suddenly be fitted for present use And in the mean time all the hazards and mischiefs that might otherwise ensue be absolutely prevented And thus much touching the particular of Powder As for that of Victual it is obvious to every judgment that it must be provided according to the number of the Army and the length of the March and the nature and condition of the Country that the Army is to pass thorow I shall therefore speak onely of the course of conducting it and of those kinde of people that are to sell it termed Sucklers For the order of conduction of Victuals to or for an Army especially when there is peril of being charged by an Enemie upon the way command is to be given that all the disordered multitude of Carriages and Waggons wherein the Victuals and the like Baggage is to be carried be put in equipage either before day or very early in the morning of that day wherein they are to march And in the first place some Troops of Horse are to be sent out to discover upon all the Advennes of the Enemy and for the better safe-guard the Artillery appointed for their guard may be usefully placed both in the Van of these Carriages and in their Rear and that not onely to beat upon the Enemie if he shall approach by any of those ways but by their thundering to give notice which way the Enemie comes that so the Souldiers may take a general Alarm and according to former direction repair to the part that shall most require assistance Both sides of the ways also where the Carts of Provisions are to pass are to be guarded with loose Wings of Horse and with them some numbers of Musqueteers may be advantagiously intermixed and the best of the Horse may bring up the Rear And in this manner may the Carriages march and be ready to receive any Charge Diligence is likewise to be used that such ways of March as much as may be be made choice of as are least subject to ambushments and that whensoever they are to come to blows it may be in places of advantage To which end either Altes are to be made or a quick March to be practised as cause requires And to this purpose also good use may be made of Waggons in stead of a Trench drawing the Souldiers within them when a desperate Charge is attempted by the Enemie As for the prime Conductor of these Victuallers and Victual he is to be the first man out of the Quarter when these Troops are to march and to make a stand and to take a view of them all and to hasten them forwards And when they are well-near all passed by he is to march in the Rear of all though now and then he may advance before into such parts as he conceives may most require his presence but ought to be the last man that takes up his Quarter He is also to observe that all the Carriages and the Souldiers of that guard be quartered before the dark of the night that so whilest there is yet some day-light he may ride round about the Quarter to see that all things be sure Care is likewise to be had if possibly it may be that intelligence be gotten from the inhabitant Peasants as well of the Ways as of the Enemie and that as well for conveniency as safety To which end all Bridges and Passages are to be known possest and guarded Spies also are continually to be employed to gain knowledge and to give notice of the Enemies designs And Centinels in the night-time to be placed upon all Avenues And if an extraordinary strength be expected to assault it will be necessary to raise some Redoubts and Forts upon the Ways and Passages and upon all places where an Enemie may oportunely give on Touching the Victuallers or Sucklers and Merchants and Artificers which follow an Army they are not any of them to bring any of their Commodities or Merchandise into the Camp without licence from the General who is to command to have them well viewed lest their Victuals should be corrupt and infect the Souldiers with sickness and their Merchandise sophisticated and the Souldier cheated and abused Nor are these men to sell any of their Commodities but in that part and place where the Quarter-master-General shall appoint lest disorders grow in the Quarters nor there neither but at such times and at such a rate as shall be allowed by the Provost-Marshall-General that so there may be no extortion upon the Souldiers And if any of these shall be found Delinquents in any of these kindes he is to incur the penalty of Imprisonment and Confiscation of his
General and being well armed to advance in all places of danger and not to suffer him to be over-engaged in his own person They are to inform themselves thorowly as well of all the Defences of the Enemy as of the means of disabling them And lastly they are to overlook the Pioneers and such as labour at the Batteries and to cause them to act their parts diligently and usefully upon all occasions The peculiar duties of the Conductors of the Artillery are to take the charge of the Waggons and Carriages belonging to the whole Train and to cause them to be ordered according to instructions from the General They are also to see all the powder and shot to be safely lodged and guarded They are all of them every one in his allotted place to be present at the Batteries and there to execute duly and diligently whatsoever the General shall appoint The parts and duties of the Constables of the Artillery are to lay out and describe all the Ports of the Batteries to visit all the great Guns when they are in their Quarters and to see them in point to see them conducted to the Batteries and delivered up to the Gunners with all the appurrenances belonging to them as Coins Levers Ladles Sponges Rammers Shot Powder Wads Tackling and the like They are likewise to take a survey and to advertise all the due Refreshings of the Pieces and to make them known to the Lieutenant and the Gentlemen of the Ordnance They are to Caliber and fit all the shot to the bore of every great Gun and to see them laid on heaps by every Piece They are also to have a care that the Gunners be sufficiently fitted with Linstocks armed with their short swords provided with their Powder-horns and priming irons of all sizes and with their Compasses Quadrants and the like necessaries They are also upon the casting of any new Piece to visit them carefully and to cause them to be every way ordered according to commands and directions from the General As for the Office and duty of the Gunners it being generally known what they are to do and some printed Pamphlets teaching how to do it I shall not enlarge my self farther that way then onely to give some few Caveats And shall in the first place advise that before any admittance be made of any such the pretenders be thorowly and impartially examined and put to the Test by the Master of the Artillery or some able and honest men substituted to that end And for the ease of these Substitutes I shall presume to put them in mind to observe unto their Gunners these few particulars following which perhaps are not so carefully heeded as it were fit and behoveful in these cases As That in the lading of their Guns especially if time and leisure may allow after the second Ladle-ful of powder is conveyed into the chamber of the Piece and there well settled by the Rammer care be taken that the concavity of the Piece be thorowly cleansed by a drie Sponge or convenient Wad lest by the remainder of some grains of loose powder in the way there accrue some peril by the rowling down of the shot which may fire by the way and fire the rest of the powder in the chamber to the spoil of the Gunner That in the letting fall of the shot into the concavity of the Gun when it is charged with powder an especial care be had that the shot be first well cleansed and that no piece of any sandy or stony substance be fixed unto it the which may procure danger both by lodging of the shot by the way before it get home to the powder and by hindering the free issue of it upon the discharge That the Gunner in the lading of his Piece stand not before the mouth of it with any part of his body lest he be spoiled by some accidental firing of it caused by some secret hony-combs or the like And thus much touching the peculiar duties of the prime Officers belonging to a Train of Artillery As for the rest of them their very names speak the nature of their duties and therefore deserve no farther description CHAP. VII How an Army is to be conducted in a march Of the Horse and Foot and great Guns marching in the Van. Of the Horse and Foot and Guns marching in the Battel and Rear How to march the Enemy being in view Of the Artillery when forced to march apart Of the conveyance of the Carriages in general Of the conduction of an Army over Rivers when the Enemy follows in the Rear or lies on the further side Of a Bridge for the passing of an Army over Rivers and of passing by a Ford. The best kind of Bridges for the passing of Armies over Rivers WE are now come to the conduction of an Army in a march wherein in the first place it is requisite that the Conductor be well informed of the nature of the Country through which he is to carry the Army as whether it be Champion or Mountanous whether subject to Marishes or not And especially he ought to be careful to be well provided with siklful and trusty Guides And upon the consideration of the nature and condition of the Country he is to determine the order of the march As for example an Army made up of forty thousand men which number was formerly propounded being to march in a Champion Country in order of battel and the Enemie near may be thus marshalled First of all in the point before the Foot may march five hundred Horse being Corslets or Cuirassiers repartited into more or fewer divisions as occasion shall require And these are in the nature of a Forlorn-hope to make discoveries upon all the passages on all sides and to clear the Woodie places of all ambushments Next after these may march two thousand Foot divided into more or fewer bodies answerable to the Horse in the point And they are as well to serve for a Second or Reserve to these Horse as to defend that part of the Artillery marching in the Vantguard After these two thousand Foot the division of the Artillery for the Vantguard of the Army is to be ordered with the requisite Waggons of great shot powder coins and the like necessaries accompanied with a sufficient number of Pioneers to prepare and lay open the ways and passages and to make needful defences And in this division there are to be of great Guns four Field-pieces at the least mounted on their proper Carriages and attended with one Waggon of powder and another of shot with all things answerable commanded by an experienced Lieutenant with some of the Gentlemen of the Ordnance and their Gunners After this division may march four Culverins with a Waggon of powder and another of shot with the appurtenances After these four Demy-Cannons by pairs with their Gins Powder Shot and other necessaries And in the Rear of all these may march four whole Cannons with all that
