much of the ranging and ordering of Armies for a fight we shall in the ensuing Chapter give some Advertisement touching the Dislodgings Retreats and Entrenchments of a Camp-Royal CHAP. IX Observations upon the certainty of Orders for dislodging a Camp Of Retreats when to be made in a Campagne and when to be made in narrows How to be ordered and the Reasons Of an Army forced to lodge in open Fields Of the encamping of an Army Of the forms of Trenches Of Guards due to Entrenchments and where to be placed Forms of Entrenchments when an over-powerful Enemy is very near BEing in this Chapter to speak of the Dislodgings Retreats and Entrenchments of a Camp-Royal we will first begin with the first of them An Army being to dislodge and the General having given notice hereof to the Lord Marshal he the Marshal is to do the like to the Quarter-master-General and the Quarter-master to the Provost-Marshal-General and he to the Quartermasters of the Regiments and they to the Colonels and Captains and those to their subordinate Officers who are to warn the common men Now in the first place the Provost-Marshal-General is to give order to the Provost-Marshals of the Regiments that they give Command to the Pioneers Sucklers and the rest that are not Souldiers to be in a readiness and employ themselves in the filling up of the Trenches that they are to forsake and in the firing of the Quarters and this to be done whilest the whole Camp are putting themselves into their Arms that so nothing may remain entire to give relief or any way to serve the Enemies turn after they are forsaken by themselves This being done and the one half of the Scouts sent before to make discoveries that Corner or Wing of the Army which lay next to the Enemie is first to stir seconded by the Body of the Vaunt-guard Then succeedeth the other Wing and then marcheth the Battel followed by the Artillery and Baggage covered with the Rear-guard closed with Troops of Horse serving withal as Scouts to the Army and to beat up Stragglers This hath been received for a general order of dislodgings But surely this cannot be so precisely and punctually observed but may and must suffer alterations according to the quality and condition of the Country and Ground that the dislodging is to be made in for hereby an Army may sometimes be forced to march in broken ranks at another time have liberty to do it in an entire body neither can the place of the Baggage be so ascertained to be either before or after the Middle-guard but that in some cases it may better be ordered in the Flank of the Army provided that that Flank be the securest part for the place of most security is always the most proper for the placing the impediments And thus much touching dislodgings of an Army As for the ordering of Retreats it is to be done in Battalia if the ground will allow it when the Enemy is in sight and in Front And in the first place the Rear is to march off and whilest they turn faces about from the Enemy the Van and Battel are to stand their ground as ready to receive all charges This done the Battel or Middle-guard is to move and in all points to observe the orders and manner fore-practised by the Rear and in the mean time the Van to make a stand and when the Rear and Middle-guard have again made Alt the Van it self is to retreat and to have the Wings of the Horse at the same time to move and flank with it And lest the Enemy should charge upon the Rear some numbers of Musqueteers with some Cornets of Horse are to man it And thus may a whole Army maintain and continue a Retreat so long as the Enemy shall continue in a pursuit and the ground be a Champian But if an Army in the retreat the Enemy following be to pass through any narrows as upon Dikes thorow Lanes over Bridges in this case assoon as any considerable part of the Foot is entered any of these streights the Horse are to pass in the Rear of that first Division and in the room whence these Horse departed a strong stand of Pikes well flanked with Musqueteers are to make it good against the Enemies Horse and to stand firm and keep their ground And for the bringing off of these Pikes and Shot it will be necessary that some Brest-work or half Moon or both be cast up at the point of the entrance upon the narrow wherein Musqueteers are to be lodged and if cause require some small Field-pieces as Drakes or the like to beat upon the Enemy at his approach and make good the entrance The which small Pieces may be brought off upon the Narrow in the Rear of all upon their proper Carriages with their muzzles towards the Enemy and upon all occasions to be guarded and secured by the Pikes in whose Rear they retreat Now the grounds and motives of this Order are That though during a retreat in a champian and open ground the Horse may be ordered to come up and retreat in the Rear because with a small wheeling about they may advantagiously charge the Enemies Horse in Flank if they should attempt to fall on upon that Rear and the Rear of the Foot also with faces about may the whilest receive the Enemies charge with the Body of their Pikes and gall them with the Shot wherewith they are lined Yet when an Army is to pass in any streight these Horse shall then best secure themselves by wheeling about into that Rear of the Division of Foot which hath first entered upon that streight for hereby a stand or alt may be made good against the charge of the Enemies Horse by the rest of the Pikes which are not entered upon the streight and these Pikes brought off under the favour of the Field-pieces and Musqueteers in the half Moon and behind the Brest-work formerly mentioned and they themselves brought off under the protection of the last Rear of Pikes and the Drakes or Field-pieces in the Rear of them to be secured partly by their own beating upon the Enemy as they retreat and partly by the last Reserve of Pikes and Shot when he chargeth home And the want of the making use of this order in our retreat at the Island of Rey was the visible cause of our miscarrying in it For all the while we marched in open ground though all our Horse retreated in the Rear of our Foot and the Enemy both in Horse and Foot doubled our number yet meddled they not with us but made alt when we did and marched when we did But our Forces being got up to the narrow of the Dike betwixt the Salt Pans and our Van and Middle-guard well entered upon the Dike and the Front of our Rear so close up with them that our Horse could not wheel to put themselves betwixt the Rear of them and the Front of our Rear the Enemie
shot in their Front the better to give fire continually upon the breach until the armed men have recovered the top of it And during the whole time of the assault all the Trenches to be furnished with the very best of the shot who are to beat the Enemie from their Parapet that they may not give any aid to the defendants in Flank And the whole Camp besides to be in Arms both Horse and Foot as well for the more terrour to the Defendants as for the intercepting of the Enemie upon all occasions and interruptions And if it fall out that in the assault of the Breach the Ditch cannot be conveniently passed over by the way of Galleries formerly described the most proper course in stead of them may be after the Breach is thoroughly made and the approaches under the covert of the Trenches brought to the brink of the Ditch to fill up the said Ditch with earth and fagots towards which also the ruines and rubbish of the Wall made by the Batterie will much conduce neither is there any Moat of standing water or Ditch so deep but by this course may be surmounted True it is that sometimes to this purpose long and great Trees are thrown into the Ditch covered over and fastned together with planks and shadowed on the sides with Blindes But this is not held so certain as the former though both of them are in use where the Ditch hath in it a standing water But if the water of the Ditch be a current and any thing swift then the best way is to make a bridge upon a large boat the which being apted and contrived to the breadth of the Ditch over against the Breach is to have certain Draw-bridges belonging to it at each end one so fitted that they may serve for Blindes and coverts also to shadow such men as are to conduct the bridge And being thus contrived and manned it is to be suffered to float down with the stream from the place where it was first framed which must be in a place freest from danger of the Enemie and to be moored and made fast directly upon the breach that so the Draw-bridges formerly mentioned being then let fall the Souldiers which are upon the main bridge may not onely finde a sufficient and well-secured passage for themselves but for the rest of the Army also as many of them as shall be thought needful to assault the Breach and to storm and carry the Town CHAP. XV. Of all kindes and forms of Battels Of double Batteries and the like How the Guns are to be mounted in double Batteries Of the Guns proper for Batteries how imployed BEfore we leave this subject touching Assaults upon Towns and Forts and the approaches due unto them and though somewhat also hath formerly been noted touching Batteries yet for the better understanding of them every way it will be necessary to add somewhat more at large Batteries are Mounts of earth and their Forms are generally thus contrived the sides of the Works toward the Enemy are to be made Cannon-proof that is of twenty five foot in thickness in the Rear and Flank of them they are to have a Wall of fifteen foot thick onely the one side of this Wall is to be thicker then the rest as rising with a Walk and a Parapet on the inside in their Front they are to be lined with two exteriour Angles and their faces to be