how to do it First saith he let the front of your Army be Marshal'd equal with that of your Second enemy then says he let your front retire by little and little and your flanks standing still shall environ your enemy I doubt not but Machiavel thought this a squint device but it is a fancy only beseeming a Gentleman of the long robe If he had said let your Battel stand and your wings extend themselves he had spoke some sense but a front to retire is an improper speech and unintelligible in the Art of War for in strict and proper language a Front and a Reer consists but each of them of one rank whether that be of ten a hundred a thousand ten thousand or twenry thousand Men or Horse so the first rank which is the Front cannot retire further than six or three foot allowed to be between it and the second rank unless all the ranks and consequently the whole Batallion retire I grant there be some who will have the half of the ranks to be the Front and the other half the Reer as in our Foot Batallions which are six deep the three first ranks make the Front the other three the Reer but this as I think is not proper language neither will it help Machiavel for his Front of the three first ranks cannot retire till the three last ranks that are behind them retire first Besides all this I doubt if in Machiavels time Captains might well hazard more Third than now to command a Batallion of men to retire for fear they could not get them to advance again at least not so readily Justus Lipsius had reason to accuse Machiavel of gross ignorance for denying the right ordering of a Militia to be an Art and certainly his conceit to do so Fourth was very extravagant â—esides he contradicts himself for he calls his Treatise of War I sette libri del'arte della guerra di Nicolo Machiavelli Seven Books of the Art of War of Nicol Machiavell Indeed Soldiers are very little bound to him for he says neither Prince nor State should suffer any of those who profess to live by the Art of War to dwell under them nor doth saith he any vertuous or good man use it as an art and adds that those who do so must of necessity be false fraudulent treacherous and violent for they must saith this Doctor either obstruct all peace that the War continuing they may thereby be maintained or they must pill plunder and make spoil of other mens goods in the time of War that thereby they may maintain themselves in the time of peace This is bad enough if it be all true These are his goodly arguments which are but his own idle dreams for it is Fifth Observation no difficil matter to keep men who make profession of Arms within the bounds of their duty even when they but seldom receive their wages and this in this age is visible to the whole world Nor can many Instances be given where men of War obstructed that peace which their Masters desir'd or which both parties were contented to make And if after the conclusion of a peace and disbanding of Armies any exorbitancies chance to be committed by the Soldiers as seldom any such thing falls out they have been occasion'd by too great a defalcation of their pay with the half or moity whereof all Modern Soldiers will be heartily well contented so perfectly have they learn'd the Baptists Lesson in the Gospel to be content with their wages But to conclude I know not whether I shall more cry up the lowliness of spirit of those great Statesmen who are pleased to descend from their high Corollary Spheres to learn their Politicks from Machiavell or commend the generosity of those Captains who disdain to stoop so low as to receive their Lessons of the Military Art from the Town Clerk of Florence I suppose all that can be expected from me in the following Discourses is in some places to set down wherein the ordinances and customs of War in all or What the Author promiseth to do most of the several points or parts of it in divers Countries agree or disagree with the practice of the present times and when I give my own opinion it shall be sparingly and with submission neither shall I decline to go as far back in the â—nvestigation of the Customs and Constitutions of War in former times as I have either probable grounds for conjecture or any glimpse of light to conduct me Since I wrote this Chapter I have seen some Frenchmen who having been Soldiers themselves have given us an account of the present French art and order of War as De la Valiere Monsieur Louis de la Saya and some others CHAP. II. Of Levies the manner of several Nations in making them Duties of Soldiers when they are levied their age and how long they are bound to serve ARmies are properly the members of the great Body of War and men are the sinews of Armies The best choice election or levy of men is of Voluntary Levy the subjects of that Prince or State who maketh the War where the Law of the Land imposeth a necessity on men â—it for service to enroll themselves according to their several ranks and qualities And this Levy alters its nature according to the nature of the War for if that be a Defensive one the Levy is Voluntary for ordinarily men rise willingly in arms for the defence of their Country Lives Wives and Children But if the War be an Offensive one intended to invade a stranger and such as leads Natives from their Countries and Homes and carries them to foreign lands it is not universally voluntary and very oft gets the name of a Press In this kind of Levy most Nations followed the custom of Press the Grecians and Romans and chose most of their Cavalry out of the Gentlemen or the better sort and the Infantry out of the Commons but the substance of that custom is now vanished and we have scarce the shadow of it left with us The Emperours of the High Dutch Nation the German Princes and Imperial Towns by the old Constitutions of the Empire made an Election or Levy of their Subjects according to their Laws sometimes the tenth sometimes the sixth or fifth man or according to their Estates in all their Wars both since Manner of the ancient Levy in Germany the Turk became their unwelcome neighbour and before he had footing in Europe It is not above fourscore and ten years since in the raign of Maximilian the Second all that were Enrolled in the German Cavalry were by birth Gentlemen it is true they brought some of them one some two and some three with them who waited on them well horsed and armed for whom they receiv'd wages and were subject to articles of War but these were called in their language Einspanneers to distinguish them from the Masters who
hinder either Prince or State to appoint the depth of their Batallions to be twelve ten eight or six deep as they think fit though by some of them the Bodies cannot be subdivided till they come to one File or one Rank for it was never seen nor do I fansie it can be imagin'd that ever such an emergency of War will fall out that can move a General unless he be to File his Army along a very narrow Bridge or a very narrow way to marshal all his Foot either in one Rank or one File So I conceive the first reason is no reason at all A second Reason is In time of Action an Enemy may charge the Second reason for 16 deep Rear to rencounter whom the Dimaritâ— or Middle-men are commanded with the Half-Files that follow them to face about but without countermarch and sustain the charge By the way observe that in such an occasion the Bringer up or Rear-man hath the command of the Half-File and consequently of the Dimarite or Middle-man himself to whom Aelian gave it before But to the reason it self I give two answers First a Reserve which Aelians Phalange admits not would prevent that danger Secondly I say if they were but twelve in File nay but ten in File they might withstand Answered the charge of an Enemy in both Van and Rear as well as being sixteen deep which I make appear out of Aelian himself thus The Grecian Pikes were all eighteen Foot long except the Macedonians which were twenty one We shall speak of the longest Next Aelian allows one foot and a half of distance between Ranks when they fought which distance he or his Interpreter calls Constipatio Thirdly the same Author allows three foot of the Pikes length for his hands who presents it These grounds being laid which are the Authors own I say that only four Ranks of the Grecian Pikes and five of the Macedonian could do an Enemy any hurt and but hardly so either because between five Ranks there are four distances and for those you are to allow six foot at Aelians account of closest distance next you are by his rule likewise to allow fifteen foot of the Pikes of the fifth Rank to be abated from their length which fifteen being added to six make one and twenty for three foot of the Pikes length of the first Rank being allowed for their hands who hold them you must of necessity grant the like proportion for the rest And so the Macedonian Sarissa did not much advance its point from the fifth Rank beyond the first Rank and therefore the rest behind these five Ranks seem useless But an Enemy attacks the Rear to oppose whom let five Ranks face about and present for if five be sufficient to resist the shock in the Van certainly five may do the same in the Rear And if you will consider it well you will think the points of the Pikes of five Ranks sufficient to give or receive a charge if all the Files be â—err'd together as the Grecians were and as all should be that no interval be given an Enemy to enter between them If then ten Ranks were enough to resist an Enemy in Front and Rear I presume the other six might have been dispos'd of two ways first they might have been bestow'd on the Front and so have extended it to a far greater length which would have brought more hands to fight and not only sav'd the Phalange from being out-wing'd but have put it in a capacity to out-wing the Enemy Secondly these six Ranks might very advantagiously have compos'd a Body apart in the Rear and that should have been a Reserve and then no danger of an Enemy to have troubled the Battel behind But I am afraid you may think I am making up a Grecian Militia of my own unknown to the famous Warriours of that renowned Nation I shall tell you truly and ingenuously my quarrel is only with Aelian because he hath not told us so much as he knew and so much as he was oblig'd to tell us which in this particular is that I am now to tell you and it consists in two things one that Phalanges were not always sixteen deep and secondly that they wanted not always Reserves To prove both be pleased to take the following Instances At Deâ—â—s when the Athenians fought with the Thebans and other Boeotians the Phalanges were all of them eight dâ—â—p and all Phalanges eight deep of them had Reserves At Leuctra Epaminondas his Foot Batallions were all marshall'd in eight Ranks At Siracusa when the Athenian General Niciaâ— was to fight he plac'd his Auxiliaries in the two Wings his Athenians he divided into two great Bodies the half whereof he marshall'd in the Battel between the two Wings the other half he plac'd behind at a distance with And had Reserves command to succour either the Wings or the Battel as they saw them or any of them stand in need of their help and this was a perfect Reserve And observe that his Wings Battel and Reserve were all marshall'd eight deep Take Thucydides a noble Historian and a good Captain for my Author But you will say these were not Macedonian Phalanges true but they were Grecian ones though and the Commanders of them without all peradventure did well enough foresee in what danger their Phalanges of eight deep might be by a sudden charge of an Enemy in the Rear which no question they would have oppos'd by making the last four Ranks face about if their Reserves serv'd not their turn neither could the fourth Rank extend its Pikes being three foot shorter than the Macedonian ones much beyond the first Rank But to take the Objection more fully let us come nearer and view the Great Alexanders Army at Arbela and we shall see he was not at all limited by Aelians rules of a Macedonian Phalange though by it they say he conquer'd the Persian Monarchy Sir Walter Raleigh saith right that in this place Alexander drew up his Forces so that they fac'd to Van Rear and both Flanks but this is not to be understood so that he made his heavy armed Phalange front four several ways for then it should have been immovable and only apt to resist but not to advance which had been both against the intentions of that brave Prince and his actions of that day for he charg'd the Persian Batallions both with his Horse and Foot But the meaning must be that he order'd some Horse and Foot at a distance from his main Battel to face to the Rear for preventing any misfortune there and the like he did on both his Flanks but all these when his main Battel mov'd fac'd to the Van and advanced with it and when it stood they took up their former distances and fac'd as they were appointed And all this was done lest his Army small in comparison of that with Darius should be surrounded If the Army he was afraid to
Bodies in the Field as they are by him in Paper When the Phalanx presented their Pikes by half Files to Front and Rear the Greeks called it in that posture Amphistomus When the General commanded the Wings of the Phalange to advance and the Body to make a Bow or Crescent and in that posture to receive the charge of a Wedge Battel then it was called Antistomus And when by facing either by the Right or Left hand about the Rear was made the Front then the Phalange was called Peristomus And so of others needless to rehearse It may be I mistake in the Greek names as having indeed but very little knowledge in that Language CHAP. IX Of the Grecian March Baggage Encamping Guards and of their Paean ALL these belong to the Art of War of any Nation and none will doubt but the Grecians had set rules and orders for them all and every one of them which they did not alter but according to the circumstances of things and emergency of affairs on which depend most of Military actions Aelian gives us little light or indeed none at all in any of these particulars Most of them forgot by Aelian but leaves us to glean what we can out of History and thereon to build our own conjectures It had been convenient for us to have known the manner of their marching where or how the Horse the heavy and light armed and how far every day all of them were obliged to march as also whether the Chiliarchies which were Regiments of Foot and the Hipparchies which were Regiments of March Horse changed day about or if they march'd constantly in one place according to their Antiquity or Precedency For there is no doubt but their Ephipparchies which were Brigades of Horse and their Myriarchies which were Brigades of Foot might have chang'd Van and Rear every day by turns as easily as our Brigades do But since we are left by our leader Aelian in the dark I shall be of the opinion that being there were by Aelians account four Ephipparchies in the Cavalry and four Phalangarchies in the Phalange of the heavy armed Foot they chang'd day about and each of them had the Van every fourth day as also I think it was most consentaneous to Reason that there being four Chiliarchies in every Phalangarchy and four Talentinarchies in every Ephipparchy they likewise daily changed so that every Talentinarchy had the Van in the Ephipparchy every fourth day as every Chiliarchy had in the Phalangarchy I shall likewise believe that the Cavalry march'd either before behind or on the Flanks of the Foot Phalange according to the Enemies motions and so did the light armed Foot By these conjectures I do not offer to impose on any mans belief but leave him that liberty that I have taken to guess as probably as he can How far the heavy armed Phalange was bound to march in one day as I can assert nothing so I may only guess that they could be bound to march but twenty or five and twenty miles as the Roman Legionaries were and therefore I can hardly believe Polianus who saith Philip made his Phalange march in one day three hundred Stadia or Furlongs which make thirty seven Italian miles and a half you will think this the more incredible when you hear immediately what Baggage they carried Concerning the Baggage of a Grecian Army our Author gives us this account first that it was necessary to appoint a judicious and active person to have the conduct of it he saith well Next he tells us that sometimes the Baggage march'd in the Van of the Army and so I think it should if the Baggage Enemy were in the Rear Sometimes saith he it march'd in the Rear when the Army advanc'd towards an Enemy and good reason it should be so Sometimes saith he it march'd in the middle of the Army and there may be strong enough Reasons for that too But sometimes he saith it was order'd to march in the Flanks of the Army and so it might provided it had good Guards on the Flanks of it And lastly he avers the Grecians sent their Baggage sometimes before their Army when they were to enter iuto a declared Enemies Countrey And here I profess I do not at all understand the mystery of this Stratagem of War But I wish Aelian had clear'd us in this whether the Souldiers or Companies of Horse or Foot had Waggons Carts Beasts of Carriage Drudges and Slaves allow'd them to carry their Meat and Drink and Fardles or if they were obliged to carry all themselves for in my next Essay of the Roman Militia I shall let you see a Legionary carry three Magazines on his Head Back and Shoulders the first of Arms Stakes or Pallisadoes the second of Meat and Clothes and the third of Utensils for a Kitchin If of all these three the Greek was only obliged to carry his Arms he had a great advantage of the Roman in all marches and expeditions Yet I suppose my Reader may hazard with me to believe that before Philip of Macedons time the Grecian Souldiers carried no other burthens than their Arms but had The Grecian Souldiers carry'd no Baggage either Carriage-Beasts or Drudges allow'd them for carrying their Victuals and other necessaries and this conjecture I ground upon what I have read in Thucydides who tells us that at Syracusa after the unfortunate Athenians had lost their Navy in which were all or most of their provisions and that they were to march away by Land from the Siege of that potent City to seek new fortunes their Souldiers were necessitated to carry their meat themselves because saith the Historian they had mostly lost their Slaves and Drudges who were accustom'd to carry it and some few whose Slaves had stay'd still with them durst not trust them with so precious a thing as meat then was lest in that sad disaster they should run away with it and so starve them If then their Slaves ran away from Till Philip of Macedons time them then Slaves were allow'd them And it seems King Philip abrogated this custome for he caus'd all his Foot Souldiers to carry their Meat and Baggage themselves allowing only one Soujat to carry a Hand-mill for the use of ten Souldiers and a Drudge to every Horse-man this caus'd the other Grecians to call the Philippians Jumenta Philippi Philips Beasts of Carriage But for all that I have not Faith enough to believe Frontinus who saith that the same Philip caus'd his Foot to carry at one time Triginta dierum farinam meal for thirty days And if his Son Alexander kept up that custome as it is like he did then his Phalangites needed not to have yielded to the Roman Legionaries for heavy burthens in both long and wearisome marches which you will easily grant to be true if you will consider the indefatigable expeditions of that magnanimous King through Persia and India It seems Aelian hath not