belongs unto them as four Waggons of Powder eight Waggons of Shor with all things answerable And these are the repartitions of the Artillery which are to be ordered to march in the Van of an Army of forty thousand men After this body and division of these Ordnance three thousand Light-horse or Dragoons are to be ordered to march and after them ten thousand Foot And in the Rear of these all the Munitions belonging to the one half of the Army as Bridges Planks Powder Shot Cordage Pallisadoes Pikes Shovels Crabs Coins as well of Wood as Iron together with all the Tools belonging to the Carpenters Smiths and the like Artificers All which are to be handsomely lodged in Waggons The Victuallers or Sucklers of the moyety of the Army are to be ordered to march in the next place with the Hospital followed with the Carriages and Waggons belonging to the General and the other Commanders in chief and after them that part of the Baggage belonging partly to the Vant-guard and partly to the Battel After these may march twelve thousand Foot ordered into small Bodies having in the Rear of them a Body of Waggons of Baggage whereof part is to belong to the middle-Guard or Battel and part to the Rear-Guard followed with the Generals Life-Guards and the suit of the Ambassadours Next again after these may follow the Munitions and Engines serving for the use of the Rear with the Artillery Bridges and the like appurtenances and after them eight thousand Foot making the Gross of the Rear Then as formerly in the Van may be ordered to march four Cannons four Demy-Cannons three Culverins or Quart du Cannons and lastly three Field-pieces with all that belongs unto them both of Powder Shot and other necessaries with the requisite attendants And after them two thousand Foot to serve as a defence and coverture to all the Artillery of the Rear And last of all are to march five hundred Horse answerable to the like number in the point of the Van who are to bring up the Rear and to discover that part of the Campagnia that way that so no un-foreseen Alarms may be given by the Enemy to any considerable loss And in this order may an Army on all sides be sufficiently provided in a march against all attempts especially when the Enemy is not in view but somewhat remote But if the Enemy be in view and an assault to be expected and the Army nevertheless of necessity to march and this befall in a large Plain or Champion Country this order now described is to receive some alterations For it will be needful to have a large Front of Pikes being ten or six deep in File with wings of Shot on each side the which all together are to make an equal Front between which Shot and Pikes the Artillery is to march in the intervals And in the midst right behind the Cannon or Artillery may march two Bodies of Pikes and betwixt them the Carriages or Baggage And last of all in the Rear of all may be ordered a Body of Pikes with divisions of Shot on each side equalizing with those of the Front and on each side of them some Troops of Horse to serve as wings to this Body of the Rear And in this Form and Order an Army may both march and if need be fight without being disordered or much impedited in its way For if the Enemy shall charge in Front this order may be maintained and receive the Enemies charge be it either of Horse or Foot by the Front of Pikes and the Shot in the wings shall oportunely gall them in the mean time and the Artillery also give them a Salve as they make up and both Shot and Cannon be well secured either by the Pikes if the Enemies Foot shall charge or by the Horse in the Rear which are to advance if the Enemie charge with his Horse And if the Enemy charge in any of the Flanks it may be sustained by those Pikes which march there if his charge be with Foot and withal he shall be galled by the shot both of Van and Rear and if his charge be with Horse it may be opposed by the Horse marching in the Rear who are to advance to that end And if the Enemy give on in the Rear his Foot may be received with Faces about by the Body of Pikes which are ordered there and also be much annoyed by those Shot flanking those Pikes and the Shot well secured as well by their own Pikes as the Pikes in the Flank and especially by the Horse marching in the Flanks of this Rear And all this while the Carriages of Baggage and Munition may likewise be very sufficiently secured by their being ordered to march in the very center of the Body of Pikes But because it may fall out upon occasions either of passages or ways or present work and employment that the Train of Artillery may be forced to march by it self apart and severed from the main Body of the Army in this case the order and conduction of it may be that half the Pioneers and Labourers make the Van marching under their Chiefs and Commissaries and to be freed from the trouble of any strangers not belonging to their Train nor with any of their Waggons After which Pioneers all such Waggons are to march as carry the Spades Mattocks and the like Utensils Next unto these the Field-pieces are to follow after them the Culverins then the Demy-Cannons and lastly the Cannons And thus ordered marcheth the Vant-Guard and in the very same order may also march the Rear And after the Cannons in the Rear may follow all the Furniture belonging to the Artillery and with it the Bridges the Boats the reserve of the Munitions and especially the Magazine of Powder the Tents in general and the Generals Tents Though true it is that these are sometimes ordered to march in the Van that so they may be first in the Quarters the better to be fitted for receit and entertainment After these are to march all the Fire-works all the Ladders Planks Chains Nails and Sacks and the like implements And after them the rest of the Pioneers and Miners followed with the Waggons of small shot with the Store of Lead with those of the Pikes and Arms to spare And then the Waggons of the great shot the which though properly they are to be ordered to march next after the great Guns yet in respect that the small shot and other small parcels are more subject to the pillage of the Common Souldier they may best be secured in this manner And in the last place are to come up the Waggons belonging to the General of the Ordnance his Lieutenants with the Gentlemen and Officers of that Train And then again the Smiths and Carpenters And in rear of all the Provost of the Artillery is to march together with the remainder of the Baggage and the Victuals of the whole Train And thus may the Artillery belonging
Rear and that as well in regard that it is the place of most security as that upon all occasions his advice and command may there be best given and taken And the Ensignes are to be ordered into the midst of the Maniples or somewhat nearer the Front As for the Artillery it is to be ordered before the Front without the corners of the Vant-guard upon the most elevated ground that it may the better play upon all parts Only if the Enemy be expected to charge on all parts then is the Artillery to be placed on all parts and such Pieces as are not for the present employment to be bestowed between the Battel and the Rear unless the fight be before a Town or Camp entrenched and then it is left either in the Town or Camp and so is the Baggage likewise and all the unprofitable persons But this ordering of an Army for a Battel hath not passed without reprehension in divers particulars As first of the Phalanx and indeed all other over-great Bodies for it being an undeniable Maxime that those Troops stand in best order which can bring up most hands to fight at once it as undeniably followeth that the smaller Troops and divisions must needs do this best and therefore are preferable Because in great Squadrons or Phalanxes many men are drowned in the depth of the Files and Flanks and never appear but when the breaking of the great Body doth present them to the Butcherie The great Squadrons are also reprovable in regard that they are unmanagable and cannot be preserved in order but when the ground is large and plain and withal of an even and perfect level otherwise they must either stand immovable or upon the least motion be subject to shaking and disorder whereas the lesser Bodies are scantled for all places champion or woodie level or uneven of what condition soever Again if two or three ranks onely of the great Bodies happen to be broken or any way disorderdered the whole Body is equally interessed in the disorder and hath far less means to rally it self then a small maniple whereas on the contrary if any violence rout or disorder a maniple it proceedeth no further then to that part where it taketh the disranking of any one of these small Bodies not at all or very little extending to the confusion or disorder of any of the rest by reason that their intervals and separations or distances serve to cut off such inconveniencies and yet no way hinder the general uniting of all their strength into one Body And these are the exceptions against great Bodies and united Phalanxes The second exception against the former order is about the placing of the General himself between the Battel or Middle-guard and the Rear-guard as the former order prescribes Concerning which notwithstanding many opinions are to be found and various Presidents Vegetius in his third Book and eighteenth Chapter saith that the General of the Army is accustomed to be in the right Wing betwixt the Horse and the Foot And he addeth This is the place which governeth the whole Battel as from whence all sallyings out are direct and free so that saith he the General resting thus betwixt the Horse and Foot may best govern them with commands and directions Now of both these there have been found examples of the first Diodorus Siculus affirmeth that it was the manner of the Scythians that the King should be in the middle of the Phalanx And Arrian in his first Book and thirty sixth Chapter affirmeth that Darius took the same place And Leo also cap. 4. Sect 63. and 67. and cap. 12. Sect. 66. giveth the middle of the Battel to the General And Plutarch reports that Timoleon in his fight against the Carthaginians placed himself in the very midst of the Battel On the other side we have it in Xenophon Cyrop lib. 7. fol. 176. that Cyrus in his Battel against Croesus took his place in the right Wing betwixt the right hand of the Battel and that of the Horse that were ordered in the Wing And Alexander the Great though bred amongst the Phalangers did the like in most of his Battels And for the Moderns I find the valiant King of Sweden at the battel of Liptzwick in the right Wing in the Front of some Brigades of Horse and at the Battel of Lutzen in the very Front of the right Wing of his Vant-guard consisting of six Horse-Squadrons lined with five Bodies of Musqueteers For mine own part as amongst these various opinions I cannot approve of the Generals placing himself in the midst of the Middle-guard or Center of the main Body of Pikes in regard that it neither expresseth valour nor can he see about him to discover any advantages or disadvantages and to direct accordingly so on the other side I shall not advise to have any General to be over-hazardous in adventuring his person in the very heighth of the Front especially when the Army falls up to the charge lest the loss of the