raised with open Windows or Ports as they are generally called thorow which the great Guns are to play on their insides they are to have a good groundselling or floor made of Turff Fagots or the like of eight foot in heighth and in breadth answerable to the greatness of the whole Work And this floor is to be covered with planks for the better traversing and reverse of the Guns But before the raising or planting of any of these Batteries especial observation is to be taken whether there be any possibility or likelyhood of succour to be brought to the place against which this Battery is raised for if there be then care is to be had that though the Enemy should give on with a main force yet the Ordnance upon the Batterie may either be retreated or defended And this may be probably effected by firming the Battery on all sides and by so blocking up all Avenues and making of convenient Parapets that the Enemie shall not be able to make any other accesses save by the very Ports where the Pieces lie And if the Battery be of necessity to be planted upon a Dike and thereby may be in peril of being drowned the heighth of the Dike is to be considered and provision made accordingly and a passage toward the Campagnia to be guarded and kept free that so the Pieces may be carried off that way if there be no other remedie And because it is generally necessary and especially in some cases that the Pieces of Batterie be lodged in secret and as much obscured from the Enemies Cannon in the Town as possibly may be one especial course tending this way may be practised by making a convenient descent in the Platform and that in such a manner that the Pieces may make their reverses so downwards as being reversed may fully hide themselves from the Enemies view and then to be drawn up again by pullies and cords well fastned to the heads of the Carriages and the Wall of the Batterie aloft True it is that these Guns thus lodged are onely to be imployed upon the very nick of occasion and not ordinarily A second way therefore there is by making a double Battery in this manner First of all a Battery is to be raised with Shoulders and Ports sufficiently deep equal and large as well before as behinde in such a fashion that thorow them the Enemies Cannon may be discovered in a right line This done another Battery is to be framed with Ports and Shoulders in a due and answerable proportion ten foot behind this from which through the Ports of the other the Enemies Pieces may also be perfectly seen in a right line And in these innermost Ports the great Guns are to be mounted the which nevertheless by reason of the foremost Batterie will lie so closely shadowed and hidden that the Enemy shall very hardly discover them or at the least to any hurt or damage A third way to this purpose may be by the choice and laying out of a natural piece of ground before which a Ditch being sunk to the depth of eleven foot which will give a sufficient defence for the Guns and those that manage them a sufficient quantity of ground is to be allowed for the reverse of the Guns with the distance of twenty foot one from another in their being lodged having an over-plus of ground behind them which by the help of Pioneers is so to be sunk that men may safely pass to and again behind them undiscovered upon which planks being artificially laid the Guns are
a private Company and so proceed to the whole body of an Army To Exercise a Company exactly it is to be divided into three Corporalships and then subdivided into as many Files as the number will bear and every File into Fellowships or Cameradoes The Corporal of every Corporalship is to be the leader of the chief File thereof and the Lanceprisado who in the Corporals absence when he is upon the Guard or elsewhere executes the Corporals duties is to lead another File and the practick and ready men of every Corporalship are to lead the rest The Company being thus divided and ordered these things are mainly to be taught the carriage and use of Arms Marches and Motions and the understanding of the sounds of the Drum and words of Command and Direction which are rightly termed the Souldiers Vocabula Artis The carriage of Arms is to be appropriated to the most of comeliness and use The use of the Pike is either in receiving or giving a charge By being taught the first the Souldier learns to withstand the Horse by the second to encounter with the Enemies Pikes and to understand when and how every man and so every rank are to give their push or blow In the use of the Musquet the Souldier is first to learn how to present his Piece how to take his level and when to give his Volley with those of his Rank Now the ancient and vulgar manner of Discipline for the giving of Volleys of shot was that all the shot of one Corporalship should give fire at once But this was absolutely condemnable for either those in the Rear must hazard the shooting of their leaders through their heads or else over-shoot the Enemy and spend their Powder in vain And besides the Volley thus delivered being once given the Enemy may come on without impeachment or annoyance In stead of this therefore a more useful practice hath been to order the first Rank onely to give their Volley and if the body of the Company march then that Rank that hath given the Volley to stand and the second Rank to pass thorough it and to give their Volley and then they to stand and then the third Rank to advance and give fire and so all the rest of the Ranks in order But if the Company or Brigade or Battaglia stand firm then the first Rank having given their Volleys are to fall back and the second to come in their rooms and so the third fourth and the rest And by this course the men being commanded men the Vollies may be continued and the Enemy never free from annoyance And all this is easily performed if at the first all the shot be caused to open their Files to open distance But because even this also is defective in respect that there cannot be brought up so many hands to give fire at once upon the Enemie as were to be wisht that absolute Souldier the late King of Swedeland disciplin'd his shot to give fire three ranks at once and this was done by causing the first rank to give their Volleys upon their knees the second somewhat stooping over their leaders heads the third rank standing upright to give their Volleys over all their heads and this to be done at one and the same time And by this means and course was poured more Lead upon the Enemie at once then otherwise by far by any of the other ways And this manner of giving fire must needs also be very useful and advantagious in all Wood-Services and wheresoever an Enemie is to be encountred in narrow Lanes or Paths where men cannot be led up but in a single file for if the three first men thus giving fire be instructed after they have given their Volley to place themselves close up by the sides of the path where the Enemie presents himself and so stand there sidelong towards the Enemie and give place for three others of their followers to advance and do the like a continued Volley of Shot may be thus delivered although the whole file of men should consist but of fifteen in all As for the Discipline belonging to Marches after every man once knoweth his proper place and understandeth how to observe his file and rank there is no difficulty at all in a plain march In a Countermarch also if the leaders of the files be well chosen and that every man observe his leading man there is no great difficulty neither As touching motions some are performed without change of place by turning onely their faces to the right hand or to the left or about as the Enemie is found to charge either in Flank or Rear Some require a change of place and these motions are performed by removing from one rank to another and then some move and some stand still And these kindes of motions are called doublings of ranks and doublings of files as the Enemie or Ground shall give cause to make the Front or Flank greater or lesser There is besides these another kinde of motion to be taught in which all do move and yet none do march And this is done by the opening and closing of files and is practised not onely when one rank is to pass thorow another or the whole Brigade to make a Counter-march but also when there is an intention to draw the Troop together in haste and yet in order more to the one hand then the other And thus far only shall be spoken in this place touching Motions intending to speak more at large of the use of them hereafter Concerning the understanding of the sound of the Drum the Souldiers are to be taught not only to know and observe what the Drummer beats but what time he keeps in beating that accordingly they may hasten or slack their marchings As by the voice they are called upon to all other motions of which likewise we shall say more as occasion shall require CHAP. IV. Of great Guns due to an Army-Royal of the kindes and choice of them Of the number of Horse to draw great Guns The best way of drawing heavie Guns WE have gone thus far towards the proportioning of the body of an Army as to bring the Men or Bodies together to fit them with Chiefs and Commanders and to give them some knowledge in the use of their Arms We have likewise spoken in the beginning of our first Book of such kindes of Arms as are fitted for the persons of men and are portable in their hands It remains that we give some advertisements touching those sorts of Arms or Weapons which are to be carried with Armies but are not portable by the men And these are comprehended under the name of Artillery or great Guns of which though we have spoken somewhat in the former part of our Treatise yet it was onely of such as were to be lodged in Forts and Towns of War and to be employed against them and not of those to be used in the Field and to accompany and march with an