so close that he might have no time to rally and to force him out of his strong holds before he recover'd breath to gather strength But we shall find not only Hannibal defective in this so important a Duty of a Great Captain but many of the Romans themselves even against this Carthaginian Arch-enemy of theirs Livy informs us in his twenty seventh Book that at Canusiâ—m Marcellus beats Not always practis'd by the Romans him Hannibal gets to his Camp and in the night time marches out of it Marcellus not pursuing him got work enough to do with him afterward The same Author tells us in his twenty ninth Book that the Consul Sempronius and Pro-consul Licinius fought with the same Hannibal in the Brâ—tian Countrey and defeated him but they not pursuing he got the rest of his Army safely to Croton next day In his thirty first Book he says Philip of Macedon was worsted by the Romans in two Horse fights but not being pursued by the Consul and leaving great Fires in the Camp he escap'd to the Mountains Caesar defies all his Enemies to challenge or charge him with this oversight for he never Never omitted by Caesar beat one of them in the Field which he did very often but he was sure to be Master of his Camp before he slept But you may read all along in Livy when the Roman State was but beginning to grow that when their Dictators or Consuls had beaten any of their Neighbours Tuscans Veians Volscians Samnites or Latines for most part they made no more ado but march'd back to the City which I suppose the ambition of a Triumph frequently led them to But if these very often Victorious Romans receiv'd the foil as sometimes they did they did even that which many more ancient people did before them and many younger have done since and that is they either fled or retir'd If they fled downright without taking notice of their Camp either their speed carried them away or they saved their lives by submitting to such conditions as themselves often imposed upon those who by the chance of War came to be their Captives of which I shall speak in my discourse of Prisoners Of what advantage or disadvantage flying or retiring to a Camp was Of a Retreat to a Camp shall be touched when I come to view Lipsius his comparison of the Ancient and Modern Militia In this place I shall only say that the Romans did not always leave their Camps fortified and mann'd when they went out to Battel At Ciminia the Consul Fabius made his Baggage-men demolish the fortification of his Camp and fill up the Ditches while he put his Army in Battel array in which he issued out fought the Enemy and beat him as you have it in Livy's ninth Book And it is in that same Book where he tell you that the Dictator Q. Fabius order'd C. â—abius to fall upon the Samnites with his new levied Army while the Dictator himself at another quarter sallied out of his Camp with his whole Army and did not only not leave any to defend the Camp but order'd likewise all his Tents and Baggage to be burnt that by taking away all hopes of a Retreat he might force his Souldiers to fight couragiously both for the safety of their lives and the recovery of their goods or the equivalence of them by the plunder of the Enemies Camp all which came to pass The â—â—â—salus victis nullam sperare salutem like of this action of the Roman Dictator History tells us hath been practis'd by others particularly by William the Conquerour when he invaded England who after his landing caus'd them to burn all his Ships which were not so few as eight hundred CHAP. XX. Of the March of a Consular Army SUpposing that which very often fell out that the Romans gain'd the Victory in their last Battel and had again nestled themselves in their Camp let us see in what order they march'd out of it either to pursue an old Enemy or to find out a new one In this point of the Roman Militia Lipsius puts himself Liâ—sius officious to some needless trouble to comment on Polybius for I think he is so clear in it that Lisius doth him dis-service in offering him his help where he needs it not at all I shall therefore tell you how Polybius ordereth the march of a Consular Army without staying for Lipsius his tedious explications At the first sound of the Trumpets and Horns every man gather'd his Preparations to a March. Baggage Burthens and Fardels together and had them ready to truss up if they were Officers on their Pack and Sumpter horses if common Souldiers on their own Backs At the second sound they loaded either themselves or their Beasts And at the third sound they marched Now though Polybius mentions it not nor Lipsius who will comment on him yet we are to believe that all Consuls were so discreet that they made no great Interval of time between the second and third sound because it could not be very pleasing to either Man or Beast standing under heavy burthens to lose any of that time which they might have sav'd in making their Journey After the third sound they marched in this order First marched the Extraordinaries Order of the Roman March. of the Allies as being nearest the Consuls Pavilion and near to the Praetorian Port. These were followâ—d by the first Legion of the Allies and after it the Baggage of the Extraordinaries and of that first Legion In the third place march'd the first Legion of the Romans and its Baggage after it Fourthly The second Roman Legion followed by both its Baggage and the Baggage of the second Legion of the Allies Which in the fifth place was follow'd by the second Legion of the Allies that was in the Rear of the Infantry The place where the Cavalry was to march was uncertain sometimes both Extraordinary and Ordinary Horse march'd all in the Van sometimes in the Rear sometimes on both the Flanks without the Baggage according as the General resolv'd to make use of them taking up his measures by the nearness of an Enemy in either Van Rear or Flank And sometimes the Cavalry march'd divided into Van and Rear Polybius shews us also that if there were ground enough and great suspicion of an Enemy then the Baggage of the Hastati of every Legion was sent before them which they followed themselves after them came the Baggage of the Principas and then themselves followed in the third place by the Baggage of the Triarii which themselves follow'd If an Enemy appear'd in the Van the Baggage of the Hastati was immediately turn'd to a side and the place where it had been was possess'd by the Hastati themselves the same was done by the Principes and Triarii And we may suppose that if an Enemy appear'd in the Rear the Baggage of the Triarii was turn'd aside and its place possess'd
he making alt they all take up their several distances behind him till he who is File-leader turn himself about on that same ground he stood on and then all turn likewise so that all the File faceth to the Rear in that same order that before the Counter-march it fac'd to the Van by this means the Body loseth ground in the Rear and therefore our Modern Drillers when they command the Macedonian counter-march they say By the Right or Left hand Countermarch and lose ground in the Rear or gain ground in the Van which is all one thing The Laconian is when the Batallion is commanded to take up as much ground in the Rear as it possess'd before and is done thus The File-leader Lacedemonian turns just where he stands and marcheth as many foot behind the Rear-man as the Body at its due distance should possess all who follow him turn not about till their Leaders go by them and so the Bringer up doth only turn himself without any further motion The Modern word of Command for this is Counter-march to the Right and Left hand and gain ground in the Rear The Persian is when the Batallion keeps the same ground it had but with this difference that the Leader stands where the Bringer up was and the Persian Rear-man where the Leader stood It is done thus The Leader advanceth three steps and then turns and marcheth to the Rear and all who follow him turn not till they come to that place to which he advanced and then they face about and take up the same ground they formerly possest The word of Command for this is Counter-march to the Right or Left hand and keep your ground It is also called the Chorâ—an Counter-march because Oâ— Choraean as the Chorus useth to sing and dance all together so here all the Ranks move at once and keeping that same measure and distance in turning resembles a Dance But indeed all these Counter-marches as most of all evolutions are better and sooner illustrated nay demonstrated by a Body of Souldiers in the Field than they can be either by words or figures on Paper Philip King of Macedon Father of the Great Alexander put down the first of these Counter-marches which was his own Countrey one and with good reason for it hath a show of flying at least of retiring being a Body of sixteen deep as the Macedonian Phalanx was by that Counter-march lost in the Rear where the Enemy is suppos'd to be one hundred and twelve foot of ground one foot being allowed for every Rank to stand on and six All three of small use foot of distance between the Ranks at least it loseth one hundred and six foot And truly I think the hazard were small if all the three several Counter-marches were for ever banish'd out of all Armies except those of our Enemies It is true I never saw any of them used in sight of an Enemy for if they be practis'd then I am confident confusion would follow them which is but too ready to appear in any Army though never so well order'd when it is unexpectedly attack'd by an Enemy in the Rear If the Grecians had been acquainted with our great Guns nay even with our Muskets which kill at a greater distance by far than Darts or Arrows and against which their Defensive Arms would not have been proof they would have found that an Enemy a good way from their Rear would have render'd their best Counter-marches both unfeasible and dangerous All the good I suppose that is intended by a Counter-march is to place the very same men and Ranks with their faces to the Rear in that very same order they were with their faces to the Front And truly if Captains be careful to place their best men in the Front their next best in the Rear and make middle men of the third and rank every man according to his worth and dignity as they should do but too many of them are negligent in this it will be needless to hazard a Counter-march but with much ease and with one word of Command and that is By the Right or Left hand about an Enemy may be fac'd in the Rear without danger of any confusion or disorder I have seen some very punctual Officers and Drill-masters who have taken much pains to teach new beginners all these three sorts of Counter-marches and have made them practise their lessons very exactly yet for all that I could never in my own Judgement have a better opinion of Counter-marches than they say some Physicians have of Cucumbers which they first order to be well corrected and prepar'd with Vinegar Oyl Pepper and I know not what else and then advise to throw them out of doors or over the Windows In exercising Bodies the first care is to make Ranks and Files keep that distance that is allowed by the Prince or General who commands the Army for he may do in that according to his pleasure The Grecian Foot had a three-fold distance the first was of six foot and this Aelian will have to be in exercisings and marches between File and File as well as Rank and Rank but assuredly there was not so good reason for the one as there was for the other in regard all the heavy arm'd Foot cartying long Pikes required six foot in their march between Rank and Rank for the conveniency of their Pikes but there was no need of so much between File and File as Distances of the Foot any man at first view may easily comprehend The second distance was of three foot between Rank and Rank as also between File and File and this was when they were drawn up and stood in Battel with their Pikes order'd and their posture at this distance was called Densatio The third was of one foot and a half between both Files and Ranks and that was when they were either to give or receive a charge and it was call'd Constipatiâ— In that posture having presented their Pikes with their left foot formost their Targets touch'd one another and so their Phalange look'd like a Brazen Wall as Lucius Aemilius the Roman Consul spoke of that wherewith King Persâ—â—s fac'd him at the Battel of Pidna where they fought for the Soveraignty of the Kingdom of Macedon The Grecian Horse were marshall'd in several figures and of their distance I can say nothing nor doth Aelian help me in it at all Of these several figures of Horse Troops I shall speak in the next Chapter but one And Of the Horse then my Reader will perhaps believe with me that the Square Battels probably kept that distance that Troops have done since and that both the Rhombus and the Wedge required a greater distance when they were commanded by a motion either to the Right or Left hand to change the posture or the place wherein they stood and I conceive when either of them was to charge the Horse men were obliged to â—err
it far His Son Alexander when he cross'd the Hellespont to invade the Persian Monarchy had thirty two thousand Foot and five In the Macedonian Armies thousand Horse above eight thousand more men than in Aelian's Macedonian Phalange At Issus he was stronger and at Arbela he had forty thousand Foot and seven thousand Horse all Grecians besides very many Asians whom he had subdued So we see that Aelians numbers of Horse or Foot did not hold even in the Macedonian Armies Much less will his rule hold in other Grecian Phalanges who drew up their heavy armed Foot but eight deep and so by our Authors method their light armed but four deep for if you allow their heavy armed Phalange to be one thousand twenty four Files these multiplied by eight which is the number of the File that Batallion consisted of eight thousand one hundred ninety two men Their Velites being half of that number they were four thousand ninety six Give the half of that number to their Cavalry they must have been two thousand forty eight And thus by Aelians rule their whole Phalange Nor in the other Grecian Phalanges of both heavy and light armed Foot and Horse should have amounted to neither more nor less than fourteen thousand three hundred thirty six Combatants But they neither observ'd that number nor his rule in the division of that number At Delos the Thebans and Boeotians had an Army consisting of seven thousand heavy armed Foot ten thousand light armed and one thousand Horse If they had been rul'd by Aelian they should have had more than ten thousand heavy armed five thousand and odd Velites and all the rest should have been Horse in this Pâ—â—lange of theirs When the Athenians sent Alcibiades and Nicias to Sicily they did not dream of any such exact numbers At Mantinea Epaminâ—â—das his Army consisted of thirty thousand Foot and three thousand Horse a number exceeding the great Macedonian Phalange by four thousand three hundred twenty eight men The Armies of the Lacedâ—monians and Athenians that fought against him in that last Battel of his were twenty two thousand Foot and Horse and these were more by seven thousand six hundred sixty four than a Grecian Phalange should have been by Aelians method at four deep the light and eight deep the heavy armed and yet came short six thousand six hundred seventy two of the number of the great Macedonian Phalange By this we see our Authors numbers of Phalanges did not always hold and it is a very great question to me if ever they did exactly hold at all I have already told you how he marshals his Phalange of heavy armed Foot without Reserve I have shown you that was not always done and I have demonstrated and instanc'd the inconveniencies of it when it was done Let us now see where he placeth his Cavalry in time of action To this he saith it was marshall'd according to the Generals pleasure sometimes on the Flanks of the heavy armed Foot sometimes before them and sometimes behind them That they were drawn up according to the Generals pleasure he needed not tell us that was not the question but it was where the Generals pleasure was to place them For marshalling the Horse on the Flanks of the Foot there is reason enough for it it was and still is a common practice To marshal them when they are to fight before the Foot is not in Where Aelian marshall'd the Cavalry my opinion advisedly done some to skirmish doth well but if all the Horse fight in the Van of the Foot and be beaten they may readily rout their own Infantry without the Enemies help for something like that I have seen practis'd And though the Macedonian Foot Phalange had as I said before three Intervals through which the Horse might perhaps if worsted have retir'd in good order and drawn up in the Rear of the Foot yet their Flight or Retreat would have infinitely discourag'd the Infantry which was presently to enter into action nor do I think such a manner of fight hath been oft practis'd To draw up the Horse behind the Foot would be in my judgement yet of less use but Aelian in his Figure of the whole Phalanx marshals the heavy armed Foot formost next them the Velites and the Cavalry behind both If he did not intend the Horse should fight in that place why did he marshal them there and if he conceiv'd they might fight there why did he not tell us how they could do it It is true it may be imagin'd the Velites might bestow their Arrows and Stones cast out of Slings upon an Enemy over the heads of the heavy arm'd Phalange but what hurt Horsemen heavily armed could do an Enemy over the heads of both heavy and light arm'd Foot drawn up in two distinct Bodies one behind the other is not so easie to fansie And with permission of Aelian I doubt it can hardly be made appear that any General before his time whether Macedonian Grecian or Barbarian ever drew up an Army in that fashion if they had ground to do it otherwise Cyrus plac'd his Foot in the Battel and his Horse in the Ordinarily Horse fought in the Wings Wings when he fought with the Assyrians saith Xenophon The Grecians at Delos Leuctra and Syracusa put their Horse in the Wings mixed with light armed Foot their heavy armed Phalange in the middle and some of their Velites skirmishing before it with Reserves behind Alexander used that same custome in all his Battels though at Issus the Streights of the Mountains would not suffer him to put his Army in that order he had design'd till he acquir'd a more spatious ground At Arbela where he totally overthrew Darius he marshall'd his Army nothing after Aelians pattern but so that you may almost say that our Modern Generals draw up their Armies now in imitation of him and according to the Copy he cast them there For his Right Wing consisted of Horse mix'd with light armed Foot the Right hand whereof was commanded by Clitus and the Left by Philotas His Left Wing was likewise Horse mix'd with Velites on the Right hand whereof stood Meleager and on the Left Philip with his Thessalian Cavalry Between these two Wings was ranged his Phalange of heavy arm'd Foot some Velites skirmishing before it and behind all these both Phalanae and Wings were those Reserves under Horestes Lincerta Polycarpon and Philagus whereof I formerly told you The altering a Phalange from one form posture or site to another gave Several forms of a Phalange gave it several denominations occasion to the Grecians to give it some new denomination though it was still that same Phalange it was before the motion or evolution made the alteration which perhaps hath given a rice to Aelian to present us with so many several Figures in his Treatise nor would they be hard to be understood if they were illustrated by either smaller or greater
the true God to have been in that Idolatrous age wherein he lived as very an Atheist as Machiavelli was when he wrote his Discourses on Livy and his Book Di Prencipe I shall not determine but leave those who accuse him of that crime and his Translator Casaubon who defends him from that imputation to debate the matter between them Ninthly Their horrible and bloody Civil Wars enough to have destroy'd Ninth ten other Nations as that between Sylla and Marius Father and Son and that between Caesar and the Pompeys and that of the Triumvirate In all which how much the Roman State was at a loss may be conjectur'd by one review the Dictator Caesar made of the Roman Citizens even before he had made an end of the War wherein he found the number to be less by one hundred thousand men than when he began that one Civil War which had continued not full four years But there were other difficulties wherewith the Roman State had to wrestle and those made up likewise an inward disease which came unexpected and unlook'd for and not being foreseen could not well be prevented and those difficulties are most proper for this discourse because of a Military Subject and those were the frequent and terrible Mutinies of the Roman Legions Mutinies in the Roman Armies or Armies Indeed these laid them open to the Attempts and Invasione of all their Enemies and maligning Neighbours and have left beside especially when unpunish'd an eternal blemish on their Discipline of War so much cry'd up by all Nations and in all Ages the like of which Mutinies either for number or danger I do not read to have fallen out in any Army of the World if you except those infamous ones made by the King of Spains Forces in the Netherlands about twenty or thirty years or more after the beginning of the Intestine Wars of those Countreys whereof John Petit Strada and Bentivoglio with other Historians of those times may give the curious Reader a full account Of the Roman Mutinies some whereof were punish'd some never I shall give you these following Instances When Caesar the greatest Captain that ever was made War in Spain against Against Caesar Pompeys Legates because he would not fight when his Legions would they Mutini'd and told him they would not fight when he desir'd them He pacified them with good words as knowing it was not time to use force At Placentia his ninth Legion Mutini'd and â—efus'd to go to Africk with him but desir'd to be dismiss'd and he accordingly disbanded them When Lucullus Against Luculius had gain'd a Victory against Mithridates and Tigranes he could not get it pursued for the Mutâ—â—â— of his Army which would neither be entreated nor commanded to march alledging they had serv'd out their time The Leons which were lest at Corfiniuns by the Senate and Pompey to whom they had sworn Fidelity Mutini'd against their Governour Domitius and deliver'd Against Domitius Against Aâ—â—â—nus both him and the Town to Caesar Aulus Posthumius Albinus a Legat and an Admiral upon a false suspicion of Treachery was barbarously murder'd by his own Army Caius Fimbria with the help of his Mutinous Souldiers murder'd the Consul Valerius Flaccus and thereafter justly fearing Against â—laccus the same measure entreated one of his own Slaves to do him the courtesie to kill him The Consul Cinna because he would