best bloud of that body procure the languishing of the whole And thus I am sure was lost at Lutzen the best General of the World though to the wonder of the World that headless Army got the day in a fury In mine opinion therefore though a General may place himself at the time of a battel in the right Wing of his own Middle-guard yet ought it to be with some Brigades of Reserve and by no means in the very Point or Post of the Van. For questionless it is a great errour in a General when his courage shall not suffer his judgment to distinguish betwixt the duties of a common Carabine and the General of an Army As for the lining of the Horse with Musqueteers or at the least with the light-armed whereof we gave a touch before it was not uncommon with the Ancients And it was always held that Horse being thus charged could not resist both And we have a notable example hereof in Hirtius de Bello Afric when Caesar having a march to make and but a small number of Horse with his Legionary Souldiers was set upon in his way by the Enemie abounding with Horse and light-armed Numidians amongst them And when Caesars Souldiers fell out to charge the Enemies Horse retreated and the Foot stood fast until their Horse with a short wheeling about returned upon the Rear of the Enemy to their rescue by which way of fight Caesar himself confessed that he was so perplexed that he found no other course to save himself then to recover some hills of shelter near at hand and that had it not been for them he must have fared worse And for those Musquereers wherewith the King of Swedens Horse at the Battels of Liptzwick and Lutzen were lined they were so shadowed from the Enemie by these Horse that when those of the Enemies came up to the charge they did a very great execution upon them before they were aware and were a main means of
the attainment of those two famous Victories Nor can I apprehend any objection that may with any reason be made against this form of order since hereby these Musqueteers are well secured by their own Horse and the Enemies Horse in extream danger to be terribly galled by these Fire-weapons before they can get up to charge home or so much as to approach within the reach of their Pistols And therefore it seemeth to me very worthy both of acceptation and imitation And these ways of lining of the heavy-armed with the light-armed have not been found to be practised with the Horse onely but with the Pikes also and that as well with the Ancients as those of our time True it is that these light-armed with the Ancients were the Slingers and Darters and were variously ordered sometimes before the Front of the Phalanx or main body of the Pikes sometimes on the Wings sometimes betwixt the Files of the armed fronting in a right line with them sometimes in the Rear of the Battel of the Pikes and of these Aelian makes mention chap. 42. and sometimes also in a quite contrary way as when these light armed were drawn into the midst of the battel it self As for the usual Modern ways they are as all know to place and order the light-armed men which are the Musqueteers in the Wings and sometimes in the Front of the Battel of Pikes And the Swedish Discipline introduced an intermingling of the Musqueteers with small bodies and maniples of Pikes the which nevertheless were so bestowed in the Sections and Divisions of those bodies as not to be discovered by the assaulting Enemies until they felt them And surely if the Garb of the Time would allow it I see not why some of our long-Bowe-men which as the World knows have been the fame of our Nation might not be employed in these services mixed together with our Musqueteers nor why they should not execute to great purpose especially upon Horse And if some of them were ordered in the very Rear of the body of Pikes they would not onely be shadowed from the view of the Enemy but might be drawn up without any confusion or trouble to any other part as occasion should require nay standing firm in the very Rear of all they may questionless do very great service and especially before the Armies join by delivering their Vollies of Arrows over all that stand before them the which as many of them as fall upon any Horse-Troops and with their barbed heads stick and hang fast where they fall as they will certainly do they cannot chuse but cause a mighty confusion nay their very sticking in the ground in the way of a Horse-Troop must needs dazle their sight and amaze them For I am clearly of their opinion who hold that the long-Bowe is preferable to the Musquet in these respects In that many ranks of Archers yea all of them should they stand ten in depth may deliver their whole Vollie at once whereas the Musqueteers can do this with one rank onely at once or at the most after the Swedish way with three as also in regard that the arrow strikes as well in descent as at point-blank the bullet onely at point-blank In that the Bowe may far better be used in wet weather then the Musquet and is withal surer to take whereas the Musquet oftentimes fails in taking fire In that the Bowe is undoubtedly more prevalent against the horse then the Musquet for though a horse be shot thorow with a bullet he is yet for a while able to bear his Rider and to do service but if a barbed arrow do but hang in any part of a horse he becomes altogether unmanageable and so unserviceable And lastly in that as aforesaid though the arrow should miss its mark yet it s very sticking in the ground and especially when a whole Volley doth so proves not onely terrible to the horse but cumbersome both to horse and man and that in all grounds and at all assaults I know well that in some particulars the Musquet also is preserable to the Bowe as behind a Rampart and thorow loop-holes and in that a good Musquet duly charged will carry point-blank to the distance of twelve score whereas an Archer especially now adays can scarce shoot so far at random It may be also that the Musquet is more terrible and scareth an un-accustomed man more then the Bowe But for all this I know not but that they may both pass in Cameradeship nor do I know all things considered why the new invention of the Pike and Bowe united should find so little entertainment amongst us as it hath done unless it be that now adays we have given over our selves to take up all things upon meer trust rather then reason though evidenced by demonstration But because we have spoken much of the lining of Horse with Musqueteers in a battel it may well be expected that somewhat should be said touching the placing and ordering of these Horse and of this I find the common and usual way to be to dispose them in the Wings Thus did Alexander at his passage over the River Granicus as Arrian recordeth lib. 2. and Curtius lib. 3. So did Antigonus as Diodorus Siculus hath it lib. 19. And so Ptolomie in his battel against Demetrius as the same Author saith in the same Book And in brief all the Macedonians and Grecians unless some especial cause urged an alteration did the like And so the Romanes also since them And indeed so it hath continued almost in all ages even to this Nevertheless I hold it not amiss upon many occasions to place and order some Troops of Horse in the very Rear of the Army provided that some large intervals be left in the divisions of the bodies of the Foot that thorow them these Horse may be drawn up to charge when need requires for hereby these Horse shall both be shadowed from the Enemies sight and may be drawn to a charge in any part of the Army wheresoever And of this also we find both old and new examples as of old in the War between the Romanes and Spaniards mentioned by Livie Cecab 3. lib. 9. wherein the Ausetanes the Illergetes with some others are said to leave broad intervals betwixt the Wings and the middle part of their Battel to give passage to their Horse to come up to all charges And I find the like likewise to be practised by the King of Sweden in the battel of Liptzwick where he ordered divers Reserves of Horse in the Rears whence they were drawn up and did very good service towards the atchievement of that famous Victory Sometimes also it hath been found that the Horse have been ordered in the Front of the body of Pikes But I believe that this was onely done when that side did much exceed the other in number and strength of Horse and when there was some distrust in the worth of the Foot As in that battel
weather contagion of sickness or the strength of the Enemie And thus far concerning such considerations and Counsels as are aforehand to be taken in point of an Invasive War As for such as are to be practised in a War Defensive though the surest Defence is Offence yet such as are forced unto it are by all means to assure themselves of their neighbours by Leagues or by provision of Treasure to defray all charges or by an Army so governed by discretion that no fight be admitted in heat and rashness and yet so avoided that the Army may not seem to forbear the battel for fear which may utterly discourage the common Souldier or encourage the Enemy but rather as done out of policie And withal that the Country be on all sides wasted where the Enemy is to pass so that nothing may be found for him to make use of And in the interim the defensive Army to be commodiously entrenched having withal a guard upon the Enemies Army on all sides that no relief or as little as may be may be brought unto it This defensive War may also be maintained by the erecting of Forts and the fortifying of Towns for hereby the Defendants may not onely secure their lives from all sudden irruptions and keep short the Enemy from relief but defer battels at pleasure and thereby abate the Enemies heat and pride As for the parts where these Fortifications are to be raised they are those which may give the most impediment to the Enemies attempts and most security to the Defendants as upon the Sea-coasts the Ports and Landing places and in the Mid-land parts upon Narrows and streight passages and the Capital Cities And these Forts are not to be so great but that they may be manned and furnished as well with Munition as Men without the weakning of the main Army in the field nor to be so small but to be sufficiently capacious to receive the Peasants and the best of their substance in case of necessity CHAP. II. Of a Defensive War how best made and maintained That when a Victory may be gained without blows a Battel is not to be admitted How Troops suspected either for courage or Loyalty are to be ordered in Battel What part of the Enemies Army is first to be charged Requisite considerations in and after battel IN the foregoing Chapter occasionally onely we made some mention touching the avoiding of Battels in case of a defensive War But in this we shall enlarge our advertisements concerning that particular It hath been always a sure maxime of War that whensoever by foresight well grounded Victory cometh towards one without blows or wounds as either by blocking up the passages and so cutting off all supplies or by any the like means that in such cases an Enemie is not to be assaulted nor admitted to the terms of a Battel for it sutes better