Rocks Islands Hills and Necks of Land But herein it is carefully to be observed that none of these places be commanded by an external height or if they be that that part be fortified also Observation is also to be made that the soil of the part be not Sandie for then there can be no repairs either against Battery or Sap. Respect is likewise to be had to the air that it be wholsom and especially that the place be well provided with water and so that it cannot be cut off by the Enemie That it be in a Country well furnished with Victual of all kindes and withal so sited that it may serve as a Bull-work unto that Country either by a Guard of a Port or the Defence of a Passage That it be apt to offend an Enemy on all sides by Sallies for so it shall be apt also to be relieved and cannot be blockt up with any one Fort alone That it be not so great as to require over-many men to Man and Defend it nor so little as not of capacity to receive a sufficiencie of hands to give an impediment to an Enemie in his passage the mean betwixt these two being when in the Diameter it consisteth of three or four hundred paces and lastly That it be in such a part as that no Siege can be brought before it but by an Army divided To which end the situation upon Rivers and Tongues of Land lying betwixt two Rivers are most proper and convenient And these are the usual Advertisements and Observations to be made and received in the point of choice of the Place and Part that is fit for Fortification Whereunto I shall only add thus much confirmed herein by Gyrolamo Maggi lib. della Fortif l. 1. fol. 4. and Iacomo Castriotto approved Engineers that in new parts to be inhabited upon any terra firma or any large Islands where all Landing-places are too many to be secured by Fortification the most useful and provident part to raise the strongest piece upon is in some Mid-land place where there is an Intention to settle the which nevertheless is to have some smaller pieces of Fortification round about it or near unto it upon the most likely and obvious Avenues that so an assaulting Enemie may be impedited in his approaches as not daring to leave an Enemy behinde him whereby he may be in eminent peril of being cut off from all manner of supplies and may expect to receive continual molestation by those in the Forts left behind him and likewise the Inhabitants may finde means not onely to shelter themselves in their persons but to save their goods and cattle within and under the command of this Fort thus situated CHAP. IV. The perfection of Works due to Fortification in the point of a Bulwork and its parts and in the point of the Curtains and its defences THe part proper for Fortification being thus found some Caveats are to be received touching the perfecting of the works And these are that an especial care be taken that the Bull-works be not hollow and that the Piazza or Plain thereof be raised equal with the Rampart to the foot of the Parapet And that there be no Vault nor Casemate that may give Impediment to the play of the great Guns either by blindings with smoak or any other way That no Angle of a Bulwork be over-small lest it prove easie to be battered nor over-large lest the point with a small battery be hidden from the flank That every Bull-work have his Counter-mine the which though some think by way of saving of charge may be timely enough done when an Enemy begins to make his Approaches yet for my part I cannot approve of so thrifty a presumption That every Bull-work have two Sally-Ports as secretly contrived as may be to which end the Angle of the ears of the Bull-work is the most proper part That every Flank regard the face of the opposite Bull-work that so the Enemy may be dislodged from Mining the Rampart That the Angle of the Flank be a right Angle because an obtuse Angle layeth the Cannoniers or Port-holes over-open and a sharp Angle disordereth the Face of the Piazza of the Bull-work and of the ears thereof That there be in every Flank one piece of Ordnance at the least so secured as that it may serve for a constant defence for the opposite Bullwork That the Port-holes next to the Angles of the Curtain lie as little discover'd as possibly may be provided nevertheless that they regard and scour the ditch and the covered way or false Bray with some part of the circumjacent Campagnia That the defence of the Face of every Bulwork be taken out of half of the Curtain and so be made that it may be re-guarded by the Flank thereby prohibiting an Enemie to Mine the which cannot be done if the defence should be taken from the Angle of the Flank as of old That the distance from the Angle of the Flank to the point of the opposite Bulwork be not above two hundred paces within which distance the great Guns may work their effects nor fewer then one hundred and fiftie that so the Defendants guarding in the Flank may not be offended by the Enemies Musquetiers from the point of the Counterscarp That the Ports be made in the midst of the Curtains and not of the Flanks nor Ears which otherwise might be weakned by them That no part be discovered from the Spalto or shoulder so shall it not be subject to batteries or at the least not to the same batterie of the Point or Flank That the Curtains between the Bulworks be drawn in a right line That no Bridge lead directly to any part of the Work that so the use of Petards may be frustrated and this also may be done by Draw-bridges That the whole Work command round every way over all the plain where it is erected And these are the material and principal observations and advertisements due to Works of Fortification when new ones are to be raised and the choice of the place to be had at pleasure CHAP. V. Of defective pieces of Fortification Of the Forms of Works the Triangular the worst Form WE are in the next place to make some advertisements touching such pieces of Fortification as are defective either in respect of Form or otherwise and all such are so to be held which participate not of the correspondence and defence which they should borrow one of another Now this mal-correspondence may be reformed by giving to the parts of the same denomination equal proportion in heighth breadth length and declination if the situation will possibly permit And the defences are secured and amended by increasing of the points of the Bulworks to such a moderation as that they be not carried to the prohibited terms of sharpness the which for all that serves not for the reformation of all old Works but onely for such as are regular As for the irregular besides the
Borse where the expence in these kinds alone was on the Assailants part infinite great and the effects no less admirable CHAP. IX Of Guns in a Town of War Where best to be placed HAving gone thus far in the point of Forts and Fortifyings of Towns of VVar we are to give some advertisements about the Artillery and Guns belonging and due unto them It is the general opinion that in a Town of VVar of the true size which as before said is to be in the diameter betwixt three and four hundred paces there are not to be fewer then sixty pieces of Ordnance which are thus qualified Of Cannons twelve shooting forty pounds of iron which are to be imployed in Counter-Batteries Of Demy-cannons eighteen shooting twenty four pounds of iron for the defeat of the Enemies defences and trenches Of those called by the French Quarts du Cannons shooting ten pounds of iron wherewith to offend the Enemie in his approaches and to endanger his Sentinels and Out-watches Of Field-pieces twenty shooting five pounds of iron or seven and a half of lead to be imployed not onely upon the Walls and Ramparts but upon the entries of Breaches and besides all these three Morter-pieces at the least for the throwing of Granadoes and Fire-works into the Enemies Trenches and to give light in the night-time for discoverie of the Enemies Works These are the Repartitions of the great Guns accounted requisite for the defence of a well-fortified Town wherein I shall onely advise to change the twelve whole Cannons for so many half ones And my reasons are first because they are more manageable secondly in that they may the oftner and with more ease be charged discharged and recharged thirdly in regard that they do not over-shake their Walls and Works as Cannons do and lastly in that they exact not so many hands to manage them nor require so great expence of Powder as the other As for the parts and particular places where these great Guns are to be lodged and especially during the time of a Siege the Rules are that if the Enemie plant his Batteries against the Curtains of the VVall the Guns in the Town are to be mounted upon the Bulworks next unto that Curtain where the Enemie batters lodging withall some few Pieces upon the inmost brink of the ditch which flankers with the breach But in this point especiall care is to be taken that these Pieces as well on the Bastion as Ditch be never suffered to play save when the Enemie presents himself in multitudes to force the breach that so they may lie undiscovered But if the Enemie batters upon the Bulworks then the neck of the Bastion is to be cut and retrenched and within this retrenchment some great Guns are to be laid and with good shoulders to be well covered and shadowed until the Enemie adventures to force the breach and then to be thorowly imployed on the sudden And this retrenchment may also be used in defence of the Curtains if there be a void place for the making of a half Moon or the like piece of VVork And thus are the great Guns to be lodged and imployed in a well-fortified Town of VVar. CHAP. X. Of the