have had his Legions to fight Against Ciâ—â—a against Sylla at that time a declar'd Enemy to the State is murder'd by them Lucius Scipio being to fight with the same Sylla is deserted by his Mutinous Against Luciâ—s Sâ—ipio Souldiers who went all over to the Enemy nor were ever any of those Mutinies or Murders punish'd or look'd after But because it may be said most of all these were acted in time of Civil Wars when Authority was â—â—od under foot and every man did that which seemed good in his own eyes I will tell you of some Mutinies and those of the deepest dye that fell out when the Ancient Roman Discipline was in its vigour and was said to be executed with the greatest severity and strictness I shall not speak of the Commons leaving the City and going to Mon's Sacer or the Holy Hill when they were brought back by the witty Parable of Menenius Agrippa that being a Sedition or Secession of the people rather than a Mutiny of the Souldiers But sure those Legions who without Against the Senate liberty given came out of the Fields to the Apennine Hill and made their demands to the Senate in Arms was a Mutiny but so far from being punish'd that the Mutiniers got what they demanded Consul Câ—so Fabius beat the Against Câ—sâ— Fabius Aequians out of the Field with his Cavalry but could not perswade his Legioâ—s to advance or mend their pace or make so much as a shew of pursuit but on the contrary they march'd back to their Tents and offer'd rather their Throats to be cut by the Enemy if he had turn'd head than obey their Consul nor was ever this pernicious and dangerous Mutiny punish'd When Appius Claudius had marshall'd his Legions against the Volscians Against Appâ—us Claudius they Mutini'd refus'd to fight and fled back to their Camp and though many of them were kill'd in the Rear yet neither Honour Duty or which is more Self-preservation could move them to turn their faces to the Enemy their wickedness and obstinacy continued next day when the Consul marching homewards the Volscians again attack'd him and made a carnage of the Rear of his men without any opposition for none would fight but all ran and fled insomuch that the Enemy might have made the whole Roman Army his prey if he could have made use of so favourable an opportunity It is true Appius found his time to punish the execrable Mutiniers and did it to some purpose by whipping first and then beheading all the Centurions as also all the Ensign-bearers that had lost their Colours and the Souldiers that had cast away their Arms all the rest â—e decimated and beheaded every tenth man saith Livy bastinadoed saith Florus What manner of death this bastinadoing was shall be told you in the twenty fourth Chapter of these Discourses A Legion of four thousand Romans was sent to Rhegium to keep Against the State it for the State they Mutiny kill the principal Citizens and keep the Town for themselves full ten years at last being forc'd to yield all that were taken alive were well whip'd and beheaded in the great Market-place of Rome Posthumius a Military Tribune with Consular authority fought fortunately Against Posthumius with the Aequians observe in all these that the Roman Empire was but yet in its Cradle is call'd back to the City in his absence his Army Mutinies against his Treasurer beats him and wounds him The Tribune returns in haste and indeed he made more haste than good
Right Wing of the Batallion so the fifth is to stand on the Left hand These five Cohorts make up the first Acies or Batallion Our Author proceeds and tells us The sixth Cohort The second Batallion consists of five hundred fifty five Foot and sixty six Horse in it must be those of the younger years he means the Hastati because the sixth Cohort hath its station behind the Eagle and the Ensigns The seventh Cohort hath in it five hundred fifty five Foot and sixty six Horse The eighth hath as many but they must be couragious men because they keep the middle of the second Batallion The ninth consists of five hundred fifty five Foot and sixty Horse And so doth the tenth but the Souldiers must be good Warriours because they stand on the Left hand of the second Batallion Now you see the first Batallion consists of three thousand three hundred twenty five Foot and three hundred ninety six Horse And the second Batallion of two thousand seven hundred seventy five Foot and three hundred and thirty Horse Add these together the aggregate will be six thousand one hundred Foot and seven hundred twenty six Horse And so the Legion is compleatly divided into these two Batallions without Reserve for a third Body which I pray you observe And he avers there should not be a lesser number mark it of armed men in every Legion a greater sometimes hath been And for a Corollary to this division of a Legion he saith in the eighth Chapter of that same Book that there were in every Legion fifty five Centurions If any man be not satisfied with what he hath said already he may read him in the fifteenth Chapter of that same Book and there he shall be sure to hear him speak that same language with very little difference Our Author says By the example of one Legion he will declare how the The same thing over again Field should be marshall'd when a Battel is to be fought The Horse saith he are to be plac'd in the Wings let us remember this The Body of the Foot saith he begins to be order'd on the Right hand where the first Cohort is plac'd To this is joyn'n the second Cohort the third stands in the middle of the Batallion To it joyns the fourth and the fifth stands on the Left hand All says he that fought in this first Batallion were called Principes and there he describes their Offensive and Defensive Arms needless here to be spoken of The second Battel says he was of the Hastati arm'd as the Principes After these were the light armed with Plumbatae Swords Bows and Arrows Slingers there were likewise who cast Stones out of Slings and Batton-slings also Darters who he saith shot Arrows out of Manubalists and Arcubalists Thereafter he tells us forgetting what he said but seven or eight lines before that the second Batallion O Memory where art thou consisted of Hastati And saith he not remembring he had told us the same words in the sixth Chapter In the second Batallion on the Right hand was plac'd the sixth Cohort to which was joyn'd the seventh The eighth kept the middle Battel accompanied with the ninth and the tenth Cohort kept constantly the Left hand of the second Batallion And so our Author ends that Chapter Thus we have twice in two several Chapters the description of a full Legion divided into ten Cohorts and these ten marshall'd in two Batallions or Classes of the Principes and Hastati without any mention Triarâ—i forgot of the Triarii or leaving room for them But in the sixteenth Chapter of that same Book as if some body had awaken'd him out of his dream he says after all these Batallions the Triarii were placed arm'd with Cataphracts Head-pieces Swords Daggers Semispathis two Darts and Lead-Bullets Weapons given to that Class by none but himself These Triarii says he kneeling on one knee rested till the first Battel At length remembred chancing to be beaten they might renew the fight If any man think he hath done well to remember the Triarii at last who were the Romans greatest strength I shall be content he enjoy his opinion provided he let me keep mine which is that he needed not now have mention'd them at all since he hath already marshall'd his Legion all the ten Cohorts of it and all the full number of six thousand one hundred Foot compleatly without them whereof I shall tell you more in the next Chapter In the seventeenth Chapter of his second Book he informs us that in the beginning Velites of the fight the Principes and Hastati stood still and mov'd not and the Triarii kneel'd or sate for he speaks of both postures till the light armed had skirmished and were beat in to the Legionaries and after the Victory the heavy arm'd kept their ground and stood like a Wall leaving the pursuit of the routed Enemy to the Horse and the Velites But I cannot find in my heart to part with Vegetius till I see how he will Legion once more marshall'd yet be pleased to dispose of the Triarii And I find him in the fourteenth Chapter of his third Book begin de novo to marshal the Foot as if he had never spoke one word of it before It is saith he the Law of embattelling to place the old and experienced Souldiers in the first order here he confounds Ordo and Acies and these were called Principes In the second were the Hastati and then he speaks of Distances between the Orders whereof I shall tell you in my discourse of Intervals The third Order or Body was of the swiftest Velites as Darters and the youngest Archers The fourth was of the youngest Archers Good Lord again youngest Archers and these saith he who Strange repetitions were called Lanciers and were also called Martiobarboli and were Lead-casters If these beat the Enemy saith he they pursued him too but if they were beaten they were receiv'd by the first and second Batallion suppose of heavy armed You see how Vegetius loves to refresh his Readers memory Well then the third and fourth Batallions fought before the first and second or any of them came to the shock In the fifth Batallion our Author places Carrobalists Slingers and Batton-Slingers But I must propose a question or two by the way First Did the third and fourth Batallions both which as you see Two questions he makes to consist of the Velites after they had fought with and were repelled by an Enemy retire only to the Rear of the Hastati or to the Rear of the Army I suppose the last though Vegetius through inadvertency saith only to the Rear of the two first Batallions for if so they â—ad undoubtedly obstructed very much the advance of the Triarii or the Retreat of both Principes and Hastati my next Query is why Vegetius doth not appoint the Slingers and Batton slingers to skirmish in the Van as well as
Physicians who were ordain'd for their cure He had the oversight of the Chariots Carts Waggons and Pack-horses of all the Mechanick Instruments for cutting and preparing Timber and Wood and Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance other matter for making Warlike Machines and the Engines themselves All this seems to make this Officer to be the Lieutenant-General of the Roman Artillery The Praefectus Fabrorum was he who most resembled our Modern Master of Praefectus Fabrorum or General of the Artillery the Ordnance or General of the Artillery for it was he who had the prime care of the Armamentarium or Magazine in which was ordinarily not only store of all kind of Arms and Engines for Expugnation and Propugnation of Towns and strong Holds but also of all kind of Instruments and Materials for making them and more particularly for the making up and defending their Hibernâ— or Winter-quarters in which were Shops for making all manner of Arms and Weapons both for offence and defence and under his Conduct were also all manner of Materials for making Bridges for which purpose little Boats were carried along with their Armies with Smiths Carpenters Joiners and other Artificers with those who had skill to work in Mines for though the Soldiers not only helpt but also perfected most of those works yet there were some deputed who had skill both to work themselves and to direct others Neither will this prove that the Roman Armies carried Pioniers along with them for these were the Soldiers but only that some Companies were deputed to whose more special care all these works were recommended and these were of a very old Institution in the reign of Serviâ—â— Tulliuâ— King of Rome for he appointed two Companies of Carpenters and Smiths for that purpose We read also frequently of Legates in Roman Armies at the first Institution there was but one and he was sent with the Consul to represent the Senate and people by whom he was chosen and sometime the Consul had power to â—huse his own â—â—gate He sat in Council with the Consul and gave his advice but neither he nor the whole Council might impose on the Consul who constantly kept a Negative voice and the Soveraign command over all In the Consuls absence the Legate commanded absolutely and before him went fix Lictors or Serjeants with Axes and Rods. But when the Consul returned the Legates command ceased In process of time there were two Legates ordain'd Legates for each Army and thereafter as many Legates as there were Legions over which they had the command according as Lipsius in the Second Book of his Commentary declares in which I shall not oppose him though I find no such thing in History I am sure neither Pompey nor Caesar had so many Legates as they had Legions either when they were present themselves or when they were absent Pompey had seven Legions in Spain and with them but two Legates these were Petreius and Aâ—ranius When Caesar was in England he had but one Legate with three Legions and a great Cavalry in Gaul and that was Labienus Nor do I find that either of those two great Captains had a Legate for each Legion that fought at Pharsalia In the time of the Emperours and perhaps in the reign of Augustus there was a Legate for every Province and it may be a Legate or more for every army besides In every Army there was a Questor he was the Treasurer kept the Casâ—â— Questor or Treasurer paid the Army distributed the Wheat to the Men and the Barley to the Hoâ—ses To him was delivered all the Pillage that was taken from the enemy eitherin Villages Towns or Camps He sold it all and out of the money gave either the Army their Wages or Donatives according as he had order from the Consul whose directions he was bound punctually to obey Though the power and command of a Dictator was uncontroulable in matters Dictator both of Peace and War yet in the fields his Authority was no greater than that of a Consul but yet there was this difference the first could not be call'd in question afterwards whereas the second might Where a Dictator was he chose his own Master of the Horse and though this title seems to import Master of the Horse that he who had it had no power over the Foot yet it was not so for under the Dictator he commanded both Horse and Foot and was in effect his Lieutenant-General Thus you have in this Discourse and in those of the Infantry and Cavalry a full account of all the Officers that I have read of in any Author that belonged to a Roman Army Though the Army which we have described in this and the foregoing Chapter had the name of a Consular Army and that Vegetius makes a Praetorian Army to be but half the number of the Consular one yet it is needless to bring Instances from History to prove that greater arâ—â—es than these consisting of four Legions have been commanded not only by Confuls but by â—roâ—â—â—â—uls Prâ—tors and Proprators in several of the Roman Wars The chief Commander of the army when he was to march from the City The Consuls state when he went to any Expedition was obliged to sacrifice in the Capitol and there to take his Auspices the foreboding Omens or as Philemon Holland calls them the Osses of his good fortune in that Expedition and then he rode out of the City in great state and splendor Paludatus in a glorious and rich Embroidered Coat of Arms convoyed by a gallant company of his choicest friends with his Lictors or Serjeants before him with Axes and bundles of Rods the ordinary number whereof if the General was a Consul was twelve These solemn Rites Ceremonies and Customs might not be neglected if they were the Generals had neither the prayers and good wishes of the people nor the willing obedience of their armies Caius Claudius going to Illyria went from Rome in the night-time without any solemnity but so soon as he came to his army he found his Soldiers in a mutiny which though he punisht severely enough yet he found himself necessitated not only to go back to Aquileia but to return to Rome it self there to make his Vows sacrifice and go out of the City in pomp according to the accustomed manner But for all we have said of Roman armies we see not yet where the Velites Velites neglected were marshall'd nor how they fought we must believe that which is most probable that they were marshall'd behind the Triarii and that they marched through the Intervals of the heavy armed to the Van and fought there till they did either beat the enemy or were beaten by him back to the Reer If any desire to see the figure of a Consular army he may meet with one of them in Terduzzi his Book of the ancient and modern Machines and another in Lipsius his Commentary on Polybius each after the fancy
by conversion or facing to the Rear by themselves and the other two Batallions in that same manner were to second them What I have said of one Legion is spoken of all the four of a Consular Army the two Roman Legions and the two of the Allies But in Polybius his description of the march of a Consular Army there arise Some difficulties and doubts concerning the march of the Baggage to me some difficulties which Lipsius hath not at all clear'd nay nor spoken â—f though he speak enough of that which may be well enough understood without him As first consider how it can be imagin'd that the ground would always allow the Romans to march in the order I last spoke of that is every great Batallion of a Legion to have its Baggage in the Van of it For by such Not at all clear'd by Polybius or any other a March in a Countrey full of Hedges Ditches and Inclosures it is not possible but their Legions would be wonderfully embarass'd with their Servants Horses and Baggage neither could the three Batallions of every Legion or of all the three upon the attack of an Enemy make their evolutions from among their Baggage so dextrously and readily but they might by an active pursuer be brought to inextricable difficulties I am therefore of opinion that Time hath robb'd us of a page or two of Polybius his Writings which would have explain'd this and have made us know his own sense better than either Lipsius or Tâ—rduzzi doth The last of these two doth wonderfully please himself in affirming that an Army should always march in that very order wherein he who commands it resolves to fight Here he fights with his own shadow for I suppose none will deny that an Army should march in Batallions great Bodies Brigades and Squadrons yea all in Breast if the ground will permit it But if not then I hope Terduzzi will permit a General to march in such Bodies small or great as with conveniency he can But what if I deny to Terduzzi the thing it self for I dare aver never Roman Chieftain intended to fight an Enemy in that order as Polybius makes the Consular Army to march For who will fancy the Hastati fought with their Baggage before them or that the Principes advanced to the relief of the Hastati through their own Waggons and Carts But grant him all he says to be true what is that to the thing in question which is whether the ordering the Baggage to march between the several Batallions of a Legion was conducible to obtain the great and main end and scope of all Armies which is to overcome an Enemy And since I think it was not I am still of the opinion that Polybius his right meaning is not yet fully elucidated to us either by himself or any other person whatsoever And I will deal yet more freely I do not well or rather not at all understand Roman Souldiers carried all their own Baggage what is meant by the Baggage of the several Batallions of Hastati Principes and Triarii for what belonged to the Souldiers was carried on their own backs if all be true that we have told you formerly except their Tents and their Hand-mills and these I think might with little loss have taken their hazard in the Rear of every Legion nay of the whole Army if the Enemy was expected in the Van or they might securely enough have been sent to the Van if the Enemy was in the Rear So as still Polybius his dividing the Baggage of a Legion into three parts and putting a third before every Batallion is mysterious to me Lipsius stands gazing and admiring at the excellent order of the Roman march and crys out Mira eorum hic Providentia Dispositio Their Providence and Order here saith he was wonderful But I wonder much more that this Order of theirs did not sometime bring mischief upon them For first you are to believe that the daring Romans for most part sought their Enemies who in that case could not but be in their Van either marching to mete them or marching away from them If the Enemy marched to meet them the Roman Baggage either before the Legion it self or between the several Bodies of it could not but give them those inevitable embarasses and inconveniences whereof I have spoken If an Enemy marched from them why did so prudent a people as the Romans were make their own Baggage a hinderance to them in overtaking that Enemy in whose pursuit they marched For let any man consider it right the Great Baggage that is the Artillery Engines and Machines or the stuff whereof they were to be made their spare Arms the Shops where and Utensils wherewith they were made the Consuls Pavilions and great Baggage the Treasurers train of Moneys and Proviant and many times of Plunder would take up so much ground between the several Legions and Troops that without these hinderances a Consular Army might have joyn'd an Enemy in less time by half then it could do with them which Caesars speedy march from Gâ—rgâ—via after the Aeduans without Baggage did sufficiently demonstrate What advantages the Nervians proposed to themselves by the manner of the March of the Roman Baggage between Legions and sure these advantages had been greater if every Batallion of a Legion had had its Baggage in the Van of it will be known to any who will attentivâ—â—y read Câ—sars Second Book of the Gallick Waâ— for they having learn'd how the Romans us'd to march resolv'd to set upon his first Legion whilest its Baggage gave a stop to the â—est to come up to its assistance Câ—sar who was as happy as prudent and as prudent as fortunate learn'd their design by his Spies and presently alter'd the manner of his Countries March He commands his Cavalry to set forward and after it six Legions and after them the Baggage of his whole Army and in the Rear-guard two Legions more If he had not done so he might have receiv'd a notable yea an indelible affront from that stout and warlike Nation which as it was left him not the Field without a very bloody resistance Nor was this the only time Câ—sar did so though it is the only time mention'd by Lipsius and Terduzzi for when he advanc'd with four Legions against the Bellâ—vaci he caus'd three Legions to march first then the Baggage which his fourth Legion followed Perhaps he practis'd this more frequently though it is not often mentioned And in all his Retreats he ever sent his whole Baggage to the Van of his Army Thus you see Great Câ—sar who lived long after Polybius did not tye himself so strictly to the custome of the Roman March but he both could and did alter it according as he thought it stood with the conveniency of his affairs and so should all prudent Captains do But I cannot get one view of the Velites in all this March and here our Authors