with the worth of the spirit and the essence of our nature so to direct the course of an action that an Enemy may be conquered rather by Wit then War And hereof we have an example in Caesars Commentaries where Caesar having shut up Afranius and Petreius in a place of advantage although he might have cut them to pieces by an assault yet finding the Victory sure without a fight without blood and without hazard he thus answered his Captains who urged him to storm them Cur secundo Praelio aliquos ex suis amitteret Cur vulnerari pateretur optime de se meritos milites Cur denique fortunam periclitaretur And indeed before the falling upon a battel at any time these following particulars are constantly to be received That a view be taken of the strength of the Army and impartially compared with that of the Enemie That the place of Battel be near some safe Retreat either of a Camp well entrenched and sufficiently left with Guards or some Town of defence near to friend That all courses be taken to give courage and confidence to the Souldiers either by some fit applied words of exhortation or by some incouraging stratagems or by shews of contempt of the Enemies strength or augmentation of his own or by making shew of some secret intelligence from the Enemies Camp or reporting some rumours of their fears and diffidence That in the ordering of the Army to the Battel the Enemies order be heedfully observed as also the site and form of the place and ground where the Battel is to be fought to which an answerable accommodation is in every respect to be observed as well in relation to the form as number of Divisions as also for the ordering of the Artillery to the best use and most annoyance of the Enemie And if there be any new Troops that may be suspected in their worth and especially loyalty That they be placed rather in the Battel or Middle-Guard it self then any of the Wings for being thus ordered they shall neither be so put to it in point of courage if they be wanting that way nor can they find means or scope to fling out or to take advantage to a mischief as if they were ordered in the Wings for the Wings in a set Battel are the strength of it and the principal instruments and it hath ever been found that as long as they stand firm the day stands fair for by them the Enemy is kept from surrounding the main body of the Army And the same Army in the mean time hath the advantage of charging the Enemie in the Flank upon all occasions and oportunities Consideration is also to be had whether it be for the advantage to charge or to attend the charge If to charge which is most approvable in an open Country that then it be performed with the whole Front at once rather then by light skirmishes in the Wings and Corners lest such of these as may chance to be rebutted upon the Main-Vant-guard strike a terrour and perhaps disorder through the whole body of the Army of which there have been infinite examples An especial observation is likewise to be made touching the part of the Enemies Army which is first to be charged With the Ancients and many of the Moderns it was a Maxime that it was to be the weakest part And this was practised by Caesar in his first Battel with Arionistus and by Scipio in Spain And the motives hereunto seem to be in regard that mens judgments are favourable to that which happens well at the first the sequel of every action depending for the most part upon the beginning neither can there be a good end without a good beginning for though a beginning be often disastrous and unlucky and the end fortunate and happy yet before it came to that end there was a fortunate beginning And therefore that an Army might foresee a happy end in a good beginning it was the ground of this Maxime that the beginning of the assault should be with the best of the Army upon the weakest part of the Enemy And
little increased and innovated and to over-tedious and dangerous delays not to speak farther when they are to be had by consent of Parliaments so that the Low-Country way when as now with them it hath gotten a Prescription by Time and a Toleration by Custom seemeth preferrable to them all and especially in regard of the certainty of having them As for the preserving of them when they are gotten I shall onely say that it may be surest done either by melting them into Bullion or VVedges and so to coin them upon occasion as was the practice of the Ancients or to lend them out for some small profit to particular persons upon good caution an especial care being had withal that the Officers of the Exchequers be men of integritie chosen rather out of persons of honourable birth and breeding then of Mechanicks and men of base condition and qualitie And thus we have done all we mean to do about the first principal included under the first Requirable which is Munition CHAP. II. Of Armours of proof Of Buff-Coats and quilted Jacks The length of the Pike Pikes not to be over-long WE shall speak in the next place and in this second Chapter of the second Principal contained under the first Requirable that is of Arms and first of Defensive and those fitted for the bodies of men touching which I shall not particularize in the pieces and names well enough known to every Train-band-man but only enquire into the use and when they seem best fitted for service and for the turn they are provided And first of those called Arms of proof A proof indeed of the degeneration of mens spirits and courage and wherewith the wearers become so over-charged and shackled that they seem chiefly prepared to fight against the shock and brunt of their own coats of Steel and as if bound rather to defend their Arms then their Arms them In which regard for mine own part I find no reason why they should be in any great request For should there be found one man of a thousand so well underlaid as to march or stand under one of them yet shall he not be able to fight no not to keep his legs against the force of a Musquet-shot within point-blank or a level Range for though perhaps it pierce not his thick armour yet shall it sure enough lay the bearer on his back there to lie until he find a Comrade or two to set him on his feet or be troden to death with the prease of his own side And truly there is but little difference either in respect of assistance to his Partie or safetie to himself between a mans being killed by a Musquet-shot by the want of his boysterous Arms and his being overthrown and tortured to death by having them upon him I deny not but such kind of Arms as are defensible against the Sword the push of the Pike and the force of a Pistol-shot may be usefully born and I make it a Quere whether this may not be done as well by a good Buff-coat or at the least by those quilted Jacks in my opinion improvidently left off of late used by our old brave English Archers as by any iron Armour whatsoever for these when they are not pierceable are not wearable and when pierceable make the wound incurable for the most part by having a piece of the iron of the Armour carried into the body before the bullet And certainly unless we will fall out with most of the Ancients in point of credit it must be granted that they had the use of certain linen Arms of excellent proof and use And Justus Lipsius lib. 8. dial 6. out of Nicetus his Chronicle thus describeth one of them Conradus saith he fought without a Target and in lieu of a Curace he had a woven weed made of Flax soaked in sowre Wine well salted withal and often folded It was so sure against outward force being thus fulled salted and folded that it could not be pierced with Iron or Steel Plinie Hist Nat. l. 8. c. 48. also maketh mention of the like And Caesar De Bel. Civ l. 3. hath somewhat to this purpose And truly it is much to be pitied that this Invention hath been lost to our age The next Weapon Defensive especially against Horse is that of the Pike of which the most considerable is the length Touching which it is generally held that it ought not to be shorter then eight Cubits which make twelve foot Some Pikes among the Ancients have been found sixteen foot in length witness Polyenus lib. 2. in Cleon. Sect. 2. where he saith that Cleonymus besieging Edessa and having overthrown the VVall of the City the Pikemen saith he sallied out whose Pikes were sixteen cubits in length And it is not to be denied but that short Pikes are greatly disadvantaged having to do with such as over-lengthen them for with a long Pike a man is able to strike and kill his enemie and himself not be touched And hereof Patricius Parel part 2. l. 3. c. 8. gives us an example at the battel of Sorano where Vitellozze Vitelli discomfited the Almanes only with the advantage of Pikes his saith the Story being an arms length longer then those of the Enemies And at our being at the Island of Rey after the Enemies horse at our first landing charging furiously French-like were most of them slain in the place by our foot and their Bodies of Pikes came up to the push of ours It was observed that our Pikes were longer then theirs and this was thought to be one main cause of our so suddain and thorow routing of them Nevertheless in my opinion a consideration is to be had that no Pikes be admitted to be over-long lest they both exceed the measure of his strength and management that is to use them and by their over-length do over-sway themselves and so by hanging crooked when they are to be charged do hinder both the force and certaintie of their stroke I hold therefore that the proportionable and due length of a Pike may be when the head of the Pike of the fourth man in the depth of the File being charged shall somewhat advance beyond the face and shoulder of the File-leader And the ordinary length now required in Pikes being fifteen foot is well-near answerable hereunto As for the Three-quarter-Pikes and Half-Pikes they are serviceable and proper to be used upon the walls of Towns and behind Ramparts Brest-works and in Trenches but not so for services against Horse and in Campagnia And thus far concerning the Weapons of Defence proper for the bodies of Men. CHAP. III. Of the places and parts fit for Fortification WE are now to give some Advertisements concerning the Defence of Towns and in the first place touching the places and parts fit for Fortification Now these are to be such by Nature as may be made inexpugnable by Art or at the least brought to the nearest terms of being so Of which kindes are