Out-works requisite to a Town of War Of the Ditch the Ravelins Horn-work Counter-Scarp Half Moons HAving thus far discoursed of the inward VVorks of a Town of VVar we shall now advertise somewhat also of the Out-works And first of the Moat or Ditch which lieth the next without the Town-VVall and is sometimes in some places without water sometimes filled with water and again sometimes filled with a standing water sometimes with a current Now of these particulars as also of the breadth of the Ditch some disputes have been which should be the best Of which as affecting brevity I shall onely say That the drie Ditch may be fittest in respect of the VVorks that may be made in it and the wet in regard of retarding and troubling of an Enemie and forcing of him to fill it up or to lay Galleries over it The second Out-work without the VValls are the Ravelins and these generally are cut out triangle-wise and are raised for the most part in the middle of the Ditch and serve as well to defend and scowre the Ditch as also in the nature of Casemates The third VVork without-dores is that called the Counter-Scarp and it is a kinde of Brest-work cut enclining by little and little downwards and sited on the outmost shore or side of the Ditch and it serves for the safety of Musquetiers The fourth VVork of this nature is termed a Horn-work and it is contrived to secure and scowre the Curtains of the Counter-Scarp And it takes the name by having their corners of the Fronts shaped like a Fork or two Horns joyned together Last of all before these Horn-works are again cut out certain places of a safe Retreat called Half Moons and these are also fortified with a Counter-Scarp about one Cubit in heighth And into these Half Moons are passages cut out for the Souldiers to go from the Front of the Horn-work behinde them over little Draw-bridges thrown over their Ditches And these are the chief and prime of all those Pieces termed Out-works which to speak truly are rather the Repairs and Succours of faultie Pieces of Fortification then any true ones themselves Touching all which in general and especial care is to be had that both the outward and inward VVorks of a true fortified place be so contrived and so correspond one to another that some of them lying higher then others and others again in an equal heighth they may with the more surety defend each other from the Flanks and from above so that from the outmost to the next to it and from thence to the rest there may be a safe retreat for the Defendants upon all occasions CHAP. XI Ways of Defence by Protraction Frustration Batteries Mines Assaults how to make void Defence of Towns by way of Sallies How to carry off a Garison out of a Sea-Town WE shall now propound some courses of defence by way of Protraction and others by way of Frustration whereby a besieged place may haply preserve it self against expugnation Now the courses by Protraction are either by the raising of some small Forts or by Counter-approaches or Sallies The Forts to this purpose are to be raised within Musquet-shot of the Town whose Ditches are to be emboqued from the Flanks of the Bulwork or at the least from some part of the Curtain from which also the platforms of the Forts are to be wholly discovered that if the Enemy should gain them he may as suddenly be beaten out and disabled from maintaining them The Counter-approaches are to be emboqued from the Flanks and to begin at the Counter-Scarp and so to be carried towards the Enemies approaches And the use of these are both to delay the Enemie in his approaches and to lodge Souldiers in from whence they may aid the Defendants
to the first Requirable in the making of a War and that is Munition It remains to take some notice of Powder and Victual and so to end this our first Book And first concerning Powder Of which I shall onely speak of the choice of it and the lodging of it when it is gotten For the choice of it or the trial of it That Powder which being laid upon a smooth stone or plank or the like having fire given unto it doth mount upwards with a clear fire and flame without much smoak and without leaving any soil or mark upon the stone or plank may be received for good Powder On the contrary if upon the firing there remain any moist white substance somewhat blewish it is a sign that the Brimstone is not sufficiently purified wherewith that Powder is mixed if there remain any grains of an earthly colour it is an evidence that it was not well grounded nor cleansed if there be whitish grains it is a sign that the Salt-Peter is too salt and neither well grounded nor purified if there be seen any reddish or tawnyish grains it is a token that the Coals were not well prepared if Powder some small quantity being laid upon ones hand and there fired offend not the hand at all or very little but result with a small noise or puff it is a singular sign of excellent good powder As for the ways of trial without fire if Powder being bitten by ones teeth taste moderately salt it is a tolerable token of its goodness if it be of colour not over-black nor obscure but somewhat tending to a red it is a very good evidence of good Powder As touching the safe laying of it up It is a most-necessary providence for the ordering of Powder for the use of an Army in action that it be disposed into two or three several places and many Magazines the better to avoid the danger as well of casual fires as treasons and the Enemies surprizes And for the safe keeping and certain security of it in Towns and especially where mighty Magazines are to be provided it was the practise of a wise Republique to lay up the several materials and ingredients in several parcels as the Salt-Peter by it self the Brimstone by it self and the Cole by it self the which upon all occasions might suddenly be fitted for present use And in the mean time all the hazards and mischiefs that might otherwise ensue be absolutely prevented And thus much touching the particular of Powder As for that of Victual it is obvious to every judgment that it must be provided according to the number of the Army and the length of the March and the nature and condition of the Country that the Army is to pass thorow I shall therefore speak onely of the course of conducting it and of those kinde of people that are to sell it termed Sucklers For the order of conduction of Victuals to or for an Army especially when there is peril of being charged by an Enemie upon the way command is to be given that all the disordered multitude of Carriages and Waggons wherein the Victuals and the like Baggage is to be carried be put in equipage either before day or very early in the morning of that day wherein they are to march And in the first place some Troops of Horse are to be sent out to discover upon all the Advennes of the Enemy and for the better safe-guard the Artillery appointed for their guard may be usefully placed both in the Van of these Carriages and in their Rear and that not onely to beat upon the Enemie if he shall approach by any of those ways but by their thundering to give notice which way the Enemie comes that so the Souldiers may take a general Alarm and according to former direction repair to the part that shall most require assistance Both sides of the ways also where the Carts of Provisions are to pass are to be guarded with loose Wings of Horse and with them some numbers of Musqueteers may be advantagiously intermixed and the best of the Horse may bring up the Rear And in this manner may the Carriages march and be ready to receive any Charge Diligence is likewise to be used that such ways of March as much as may be be made choice of as are least subject to ambushments and that whensoever they are to come to blows it may be in places of advantage To which end either Altes are to be made or a quick March to be practised as cause requires And to this purpose also good use may be made of Waggons in stead of a Trench drawing the Souldiers within them when a desperate Charge is attempted by the Enemie As for the prime Conductor of these Victuallers and Victual he is to be the first man out of the Quarter when these Troops are to march and to make a stand and to take a view of them all and to hasten them forwards And when they are well-near all passed by he is to march in the Rear of all though now and then he may advance before into such parts as he conceives may most require his presence but ought to be the last man that takes up his Quarter He is also to observe that all the Carriages and the Souldiers of that guard be quartered before the dark of the night that so whilest there is yet some day-light he may ride round about the Quarter to see that all things be sure Care is likewise to be had if possibly it may be that intelligence be gotten from the inhabitant Peasants as well of the Ways as of the Enemie and that as well for conveniency as safety To which end all Bridges and Passages are to be known possest and guarded Spies also are continually to be employed to gain knowledge and to give notice of the Enemies designs And Centinels in the night-time to be placed upon all Avenues And if an extraordinary strength be expected to assault it will be necessary to raise some Redoubts and Forts upon the Ways and Passages and upon all places where an Enemie may oportunely give on Touching the Victuallers or Sucklers and Merchants and Artificers which follow an Army they are not any of them to bring any of their Commodities or Merchandise into the Camp without licence from the General who is to command to have them well viewed lest their Victuals should be corrupt and infect the Souldiers with sickness and their Merchandise sophisticated and the Souldier cheated and abused Nor are these men to sell any of their Commodities but in that part and place where the Quarter-master-General shall appoint lest disorders grow in the Quarters nor there neither but at such times and at such a rate as shall be allowed by the Provost-Marshall-General that so there may be no extortion upon the Souldiers And if any of these shall be found Delinquents in any of these kindes he is to incur the penalty of Imprisonment and Confiscation of his