We cannot tell how the Vâ—lites march'd leave us again to our conjectures Certainly if the whole sixth Book of Polybius his History be extant and if some parcels of it are not lost as I shrewdly suspect there are he forgot himself when he forgot to tell us where and how the Roman light armed who made up more than the fourth part of the Infantry marched for to tell us as Lipsius doth that they marched where the Consul appointed them is to tell us just nothing for neither heavy armed Foot nor Horse marched where they pleased but where the General ordered them Yet it is a probable and a very rational conjecture that the Velites marched nearest that place where the Enemy was whether that was in the Van Rear or Flank of the Army since they were by their skirmishes to begin the Fight But I fear in the next Chapter we shall have more groping before we find the quarter where they lodged Observe that the Legions of both the Romans and Socii did change Van and Rear daily by turns I have told you before the Roman ambulatory March was twenty Italian miles in four hours and the cursory twenty five But I suppose without Baggage and with it twenty miles was Vnius diei justum iter The just march of an Army for one day CHAP. XXI Of the Quartering Encamping and Castrametation of a Consular Army AFter a long and it may be a hard and tedious March it will be time to Quartering iâ— Towns and Villages lodge our Consular Army and lodged it must be in Towns and Villages or in the Fields If in the first they had nothing to demand from their Hosts but Bed and Lodging and were to pay for all they spent in meat drink or fire In the time of the Emperours the Legates and Presidents of Provinces caused them to furnish the Armies as they marched through their jurisdictions out of the publick Magazines which was discounted from their wages by the Treasurers or caused the Countrey people to bring in provisions of all kinds as to open Markets where they were sold to the Souldiers for ready money at the ordinary rates of the Countreys in which the Armies chanced to be the contraveners and disobeyers of orders being severely punished The way in which Officers and Souldiers used to be quartered in Houses to avoid strife between them and their Hosts was this The whole house was as equally divided as might be into three parts whereof the Master of the house chose the first the Souldiers the second and the third and last returned to the host who by this means had two thirds When the Army was to be quartered in the Field which we call Encamping Souldiers hard labour in Encamping and which consisteth of two parts Castrametation and Fortification the common Souldiers had a harder labour than in their days March in regard beside the measuring the ground they were to Fortifie the Camp with Ditch Rampart and Pallisado and to pitch the Tents of all their Commanders and cleanse their quarters before they got leave to take notice of their own Tents or Huts In the matter of Castrametation which is one part of Encamping after the Roman way we are to borrow all our light from Polybius and our own conjectures for Vegetius speaks but very little of it and that little is in very general terms But for the Fortification of the Camp we are more obliged to Vegetius than Polybius The first spends five full Chapters on Encamping to wit the twenty first twenty second twenty third twenty fourth and twenty fifth of his first Book and either for fear that he had forgot something in all these Chapters or else according to his custome to refresh his own or our memories he falls again to his Castrametation in the eighth Chapter of his third Book The summ of all he saith on that Subject will amount to this Summ of what Vegetius saith of Castrametation He laments that in his time the ancient custome of fortifying Camps was worn out for want whereof says he we have known many Roman Armies afflicted by the sudden incursions of the barbarous Nations Besides saith he if they be worsted in any Battel having no Camp to retire to they fall by the edge of the Sword unrevenged like brutes neither doth the Enemy make an end of killing them till he is weary of pursuing them He says The Army is to Encamp where it may have store of Fuel Wood Water and Fodder where the air is wholsome and free from Marishes and if it be to stay any time it must be well looked to that no Hill be near from whence an Enemy may infest it and that the place be not subject to inundations of Waters The Camp is to be of such an extent that neither Men Beasts nor Baggage be pinched for want of room nor must it be so large but that the Fortifications of it in all its circumference may be sufficiently defended by the men that are within it This is all he says of Castrametation As to the Fortification of the Camp he tells us one and the same thing of it in the twenty fourth Chapter of his first Book and in the eighth Chapter of his third Book and it is shortly this That there were three several sorts or ways of fortifying a Camp First if there was but little danger the Rampart should be made but three foot high suppose above the line and this Rampart was to be made of Turf cut out of the place where the Ditch should be and the And of fortifying the Camp loose earth of the same the which Ditch should be nine foot broad and seven deep and this was called Fossa tumultuaria or a Ditch suddenly cast up and it seems was used when the Army was to stay but a night or two and no enemy near it Thus far Vegetius is clear but in describing the other two ways of fortifying he is extreamly confused both in his first and third Book But if I guess right at his meaning he intends to tell us that the second way of fortification was when an imminent danger of an enemy appeared then the Ditch was nine foot deep and twelve broad and the Rampâ—rt above the line four foot high â—â—d thirdly when they found themselves in the greatest hazard the Rampart was planted about with these Stakes and Palisado s which the Soldiers were obligeâ— to carry about with them So that reckoning from the top of the Rampart to the bottom of the Ditch it was thirteen foot high and the Ditch it self twelve foot broad I would he had said either eleven or thirteen for then he had not contradicted himself for he told us before that in Fortification the Romans were accustom'd to observe an odd number The Turf whereof the Rampart was made used to be half a foot deep one foot broad and one foot and a half long Thus far Vegetius concerning the Fortification of the Roman
do likewise Fear indeed occasions confusion and he will still have Pikemen more fearful than other men Besides he will have them to be ill train'd as if they durst not hazard to charge with their Pikes for fear of hurting either their Commanders or their Companions As to the time of night when the enemy may fall on I know not well what he means by it unless it be that he thinks the darkness or horrour of the night should put a Pikeman in greater danger than a Musqueteer and this I would gladly hear him or any other for him demonstrate His fourth argument is that Pikes are unfit and unserviceable for Convoys In answer to this I ask admit it were so is it therefore not useful at all Fourth Argument Next I say he is mistaken for many Convoys have made use of them and many Convoys must make use of Pikes according to the nature of the ground they Answered are to traverse open Heath and Champain Country or as the enemies strength is fancied to be either in Foot or Horse Many great Convoys are composed only of Firelocks or Fusees I hope Master Lupton will not thence infer that Musquets are useless Fifthly he says The Musqueteer is overtoil'd and discourag'd when he sees Fifth Argument he must do the whole duty in Sallies Skirmishes Convoys and Onslachts as he calls them suppose Infalls or Surprisals from all which the Pikeman is exempted In answer to which I ask who exempted him Truly none that I know Answered but Brancatio and Master Lupton who exempts him from all other duties and makes him unnecessary nor can I divine where our Author hath learn'd this Discipline that he offers to teach us I have shewn the Pikeman is necessary for some Convoys in all Sallies he is serviceable sometimes with his Pike or sometimes with a half Pike or a Halbert sometimes a Morning Star and sometimes Hand granado's with all which the Musqueteer many times must do service for in the medley of a Salley his Musquet is often an unnecessary Weapon unless he be within a Parapet As for Surprizals and Anslachts the Pikeman many times may be very useful and more than the Musqueteer unless he change the Lock of his Musquet as I told you in the last Chapter As to Skirmishes it will be easily granted him that neither the heavy armed Footman who should be the Pikeman nor the heavy armed Horseman who is the Curiassier are proper for them These services were performed in ancient times by the Velites and now by Musquets Fusees Fire-locks and light Horsemen the heavy armed standing ready to sustain them and either to give or receive the Charge Nor did I ever hear Musqueteers make any such complaints as these our Author is pleased to charge them with Sixthly he tells us That in Outworks before or besides an enemy the Pikeman Sixth Argument is useless unless it be to stand Centinel for says he the Musqueteers defend the works and while they are furiously giving fire the Pikeman is sitting in the Trenches taking Tabaco or telling Tales For answer I do not remember that ever I heard a Soldier tell such a tale as this of Mr. Luptons but I know not where this man is he is just now in Out-works and immediately in Trenches It seems they are all one with him but because they are not so I must divide his argument into two parts and give an answer Subdivided to both If it be in Trenches or Approaches to a besieged Fort that the Musqueâ—eers are giving fire furiously it must be either at a Sally of the enemy And answered and then sure the Pikeman is neither sitting nor idle or it is when a Battery is a making near the Counterscarp or that the Zap is begun there and then indeed both Cannon and Musqueâ— should fire furiously upon both Curtains and flanks of the Wall that from thence those who work may be as little disturbed as may be and at that time the Pikeman is busie working with a Spade Shovel or Mattock in his hand or is carefully attending to give obedience to what else he is commanded to do perhaps to receive the Sally of an enemy In the next place I come to Mr. Luptons Outworks and he must mean the Pike is useless either when an Outwork is storm'd or when it is defended from a Storm If the first the Pike is more necessary than any Fire-gun after those who carry them come to the ascending or mounting the work and this is obvious to sense If the second when an enemy is coming on to the Storm it is the Musqueteers part to give fire to keep him off and chace him away but the enemy being already at the foot of the work and mounting the Musquet is useless except from flanks and the Pikâ—man then with stones and Hand-granado's doth the service till the enemy be within push of Pike and then sure the Pike is not useless But he says a Pike is too long a weapon for this service To answer which I shall tell you that Outworks whereof Mr. Lupton speaks confusedly are Tenailles Ravelines Half-moons Crown-works and Horn-works and for the defence of these ordinarily there are other weapons than either Pike or Musquet such are Hand-granado's Stones Halberts Partisans Morning Stars two handed and hangmans Swords which are standing ready within the work that when the Pike cannot be made use of the Pikeman and Musqueteer both may make use of them or any of them And if none of these weapons be in the work a Pikeman may very soon make a Half-Pike of his long Pike which is a weapon much commended by Mr. Lupton But there is no necessity for that either for in these Outworks I have spoke of a Pikeman may with much ease stand on the Rampart and griping his Pike either at half or quarter length tumble down an enemy dead or alive from the top of the Parapet and not cut his Pike at all And because our Author may mean Redoubts and Batteries which are made at Sieges for truly I do not well know where to find him I say the Musqueteers standing on the foot banks of these and doing their work the Pikemen may stand in the body of the Redoubt or Battery and kill or throw over any enemy that is on the head of the Parapet As a Corollary to this sixth argument our Author tells us of a Scout that was lost at the Siege of Stoad where the half of the Soldiers were Pikemen to whom he attributes the loss I suppose he means by Scout some Post and why may not I say the other half of the Defendants who were Musketeers occasion'd the loss and not the Pike-men but because I know not what he means I shall grant him all he says and yet aver that the particular oversight of Pike-men will never conclude the Pike universally useless Seventhly he says Pike-men cannot make a Retreat for saith he an
not seen Brancatio but Terduzzi his Countrey-man for they were both Italians in his Book of Machines says he hath read him Now if he value neither his opinion nor his reasons I think none should for Tâ—rduzzi himself was so little a friend to the Pike that he writes he would have it broken if he knew what better Weapon to put in its room Out of him I shall give you this short description of Brancatio and his Book His Book describ'd The Title of his Book is this Of the true Art of War whereby any Prince may not only resist another in the Field only with his own forces and with little charge but also overcome any Nation A very gloâ—ious Title I think we need expect small performances from so vain promises This man Himself a great undertaker will prove an Alchimist who promiseth to give us mountains of Gold and hath not a six-pence to buy his own dinner His Preface makes up the fourth part of his Book wherein he tells oftner than once that he studied the Theory of the Military Art fifteen years and practis'd it forty so he hath been no young man when he wrote his Book But he concludes and I pray you mark it that in all these fifteen years he had read no Authors but Casar's Commentaries And thereafter he laughs and scoffs at all those Roman Authors and Histories which mention distinct Maniples in the Roman Legions because he had read no such thing in Câ—sar Not only in this Preface of his but all along in his Book he despiseth the Pike and calls it the enervation the weakening and ruine of War I shall for a while leave Brancatio and return to Mr. Lupton's citations out of this great Italian Tactick that I may answer them And in the first place as it was a reflection on Brancatio Mr. Lupton's citations out of Brancatio first to cite Histories which he had either not read or not understood and next not to be acquainted with the customes of War in his own time so Mr. Lupton's credulity is inexcusable for taking things on Brancatio his report the truth whereof he might have found in Books of which many private Answered Gentlemen are Masters I shall very briefly run through the quotations he cites out of this Italian man of War The King of Portugal says he was ruin'd and overthrown in Africk because First he had Squadrons of Pikes But by his favour he was overthrown because neither his Pike-men nor Harquebusiers were rightly Order'd Train'd nor Commanded Next he says Charles the Eighth of France was the first that brought Pikes Second into Italy Indeed there were Pikes in Italy before France was called France and if that French King brought them first there what lost he by it He travers'd it took and conquer'd the Kingdome of Naples and return'd to France and made his passage good at Fornuovo in spite of all Italy then bandied against him and no doubt his Switzers did him good service and Brancatio knew they were armed with Pikes as to their Offensive Arms. Thirdly he says The Turk these forty years by past reckon them to begin Third at the year 1540 and to continue till 1580 hath been Victorious over the Christians Sempre in Ongaria so writes Mr. Lupton only because great Batallions of Pikes both of the Switzer and High Dutch Nation were oppos'd to the Turkish Troops of Horse well arm'd with Pistol and Harquebuss I answer first Brancatio his assertion is false for the Turk was sometimes beaten in Hungary in the time of these forty years and this Mr. Lupton might have learned by perusing Knolles his History if he could light upon no better Next I say If Pikes could not resist the Turks Cavalry Harqâ—ebusiers on foot of which Brancatio would have all his Infantry to consist would have done it much less But what a ridiculous thing is it to impute the loss of all Battels to one cause since Armies may be undone and overthrown by a thousand several occasions What can either Brancatio or Mr. Lupton say against it if I aver that when ever the Turks were beaten and beaten sometimes they were it was because they had no Pike men to resist the charge of a stout and hardy Cavalry Fourthly he avers That John Frederick Duke of Saxe in Germany and Piter Fourth Strozzi in Tuscany were both beaten because of the multitude of their Pikemen To the first I answer I do not remember that Sleidan gives any such reason for his misfortune neither did ever that Prince fight a just Battel with the Emperour Charles the fifth most of whose Infantry consisted of Pike-men as well as that of the Elector of Saxe did To the second of Strozzi I say he was routed because he made his Retreat in the day time in view of a powerful Enemy contrary to the advice given him by Marshal Monluc Finally he says The Battel of Ceresole gives a good proof of the weakness Fifth of the Pike-mens service and the Battels of Dreux and Moncounter prov'd fatal says he to their Leaders who were despis'd by their Enemies because their Foot consisted most of Pikes Here Mr. Lupton does himself an injury to insert such three ignorant and unadvised citations out of Brancatio which I will clear At Ceresole the famous Alphonso Davalo Marquess of Guast commanded Battel of Cerâ—solâ— the Imperial Army and the Duke of Anguien the French The Imperialists were beaten by the cowardise of a Batallion of their own Horse which fled without fighting which a great Batallion of Imperial Pikes seeing open'd and gave them way the French follow the chace through that same lane they being past the Pikes who were no â—ewer than five thousand closed again and kept their ground Another Imperial Batallion of Pikes some Spaniards some Germans fought with a great Body of Grisons belonging to the French and beat it out of the Field and thereafter fought with the Gascone Batallion of Pikes where both parties stood to it valiantly insomuch that the Duc d'Anguien the French General seeing his Grisons overthrown and his Gascons so shrewdly put to it despair'd of the Victory In this charge of the Imperial Pikes and the Gascons almost all the Leaders fell at the first shock but in the mean time there came a Batallion of Switzer Pikes and charged the Imperial Pikes in the flank and notwithstanding they had to do with two stout and redoubted Enemies one in the Van and another in the Flank yet did they keep their Ranks and the Field too after all the Harquebusiers on foot and all their Cavalry with Guast himself wounded as he was had fled and then and not till then they cast down their Arms and cry'd for Quarter which the Switzers gave them sparingly enough At this Charge was Marshal Monluc on foot in the Head of the Gascons with a Pike in his hand and he it is that gives us this relation Will