to a great Army march in good safety in all common passages and in a large and open Country several and apart by it self And if it shall be thought that the Train will hereby be over-lengthened it may be helped by dividing it into three parts but in such a manner that the Vant-Guard may take the right hand the Battel the left equalling the Front with the Van and the Rear-Guard with the Ordnance and their appurtenances to march betwixt them both And hereby also the whole Train marching the more closed shall become the stronger and readier and every man prepared to know and fall into his proper rank and place without the least confusion As for the conduction and ordering of the general Carriages and Baggage belonging to an Army when it is to march It hath been found as well with the Ancients as Moderns to be disponed in five several parts As either before the Army when there was a suspicion of the Enemies charging in the Rear or behind when the Army was led towards the Enemy or on the one Flank when there was an expectation to be charged on the other or in the center of the Battel when a charge was looked for on all sides And thus much touching the ordering of an Army in its marching thorough a plain and champion Country it remaineth to speak somewhat about the conduction of an Army over Rivers and the like In which case if the Enemy be in appearance or near unto the Rear it will be fit in the first place to pass over some six or eight Pieces of the smaller sorts of Ordnance and so to lodge them on the other side of the River under good covertures that they may fully discover and play upon that part whence the danger is expected But withal a large half Moon is to be raised on the opposite side wherein the rest of the Ordnance are so to lie mounted that they may play upon all the approaches of the Enemy and withal flanker their friends and so favour them in their passage during the which interim those Pieces on the further side are likewise to be kept in continual play that so the Enemy may not without apparent hazard approach the Rear of the Army And if there be any suspicion of the Enemies falling upon the very tail of the Rear some small entrenchment is to be made wherein some small Pieces may be lodged and guarded with a convenient number of Musqueteers who are there to stay and make good the place until the Army be passed over the River and then themselves are last of all to take their passage in the last Boats under the favour of those Guns planted at the first on the further side of the River And in this manner did that famous Prince of Parma make his passage with his Army over the deep River Wale when Henry IV. of France with his Army followed him a long march in his Rear Thus I say may an Army make his passage over a River with Boats with good security though an Army of Enemies follow it in the Rear But if an Enemie lie on the further side of the River of purpose to hinder the passage of an Army over it then that course is very approvable which in the like case was put in practice by that super-eminent Commander the King of Swedeland when Tilly was on the further side of the River to oppose him who to that purpose made choice of a point of land so made by the serpentine bending of the River that he was to pass over the bank whereof on the side where the Kings own Army lay being a Pikes length higher then was that on Tillies side being also plain and without covert but the Enemies side Woodie and close Upon this point the King caused a running Trench to be cast up round about wherein Musqueteers were so lodged that out of it they might with good security give fire into the opposite Wood where Tilly with his Army lay in covert And the same Line or Trench had a great Battery besides at each end of it whereon some Demy-Cannons and Culverins were mounted with many lesser Batteries betwixt them for some smaller Pieces all alongst the point the which also were every where lined and intermingled with Musqueteers The Bridge for the passage of the Kings Army for by a Bridge they were forced to pass was made with Planks and the like materials The means to support this Bridge was by certain strong Tressels whose feet were long enough to fathom the depth of the River And these Tressels had great stones made fast to their legs wherewith to sink them and the length of the Tressels were proportioned to the just depth of the River in every place where they were to be placed so that the Planks upon the uppermost part of the Bridge were to lie almost even with the surface of the water The Bridge thus fitted and laid over the Kings Pioneers were instantly commanded to pass over upon it and cast up a small Half Moon with a Pallisado fitted unto it upon that side of the River the which works were so contrived as that they did answer in every particular those of the Enemies made for his Musqueteers and withal served to cover the Bridge and to latch such great shot as should be made upon the Bridge And these Pioneers were secured in their workings by the Cannons and Musqueteers of their Party lodged on the opposite side of the River Now the reasons inducing to the choice of the Part and the manner of the Works were in that the crookedness and serpentine course of the River did afford a conveniencie by flanking it on every side to defend the Bridge being laid over just upon the point of land so that it could not be touched by any of the Enemies Batteries though they were on each side thereof because by the sudden shouldering away of the bank of the River at either end none of the Enemies Cannon could bear or beat upon the Bridge but that either the bullets fell short being latched by the Half Moon aforesaid and the heighth of the bank of the River or else flew quite over the Kings Leaguer and so did no execution By which means the Kings Army passed over safely and being over routed the Enemy and killed their General that brave old man And thus you have some rules and advertisements about the conduction of an Army over Rivers by Boats and Bridges But if an Army be to pass over a River by a Foord and an Enemy ready to resist on the further side As it is to be known that that Army runs a great hazard which is thus put to it so is it not to be practised but upon most urging causes and then with all cautions possible among which I shall propound these following That in the passage the most of the Horse be ordered to pass in the Front and the Foot to march close up after them for the Horse
are better able and provided to sustain the Enemies resistance at their landing then the Foot who must needs be much encumbred and tired by their wading thorow the water and especially if the Foord be broad or deep And besides the Horse thus marching in Front shall oportunely discover the condition of the passage where it is at best and worst and may also be ready to relieve and succour any of the Foot that by any accident may be endangered in the water And this was Caesars order in his British War in his passage over the River of Thames and at the River Sicoris in his Spanish War And if the Foord be deep and withal of a swift current it will be necessary to place a great number both of Horse and other great Cattle as well above the part where the Army is to Foord it as also below for hereby the Horse that stand above will break the force of the Current and the Horse that stand below may succour and take up any such as shall happen to be overswayed by the force of the stream and withal add courage to the Souldiers in general to adventure And this course was practised by Hannibal in a passage of his Army over the River Po where in stead of Horse his Elephants were thus ordered to this purpose A second course to this end but requiring more time though with less peril may be to abate the depth of the Foord and violence of the Current by dividing the River into many Chanels As Cyrus did the River Euphrates when he took Babylon from Baltazzer and Semiramis the same River if we credit Herodotus long before as afterwards Alexander Neither hath this practice been altogether amongst the Ancients for at the last siege of the Town of the Borse when the States took it in that small River that ran through the Town was so diverted that the Town was not only streightned in point of water but all such Passages and Avenues drowned as might have facilitated a Reliefe from abroad and the approaches upon the Town it self made by far more easie and accessible As for the kindes of Bridges proper for these conveyances of Armies over Rivers whereof we spake of one even now Of these there are many sorts but those most in use and indeed most commendable as are made upon flat-bottom Boats or Punts wheresoever these are to be procured But withal whatsoever the Bridges be or howsoever contrived it is to be received for a Maxime that whensoever an Army is to pass over any of them and the Enemie within the distance of half a days march no part of the Army ought to be severed from the main Body that no advantage may be taken by the Enemy to intercept or come between them and their Friends And this holds not onely in the passages by Bridges but by Boats or Foords or any other And thus you have directions for the marshalling of Armies in a march And these well observed though an Army should be forced to march even by night need no other additions save onely that extraordinary care be had in providing a sufficient number of able Guides which are to be distributed throughout the whole Army That a well chosen Watch-word be given whereby every Piece and individual Person may be known one to another That many Altes be made to hold all the parts together and no Stragglers lost That the quantity and length of the march be so laid and with that discretion limited that the Souldiers be neither disabled by over-long journeys nor oportunities lost by sickness and lastly that especial endeavour be practised to procure good intelligence of the Enemies proceedings As for such marches as are to be made over Mountains thorow Woods and Boggie and Marish grounds and the like it is not to be expected that any certainty can be prescribed as touching their forms for they are to be accommodated to the ground and ways that necessity throws them upon and commonly are extended in great lengths made passable by the labour of Pioneers but best secured by vigilancie CHAP. VIII Of the ordinary way of ordering a Royal Army to Battel The Leaders in this order where to place themselves and who to be A censure of the defects of this order formerly described Of the Generals placing himself betwixt the Battel and the Rear The best place for the General in a battel Of the lining of the Horse with the light-armed or Musqueteers Of the long-Bowe how to be ordered and employed wherein it is preferable and hath the advantage of the Musquet How the Horse are most advantagiously ordered and placed in a battel The best Forms and proportions of Horse-battels The censure upon these Forms and the use of them The depth that Horse-battels are to be ordered into Of some words of Command both to Horse and Foot Of doubling Files and Ranks and the use of them A modern form of ordering a Fight much approved of Why an Army is thus to be ordered Objections answered IN the last foregoing Chapter we propounded some directions how Armies were to march In this we shall speak of the forms of embattelling them to fight and shall purposely omit many sorts of them as being to little or no purpose save to express the cunning of a curious Serjeant-Major-General and to please wanton Spectators but shall apply my self to such as are most of use The customary way of ordering an Army-Royal to a Battel as well Anciently as more Modernly hath been to divide it into three Battaliaes or main Bodies and these three Bodies have been and yet are by some Nations ordered into one joint Phalanx by others distributed into maniples or small divisions Between which divisions for the prevention of some confusions they leave intervals or distances that by them and through them one Battel or Body may the more conveniently second the other And the breadth and depth of these maniples are to be made answerable to the Enemies forces and the nature of the ground but with such distances that if the Vant-guard should happen to be broken it may conveniently retreat thorow them behind the Battel which thereupon is to joyn and advance and so to renew the Front and receive the Enemy afresh And in the like manner upon the like occasion is the Battel to do behind the Rear And as the one Body is thus relieved by another so may one maniple by another and that without either the advancing or retire of the whole Body As for the Leaders of these several Bodies those of the Vant-guard are to be the Lord Marshal with the one half of the Colonels and half of the Captains having the best men in the Front And in a retreat the same men are to bring up that Rear The Leaders of the Battel and of the Rear are to be the other half of the Colonels and Captaius As for the Generalissimo's place according to this order it is to be between the Battel and the