General and being well armed to advance in all places of danger and not to suffer him to be over-engaged in his own person They are to inform themselves thorowly as well of all the Defences of the Enemy as of the means of disabling them And lastly they are to overlook the Pioneers and such as labour at the Batteries and to cause them to act their parts diligently and usefully upon all occasions The peculiar duties of the Conductors of the Artillery are to take the charge of the Waggons and Carriages belonging to the whole Train and to cause them to be ordered according to instructions from the General They are also to see all the powder and shot to be safely lodged and guarded They are all of them every one in his allotted place to be present at the Batteries and there to execute duly and diligently whatsoever the General shall appoint The parts and duties of the Constables of the Artillery are to lay out and describe all the Ports of the Batteries to visit all the great Guns when they are in their Quarters and to see them in point to see them conducted to the Batteries and delivered up to the Gunners with all the appurrenances belonging to them as Coins Levers Ladles Sponges Rammers Shot Powder Wads Tackling and the like They are likewise to take a survey and to advertise all the due Refreshings of the Pieces and to make them known to the Lieutenant and the Gentlemen of the Ordnance They are to Caliber and fit all the shot to the bore of every great Gun and to see them laid on heaps by every Piece They are also to have a care that the Gunners be sufficiently fitted with Linstocks armed with their short swords provided with their Powder-horns and priming irons of all sizes and with their Compasses Quadrants and the like necessaries They are also upon the casting of any new Piece to visit them carefully and to cause them to be every way ordered according to commands and directions from the General As for the Office and duty of the Gunners it being generally known what they are to do and some printed Pamphlets teaching how to do it I shall not enlarge my self farther that way then onely to give some few Caveats And shall in the first place advise that before any admittance be made of any such the pretenders be thorowly and impartially examined and put to the Test by the Master of the Artillery or some able and honest men substituted to that end And for the ease of these Substitutes I shall presume to put them in mind to observe unto their Gunners these few particulars following which perhaps are not so carefully heeded as it were fit and behoveful in these cases As That in the lading of their Guns especially if time and leisure may allow after the second Ladle-ful of powder is conveyed into the chamber of the Piece and there well settled by the Rammer care be taken that the concavity of the Piece be thorowly cleansed by a drie Sponge or convenient Wad lest by the remainder of some grains of loose powder in the way there accrue some peril by the rowling down of the shot which may fire by the way and fire the rest of the powder in the chamber to the spoil of the Gunner That in the letting fall of the shot into the concavity of the Gun when it is charged with powder an especial care be had that the shot be first well cleansed and that no piece of any sandy or stony substance be fixed unto it the which may procure danger both by lodging of the shot by the way before it get home to the powder and by hindering the free issue of it upon the discharge That the Gunner in the lading of his Piece stand not before the mouth of it with any part of his body lest he be spoiled by some accidental firing of it caused by some secret hony-combs or the like And thus much touching the peculiar duties of the prime Officers belonging to a Train of Artillery As for the rest of them their very names speak the nature of their duties and therefore deserve no farther description CHAP. VII How an Army is to be conducted in a march Of the Horse and Foot and great Guns marching in the Van. Of the Horse and Foot and Guns marching in the Battel and Rear How to march the Enemy being in view Of the Artillery when forced to march apart Of the conveyance of the Carriages in general Of the conduction of an Army over Rivers when the Enemy follows in the Rear or lies on the further side Of a Bridge for the passing of an Army over Rivers and of passing by a Ford. The best kind of Bridges for the passing of Armies over Rivers WE are now come to the conduction of an Army in a march wherein in the first place it is requisite that the Conductor be well informed of the nature of the Country through which he is to carry the Army as whether it be Champion or Mountanous whether subject to Marishes or not And especially he ought to be careful to be well provided with siklful and trusty Guides And upon the consideration of the nature and condition of the Country he is to determine the order of the march As for example an Army made up of forty thousand men which number was formerly propounded being to march in a Champion Country in order of battel and the Enemie near may be thus marshalled First of all in the point before the Foot may march five hundred Horse being Corslets or Cuirassiers repartited into more or fewer divisions as occasion shall require And these are in the nature of a Forlorn-hope to make discoveries upon all the passages on all sides and to clear the Woodie places of all ambushments Next after these may march two thousand Foot divided into more or fewer bodies answerable to the Horse in the point And they are as well to serve for a Second or Reserve to these Horse as to defend that part of the Artillery marching in the Vantguard After these two thousand Foot the division of the Artillery for the Vantguard of the Army is to be ordered with the requisite Waggons of great shot powder coins and the like necessaries accompanied with a sufficient number of Pioneers to prepare and lay open the ways and passages and to make needful defences And in this division there are to be of great Guns four Field-pieces at the least mounted on their proper Carriages and attended with one Waggon of powder and another of shot with all things answerable commanded by an experienced Lieutenant with some of the Gentlemen of the Ordnance and their Gunners After this division may march four Culverins with a Waggon of powder and another of shot with the appurtenances After these four Demy-Cannons by pairs with their Gins Powder Shot and other necessaries And in the Rear of all these may march four whole Cannons with all that
belongs unto them as four Waggons of Powder eight Waggons of Shor with all things answerable And these are the repartitions of the Artillery which are to be ordered to march in the Van of an Army of forty thousand men After this body and division of these Ordnance three thousand Light-horse or Dragoons are to be ordered to march and after them ten thousand Foot And in the Rear of these all the Munitions belonging to the one half of the Army as Bridges Planks Powder Shot Cordage Pallisadoes Pikes Shovels Crabs Coins as well of Wood as Iron together with all the Tools belonging to the Carpenters Smiths and the like Artificers All which are to be handsomely lodged in Waggons The Victuallers or Sucklers of the moyety of the Army are to be ordered to march in the next place with the Hospital followed with the Carriages and Waggons belonging to the General and the other Commanders in chief and after them that part of the Baggage belonging partly to the Vant-guard and partly to the Battel After these may march twelve thousand Foot ordered into small Bodies having in the Rear of them a Body of Waggons of Baggage whereof part is to belong to the middle-Guard or Battel and part to the Rear-Guard followed with the Generals Life-Guards and the suit of the Ambassadours Next again after these may follow the Munitions and Engines serving for the use of the Rear with the Artillery Bridges and the like appurtenances and after them eight thousand Foot making the Gross of the Rear Then as formerly in the Van may be ordered to march four Cannons four Demy-Cannons three Culverins or Quart du Cannons and lastly three Field-pieces with all that belongs unto them both of Powder Shot and other necessaries with the requisite attendants And after them two thousand Foot to serve as a defence and coverture to all the Artillery of the Rear And last of all are to march five hundred Horse answerable to the like number in the point of the Van who are to bring up the Rear and to discover that part of the Campagnia that way that so no un-foreseen Alarms may be given by the Enemy to any considerable loss And in this order may an Army on all sides be sufficiently provided in a march against all attempts especially when the Enemy is not in view but somewhat remote But if the Enemy be in view and an assault to be expected and the Army nevertheless of necessity to march and this befall in a large Plain or Champion Country this order now described is to receive some alterations For it will be needful to have a large Front of Pikes being ten or six deep in File with wings of Shot on each side the which all together are to make an equal Front between which Shot and Pikes the Artillery is to march in the intervals And in the midst