Lieutenant Colonel eight dishes eight pound of Bread and six measures of Wine A Major or Captain six dishes of Meat six pound of Bread and six measures of Wine A Lieutenant and Ensign each of them four dishes four pound of Bread and three measures of Wine Every Serjeant three dishes of Meat two pound of Bread and one measure and a half of Wine Every Corporal and every Drummer two dishes of Meat two pound of Bread and one measure and a half of Wine A common Soldier or Trooper so much Flesh Bread and Wine as I spoke of before when I told you what Proviant was allow'd him If the Army be not in a Wine-Country then all those I have spokâ— of have a double allowance of Beer This is besides the Hay Straw and Oats the Country is bound to furnish to the Horses not only of the Cavalry Artillery and General Officers but to those Horses likewise that belong to Foderage the Infantry And this grievance of Foderage proves many times heavier than the free quarter all being often eaten up in a short time wherewith the Inhabitants should maintain their Horses and Beasts In these Countries where the Country-people receive a little money for what the Soldiers spend on their Marches in their transient Quarters as for most part in his Majesties Dominions is more tollerable than where they receive no moneys at all though the Hosts of both Foot and Horse must be considerable losers when they get but a Two-pence or a Groat for a nights entertainment Service is that which every Host is bound to furnish either in Town or Country Service to those that are lodged with them whether they be Officers Troopers or common Soldiers whether they be on free quarter or to pay for their Diet. Service comprehends a Bed Lodging Table and Table-linnen Fire Salt and Vinegar It is a grievance likewise because many times the Soldiers are extreamly extravagant in demanding more of those than they need I find in some Histories of France that ninety years ago or thereby this Service was called French Service Vstence and when they got pay they were to seek no other Vstence or Services but a Bed a Table and a Table-cloth and liberty to dress their Meat at the Hosts fire Nor might they invite one another to their Quarters because that prov'd troublesome to their Landlords But when moneys were wanting then the Soldiers were to have free Quarter which was so well regulated that none might demand any other entertainment than what the Host was pleased to give them provided that was sufficient to satisfie nature And withal five Shillings sterling in money every month wherewith to buy shoos or other small Necessaries And truly this was a better order for free Quarter than any I have yet spoken of A very especial care was taken to punish all such who transgrest any of these Ordinances And about that same time I find that the Protestants pay was very frugal the Foot was paid thus A Captain had every Month a hundred Protestant pay eighty or ninety years ago French Livers the Lieutenant had fifty the Ensign thirty the Serâ—eant fifteen every Corporal Pipeâ— and Druâ—mer twelve and the common Soldier had nine CHAP. IX Of Military Laws and Articles of Courts of War of the Judg-Marshal and Provost-Marshal-General THE Laws of God and Nature would not be sufficient to keep wicked man within the bounds of his duty if the Municipal Laws of the Land were not superadded and those would signifie but little too if the punitive execution of them did not follow the transgressors of them I know not indeed why Souldiers should not be governed by those same Laws whereby other subjects of that same Prince and State are if it be not for two reasons First an Army being in the field and making no long abode in one place Reasons for the severâ—ty of Military Laws Criminals and other guilty persons cannot be so formally and legally conven'd before the ordinary Judges of the Land as the constant Inhabitants may especially when an Army is out of a Prince his own Dominions as many times it is Secondly it is found not only fit but necessary that more severe Laws be made in Camps than in Cities for I know not by what authority for what reason or by what instinct men who follow the War assume to themselves a greater liberty to sin than other Mortals do as if the entering themselves in a Militia did let them loose from all Civil bonds and tyes of humane Society and that which in a Commonwealth is a Capital crime were but a venial Peccadillo in an Army That some Armies are better govern'd than others is easily granted and that fewer gross crimes are committed in some than in others will not be denied being some Generals are more just more exact and more severe than others are and which is more than that some Armies are better paid than others be for Theoderick King of the Goths said well Disciplinam non servat jejunus exercitus A hungry Army observes no Discipline But that the Roman Armies in ancient times and some since their decay were so well govern'd and all the members of them so orderly is but a dream their terrible disorders and extravagant deportments are to be seen in History and some of them I have touched in the beginning of my Discourses of the Roman Militia And if in an Army some offences be not instantly punisht it will be found peradventure within a few hours impossible to punish them at all Hence it is that a Commander in the War is not only permitted to do that which the Civil Judg may not do but is lyable to censure if he does it not as to inflict present death either by his particular order or with his own hand without formal process as in the Soldiers in some cases may be put to death without process case of mutiny to kill one in the beginning of it and so to terrifie others from prosecuting it or in the case of disobedience when the appearance or pursuit of an enemy will not suffer the Delinquent to be legally proceeded against or upon a march when an enemy is either in Van reer or flank a Marshal-General may be order'd to hang all without process whom he finds at such a distance from the Army without his Coloneâ—s Pass and in this last case Officers may kill those Soldiers that stragle or lag behind But I should advise all Commanders not to make themselves Boureaus and to be very sparing to kill with their own hands except in extraordinary cases These reasons have given a just rise to Military Laws which ordinarily are called Articles of War there are or at least should be as many several Military Articles of War Constitutions as there are Princes or States who wage War for every one of them hath his several Laws and Statutes yet all or most agree in these following particulars
A Regiment marshal'd in one Division orders the Colonels Company to draw up on the right hand next to that the Majors thirdly the second Captains fourthly the fourth Captains fifthly the sixth Captains sixthly the seventh Captains seventhly the fifth Captains eighthly the third Captains ninthly the oldest Captain and lastly the Lieutenant-Colonels Company I know some would have the Majors Company to be where I have plac'd the youngest Captains because they think next to the Van and the Reer the middle is the most honourable place But if they take heed they will find it is not so with a middle Company as with a middle man in a file who upon doubling the front by half files becomes a Leader Besides no Company can properly be said to be in the middle of a Regiment unless the Regiment consist of odd Companies which seldom or never is practised for draw up a Regiment of ten Companies in one front the sixth Company which is accounted the middle one or the Company in the middle of the Regiment is not so for it hath five Companies on its right hand and but four on its left Now my reason for Reasons for the manner of it drawing up the Companies in that order whereof I have spoken is this The right hand or the Van is the most honourable place and next to it the left hand or reer Now the honour comes from danger which is for most part expected from the Van or the Reer and hence it will follow that the nearer a Captain and his Company are the danger the more honourable place they have and therefore the nearer they are to the Van and the Reer the more honourable place they have If then the Regiment be attackâ— in the Van where most danger is expected the Majors Company is by much nearer the danger when it is marshal'd next to the Colonels than if it were drawn up about the middle of the Regiment and consequently is in the more honourable place by this same reason the oldest Captain is to be nearest the Lieutenant-Colonel who hath the second place of honour for if the Reer be attackt the Lieutenant Colonel is nearest the danger and next him the first Captain by this same rule of proportion the second Captain is next to the Major it being fit since the first Captain hath the second place of dignity in the Reer that the second Captain have the third place in the Van. And if this rule hold as I hope it will the third Captains Company must be drawn up on the oldest Captains right hand that so he may have the third place from the Reer as the second Captain had the third place from the Van. And to make short I place the fourth Captain in the fourth place from the Van and the fifth Captain in the fourth place from the Reer the sixth Captain in the fifth place from the Van and the seventh and last Captain in the fifth place from the Reer Now because an Enemy is sooner expected in the Van than in the Reer the Van is more honourable than the Reer and therefore I marshal the last Captain in or near the middle of the Regiment where being furthest from danger either in Van or Reer he obtains the place of least dignity for though all places are honourable yet some are more honourable than others I marshal then a Regiment of ten Companies drawn up in one Division thus Order of a Regiment in one Batallion Colonel Major Second Captain Fourth Captain Sixth Captain Seventh Captain Fifth Captain Third Captain First Captain Lieutenant-Colonel The Companies standing in this order the Major will have but little trouble How to put them in one Body to Body them one of two ways First he may command all the Pikes to advance twenty or twenty four paces and there join them then let him cause the Musqueteers of the five Companies on the right to advance to the right hand of the Pikes and the Musqueteers of the five Companies on the left hand to march up to the left hand of the Pikes and so his work is done Secondly if he have no other ground than that he stands on he is to command the Pikemen to march thorough the files of the Musqueteers by the right and left hand till they meet in one Body in the middle the Musqueteers being likewise order'd to march by both hands to their due distances so that this motion is a Chorean Countermarch of files This may be done with much ease and a few words if the Major please but some have the vanity to make themselves and their Soldiers more business than they need by crying this and that riding here and there making work to themselves and sometimes sport to the Beholders If the Major be order'd to marshal the Regiment in two Divisions he may do To marshal a Regiment of ten Companies in two Batallions it thus The Colonels Company being to have the right hand of the first division and the Lieutenant-Colonels of the second Division he ought to place the other Companies according to their Dignities and these are the Majors Company in the Reer of the first Division and the first Captains in the Reer of the second Division the second Captain next to the Colonel in the first Division the third Captain next to the Lieutenant-Colonel in the second Division the fourth Captain on the right hand of the Major in the first Division and the fifth Captain on the right hand of the oldest Captain in the second Division the sixth Captain next to the second Captain in the first Division and the seventh and last Captain next to the third Captain in the second Division The ten Companies of a Regiment then drawn up in two distinct Batallions are in this order Order of ten Companies in two Divisions First Division Second Division Colonel Lieutenant-Colonel Second Captain Third Captain Sixth Captain Seventh Captain Fourth Captain Fifth Captain Major First Captain My reason for this is because the Regiment being now divided into two Bodies or Batallions the two Reers are next in dignity to the two Vans and those that are nearest to the two Reers are next in honour to those who are nearest to the two Vans for this reason I place the sixth Captain just in the middle of the Reasons for that order first Division as furthest from danger of either Van or Reer of that Division having two Companies before him and two behind him or two on each hand of him And I place the last Captains Company in the middle of the second Division as the place of least dignity and that belongs to him all other Captains having the Precedency of him The Pikes of the first and second Divisions are in the middle of their several Batallions and the Musqueteers of the five Companies of each Body equally divided on both hands of the several Bodies of the Pikes which is done in that same way as when the Regiment
was marshal'd in one Division I know some are of opinion that the Majors Company should be in the Reer Objection against that way of marshalling of the Lieutenant-Colonels Division because the third place of honour in the Regiment belongs to him and the Colonel having the Van of the first Division and the Lieutenant-Colonel of the second the Major should have the Reer of the second Division because it is the Reer of the whole Regiment I should easily subscribe to this if it were not for two reasons First though it be but Answered one Regiment yet being divided it should be lookt on as two distinct Bodies and it is more honourable to have the Reer of the first than of the last Secondly when a Regiment is divided into two parts the Major ought to wait and lodg at the quarter of that Division of the Regiment where the Colonel is because from him he receives his Orders Directions and the Word which he is not oblig'd to carry to the Lieutenant-Colonel if the quarters of the two Divisions be divided as many times they are but the oldest Captain is obliged to come and receive them from the Major at the Colonels Quarter the first Captain in that case officiating as Major for the Lieutenant-Colonels Batallion Now if the Major ought to be where the Colonel is as I think he should then I think the Majors Company should be where himself is The Great Gustavus used another way of marshalling his Regiments and Brigades of Foot which taken altogether was not square of front yet all the four parts or Bodies which composed it were square The manner was this Regiment or Brigade marshal'd a third way Suppose one of his Brigades to be eighteen hundred men as I can assure you he had many weaker whereof twelve hundred were Musqueteers and six hundred were Pikemen the Pikes advanced twenty paces before the two Bodies of Musqueteers who immediately join'd to fill up the void place the Pikemen had possest Then were the Pikes divided into three equal Bodies two hundred to each Batallion the middle Body whereof advanced before the other two so far that its Reer might be about ten paces before the Van of the other two The two Bodies of Pikes that staid behind were order'd to open a little to both hands and then stand still all fronting one way to the Enemy by this means the place which the two hundred Pikes possest in the middle remaining void there were two passages like sally-ports between the Reer of the advanced Body of Pikes and the two Batallions that staid behind out of one whereof on the right hand issued constantly one or two or more hundreds of Musqueteers who before all the three Bodies of Pikes gave incessantly fire on the Enemy and when the word or sign for a Retreat was given they retir'd by the other passage on the left hand back to the great Body of Musqueteers where so many of them as came back unwounded were presently put in rank and file the fire continuing without intermission by Musqueteers who still sallied thorough the passage on the right hand and it is to be observed that the firemen fought thus in small Bodies each of them not above five files of Musqueteers and these for most part but three deep So you may consider that near the third part of the Musqueteers being on service the other two thirds were securely shelter'd behind the three Batallions of Pikemen who were to be compleatly arm'd for the defensive These Pikes had Field pieces with them which fir'd as oft as they could as well as the Musqueteers this continued till the Pikemen came to push of Pike with the Enemy if both parties staid so long as seldom they did and then the Musqueteers were to do what they were order'd to do and the order did depend on emergencies and accidents which as they could not be then seen so no certain rules could be given for them In this order did I see all the Swedish Brigades drawn up for one year after the Kings death but after that time I saw it wear out when Defensive Arms first and then Pikes came Worn out to be neglected and by some vilipended For the March of a Regiment if it can all march in one breast it should The March of a Regiment do so but if not and if the ground permit it let the right hand of Musqueteers march in breast next it the Body of Pikes and after it the left wing of Musqueteers But if none of these can be then as many should march in one petty Division as the way can permit as suppose twelve eight or ten and so soon as you come to open ground you are to march presently in Squadrons or as they are now called Squads or in full Battel that is the Regiment all in one front for by that means your Soldiers are readiest to receive an Enemy they march in a more comely order and straggle far less than when they march few in breast and in a long row The Major appoints Captains Lieutenants and Ensigns to lead Divisions and Serjeants to attend the flanks every one according to their dignities but for my own part I never thought it convenient much less necessary that every small Division of a Regiment should have a Bringer up since he must be as some will have it a Commission'd Officer as well as the Leader of a Division should be For first consider that in a Regiment of one thousand strong there are an hundred sixty and six files and admit that the way will permit eight files to march in breast as that falls not always out by that account you shall have one and twenty Divisions consisting of eight Files apiece multiply twenty one by eight the Product is a hundred and Reasons why every petty Division cannot have a Bringer up sixty eight Files which consists of a thousand and eight men eight more than the number Reckon again how many Commission'd Officers you have in ten Companies besides the three Field-Officers you shall have but twenty nine now of these twenty one must be allow'd to lead the Divisions and by that account you have but nine Officers to bring up so you want thirteen Commission'd Officers for that imployment for Serjeants should neither be permitted to lead or bring up but in case of necessity their duty being to attend the flanks Besides all Commission'd Officers are not always present some frequently being either sick wounded or absent on furloff It will be enough therefore if all these petty Divisions be led by Commission'd Officers which yet cannot be unless you allow some Ensign-bearers to stay from their 〈…〉 ours and by this means you may spare six foot of ground between two Divisions for those who will allow Bringers up allow eighteen foot between two Divisions to wit six foot between the Reer of the first Division and him that brings it up secondly six foot between