over-winging of the Enemy or else to make the fairer shew and outside of an Army whereby to dis-hearten the Enemy and withal to deceive him The doubling of the Files or Depth to be done either in respect of the straitness and narrowness of the place or for the better strengthening of the battel or to draw an Enemy to fight when you have the advantage of him And thus have you the Genuine uses of both these kinde of doublings as well in length as depth wherein nevertheless due heed is to be taken that in doubling of the Front there be not given so much length that it fail in its due depth nor so much depth that the Front be over-narrowed and so subject to be environed the want of length and depth in an ordered Army for a battel being equally disadvantagious and reprovable For when it is embattelled over-shallow it can endure no shock when over-deep it is easily encompassed and in danger to be utterly ruined that way To comply therefore with all these advantages and provide against the defects I shall describe a modern form of embattelling an Army for a fight that hath received a very general approbation and deserves as general an imitation And it is in this manner supposing the Army to consist of twenty thousand men all other numbers being to be proportioned accordingly in the Front of the Van are to be Wings of the best Troops of Horse to be somewhat advanced before the main Front of the foot of the Van These Horse to be divided into several maniples or small bodies and the Divisions to be well lined with Musqueteers The Van of the Battel or Middle-Guard to be ordered into four Brigades of Pikes and Musqueteers the middle Front of every Brigade being to be somewhat advanced before which part the Artillery is to be placed and to secure it three divisions of Musqueteers with some Troops of Horse near unto them are to be ordered immediately behinde these four Brigades and all these bodies are to be well lined with Musqueteers in every one of their Divisions and for a strength to these also some Cannons may be placed in the Rear of them all In the Rear of the right Wing is to be placed rwelve Troops of Horse and as many in the Rear of the left Wing As for the Rear of the main Battel or Middle-Guard it is to be ordered into three Brigades of Foot the which are to serve for a Reserve of that Body And every middle Front of each Brigade to be somewhat advanced as those in the Van. And in the Rear of all these two half Regiments of Horse of five Troops apiece Now the grounds of this order of embattelling of an Army for a battel are these That every part of it consisting thus of several maniples and small Bodies if any one of them should happen to be broken yet is there not so much danger any thing near as when an Army is ranged into great Battalions because they may with far more ease by reason of the agility of their motion as being little Bodies and the small piece of ground which they take up to move in be restored and supplied then a main great Body can possibly be Secondly In that though the thinness of the Files which are said to be at the best when they are not above six in depth may not perhaps be able to endure any main shock or force yet by this order shall more hands be brought up to fight at once then can be in great Bodies and shall also be more able to do execution on the sudden Thirdly In that in this order every part so fenceth flankers and backs one another and is so apt to second relieve and support one another so ready either to send out supplies or to receive them as that the whole Body looks like some Master-Piece of Fortification and indeed becomes so having as it were its Bastils Towers Bulworks and several Retreats So that though many several and individual persons may chance to be laid on the ground yet shall the whole order be preserved from being dis-joynted and much more the great Body of the Army from being routed Thus I have laid down a forme of ranging an Army for a Battel which some have stiled Admirable And yet I must tell you that it hath not been free from objections and those made by some old Souldiers or at the least Souldiers of elder time For first they say that in respect that private Companies cannot hold long in their full strength and due numbers being in the Field by reason of sickness slaughter and the like accidents that thus to order an Army into small bodies and as it were into private and particular Companies by themselves their Vollies of shot can neither be great nor the harm great that the Enemy shall receive by them But to this it may be answered that we speak not here of the ordering of particular Companies by themselves but of small Bodies made up of private Companies as cause shall require so that though it be true that the strength of the Army may be weakned by these accidents of death or otherwise yet the divisions may stand fast and full Though it is as true that there will be fewer Divisions which makes nothing against the order in general Secondly these Objectors say That the mixing of the Shot and Pikes together in distinct Companies weakneth and disableth the whole Body for say they by casting off the Shot in this manner the intervals and streets are made so empty and wide that the Enemies Horse are enabled to break in and disorder them And if the Shot be not thus cast off but kept close and so made to discharge in Countermarch they are hereby apt to be thronged together by the Pikes and the distance of place being taken from them the use of their weapons also must needs fail them and so all come to ruine But to this Objection also it may be answered That all this may be helped by the uniting of these bodies into one as shall be found necessary nor need these Shot be so removed from their Body of Pikes by any casting off but that they may be reunited with ease on a sudden nor shall they be thronged by their Pikes or deprived of their distances of place because they shall not need holding this order to discharge at all in Countermarch Thirdly and lastly it is objected against this foresaid order of embattelling an Army into small Bodies that in what manner soever the Shot be employed there must needs be a weakness in the Rear so that the Enemies Horse may break in at pleasure But to this it is again replied that the uniting of the small Divisions being carefully observed assureth against all these assaults and perils And that all these objections fall rather upon the embattelling of a single Regiment then the forming of a Battel or Army made up of ten or twenty thousand men And thus
yet contrary to this Axiome that absolute and glorious Souldier the brave King of Sweden in the battel of Lutzen gave order to have the strongest part of the Enemies Battel to be first charged For seeing the Cuirassiers of the Enemies Horse in one Division by themselves in the Front and the Crabrats the light-armed in another Charge home saith he to one of his prime Commanders these black companions in their compleat Arms for these are they will put us to it as for the Crabrats I care not for them By which it is manifest that the ground of this his direction was that the flower of the Enemies Army being well put to it at the first and this was likeliest to be done best when his men were at the freshest if they should once be routed it would not onely occasion a dismay to the part where they were but leave an easier task for the routing of all the rest behind Neither for my part do I find less reason for this then the Ancients and the others did for their practice Lastly Care is to be taken before the charge be given that a Watch-word or rather some particular signe and visible token or both the one and other be imparted to the whole Army that in all medlies they may be known one to another and distinguished from the Enemy and then to give the signal of Battel And the rather if either any fear or disorder be perceived amongst the Enemy or a forward desire and heat to the fight with his own men And these are the observations and directions requirable before a battel be accepted and joined The requirables in and after it are these following That during the heat of the fight a vigilant eye be carried upon all mutations that so all disorders may in due time be either prevented or repaired That if the General after the fight finde his side to have the worst of it he act according to that which shall be observed in the Enemies order and the courage of his own men and so apply himself either to rejoin or retire executing accordingly with vertue industry and providence That if after the fight he find himself to have the best of it he thorowly to his uttermost prosecute his Victory and take from the Enemy all means of reuniting his Forces That he equally distribute the spoil with a due respect to the quality of the persons and vertue of the deservers lest as now adays in the disordered discipline of the age those come to most gettings which come to least blows That over and above the common distributions all eminencie of worth wheresoever it be found be rewarded And herein were to be wished a renovation of that Roman way to give some portable marks of honour together with a sufficiencie of competent subsistence That on the other side all Cowardice be punished even to the least touch of it wheresoever it shall be found That mercy be used to Captives and good Quarter given them That the dead on both sides be buried That the acceptable sacrifice of thanksgiving be offered to the great giver of Victories as the gift earnestly and humbly craved of him before at and after the attempt CHAP. III. Of the pursuit of a Victory Reasons for pursuing a beaten Army rather then taking in Towns Of mercy to Captives termed Giving of Quarter Of Quarter to be given to Neuters Orders to be observed in the taking of Prisoners HAving in the last foregoing Chapter made onely a mention of the pursuing of Victories and the