right behind the Cannon or Artillery may march two Bodies of Pikes and betwixt them the Carriages or Baggage And last of all in the Rear of all may be ordered a Body of Pikes with divisions of Shot on each side equalizing with those of the Front and on each side of them some Troops of Horse to serve as wings to this Body of the Rear And in this Form and Order an Army may both march and if need be fight without being disordered or much impedited in its way For if the Enemy shall charge in Front this order may be maintained and receive the Enemies charge be it either of Horse or Foot by the Front of Pikes and the Shot in the wings shall oportunely gall them in the mean time and the Artillery also give them a Salve as they make up and both Shot and Cannon be well secured either by the Pikes if the Enemies Foot shall charge or by the Horse in the Rear which are to advance if the Enemie charge with his Horse And if the Enemy charge in any of the Flanks it may be sustained by those Pikes which march there if his charge be with Foot and withal he shall be galled by the shot both of Van and Rear and if his charge be with Horse it may be opposed by the Horse marching in the Rear who are to advance to that end And if the Enemy give on in the Rear his Foot may be received with Faces about by the Body of Pikes which are ordered there and also be much annoyed by those Shot flanking those Pikes and the Shot well secured as well by their own Pikes as the Pikes in the Flank and especially by the Horse marching in the Flanks of this Rear And all this while the Carriages of Baggage and Munition may likewise be very sufficiently secured by their being ordered to march in the very center of the Body of Pikes But because it may fall out upon occasions either of passages or ways or present work and employment that the Train of Artillery may be forced to march by it self apart and severed from the main Body of the Army in this case the order and conduction of it may be that half the Pioneers and Labourers make the Van marching under their Chiefs and Commissaries and to be freed from the trouble of any strangers not belonging to their Train nor with any of their Waggons After which Pioneers all such Waggons are to march as carry the Spades Mattocks and the like Utensils Next unto these the Field-pieces are to follow after them the Culverins then the Demy-Cannons and lastly the Cannons And thus ordered marcheth the Vant-Guard and in the very same order may also march the Rear And after the Cannons in the Rear may follow all the Furniture belonging to the Artillery and with it the Bridges the Boats the reserve of the Munitions and especially the Magazine of Powder the Tents in general and the Generals Tents Though true it is that these are sometimes ordered to march in the Van that so they may be first in the Quarters the better to be fitted for receit and entertainment After these are to march all the Fire-works all the Ladders Planks Chains Nails and Sacks and the like implements And after them the rest of the Pioneers and Miners followed with the Waggons of small shot with the Store of Lead with those of the Pikes and Arms to spare And then the Waggons of the great shot the which though properly they are to be ordered to march next after the great Guns yet in respect that the small shot and other small parcels are more subject to the pillage of the Common Souldier they may best be secured in this manner And in the last place are to come up the Waggons belonging to the General of the Ordnance his Lieutenants with the Gentlemen and Officers of that Train And then again the Smiths and Carpenters And in rear of all the Provost of the Artillery is to march together with the remainder of the Baggage and the Victuals of the whole Train And thus may the Artillery belonging
to a great Army march in good safety in all common passages and in a large and open Country several and apart by it self And if it shall be thought that the Train will hereby be over-lengthened it may be helped by dividing it into three parts but in such a manner that the Vant-Guard may take the right hand the Battel the left equalling the Front with the Van and the Rear-Guard with the Ordnance and their appurtenances to march betwixt them both And hereby also the whole Train marching the more closed shall become the stronger and readier and every man prepared to know and fall into his proper rank and place without the least confusion As for the conduction and ordering of the general Carriages and Baggage belonging to an Army when it is to march It hath been found as well with the Ancients as Moderns to be disponed in five several parts As either before the Army when there was a suspicion of the Enemies charging in the Rear or behind when the Army was led towards the Enemy or on the one Flank when there was an expectation to be charged on the other or in the center of the Battel when a charge was looked for on all sides And thus much touching the ordering of an Army in its marching thorough a plain and champion Country it remaineth to speak somewhat about the conduction of an Army over Rivers and the like In which case if the Enemy be in appearance or near unto the Rear it will be fit in the first place to pass over some six or eight Pieces of the smaller sorts of Ordnance and so to lodge them on the other side of the River under good covertures that they may fully discover and play upon that part whence the danger is expected But withal a large half Moon is to be raised on the opposite side wherein the rest of the Ordnance are so to lie mounted that they may play upon all the approaches of the Enemy and withal flanker their friends and so favour them in their passage during the which interim those Pieces on the further side are likewise to be kept in continual play that so the Enemy may not without apparent hazard approach the Rear of the Army And if there be any suspicion of the Enemies falling upon the very tail of the Rear some small entrenchment is to be made wherein some small Pieces may be lodged and guarded with a convenient number of Musqueteers who are there to stay and make good the place until the Army be passed over the River and then themselves are last of all to take their passage in the last Boats under the favour of those Guns planted at the first on the further side of the River And in this manner did that famous Prince of Parma make his passage with his Army over the deep River Wale when Henry IV. of France with his Army followed him a long march in his Rear Thus I say may an Army make his passage over a River with Boats with good security though an Army of Enemies follow it in the Rear But if an Enemie lie on the further side of the River of purpose to hinder the passage of an Army over it then that course is very approvable which in the like case was put in practice by that super-eminent Commander the King of Swedeland when Tilly was on the further side of the River to oppose him who to that purpose made choice of a point of land so made by the serpentine bending of the River that he was to pass over the bank whereof on the side where the Kings own Army lay being a Pikes length higher then was that on Tillies side being also plain and without covert but the Enemies side Woodie and close Upon this point the King caused a running Trench to be cast up round about wherein Musqueteers were so lodged that out of it they might with good security give fire into the opposite Wood where Tilly with his Army lay in covert And the same Line or Trench had a great Battery besides at each end of it whereon some Demy-Cannons and Culverins were mounted with many lesser Batteries betwixt them for some smaller Pieces all alongst the point the which also were every where lined and intermingled with Musqueteers The Bridge for the passage of the Kings Army for by a Bridge they were forced to pass was made with Planks and the like materials The means to support this Bridge was by certain strong Tressels whose feet were long enough to fathom the depth of the River And these Tressels had great stones made fast to their legs wherewith to sink them and the length of the Tressels were proportioned to the just depth of the River in every place where they were to be placed so that the Planks upon the uppermost part of the Bridge were to lie almost even with the surface of the water The Bridge thus fitted and laid over the Kings Pioneers were instantly commanded to pass over upon it and cast up a small Half Moon with a Pallisado fitted unto it upon that side of the River the which works were so contrived as that they did answer in every particular those of the Enemies made for his Musqueteers and withal served to cover the Bridge and to latch such great shot as should be made upon the Bridge And these Pioneers were secured in their workings by the Cannons and Musqueteers of their Party lodged on the opposite side of the River Now the reasons inducing to the choice of the Part and the manner of the Works were in that the crookedness and serpentine course of the River did afford a conveniencie by flanking it on every side to defend the Bridge being laid over just upon the point of land so that it could not be touched by any of the Enemies Batteries though they were on each side thereof because by the sudden shouldering away of the bank of the River at either end none of the Enemies Cannon could bear or beat upon the Bridge but that either the bullets fell short being latched by the Half Moon aforesaid and the heighth of the bank of the River or else flew quite over the Kings Leaguer and so did no execution By which means the Kings Army passed over safely and being over routed the Enemy and killed their General that brave old man And thus you have some rules and advertisements about the conduction of an Army over Rivers by Boats and Bridges But if an Army be to pass over a River by a Foord and an Enemy ready to resist on the further side As it is to be known that that Army runs a great hazard which is thus put to it so is it not to be practised but upon most urging causes and then with all cautions possible among which I shall propound these following That in the passage the most of the Horse be ordered to pass in the Front and the Foot to march close up after them for the Horse