the rest resent it as an injury done to the whole fraternity for which they will very readily make him march a whole week without a Trumpeter to sound before him None may sound a Trumpet before a Troop but he who is master of their Art and he must prove himself to be so by producing a Certificate sign'd by a certain number of Master Trumpeters with their Seals annexed to it and this in their Language they call a Lerbrief If any wanting this offer to sound before a Company of Horse the Masters may come and take him away with disgrace in spite of the Ritmaster Those who have not yet got Lerbriefs they call Boys who must serve the Master Trumpeters in all manner of drudgery though they could sound all the points of War never so well They pretend to have got these priviledges from the Emperour Charles the Fifth under his Manual Subscription and Imperial Seal Ask them where this Patent of theirs lyeth some of them will tell you at Augsburg others say at Strasburg and a third will say at Nuremburg I have not seen any of them punished by their Officers and whatever discipline of their own they have I know not but I have not heard of any of their gross misdemeaners I knew one Colonel Boy an ancient Gentleman who for many years had commanded Horse in whose Regiment no sound of Trumpet was heard for none of them would serve under him because in his younger years he had kill'd a Trumpeter with his own hand But it is well these pretended priviledges of theirs are confin'd within the bounds of the German Empire There is another Martial Instrument used with the Cavalry which they call a Kettle-drum there be two of them which hang upon the Horse before the Kettle-drum Drummers Saddle on both which he beats They are not ordinary Princes Dukes and Earls may have them with those Troops which ordinarily are called their Life-guards so may Generals and Lieutenant Generals though they be not Noble-men The Germans Danes and Sweedes permit none to have them under a Lord Baron unless they have taken them from an Enemy and in that case any Ritmaster whatever extraction he be of may make them beat beside his Trumpeters They are used also for State by the Princes of Germany when they go to meat and I have seen them ordinarily beat and Trumpets sound at the Courts of Sweden and Denmark when either of the two Kings went to Dinner or Supper Dragoons are Musketeers mounted on Horses appointed to march with the Dragoons Cavalry in regard there are not only many occasions wherein Foot can assist the Horse but that seldome there is any occasion of service against an Enemy but wherein it is both fit and necessary to joyn some Foot with the Horse Dragoons then go not only before to guard Passes as some imagine but to fight in open Field for if an Enemy rencounter with a Cavalry in a champaign or open Heath the Dragoons are obliged to alight and mix themselves with the Squads of Horse as they shall be commanded and their continuate Firing before the Horse come to the charge will no doubt be very hurtful to the Enemy If the encounter be in a close Countrey they serve well to line Hedges and possess Enclosures they serve for defending Passes and Bridges whether it be in the Advance or a Retreat of an Army and for Serve on foot beating the Enemy from them Their service is on foot and is no other than that of Musketeers but because they are mounted on Horse-back and ride with the Horse either before in the Van or behind in the Rear of an Army they are reckon'd as a part of the Cavalry and are subordinate to the Yet are part of the Cavalry General Lieutenant General or Major General of the Horse and not to those of the foot And being that sometimes they are forced to retire from a powerful and prevailing Enemy they ought to be taught to give Fire on Horse-back that in an open field they may keep an Enemy at a distance till they get the advantage of a closer Countrey a Straight a Pass a Bridge a Hedge or a Ditch and then they are bound to alight and defend that advantage that thereby though perhaps with the loss of the Dragoons themselves the Cavalry may be saved When they alight they cast their Bridle Reins over the necks of their side-mens Horses and leave them in that same order as they marched Of ten Dragoons nine fight and the tenth man keeps the ten Horses For what they have got the denomination of Dragoons Whence they have their denomination is not so easie to be told but because in all languages they are called so we may suppose they may borrow their name from Dragon because a Musketeer on Horse back with his burning Match riding at a gallop as many times he doth may something resemble that Beast which Naturalists call a Fiery Dragon Since then a Dragoon when he alights and a Musqueteer are all one I have The several services of a Musqueteer forborn hitherto to speak of the several ways how the ranks of Musqueteers fire having reserv'd it to this as a proper place Take them then thus If the enemy be upon one of your flanks that hand file fires that is nearest How he fires in the flank and falls off the danger and the next standing still to do the like that which hath fired marches thorough the rest of the files till it be beyond the furthest file of that wing of Musqueteers But if you be charg'd on both flanks then your right and left-hand files fire both and immediately march into the middle of the Body room being made for them and in such pieces of service as these Officers must be attentive dexterous and ready to see all things done orderly otherwise confusion first and immediately after a total rout will inevitably follow If your Body be retiring from an enemy who pursues you in the reer the two last How iâ— the reer ranks stand whereof one having fired it divides it self into two the one half by the right the other half by the left-hand marcheth up to the Van making ready all the while this way is much practised especially in the Low-Countries but with submission to their better judgments I should think it more easie for these ranks that have fired to march every man of them up to their Leaders and then step before them thorough these Intervals of three foot that is between files and this may be done without any trouble either to themselves or their neighbours If the service with the enemy be in the Van as mostly it is Musqueteers after firing fall off two several ways ranks may after they have fired fall off two several ways First the rank which hath fired divides it self into two and the half goes to the right hand and the other half to the left
and then they fall down to the reer and so of Leaders become Bringers-up till another rank comes behind them But I The first not at all good would have this manner of falling off banisht out of all armies for in a great Body it breeds confusion and though in drilling it may leisurely be done without any considerable disorder yet in service with an enemy where men are falling it procures a pitiful Embarras and though it did not yet it ought to The second good give way to a more easie way of falling off which is the second way I promised to tell you of and it is that I spoke of of falling down by the Intervals of ground that is between files and this I would have constantly done by turning to the left-hand after they have fired because after that Musqueteers recover their Matches and cast about their Musquets to the left-side that they may charge again which they are a doing while they fall off to the reer But But not at all to fall off is â—est there is a third way for Musqueteers to do service better than by any of these two and that is not to fall off at all but for every rank to stand still after it hath given fire and make ready again standing the second advancing immediately before the first and that having fired likewise the third advanceth before it and so all the rest do till all have fired and then the first rank begins again It is not possible that by this way of giving fire there can be the least confusion or any thing like it if Officers be but half men there is another way of firing sometimes practised that is by three ranks together the first kneeling the second stooping and the third standing these having fired the other three ranks march thorough the first three and in the same postures fire likewise But here I shall desire it to be granted to me that which indeed is undeniable Three ranks to fire at one time and then the other three that when the last three ranks have fired the first three cannot be ready to fire the second time Next firing by three ranks at a time should not be practised but when either the business seems to be desperate or that the Bodies are so near that the Pikemen are almost come to push of Pike and then no other use can be made of the Musquet but of the Butt-end of it I say then Not so good as all six ranks to fire at once that this manner of six ranks to fire at two several times is not at all to be used for if it come to extremity it will be more proper to make them all fire at once for thereby you pour as much Lead in your enemies bosom at one time as you do the other way at two several times and thereby you do them more mischief you quail daunt and astonish them three times more for one long and continuated crack of Thunder is more terrible and dreadful to mortals than ten interrupted and several ones though all and every one of the ten be as loud as the long one But that I seem not to pass my word to you for this be pleased to take the authority of Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden who practised it at Practised at Leipsick the Battel of Leipsick where after he had fought long and that the Saxon Army on his left-hand was beaten by the Imperialists he caused the Musqueteers of some of his Brigades to fire all at once by kneeling stooping and standing which produced effects conform to his desire If you ask me how six ranks can fire all at one time and level their Musquets right I shall tell you the foremost three How to do it ranks must first be doubled by half files and then your Body consists but of three ranks and the posture of the first is kneeling of the second stooping and of the third standing and then you may command them all to fire If you command your ranks after they have fired to fall to the reer any of the two ways already spoken of though you take never so good heed you shall lose ground besides that it hath the show of a retreat but by making the ranks successively go before those which have fired you advance still and gain ground In this order should Dragoons fight in open field when they are mixed How Dragoons should fire and fall off with Horse in this order also should they fire and advance when they intend to beat an enemy from a Pass But when they are to defend a Pass a Bridg or a Strait they must then after firing fall off to the reer by marching thorough the Intervals of their several files because it may be supposed they have no ground whereon they can advance Martinet the French Marshal de Camp tells us of another manner of firing different from all these that I have mentioned as thus Of six ranks of Musqueteers he would have the first five to kneel the sixth to stand and fire first then the fifth to rise and fire next and consecutively the rest till the first rank have fired after which he will have the foremost five ranks to kneel again till the sixth discharge if the service last so long By this way you can gain no ground and I think its very fair if you keep the ground you have for I conceive you may probably lose it and which is worse the ranks which kneel before that which gives fire may be in greater fear of their friends behind them than of their enemies before them and good reason for it in regard when men are giving death to others and in expectation of the same measure from those who stand against them they are not so composed nor govern'd with so steady reason as when they are receiving leisurely lessons in cold blood how to pour Lead in their enemies bosoms But I have spoke of this in another place perhaps more than becomes a private person since I find that manner of giving fire is practised in the French Armies by order of his most Christian Majesty In the marshalling of Regiments Brigades Companies and Troops either of Horse or Foot Commanders must be very cautious when they have to do with an enemy not to charge the ordinary forms for if at that time you offer to introduce any new form wherewith your men are not acquainted you shall not fail to put them in some confusion than which an enemy cannot desire a greater New figures of Battels commendable advantage If you have a new figure of a Battel in your head be sure to accustom your Companies and Regiment very often by exercise to the practice of it before you make use of it in earnest But by this let me not seem to put a restraint on any ingenious spirit that is capable to create new figures I think they should be exceedingly cherisht by Princes and
left hand three Brigades of Foot drawn up directly behind the three Intervals appointed to be between the four Brigades in the Battel and on their left hand the second Brigade of Horse drawn up behind the Interval appointed to be between the two Brigades of Horse which makes the left wing of the Battel The Longitude of the Battel marshal'd as I have said you may compute thus Longitude of the Battel computed The two Brigades of Horse on the right wing each consisting of 600 Horse and consequently of 200 Leaders both of them 400 Leaders each whereof hath three foot of ground allow'd him require 1200 foot and the Interval 600 the distance between them and the Foot 24 as much you are to allow to the left wing of the Horse add these together you will find the aggregate to be 3648. Each Brigade of Foot consisting of 1800 men six deep hath 300 Leaders and so the four Brigades have 1200 Leaders each of these hath three foot allow'd him inde 3600 foot so every Brigade hath 900 foot of ground as much must every Interval have now there be three Intervals and three times 900 amounts to 2700. There must be in every Brigade two Intervals each of six foot between the Pikes and Musqueteers so 12 foot in every one and in all the four 48. Add 48 to 2700 and both of them to 3600 the aggregate is 6348. So much ground is requir'd for the Foot of the Battel Add 6348 to 3648 which was allowed to the Horse the aggregate will be 9996 which will want four foot of two Italian miles I shall neither trouble my Reader nor my self to compute the Longitude of the Reserve What I have said of two ways of Marshaling this Army of 16200 Horse and Foot is meant only in order to Intervals for it is most certain an Army may be drawn up in as many several figures and forms as there may be Generals to succeed one another in the command of it Between the Battel and Reserve there should be as great distance of ground as a Brigade of Foot possesseth in its Longitude but if the Army be marshalled in three bodies then the distance between Battel and Reer-guard must be double that distance that is between Van-guard and Battel that there be room for both to rally this was observ'd by two late Princes of Orange Maurice and Henry in drawing up their Armies following therein the practice of the Romans in their Intervals between their Hastati Principes and Triarii CHAP. XVIII Of the Women and Baggage belonging to an Army of the General Waggon-master and of his Duties OUR levied men being arm'd paid exercised disciplin'd divided into Troops Companies Regiments and Brigades with Officers belonging to them and sufficiently proyided with General Officers and a Train of Artillery and at length marshal'd in order of Battel are now ready to march but I am afraid the Baggage will disturb them unless it be put in some order The great number of Coaches Waggons Carts and Horses loaded with baggage the needless numbers of Women and Boys who follow Armies renders a march slow uneasie and troublesome And therefore the Latins gave Baggage justly called Impedimenta baggage the right name of Impedimenta hinderances But because without some baggage an Army cannot subsist it would be his eare who commands in chief to order the matter so that the baggage may be as inconsiderable and small as may be and that it march in such order that every Waggon-man Carter and Baggage-man may know his own place that so they may neither disturb one another nor yet hinder the march of the Army The place where the Baggage should march is appointed according to the knowledg the General hath of his enemy if he be in the Reer the Baggage should be sent before the Army if he be in the Van it should be in the Reer But in these places there should be Baggage should have Convoys of Horse and Foot with it a Convoy of Horse and Foot strong or weak according as occasion seems to require And of Convoys for Baggage I shall say these few things in general In them these Horsemen who are not very well mounted may well enough be employed but no men are to be set there whether of Foot or Horse that are sick lame or wounded for that were to betray both them and the Baggage to an enemy When Convoys are put to fight for defence of their Charge as many times they are for the desire of booty spurs men to desperate attempts they should if conveniently they can cast themselves within the Waggons and Carts drawn up round for that purpose from whence Musqueteers may do notable service and out of which retrenchment the Horse may as they see occasion make handsome Sallies If they cannot get this done they should be sure to put as much of the Baggage or all of it if they may between them and their own Army and themselves between the Baggage and the enemy whether he fall out to be in the Van or in the Reer Sometimes if the danger appear to be both before and behind the Baggage marches in the middle of the Infantry and though some be of the opinion that the Baggage should still follow the Artillery yet that doth not nor cannot hold in all cases and emergencies the marching of both Armies and Baggage many times depending on contingents of which no determinate rule can be given The way to regulate Baggage is to appoint under a severe penalty that no Company Troop or Regiment shall have more Waggons Carts or Baggage horses than such a set number already order'd by the Prince or his General The number of Waggons Carts and Baggage-Horses should be determined which should be as few as may be with full power to the Waggon-master General to make all that is over that number prize with an absolute command to all Colonels to assist him in case of opposition In the former Discourses we have seen that the Grecians and Romans to free themselves as much as was possible of this great Embarras of Baggage loaded their Soldiers like Mules and Asses this perhaps did suit those times better than it would do ours But most of our Modern allowances for Carriages of an Armies Baggage hath been in the other extream I shall instance four The Swedish Kings and their Generals allow ten Waggons to every Troop of Horse and two to every Company of Foot and a Sutlers Waggon to every one of them sometimes two to a Troop of Horse besides the Waggons allowed to Swedish allowance of Waggons the field and Staff-officers of Regiments Let us then suppose that the Cavalry of an Army consists of five thousand Horse and these divided into a hundred Troops and fifty Horse in a Troop were thought fair in the German War These hundred Troops had for themselves a thousand Waggons and a hundred for their Sutlers Model these hundred Troops in
he is to advance his march speedily to gain a pass or advantage of ground or stop his march and encamp and fortifie and if nothing else will help he should draw up in Battel either fronting that same way as he was marching or facing about to fight the enemy whether he be in his front or reer and let God dispose of the Victory as seems good in his eyes Our Modern Armies have marched and do still march one of three several An Army may â—arch in three several manners ways these are first by dividing an Army into three several Bodies Van-guard Battel and Arrier-guard secondly by marching in two distinct Bodies as they use to fight and these are commonly called Battel and Reserve Thirdly all in one Battel whereby is meant the half of the Cavalry in the Van the other half in the Reer and the Foot between them To clear all these three ways of marching let us suppose our Army to consist of six Brigades of Horse and eight of Foot These are divided after the first way thus In the Van-guard First manner in three Bodies three Brigades of Horse and out of these a strong party of three or four hundred Horse to go before to search the ways and discover That party should be about one English mile before the three Brigades of Horse and out of it should be small parties sent out about half an English mile which should constantly acquaint the great party and it the Brigades behind and so from hand Van-guard to hand till the Intelligence of all they learn comes to the General After these forlorn Troops of Horse follow commanded Musqueteers with Pioneers to smooth and make plain the ways for the Artillery whether it be by cutting Trees or hedges or filling hollow grounds or Ditches After the three Brigades of Horse follow some Field-pieces suppose the half of those that are with the Army and some Waggons loaded with Ammunition immediately after them march two Brigades of Foot these are follow'd by the Baggage of the whole Van-guard and behind it a commanded party of Horse and Foot so you see this Van-guard is a petty Army of it self In the next place comes the Battel in this order First two Brigades of Foot after them the Prince or his Battel General in person attended with the Guard of his Body and Servants behind these the General or Colonel of the Artillery who is followed by the great Ordnance and whole Train of Artillery after it cometh in due order the Baggage belonging to the General Officers and to all the four Brigades which compose the Battel in the Reer whereof march two more Brigades of Foot and these sometimes are brought up by a party of Horse After the Battel comes the Reerguard of our Army and that is the Reverse of the Van-guard for first Reer-guard marcheth its Baggage with a commanded party of Horse and Foot next follow two Brigades of Foot then some Field-pieces behind them the other three Brigades of Horse who have a party behind them at the distance at least of one English mile to give them advertisement if an enemy be following And this is the first and a very commendable manner of the march of an Army But observe to make the greater expedition especially if an Army be numerous these three great Bodies may march three several ways if the Country conveniently