shewing of mercy to Captives in the very latter end of the Chapter we shall in this enlarge our selves touching both these particulars as being points of main consequence and concernment Touching the pursuing of a Victory after the gaining of a Battel it hath been much controverted amongst the greatest Commanders whether after the routing of an Enemies Army the broken Army should be thoroughly pursued or the Conquerours should apply themselves to the taking in of some Frontier Towns belonging to the beaten side Those that hold for the taking in of Towns have delivered these reasons That the great astonishment that generally befalleth to such as are beaten out of the Field doth commonly so extend it self to all the Members of that party that meer fear may procure a rendry of a strong place at the very first summons or within two or three days which at another time would not be carried in twelve moneths or perhaps not at all Secondly That the taking in of one strong Town is many times of as much importance as the routing of a fresh Army of the Enemies and especially when hereby the Enemy shall be deprived of all Retreats in those parts Thirdly That a routed Army thinks of nothing but flight and therefore is not to be overtaken and staid without great difficulties and much harrasing and toyl of the pursuers Fourthly That a beaten Army thus flying falls to pieces of it self and deserves not any great regard much less are any important oportunities to be neglected upon this consideration On the other side such as argue for the thorow pursuit of a beaten and flying Army alledge that hereupon the one of these two effects must necessarily follow either that the Enemies Army shall hereby be absolutely defeated or that they shall be constrained to capitulate for their Retreat whereas if they shall be quietly suffered to pass without a perfect Rout their able Commanders may find means in a short time to become once more able to march For mine own part when I consider of the reasons on each side I am made the most inclinable to those that hold for the thorow pursuit of the beaten Army For though a Victory by the gaining of a battel may perhaps strike some terrour amongst Besognes and fresh-water Souldiers and with such procure an easie rendry of such Towns as are manned with such men yet with old Souldiers though beaten having true Commanders who always sell themselves dear it procureth a quite contrary effect and obstinateth them to all kinds of possible defence Besides though the taking of some one strong Town may as it may be sited prove as gainful as the routing of an Army of the Enemies yet whensoever the taking of any such place shall cost much time it shall not onely weaken the Victorious Army that besiegeth it and retard it from making use of the Victory lately gotten but give the beaten Enemy liberty and opportunity to reinforce their Troops safe-guard their Ordnance and either by way of diversion as falling upon some other part or by making head against the besieging Enemy himself and cutting him short from Victual quite alter the Face and fortune of the War Again though a routed Army may perhaps for the time think of nothing but a flight and this may hasten it so as may cost some time and labour in the pursuit yet being hotly pursued by the Horse onely of the Victorious side it must needs suffer
extreamly and especially the Infantry part and ten to one in the loss of their Artillery and Baggage And all this done without any great or remarkable disturbance or harassing to the pursuing Army whose very Horse alone is to put hard to it upon the chase the foot having liberty to march fair and easily after and may come time enough nevertheless to fall up with the flying Enemy being thus retarded by the Horse And I am confirmed in this opinion by sundry presidents amongst which two are very punctual set down by that able French Commander La Noue in the domestick Wars of France during his time being the one of them that Siege of Poitiers which became the ruine of the Army of those of the Religion after their Victory at Rochebelle the other that of St. Jean d'Angelie which proved the like to the French Papistical Army after their Victory at the battel of Moncontour Whereas on the contrary the King of Sweden after all his gained battels did hotly and thorowly pursue the utter overthrow of his Enemies scattered Troops and in regard of that neglected or at the least suspended the taking in of any of the neighbor Towns whereabout the battels were fought And by this course prevailed to admiration And thus much touching this great controverted point Whether after a Victory in the field the routed Army be to be pursued to an utter ruine or the Victory to be made use of by the besieging of some Towns belonging to that beaten side As for the mercy that upon the attainment of a Victory is to be shewed to the Captives generally received under the name of giving good Quarter and by the French called Bonne Guerre it prohibits not onely the killing and murthering of any much less of women and children or the slaying of any in cold bloud or the not receiving such to mercie that is the not giving of them their lives who shall give up themselves and their Arms prisoners after the fight is over but also all base and bar barous ravishments of women and the like cruelties And withal as it is now in practice in our neighbour-wars all prisoners being enrolled Souldiers are to be freed at the ransome of a moneths pay according to their several conditions But this general rule is not without some exceptions for if the Governour of a besieged Town or Fort shall defend the place he commands so obstinately that it be stormed and entered by force and so by an assault taken and hereupon he yields himself after the heat and violence of the fight be over to a private Souldier it shall nevertheless be lawful without any breach of Quarter for the General of the assaulting Armie to make him die because this his obstinate and wilful defence was a trespass against the person of the General and the whole Armie and cannot be priviledged by any condition with a private person Also if a private Souldier shall give Quarter to any Fugitive or Spie or any one that hath at any time practised foul War or broken Quarter or to any other which hath formerly deserved death for some capital offence it is at the Generals pleasure whether this shall be made good unto him or not Likewise if during the fight of a Battel many prisoners have Quarter given them upon the routing of some parts of that Army and afterwards some parts and divisions of it as the Battel or the Rear holding firm give on so stoutly as that the fortune of the day inclines to a change and those that had the best of it at the first begin to be shaken and in danger it shall in this case be held no crueltie nor breach of Quarter though those prisoners that were taken at the first and had Quarter promised be presently slain in the field by such as took them because otherwise they may endanger those that took them or at the least ask more hands for their safe keeping then the exigent will allow to be idle And thus befel it in one of our bravest battels with the French in France where the French prisoners which were taken at the beginning of the battel upon Quarter which were very many and many of note upon a second charge given by the Duke d'Alenzon were all commanded to be slain which cost the French doubly dear the loss of all their prisoners and the utter routing of their puissant Army It is thought also by some that the subjects of a State Neutral that shall entertain Traffique with an Enemy to another State may by that State be made prize and no Quarter to be given them at least least in point of goods For say they though they do not this out of any affection of either love or hatred but only to make their benefit and not to any proposed relief yet doth this transport of Merchandise prove a plain and direct aid And in that regard howsoever brought to the Enemie deserveth to be punished with confiscation at the least because that out of them Customs and Imposts are raised whereby their War is maintained But of the right of this I make a Querie thinking it rather to be understood onely of Munition and Materials of that nature for otherwise it must necessarily overthrow all manner of Trade and set the whole World together by the ears Touching such orders as are to be observed in the taking of Prisoners by those taht take them I finde them to have been these by those of our own Nation That if any Common Souldier did take a prisoner and another coming up at the same time should challenge the half of his ransome or else threaten to kill the Prisoner the menacer was to have no part at all of it no though the taker of him had made him any such promise And if the Menacer did kill the Prisoner he should be under Arrest with the Marshal untill he compound with the partie for the loss of his Prisoner and besides he was to forfeit his Horse and Arms to the Constable That if any Souldier in any fight did beat down any one of the Enemie and so leaving him pursue on in the chase or fight and another come up after him and take the same man prisoner this Prisoner thus beaten down and thus taken when he was to be ransomed was to pay the one half of his ransome to him that first struck him down and the other half to him that took him prisoner That whosoever he were that took any Prisoner he was as soon as possibly he could to present him to his Captain or Commander upon the penalty of losing his part of the Prisoners ransom to the said Captain or Commander and the Captain or Commander to present this Prisoner to the General Constable or Marshal of the Army before any other speak with him that so his examination might be duly taken And this to be done under the penaltie of losing his Thirds of the Prisoners ransome which otherwise was due unto him by