are better able and provided to sustain the Enemies resistance at their landing then the Foot who must needs be much encumbred and tired by their wading thorow the water and especially if the Foord be broad or deep And besides the Horse thus marching in Front shall oportunely discover the condition of the passage where it is at best and worst and may also be ready to relieve and succour any of the Foot that by any accident may be endangered in the water And this was Caesars order in his British War in his passage over the River of Thames and at the River Sicoris in his Spanish War And if the Foord be deep and withal of a swift current it will be necessary to place a great number both of Horse and other great Cattle as well above the part where the Army is to Foord it as also below for hereby the Horse that stand above will break the force of the Current and the Horse that stand below may succour and take up any such as shall happen to be overswayed by the force of the stream and withal add courage to the Souldiers in general to adventure And this course was practised by Hannibal in a passage of his Army over the River Po where in stead of Horse his Elephants were thus ordered to this purpose A second course to this end but requiring more time though with less peril may be to abate the depth of the Foord and violence of the Current by dividing the River into many Chanels As Cyrus did the River Euphrates when he took Babylon from Baltazzer and Semiramis the same River if we credit Herodotus long before as afterwards Alexander Neither hath this practice been altogether amongst the Ancients for at the last siege of the Town of the Borse when the States took it in that small River that ran through the Town was so diverted that the Town was not only streightned in point of water but all such Passages and Avenues drowned as might have facilitated a Reliefe from abroad and the approaches upon the Town it self made by far more easie and accessible As for the kindes of Bridges proper for these conveyances of Armies over Rivers whereof we spake of one even now Of these there are many sorts but those most in use and indeed most commendable as are made upon flat-bottom Boats or Punts wheresoever these are to be procured But withal whatsoever the Bridges be or howsoever contrived it is to be received for a Maxime that whensoever an Army is to pass over any of them and the Enemie within the distance of half a days march no part of the Army ought to be severed from the main Body that no advantage may be taken by the Enemy to intercept or come between them and their Friends And this holds not onely in the passages by Bridges but by Boats or Foords or any other And thus you have directions for the marshalling of Armies in a march And these well observed though an Army should be forced to march even by night need no other additions save onely that extraordinary care be had in providing a sufficient number of able Guides which are to be distributed throughout the whole Army That a well chosen Watch-word be given whereby every Piece and individual Person may be known one to another That many Altes be made to hold all the parts together and no Stragglers lost That the quantity and length of the march be so laid and with that discretion limited that the Souldiers be neither disabled by over-long journeys nor oportunities lost by sickness and lastly that especial endeavour be practised to procure good intelligence of the Enemies proceedings As for such marches as are to be made over Mountains thorow Woods and Boggie and Marish grounds and the like it is not to be expected that any certainty can be prescribed as touching their forms for they are to be accommodated to the ground and ways that necessity throws them upon and commonly are extended in great lengths made passable by the labour of Pioneers but best secured by vigilancie CHAP. VIII Of the ordinary way of ordering a Royal Army to Battel The Leaders in this order where to place themselves and who to be A censure of the defects of this order formerly described Of the Generals placing himself betwixt the Battel and the Rear The best place for the General in a battel Of the lining of the Horse with the light-armed or Musqueteers Of the long-Bowe how to be ordered and employed wherein it is preferable and hath the advantage of the Musquet How the Horse are most advantagiously ordered and placed in a battel The best Forms and proportions of Horse-battels The censure upon these Forms and the use of them The depth that Horse-battels are to be ordered into Of some words of Command both to Horse and Foot Of doubling Files and Ranks and the use of them A modern form of ordering a Fight much approved of Why an Army is thus to be ordered Objections answered IN the last foregoing Chapter we propounded some directions how Armies were to march In this we shall speak of the forms of embattelling them to fight and shall purposely omit many sorts of them as being to little or no purpose save to express the cunning of a curious Serjeant-Major-General and to please wanton Spectators but shall apply my self to such as are most of use The customary way of ordering an Army-Royal to a Battel as well Anciently as more Modernly hath been to divide it into three Battaliaes or main Bodies and these three Bodies have been and yet are by some Nations ordered into one joint Phalanx by others distributed into maniples or small divisions Between which divisions for the prevention of some confusions they leave intervals or distances that by them and through them one Battel or Body may the more conveniently second the other And the breadth and depth of these maniples are to be made answerable to the Enemies forces and the nature of the ground but with such distances that if the Vant-guard should happen to be broken it may conveniently retreat thorow them behind the Battel which thereupon is to joyn and advance and so to renew the Front and receive the Enemy afresh And in the like manner upon the like occasion is the Battel to do behind the Rear And as the one Body is thus relieved by another so may one maniple by another and that without either the advancing or retire of the whole Body As for the Leaders of these several Bodies those of the Vant-guard are to be the Lord Marshal with the one half of the Colonels and half of the Captains having the best men in the Front And in a retreat the same men are to bring up that Rear The Leaders of the Battel and of the Rear are to be the other half of the Colonels and Captaius As for the Generalissimo's place according to this order it is to be between the Battel and the
Rear and that as well in regard that it is the place of most security as that upon all occasions his advice and command may there be best given and taken And the Ensignes are to be ordered into the midst of the Maniples or somewhat nearer the Front As for the Artillery it is to be ordered before the Front without the corners of the Vant-guard upon the most elevated ground that it may the better play upon all parts Only if the Enemy be expected to charge on all parts then is the Artillery to be placed on all parts and such Pieces as are not for the present employment to be bestowed between the Battel and the Rear unless the fight be before a Town or Camp entrenched and then it is left either in the Town or Camp and so is the Baggage likewise and all the unprofitable persons But this ordering of an Army for a Battel hath not passed without reprehension in divers particulars As first of the Phalanx and indeed all other over-great Bodies for it being an undeniable Maxime that those Troops stand in best order which can bring up most hands to fight at once it as undeniably followeth that the smaller Troops and divisions must needs do this best and therefore are preferable Because in great Squadrons or Phalanxes many men are drowned in the depth of the Files and Flanks and never appear but when the breaking of the great Body doth present them to the Butcherie The great Squadrons are also reprovable in regard that they are unmanagable and cannot be preserved in order but when the ground is large and plain and withal of an even and perfect level otherwise they must either stand immovable or upon the least motion be subject to shaking and disorder whereas the lesser Bodies are scantled for all places champion or woodie level or uneven of what condition soever Again if two or three ranks onely of the great Bodies happen to be broken or any way disorderdered the whole Body is equally interessed in the disorder and hath far less means to rally it self then a small maniple whereas on the contrary if any violence rout or disorder a maniple it proceedeth no further then to that part where it taketh the disranking of any one of these small Bodies not at all or very little extending to the confusion or disorder of any of the rest by reason that their intervals and separations or distances serve to cut off such inconveniencies and yet no way hinder the general uniting of all their strength into one Body And these are the exceptions against great Bodies and united Phalanxes The second exception against the former order is about the placing of