Thâ—se three Bodies may march three several ways afford them and this makes a speedy march but in this case the Battel must have two Brigades of Horse which it had not before and consequently the Van guard and Reer-guard each of them but two whereas by our former marshalling each of them had three when they divide they are appointed to meet at such a time and place as the General shall appoint whether that be every night or every third fourth or fifth night this is done when an enemy is not near The Commander in chief marcheth and â—dgeth constantly with the Body of the Infantry and the Artillery And these great Officers who command the Van-guard and Arrier-guard have Majors attending them every day and night besides Ordinance-Horsemen to receive their Directions and bring them speedily to them in regard some new intelligence may rationally move them to alter the manner of the march or any Orders they gave concerning it The second manner of the march of an Army is in two Bodies Battel and Second manner in two Bodies Reserve You will be pleased to remember that the Army we now speak of consists of six Brigades of Horse and eight of Foot which I thus order In the Battel shall first march 400 commanded Horse who shall have a smaller party before them to discover next them Pioneers or Country people with a party of Musqueteers or Fire-locks to plain the ways then four Brigades of Horse Next them Field-pieces then three Brigades of Foot after them the Prince or he who commands by his authority the General or Colonel of the Artillery follows after whom comes the great Ordnance and whole Train which is followed by the Coaches and Waggons belonging to the General and all the other General Officers after them comes the Baggage belonging to all the Brigades of the Battel in that same order that the Brigades themselves march after which come two Brigades of Foot and then a party of Horse brings up the reer of the Battel The Reserve follows in this order First a Commanded party of Horse and Reserve Foot then the whole Baggage that belongs to the Reserve next to it Field-pieces with their Waggons of Ammunition after them three Brigades of Foot and then two Brigades of Horse about one English mile behind them follows the Reer-guard of Commanded Horse These two great bodies for expedition These two Bodies may march two several ways sake may likewise march two several ways if the General have no apprehension of an enemy and join when he gives order for it Observe when an enemy is in the reer the Battel is the Reserve and the Reserve is the Battel and consequently more Brigades should be in the Reer than in the Van and in the Reer at such an occasion the Commander in chief of the Army should be The third manner of an Armies march is when it neither marcheth in two Third manner in one Body nor three distinct Bodies but in one intire Body which is frequently practised let me then once more refresh your memory by telling you our Army consists of six Brigades of Horse and eight of Foot Three Brigades of Horse march first and make the Van-guard these have before them commanded Horse Pioneers and Musqueteers as the others had Then follow four Brigades of Foot the General after them next him the General of the Artillery with his whole Train after it marcheth the other four Brigades of Foot and these eight Brigades of Foot compose the Battel of the Army the other three Brigades of
Horse make the Reer-guard behind which at a miles distance follows a strong party of commanded Horse The Baggage may be in the Van or the Reer or May be divided easily into several Bodies if the General appreheâ—d danger in them both it may march immediately after the Train This great Body may be very soon divided into either two or three several ones and may march as many several ways as the General pleaseth But truly with submission to great Commanders I should be of opinion that the Baggage of an Army should never be divided unless the Army it self divides if danger be in the Van let it all stay in the Reer the proper place of Baggage if the enemy be expected in the Reer post away all the Baggage to The proper place of Baggage in a march the Van if in both necessity will force it to be in the middle of the Army But my humble opinion is that without apparent danger it should constantly be in the Reer of the whole Army for the disadvantage is but small that the Brigades or Regiments of the Van have and withal they have but their turns of it that they must wait very long at night till their Baggage come from the Reer It is but small I say if you compare it with the great prejudice the Prince or States service suffers by having the Regiments or Brigades which march in the Reer benighted being hinder'd by the Baggage that is order'd to march before them two three sometimes five hours whereas if that Baggage had not been in their way they might have reach'd their Quarter seasonably enough But there is a worse thing in it than that when upon the unexpected appearance of an enemy in the Van the Brigades that are in the Reer-guard being suddenly call'd up they are not able â—â— advance for the unavoidable Embarras of Baggage that is before them Indeed I think the middle or center of the Infantry a proper place for the great Guns and Train and the Generals Secretaries and Cabinets with his Papers and for most of his and some of the other General Officers Coaches especially if their Ladies be in them and there I think these should constantly march But my judgment is that all other Baggage whatsoever belonging to either Horse or Foot should be in the Reer according to that priority or precedency the Regiments or Brigades have themselves in the march and these should change every day that who is in the Van one day may be in the Reer the next that all may participate equally of the ease or toil of a march Where the sick and wounded should be What is spoke of the place where Baggage should march is to be understood also of the sick and wounded Soldiers who if they cannot be put in some secure or fortified place should be brought forward though Baggage-horses should be borrowed from the owners for that use and in time of danger should be sent as far from it as may be with a good Guard or Convoy When ground will permit the Brigades of an Army whether Horse or Foot to march in one breast or front there is a question what distance or interval should be kept between these Brigades There be some who theoretically argue that the distance between two Brigades both marching in breast but the one behind the other should be of as much ground as a Brigade drawn Distance between Brigades on a march should not be so great as when they are to fight up in front doth possess because say they when one Brigade is drawn up on the right hand of a large field where the whole Army is to be marshal'd the second Brigade which follows cannot draw up in full breast on the left hand of the first unless there be such an Interval between them on their march as that I just now told you of nor can the third draw up on the left hand of the second unless it have that same distance the like is to be said of all the rest To this I answer when an Army is marshal'd in Battel-order that distance is to be kept between Brigades whereof I spoke in the last Chapter and so the second will have the less difficulty to marshal it self on the left hand of the first But that cannot make me allow so much ground between Brigades on a march as I willingly do when they are to fight To the reason produced against it I say to think that a Brigade all in one breast and marching directly behind another though at never so great a distance can draw up in breast on the left The contrary opinion examin'd hand of another without some turning or wheeling is a meer speculation And I say more let a Brigade march in three Squads at as great a distance as you will the second shall not draw up on the left hand of the first without some wheeling And if a smaller body cannot do it much less can a greater And practice will shew the vanity of the other opinion to any who will be at the pains to examine it and observe it in the march of Brigades in the field as I have done oftner than once This opinion then vanisheth unless they who follow it bring a better reason for it which I have not yet heard But be pleased to take notice what an inconvenience and that no small one the observing this rule will bring along with it in a march I speak still when Brigades march all in one front one behind another at that rate there shall be such avast distance between the Van and the Reer that the last Brigade shall not get up though it run which it should not do to the place where it should be marshal'd but in a very long time which you will easily grant to be true if you will with me make this computation We have spoke of eight Brigades of foot in this Chapter to be in our Army each of them shall be no stronger than 1800 men and therefore each of them must be 300 in front allowing four foot to every Leader these 300 Leaders possess in rank 1200 foot of ground as much by this opinion which I combate must be allowed for an Interval between two Brigades marching one after another in breast now in eight Brigades there are seven Intervals seven times 1200 foot make 8400 Every one of the Brigades possess in deepness 36 foot multiply 36 by 8 which is the number of the Brigades the product is 288. Add 288 to 8400 the aggregate is 8688 foot so much distance there is from the Leaders of the first Brigade of Foot to the Bringers-up of the eight and last Take a view of our six Brigades of Horse each whereof shall consist And found inconvenient of no more than 600 being three deep each Brigade hath 200 in front allow but three foot for every Rider the front of each Brigade possesseth 600 foot of ground as much
will be or the way narrower as for most part it chanceth to be you may see I say how many miles may be between your Front and your Reer And indeed though the Train of Artillery by the sticking of great Guns and Pot-pieces in deep dirty or clay ground give no retardment to the march as frequently it doth or that an Army meet with no extraordinary encumbrances as happily it may yet it will be no marvel to see the Van at the head quarter before the Reer-guard be march'd out of their last nights Leaguer though the march be fourteen or fifteen English miles long and therefore there is good reason to allow as little distance or Interval between several bodies or batallions as may be and to A close march the best and securest divide an Army into two three or more bodies and march several ways to make the greater expedition when it may be done safely and without danger of an enemy and if he be in your Reer and that you intend not to fight dividing so you keep good order facilitates your Retreat The two Princes of Orange Maurice and Henry both of them excellent Captains order'd that in a march when one Regiment was divided into two great Partitions there should be no more but fifty foot of distance between them and only eighty foot between one Regiment and another These Princes caused their Armies to march according to ancient custom in three great Bodies Van guard Battel and Reer-guard and those they called Tercias or Tersos a Spanish word which signifies Thirds and so the Spaniards called their Regiments of old and for any thing I know they do so still These Tersos of the Princes of Orange were indeed grand Brigades and these had Maâ—â—rs who were call'd Majors of the Brigades besides Majors of Regiments And in a march the Princes allowed no greater distance between these great bodies but an hundred or a hundred and twenty foot at most And herein they did not quadrate with the opinion of some of our modern Captains who will have as great a distance between Brigades as the longitude of a Brigade is which we may suppose to be very many times a thousand foot though sometimes less and consequently if there be ten such Brigades of Foot the very nine Intervals between the ten Brigades takes up nine thousand foot near two Italian miles and therefore if the way be not very broad there will be several miles between the Van and the Reer of the Infantry but the reasons brought by those that are of this judgment may be demonstrated to be but weak by a visible practice When an Army is to go over a Pass a Water or a Bridg the whole To march over a Pass or a Strait Bodies of it should be order'd to march very close losing something of their ordinary distances that one Brigade or Batallion being past another may immediately follow without intermission Captain Rud the late Kings Engineer a very worthy person says at the passing a strait an Army should make an halt and draw up in battel and then pass over so many in breast as the place will permit and when they are all over draw up again before And not lose time they march For the last part I shall agree with him for no sooner should any Forlorn-hope Troop Company or Regiment be over a Pass but they should draw up in Battel till some others be over and if there be not ground enough they should advance by little and little till they find a more spacious field where they may draw up in breast and expect the rest or if he mean that every particular Regiment or Brigade should draw on that side of the strait which it is to pass till the Reer of that Regiment or Brigade come up and then begin their march over I shall yet agree with him but for a Van of an Army to stay till the Reer come up before it begin to pass a strait is a great loss of time which in the march of an Army is very precious for in an Army but of an indifferent strength that halt shall be the space of at least four hours and this furnisheth an opportunity to an enemy to oppose the passage or wait his advantages on the other side of the strait with more force policy and deliberation CHAP. XX. Of Quartering Encamping and Modern Castrametation Of the Quarter-master General and of the Quarter-master of the General Staff THE day is far spent and the Army hath march'd far Quarter must be made somewhere and it must be either in Towns Villages or the fields If the Army be dispersed in several Villages or Hamlets it is done that it may To Quarter in Villages be refreshed for some short time and when there is no danger of an enemy If it be to lodg for one night and an enemy is near then both Horse and Foot stand in the field all night with strong Guards Forlorn-hopes Rounds and Patrovilles If an enemy be not near ordinarily the Head quarter is in some little Town or Village and the Cavalry quarter'd round about in Hamlets the Infantry is encamped close by the Head-quarter and if it be but to stay a night or two it doth not usually Entrench but as the old Grecians did Encamps on some place something fortified by nature as on a hill or some defensible ascent or where a river may be on one hand and a marsh on the other and where the place iâ— defective they must help it with Spade and Mattock if danger is apprehended Or if the Foot must lodg in a Champagn their Waggons To Quarter in the Field drawn about them will be an excellent good shelter against sudden Infalls and this the Germans call a Wagonburg that is a Fortification of Waggons and it is better than the Roman Fossa Tumultuaria in ancient times Where ever this Night-leaguer chanceth to be he who commands in chief must be careful to chuse such a place as wants for neither wood water nor foderage An Alarm-place should be appointed for the Horse in case their Quarters happen to be beat up in the night as also a place of Rendezvouz at which the whole Army is to meet next day if it be all in one Body and at such an hour as the General shall appoint The Encamping of an Army for some considerable time requires an orderly To Encamp and fortifie for a long time Castrametation and Fortification and though it be not very ordinary yet it hath been and may be occasion'd by several accidents and emergements such as these When an enemy comes unexpectedly whose strength and designs are not known when a Prince or his General thinks it not fit to hazard a Battel Reasons for it when he would preserve the Country behind him whether it belong to the Prince himself or to his friends or that he hath won it from his enemy When the Pestilence or other
hand of the Battel Before the Battel begin there use to be fore-parties of both Horse and Forlorn Hopes Foot sent out to skirmish these are called Forlorn Hopes and Enfans Perdues Those of the Foot should advance one hundred paces before the Body those of the Horse further But I find at the Battels fought both at Dreux and St. Dennis between the Protestants and Roman Catholicks of France none of those Forlorn Hopes were made use of at all and as few were used at Lutsen where Gustavus Adolphus lost his life When an Enemy is marshalling his Army your Artillery should incessantly To advance on an Enemy play upon him to hinder him all you may to order his affairs and if your Battel be already marshall'd under the shelter of your Ordnance you should advance and take your advantage of him before his Batallions or Squadrons be drawn up but in so good order that the Scene be not changed that by your precipitation you give not him an opportunity to take advantage of you Your advance on an Enemy in what posture soever he be should be with a constant firm and steady pace the Musketeers whether they be on the Flanks or interlin'd with either the Horse or the Pikes firing all the while but when you come within Pistol-shot you should double your pace till your Pikes closely serr'd together charge these whether Horse or Foot whom they find before them It is true the business very oft comes not to push of Pike but it hath and may come oft to it and then Pike-men are very serviceable If a misfortune fall out that a Brigade Regiment or other part of an Army be beat or begin to run and quit the Field this should be conceal'd from the rest of the Army and the Souldiers told that the Enemy in other places is beaten and if they fight but a little the Victory will be instantly theirs I shall not speak here of what advantage a large Front is having done it so often before but if a General perceive that the business may be quickly decided To marshal the Foot in three Rankâ— I think he should double the Front of his Foot and make but three Ranks where formerly they were six and so being able to out-wing his Enemy he may fall on his Flank for at no extraordinary march an Army may be brought to push of Pike before three Ranks of Musketeers have fired successively if they do not begin to fire till they be within distance less than Musket-shot and after they have given their three Volleys then they may give the fourth which will signifie as much if not more than all the three by kneeling stooping and standing whereof I have spoke in the eleventh and twelfth Chapters When any Regiment or Brigade runs or offers to quit the Field the Reserve behind should be order'd immediately to advance and encounter the Victorious Enemy who will hardly be able to withstand that fresh charge for it may be almost received as a Maxime That a Troop Regiment or Brigade A good Rule but not Infallible how strong soever it be which hath fought with and beaten that Body of equal number that stood against it may be easily routed by a Troop Regiment or Brigade that hath not fought though far inferiour in number If any part of an Army get the Victory of those who stand against it he who commands that part ought to send some Troops in pursuit of the routed Enemy and Not to fall on the Flank of an Enemy a great neglect with the rest fall on the Flank of that Batallion which stands next him and yet keeps ground The neglect of this duty lost the famous General Count Tili the Battel of Leipsick for himself being on the Right hand of the Imperial Army beat the Duke of Saxe and his Army out of the Field whom Tili hotly pursuing did not fall on the Left Flank of the Swedish Army left naked Inflanced by the flight of the Saxons But at that same time the King of Sweden who was on the Right hand of his own Army had routed Count Pappenheim who The doing it contributes to the Victory commanded the Left Wing of the Imperialists upon which that martial King did not fail to charge the Flank of the Imperial Battel which was left naked by Pappenheim's Flight and this help'd to procure the Victory to the Sweed As I told you in another place Banier's Right Wing was well near beaten at Woodstock nor did the Reserve come so soon to his succours About that same Instanced time Lieutenant General King had routed the Right Wing of the Imperial Army and with it bore down the Right hand of their Reserve and â—â—ll on the Right Flank of their Battel which yet disputed their ground with Felt-Marshal Leslie who thereupon cast down their Arms and yielded the Victory to the Swedes And the mentioning this Victory puts me in mind to advertize all Officers of Foot not to teach their Musketeers to neglect the use of their Rammers a lesson too often taught and practis'd for at this Bartel I speak of the Imperial Foot were on a Hill up which Leslie advanced with his Infantry but neither his nor the Imperial Musketers made use of Rammers only as the common custome is when they charg'd with Ball they knock'd the Buts of their Muskets at their Right foot by which means most of the Bullets of the Imperial and Saxish Fire-men fell out at the mouths of their Musket when they presented them down the Hill upon the Sweeds whose Bullets could not run that fortune being presented upward And for this reason it was observ'd that few of the Sweedish Foot fell When a Reserve or a part of it advanceth those who fled have a fair opportunity to rally and in a short time to second the Reserve and though To rally rallying at so near a distance is not frequently seen yet it is not banish'd out of the Modern Wars or Armies At Dreux both Armies rallied twice or thrice with various success the Generals of both Armies being both made Prisoners And at Lutsen both Armies rallied often for they fought from morning till night most of the Imperial Cannon being twice taken was as oft retaken Fresh succours in time of Battel discourage an Enemy Some Great Captains have thought it fit in time of Battel to make a show of their Waggon-men Carters and Baggage-men at a distance as if they were succours newly arrived and certainly nothing terrifies an Army more in time of equal sight than an unexpected Enemy as Robert Duke of Normandy's fortunate arrival in the time of Battel between Godfrey of Bouillâ—n and Instance the Saracens in the Holy Land deliver'd the Victory to the Christians But these feigned Musters of Baggage-men and Carriage-horses produce not always False shews sometimes happy the wished effects Sulpitius a Roman Dictator being to fight with the Gauls order'd