hold all passages to invest Towns on a fuddain to answer Alarms and to give them to command the Field to make a spoil to cut off all supplies either of Victuals or Munition then any Foot can possibly have And thus we have done with these two particulars and finish the Chapter CHAP. VI. Of Stratagems of War How to breed a causless fear or the contrary To give assurance to the besieged being in fear To draw an Enemy to an over-daring or into an over-security To discover whether a Town lately received to Quarter be to be trusted How to appease an Army mutinying for pay upon a fight To avoid Battel when an Enemie is far too strong or to entice him to Battel when too weak Of desperate attempts in a desperate condition they are to be charily and warily handled To prevent partial respects in giving of Counsel IN the last Chapter having laid down some rules for the ordering and disposing of Ambushments we shall in this take occasion from them to intimate somewhat concerning Stratagems of War And because these are so diversified and varied upon several occasions that for the most part they are in that respect beyond any set rules we shall onely particularize in such as being of the most general extention may happily be made use of by way of Renovation and Imitation And we will begin with a stratagem whereby a besieged Enemie may be couzened and terrified by a supposed Mine when there is none And this was practised by Philip King of Macedon not the father of the great Alexander but he who was afterwards vanquished and subdued by the Romanes who besieging the Town of Prinassus attempted it by a Mine but finding the earth and part so stonie that it despaired him of success that way he caused his Pioneers to continue the semblance of working and to make an extraordinary noise under ground and the more to add a belief of their working he caused a great quantitie of earth to be brought secretly in the nights from elsewhere and so laid in heaps at the entrance and mouth of the supposed Mine that the Enemie might well discern it and suppose that it was taken and digged out of the Mine And after some time spent in this manner he summoned those of the Town to a rendition sending them word that by his underminings their Towns Wall to the quantity of two acres of ground stood onely upon wooden props to which whensoever he did give fire that part of their Wall would lie flat on the ground the which if they did attend and cause him to enter by a breach they were not to expect any Quarter or Mercie and therefore wished them to consider of their condition and to do as they found cause Now the Prinessians little thinking that these heaps of earth which they saw had been brought from other places but that it had been taken out of the Mine so lost their courages as that they suffered themselves to be out-braved and thereupon gave up their Town upon a meer panick fear And as this was a Stratagem to occasion and work upon a false fear so these three following were to recover from the like The Souldiers of Alexanders Army being on the sudden in a great fear of they knew not what Alexander at that very instant caused them all to be disarmed whereby they became assured that this would not have been commanded if there had been any present danger Clearchus to pacifie a foolish consternation and uproar of this nature amongst his men proclaimed a reward to him that could tell who had sent the Ass into the Camp And thus by doing somewhat quite contrary to that which the peril would have required had it been true he gave a full assurance against that which was false and which his men had onely fashioned in their amazed imaginations and conceits The third example to this purpose which withal also expressed a magnanimitie which both sustained Reputation and augmented it was that act of the Romanes which was done when Hannibal made his bold approach upon the City of Rome whilest the main of the Romane forces were at the Siege of Capua For the Commanders at Rome finding that the City by reason hereof was subject to Fears and Tumults at the very same instant caused a supply that had formerly been appointed for Spain to march out of the City at one Gate in pursuit of their first Resolution whilest the Carthaginian Armie lay before the other whereby they not onely checked the bold confidence of the Enemie but took off that fear which clouded their own Valour To which purpose also that very piece of ground on which the Carthaginian Armie lay encamped was at the same time sold in Rome and bought saith the Story nothing at all under the Value but at the same rate as if it had been in the former times of peace The which act and sale so madded even Hannibal himself that to make a shew of being even with them he made a Port-sale of all the Silver-Smiths Shops which were near about the Market or Common place in Rome As if he would seem to think that his own Title and Interest to those Shops within the Town was no jot worse then any Romane Citizens to that piece of ground where his Tent stood But this Counter-piece of Hannibals was not of so good stuff as that of the Romanes for their act was indeed a thorough manifestation of an assurance grounded hopefully and was onely acted to stir up the courages of their men whereas Hannibals was only a passionate shew and an angry Brave of a continuance in a hope which he well knew was already past His Victuals being at the same time so near at an end that of all those Hopes and Ends which he had propounded to himself by this his approach so near unto Rome the fame onely of his much daring is left to posterity It is true that Hannibal partly was quit with these Romanes by a Stratagem of another nature that he put in practice at Tarentum when having surprised the Town and entering it at two several Gates so that the Romane Garison with the Governour were forced to retire themselves into the Citadel the which it behooved Hannibal speedily to take in in regard of the Vicinitie of the Romane Armie he addressed himself against it in such a manner of Brave as was likely to provoke the Garison to a Sallie hoping hereby to give them such a blow as might disable them to defend the piece any longer And according to his expectation the Romanes not enduring in such a slighting fashion to be approached upon sallied out in a heat of furie with most of their bravest men and charged them home But Hannibal having ordered beforehand that his men should thereupon fall back as if they were terrified until he had drawn out as many of the besieged Romanes as he could and as far from their strength as he could he then gave the
Souldiers whereby saith he of himself Caesar both engaged his Captains to a dependencie upon him in respect of their Lone and won the affection of his Souldiers by his Largess and made them willing to fight Now though an Army be never so well affected to their General and as willing thereupon to engage their lives in his Quarrel and under his conduction as can be wished yet when an over-powerful Enemie is to be encountered and ready for a battel it is the wisdom of an able General by all means to seek to avoid it Towards which this Stratagem following much conduceth and may be drawn into President as it is set down in Polien lib. 4. in vit Antig. and practised by Antigonus when he was encamped in the face of Enmenes his Armie but with an Armie by much inferiour in number At what time Messengers or rather Spies being interchangeably sent from one to another Antigonus at the receipt of a Messenger from the Enemie which he expected had fore-appointed that one of his Souldiers should come running and as it were breathless and all to be dusted and sweaty and tell him that all his Confederates were arrived Upon which Tale Antigonus expressing much joy presently dismissed the Enemies Messenger without more ado And the very next day he brings his Army out of his Trenches doubling the length of his Front to make his Armie carry the greater shew The which the Enemie seeing and having heard the report of their Messenger and observing the breadth of Antigonus his battel and imagining that the depth was answerable to it he suddenly dislodged and was afraid to joyn battel with him which was the onely thing that Antigonus desired And as this is a Stratagem to shun and decline a Battel when the Enemie is found too strong so this other succeeding is very pertinent on the other side to draw and entice him to a fight when he is known too weak And this Stratagem also is mentioned by Polienus Lib. 2. in Cleandridas Sect. 4. where Cleandridas making War upon the Thurians and having double the number of men in his Army to that of his Enemie and conceiving that if he did but know so much he should never bring him to a battel To deceive him and embolden him by his ignorance in the embattelling of his Armie or Phalanx he ordered it into an extraordinary depth whereupon the Enemie apprehending by the narrowness of the Front that Cleandridas was very weak in number contemning his small strength drew out his Forces in breadth with an intent to environ him The which Cleandridas perceiving commanded the one half of his Files to march up and rank with their Leaders and thereby so over-fronted the Enemie on a sudden unexpectedly assaulting him withal with missive weapons on all sides as he utterly routed him As touching the practice of desperate attempts in Military Actions upon desperate exigents It may prove sometimes a profitable Stratagem to attempt and put that in execution which otherwise in it self were contrary to Reason it self and the very Art of War which may be grounded upon this That in regard a wary and able Commander and Generall not onely passeth upon tried and sure Grounds himself but even from thence and the very same Rules expecteth the like from others upon finding the contrary practised by his Enemie beyond his apprehension and expectance he may thereby be happily so disturbed in his set Resolutions and Courses and be so new to seek as may before he can recal himself out of his amazes give oportunity to the desperate attempter to free himself out of his desperate condition And Examples proving thus much are to be found put upon even Caesar himself by the Nervii registred by himself in his Commentaries cap. 10. as also in that battel of his with Pharnaces And in our Modern Wars this practice hath proved successful more then once in those violent Civil Broyls in France True it is that these ways and stratagems are to be charily and very sparingly handled and onely upon most urging if not desperate occasions For Temeritas non semper Foelix Since therefore there is so much of Advice and Counsel requirable in all Actions of War we will conclude this Treatise with a preventative Policie or Stratagem for the taking away of false or flattering respects in the point of delivering opinions For it being over-commonly found that through the obsequious dependance upon some Favourite or great Man a general consent and compliance is produced to say as he saith or vote as he votes a fatal disease in all great Assemblies though perhaps it be either the worst that can be or at the least none of the best and by this means the truest judgements remain concealed To remedie this dangerous and deadly mischief the wise Cosmo di Medici and herein also imitated by Philip the second of Spain used to propound his most difficult and important Causes and Propositions in Writing and so delivered them to every one of his Counsellors apart commanding them to return their opinions in the same manner to him together with their reasons and upon his highest displeasure not to communicate any piece of them with any other before his first view And after the receipt of them all he would cause them all to appear in Council with him and in his presence to defend and maintain their several Judgements and Opinions with their best Arguments A course certainly full of excellent freedome and for many respects far better then that the youngest Counsellour should speak first who sometimes may be so skilful in Courtship of this nature as to be led by looks And besides it alloweth these Counsellours a fit time of deliberation to think upon what they have to say it being dangerous in these Cases or any of weight either Divine or Humane be the Speakers never so able to be too forward to put themselves upon Extempories FINIS