Master-pieces of a Captain are to make a Retreat to take a fortified place Four Master-pieces of a Great Captain and to defend one Of the first I shall speak in this of the other two in the two following Chapters Here I am not to speak of those petty Retreats which parties of Horse and Foot make purposely dissembling fear to make an unwary Enemy follow too eagerly till he be brought to that Ambush prepar'd to intrap him as is frequently practis'd in skirmish when two Armies face each other or in Battel when they fight or when either an Army or a strong party faceth a Town whether it be block'd up or not But this discourse is of the Retreat of an Army from the Post it once undertook to maintain from the Countrey through which it once intended to march or from the Town Castle or Fort which it once intended to besiege or block up The occasions of Retreats may be these Pestilence Flux or other contagious Occasions and Reasons of Retreats Diseases in the Army want of Provisions and Munitions the approach of an unexpected or a strong Enemy some Disorders Discontents or Mutinies or just apprehensions of them the couragious or sometimes obstinate holding out of a fortified place contrary to expectation the sudden diminution of the Army by some accident of War not foreseen or to joyn with those Forces who are coming to strengthen the Army which conjunction without such a Retreat might be hinder'd by an active Enemy Or though none of those be yet he who commands an Army often retires for reasons known only to himself or when he thinks it not conducible for his Masters service to hazard Battel with an Enemy though no stronger perhaps not so strong as himself To make a Retreat from an advancing Enemy or from Armies whose conjunction cannot be hinder'd is not at all difficult if he who is to make it Retreats should be made in time have so good Intelligence as he may begin it in time but if it be bad or uncertain or that his Scouts and Parties disappoint him nothing is more difficult and in this place I refer you to my Discourse of Intelligence when an Enemy is near orders are given and obeyed with so great haste and confusion that the March looks rather like a flight than a retreat and this hath ruined many Armies and loaded their Generals with dishonour and disgrace If for want of good intelligence an enemy comes unlooked for or that a General have fought with loss in both these cases the retreat should begin in the night It is true all Retreats infuse fear in an Army which is augmented by the darkness and horror of the night and therefore the common Souldiers should be encouraged and told by their several Officers that the Retreat will be but of a short continuance and that if an Enemy follow they will face about and fight him but withal very strict and severe Discipline should be kept that none straggle for in such occasions they are very apt to run away and indeed at some times and in some places it is better to hazzard a Battle than to offer to retire for if an Army must be lost it is done To begin a Retreat in the Night with more honour by the first than by the last But if an Enemy be near and a Retreat is resolved on it should I say begin in the night because in the day time it will be seen and then it is not to be supposed that an Enemy will be so supinely negligent as not to follow the Rear immediately but though one Enemy know of anothers dislodging yet he will be very cautious to pursue him in the night time having just reasons to fear Ambushes and other stratagems and if a retiring Army get the advantage of one nights march he who commands it may next day possess himself of some fortified place or Pass and thereby be able to force him who follows to stand and then he may advise whether In some cases better Fight than Retire it will be more convenient for his affairs to continue his retreat or to fight and many times this last succeeds well but sometimes it succeeds ill but I say still better fight than still retire when the retreat cannot probably be made without the loss of all or most of the Army A Champaine or a long Heath a numerous Cavalry of a pursuing Enemy the weariness of both Men and Horses of the retiring Army hunger and want of sleep very often render the fighting a Battle more feasible than a Retreat Cornelius Arvina a Roman Dictator perceiving the Sabines would storm his Camp not yet well fortified left his fires all burning and retired in the dead time of the night Instances with all imaginable silence and diligence but being overtaken next morning and seeing he could not make his Retreat good without a visible loss faced about and fought with success Cneius Scipio sped not so well because he fought not in time This Consul perceiving three Armies against him in Spain retired in the night time next day the Enemies Cavalry was in his Rear with whom he only skirmished but that retarded his March so much that the Câ—rthaginian Infantry reached him at night before he could entrench himself he fought them but was beaten and killed but if he had faced about in the day time with his whole Army and fought the Enemies Cavalry he knew not what effects it might have produced Philip of Macedon being worsted by the Romans retired in the night time to the Mountains and thereafter presented them Battle Let us briefly summ up some of Hannibals Retreats from the Romans and theirs from him for they will very aptly shew the benefit and safety of Night-Retreats After this great Carthaginian had fought Marcellus at Numistrâ— with equal Hannibals Retreats from the Romans and theirs from him fortune knowing his own wants he dislodged in the Night and retired Marcellus knew it but durst not follow him for fear of his Ambushes Next Year Marcellus sought out his redoubted Enemy found him at Canusium fought with him and was beaten but fought the next day and did beat Hannibal into his Camp out of which he retired that same night Marcellus not daring to follow him In the Bruâ—ian Country the Consul Sempronius is worsted by Hannibal and gets him to his Camp and in the Night with great silence retires and joins with the Proconsul Licinius returns fights the Carthaginian and defeats him and he in the Night retired with safety to Croton Julius Caesar intending to march away from Pompey to Appollâ—nia sent away his sick men and Baggage in the beginning of the Night well guarded with a Caesar's Retrâ—â—â— from Pompey Legion at the fourth Watch he sent away the rest of his Army except two Legions and the Cavalry so soon as they were gone to save a punctilio of honour he caused a March to be sounded
fellows will be hir'd with Money to go through the strictest closest and best guarded approaches and this is ordinarily done in time of a Sally made for that purpose and if the Intelligencer have agreed with the Governour concerning the precise time of his return another Sally is made for his reception At the time of a desperate Sally at the reparation of a dangerous breach at the work of Retrenching in time of a furious Cannonade or when an Assault is assuredly expected a largess of Money with large promises of more hath a wonderful influence upon the hearts of Souldiers Nor should a Governour spare in time of want to A Governour may borrow from the Inhabitants borrow from the Inhabitants for if they be disaffected he may force them to lend and if they be friends it will not be time for them to hoard up their Moneys when they are in danger to lose all as the unhappy Constantinopolitans did when Sultan Mahomet took their City by assault The fourth and fifth things requisite for a Garrison are Munitions of War Ammunitions and Arms. Powder Match and Ball should be frugally husbanded or freely spent according to the quantity and store wherewith the Fort is provided It should not be lavished away in the beginning of the Siege nor should it be spared in the time of Zaps Batteries Galleries and Assaults but no needless waste should be made of it in all or any of these for this purpose a considerable Magazine of Ammunitions should be put in all Forts especially in frontier Garrisons where the attack of an Enemy is soonest expected for many times to supply this want great hazzards are run to convoy Horse men into the besieged place who carry leather bags full of Powder on the croups of their Horses Our Fort should likewise be provided with all manner of Arms Defensive and Offensive Pikes Half-Pikes Halberds Partizans two-handed Swords Hangmens Arms. Swords Morning-Stars with all manner of Fire-works and Hand-Granadoes for resisting a storm against which there should be prepared also huge balks and logs of Timber tyed to Posts with Ropes or Chains to let fall over and pull up again for these as likewise a great number of greater and lesser Stones do good service in time of Assaults when an Enemy is mounting either the Curtain or Bulwark and cannot be reach'd by shot unless from the Flanks which for most part are made useless by the Enemies Cannon before the Assault We read even since the invention of Powder what use our Ancestors made of molten Lead scalding Water and boyl'd Oyl in time of Assaults at which Louis de Montgomery in his French Milece makes good sport and says the Defendants had as good throw handfuls of Ashes at their Enemies But I am nothing Louis de Montgomery his opinion of his opinion for though experience were silent both reason and sense do teach us that Fire doth more hurt than Ashes and is not burning fire in all these I speak of Scalding Water no question doth mischief and may be us'd with no other expence than fire but Lead and Oyl are chargeable and may I think be employed for better and more proper uses The sixth and last but not the least requisite and necessary thing for a besieged Munitions for the mouth place is Munitions for the mouth without which all the rest signifie nothing What several provisions of meats and drinks presupposing there be Water enough in the Fort are necessary for a Garrison I have told you in the eighth Chapter where I have discoursed of Proviant The question is now what quantity of them should be stored up in a Garrison that apprehends a Siege There be some who think that six months provision is enough and For how long time a Town should be provided with meat and drink of these Louis de Montgomery is one because say they in that time either the Winter season will force the Besieger to remove or the relief of the place will be attempted by him to whom it belongs But we have seen in our own times the contrary of both though we had never heard of the Siege of Troy Others speak of three years provision and this doth well but the Governour when he is not besieged should every year lay in one years fresh provisions causing the Souldiers to eat and pay for that which is oldest I believe none will deny but a Garrison should be provided with meat and drink for one whole year at least And no sooner should a provident Governour foresee or apprehend a Siege whereof he may have many grounds for a probable conjecture but he should command all the Inhabitants to provide themselves of a Citizens to provide a years â—â—â—â— whole years food and maintenance that his publick stores may be preserv'd for the Souldiery and all Citizens who are either unable or unwilling to do so as also all unnecessary people should be commanded to remove out of the Town or Fort. But after a place is invested and the Siege formed it is I think an act of inhumanity to thrust out the Inhabitants especially if they have not had time to provide themselves yea I think it is more mercy to cut their throats within than to send them out for it is not to be thought that an Enemy will suffer them to pass but will force them back to the Town-Ditches where they may lamentably languish and starve to death Such an action as this in my opinion was an eternal blemish to the reputation of Monluc that famous Marshal of A merciless act of Marshal Monluc France who after Sienna whereof he was Governour had been strictly besieged shut out of the City four thousand Inhabitants Men and Women young and old The Marquess of Martignan who commanded the Emperours and Cosmo di Medici's forces caused all these miserable wretches to be chaced back to the Ditches Monluc would receive none of them within the Town Some lusty strong fellows broke through Martignan's Trenches and escap'd many Women and Maids were privately contrary to the Marquess his command taken into Tents and Huts to satiate the lust of the Spaniards but there dyed of them of meer hunger near three thousand Upon this woful occasion the same Monluc in his Commentaries hath this expression These are says he the merciless laws of War we must be many times cruel to disappoint our Enemies God be merciful to us for doing so great mischief Indeed he had reason to cry for Gods mercy for committing so horrible a wickedness But in what Codex did he read of such a Law of War Nay where did he hear of such a custome of War Strange it was in him to expel and expose those to a merciless death whom he nor none else had appointed to provide for a Siege and whom he might have expell'd before the Siege was form'd that they might have shifted for themselves or begg'd through Italy for bread If ever
Inheritances and Offices and dignities except they be military without the Prince his express Warrant and there is no doubt but this assertion is grounded on just reason and yet that Prince of Orange General for the Emperour who totally routed the French in the Kingdom of Naples disposed of the inheritances of most of those who were of the French Faction to his Captains and not only so but distributed the chief Offices of the Crown among them and though his Master Charles the Fifth did much dislike of the Prince his encroaching on his Prerogative yet that wise Prince ratified all that Orange had done as knowing how dangerous it is for Soveraigns not to approve of what their Generals transact in their names For if that be not done who either dare can or will make any Capitulation with a General whose agreement be it never so authentick and solemn may be called in question and revoked by the Prince he serves What a Captain General of an Army may do in things of this nature the What â—ubaltern officers do like power have those who are subordinate to him when they command apart and are upon the head of some Wing or Brigades of the Army at a distance from the General and at such a distance that his assent and approbation cannot be got so soon as the present necessity or conveniency of the affair requires as suppose a Major General or Colonel is sent three or four miles before the Army this is no great distance to force a Pass which those within it offer to give over provided they be secur'd by Articles to march away in safety it is not time to send to the General suppose he have an Enemy in his Rear for his assent the Major General or Colonel may do it which the General is bound to ratifie Should be ratified by a General and so it is in a hundred cases more Nay further If that Subordinate or Inferiour Officer grant an agreement to an Enemy contrary to the private instructions he hath from his Prince or General yet if he have done nothing which did exceed the limits of his office and function the Prince and General are obliged to ratifie it Indeed they may punish him for his transgression to which the party with whom he capitulated did contribute nothing and therefore must not suffer for his Trespass As suppose a Major General hath a little Town yielded to him by accord whereby he permits the Garrison to march to a place of greater importance which the Prince and his General intend to besiege and have privately forbid the Major General to make any such agreement they may punish him for his presumption but are bound either to suffer the Garrison to enjoy their Articles or at worst to go back to the place where they were Let us summ up all that hath been said in this particular in one instance of Hannibal and Maharbal and it will quadrate very fitly with the subject we now speak of the story is this After the Romans werebeat at the lake Thrasimenus Hannibal sent Maharbal Maharbal's agreement with 6000 Romans to pursue the Victory seven or eight miles from the place of Battel at or near which Hannibal stay'd Maharbal finds six thousand Romans in a Body ready to accept of liberty if granted them to return to Rome otherwise to sell their lives at a dear rate The Carthaginian thought it not fit to hazzard the loss of numbers of his own men on so strong and so desperate a party and therefore agrees with them that they should deliver their Arms and then have liberty to go home Hannibal will not ratifie the agreement but makes Unworthily broke by Hannibal all the six thousand Romans Prisoners and loads them with Irons telling them Maharbal had no power without his consent who commanded in chief to grant them any immunity The worst act ever Hannibal did If Maharbal had no power to grant those Romans their liberty he had no power to grant them their lives and so Hannibal with that same Justice might have put them all to the Sword But first Maharbal commanded in chief in that place where he capitulated next he did nothing that exceeded the bounds of his Office being a great Commander in the Carthaginian Army thirdly he was at such a distance from Hannibal that he had no time to send for his assent and do his errand which was to pursue the flying Romans And therefore the Historian wrongs not Hannibal when he says Punica religione servata fides est ab Annibale Hannibal kept promise with a Punical Faith Indeed if Hannibal had been on the place he had said right and this demonstrates what I said before that any quarter given in the field where a General is signifies nothing till it be confirm'd by him and observe that Articles and Agreements made by word of mouth as this of Maharbal's was bind as strongly as those made in writing for Promises and Parolls of Princes and Captains should be sacredly kept Grotius acknowledgeth that Maharbal's agreement should not have been infringed by Hannibal and yet in that same Chapter affirms That Masanissa King of Numidia a Friend and Ally of the Romans had not power to grant the fair Sophonisbe her life I am not at all of Grotius his judgement For first So was that of Masanissa to Sophonisbe by Scipio Masanissa acted by Scipio's Commission secondly he was far from Scipio thirdly he commanded in chief where he then was fourthly Sophonisbe was not by any former publick Law exempted from pardon fifthly if Masanissa had private instructions to take her life Scipio might have punish'd him but Sophonisbe should not have suffer'd for his transgression but should either have enjoy'd her life or been sent back with all her people to the Castle where she was taken And assuredly Masanissa had power to grant her life and marry her too as he did but he preferr'd the Roman friendship to the love of his Beautiful Wife and so sent her a Cup of Poyson as the last token of his affection This that I have said may be accommodated and applied to James Duke of Duke Hamilton's death Murther Hamilton's case who had Articles granted to him and all that were with him for life which because Lambert avouched he had given the pretended Parliament of England did not deny it but said with Hannibal that Lambert being subalterne had not power to give such conditions but he had power for he exceeded not the limits of his Office and function of a Major General he commanded in chief on the place where he capitulated and we never heard that Cromwel did charge him with the transgression of any of his private instructions at that time and Cromwel was so far from Lambert then that he could not possibly send to him for his assent and if Lambert's superiours thought it not fit to approve of what he had done then in Justice which was a