the General himself between the Battel or Middle-guard and the Rear-guard as the former order prescribes Concerning which notwithstanding many opinions are to be found and various Presidents Vegetius in his third Book and eighteenth Chapter saith that the General of the Army is accustomed to be in the right Wing betwixt the Horse and the Foot And he addeth This is the place which governeth the whole Battel as from whence all sallyings out are direct and free so that saith he the General resting thus betwixt the Horse and Foot may best govern them with commands and directions Now of both these there have been found examples of the first Diodorus Siculus affirmeth that it was the manner of the Scythians that the King should be in the middle of the Phalanx And Arrian in his first Book and thirty sixth Chapter affirmeth that Darius took the same place And Leo also cap. 4. Sect 63. and 67. and cap. 12. Sect. 66. giveth the middle of the Battel to the General And Plutarch reports that Timoleon in his fight against the Carthaginians placed himself in the very midst of the Battel On the other side we have it in Xenophon Cyrop lib. 7. fol. 176. that Cyrus in his Battel against Croesus took his place in the right Wing betwixt the right hand of the Battel and that of the Horse that were ordered in the Wing And Alexander the Great though bred amongst the Phalangers did the like in most of his Battels And for the Moderns I find the valiant King of Sweden at the battel of Liptzwick in the right Wing in the Front of some Brigades of Horse and at the Battel of Lutzen in the very Front of the right Wing of his Vant-guard consisting of six Horse-Squadrons lined with five Bodies of Musqueteers For mine own part as amongst these various opinions I cannot approve of the Generals placing himself in the midst of the Middle-guard or Center of the main Body of Pikes in regard that it neither expresseth valour nor can he see about him to discover any advantages or disadvantages and to direct accordingly so on the other side I shall not advise to have any General to be over-hazardous in adventuring his person in the very heighth of the Front especially when the Army falls up to the charge lest the loss of the best bloud of that body procure the languishing of the whole And thus I am sure was lost at Lutzen the best General of the World though to the wonder of the World that headless Army got the day in a fury In mine opinion therefore though a General may place himself at the time of a battel in the right Wing of his own Middle-guard yet ought it to be with some Brigades of Reserve and by no means in the very Point or Post of the Van. For questionless it is a great errour in a General when his courage shall not suffer his judgment to distinguish betwixt the duties of a common Carabine and the General of an Army As for the lining of the Horse with Musqueteers or at the least with the light-armed whereof we gave a touch before it was not uncommon with the Ancients And it was always held that Horse being thus charged could not resist both And we have a notable example hereof in Hirtius de Bello Afric when Caesar having a march to make and but a small number of Horse with his Legionary Souldiers was set upon in his way by the Enemie abounding with Horse and light-armed Numidians amongst them And when Caesars Souldiers fell out to charge the Enemies Horse retreated and the Foot stood fast until their Horse with a short wheeling about returned upon the Rear of the Enemy to their rescue by which way of fight Caesar himself confessed that he was so perplexed that he found no other course to save himself then to recover some hills of shelter near at hand and that had it not been for them he must have fared worse And for those Musquereers wherewith the King of Swedens Horse at the Battels of Liptzwick and Lutzen were lined they were so shadowed from the Enemie by these Horse that when those of the Enemies came up to the charge they did a very great execution upon them before they were aware and were a main means of
the attainment of those two famous Victories Nor can I apprehend any objection that may with any reason be made against this form of order since hereby these Musqueteers are well secured by their own Horse and the Enemies Horse in extream danger to be terribly galled by these Fire-weapons before they can get up to charge home or so much as to approach within the reach of their Pistols And therefore it seemeth to me very worthy both of acceptation and imitation And these ways of lining of the heavy-armed with the light-armed have not been found to be practised with the Horse onely but with the Pikes also and that as well with the Ancients as those of our time True it is that these light-armed with the Ancients were the Slingers and Darters and were variously ordered sometimes before the Front of the Phalanx or main body of the Pikes sometimes on the Wings sometimes betwixt the Files of the armed fronting in a right line with them sometimes in the Rear of the Battel of the Pikes and of these Aelian makes mention chap. 42. and sometimes also in a quite contrary way as when these light armed were drawn into the midst of the battel it self As for the usual Modern ways they are as all know to place and order the light-armed men which are the Musqueteers in the Wings and sometimes in the Front of the Battel of Pikes And the Swedish Discipline introduced an intermingling of the Musqueteers with small bodies and maniples of Pikes the which nevertheless were so bestowed in the Sections and Divisions of those bodies as not to be discovered by the assaulting Enemies until they felt them And surely if the Garb of the Time would allow it I see not why some of our long-Bowe-men which as the World knows have been the fame of our Nation might not be employed in these services mixed together with our Musqueteers nor why they should not execute to great purpose especially upon Horse And if some of them were ordered in the very Rear of the body of Pikes they would not onely be shadowed from the view of the Enemy but might be drawn up without any confusion or trouble to any other part as occasion should require nay standing firm in the very Rear of all they may questionless do very great service and especially before the Armies join by delivering their Vollies of Arrows over all that stand before them the which as many of them as fall upon any Horse-Troops and with their barbed heads stick and hang fast where they fall as they will certainly do they cannot chuse but cause a mighty confusion nay their very sticking in the ground in the way of a Horse-Troop must needs dazle their sight and amaze them For I am clearly of their opinion who hold that the long-Bowe is preferable to the Musquet in these respects In that many ranks of Archers yea all of them should they stand ten in depth may deliver their whole Vollie at once whereas the Musqueteers can do this with one rank onely at once or at the most after the Swedish way with three as also in regard that the arrow strikes as well in descent as at point-blank the bullet onely at point-blank In that the Bowe may far better be used in wet weather then the Musquet and is withal surer to take whereas the Musquet oftentimes fails in taking fire In that the Bowe is undoubtedly more prevalent against the horse then the Musquet for though a horse be shot thorow with a bullet he is yet for a while able to bear his Rider and to do service but if a barbed arrow do but hang in any part of a horse he becomes altogether unmanageable and so unserviceable And lastly in that as aforesaid though the arrow should miss its mark yet it s very sticking in the ground and especially when a whole Volley doth so proves not onely terrible to the horse but cumbersome both to horse and man and that in all grounds and at all assaults I know well that in some particulars the Musquet also is preserable to the Bowe as behind a Rampart and thorow loop-holes and in that a good Musquet duly charged will carry point-blank to the distance of twelve score whereas an Archer especially now adays can scarce shoot so far at random It may be also that the Musquet is more terrible and scareth an un-accustomed man more then the Bowe But for all this I know not but that they may both pass in Cameradeship nor do I know all things considered why the new invention of the Pike and Bowe united should find so little entertainment amongst us as it hath done unless it be that now adays we have given over our selves to take up all things upon meer trust rather then reason though evidenced by demonstration But because we have spoken much of the lining of Horse with Musqueteers in a battel it may well be expected that somewhat should be said touching the placing and ordering of these Horse and of this I find the common and usual way to be to dispose them in the Wings Thus did Alexander at his passage over the River Granicus as Arrian recordeth lib. 2. and Curtius lib. 3. So did Antigonus as Diodorus Siculus hath it lib. 19. And so Ptolomie in his battel against Demetrius as the same Author saith in the same Book And in brief all the Macedonians and Grecians unless some especial cause urged an alteration did the like And so the Romanes also since them And indeed so it hath continued almost in all ages even to this Nevertheless I hold it not amiss upon many occasions to place and order some Troops of Horse in the very Rear of the Army provided that some large intervals be left in the divisions of the bodies of the Foot that thorow them these Horse may be drawn up to charge when need requires for hereby these Horse shall both be shadowed from the Enemies sight and may be drawn to a charge in any part of the Army wheresoever And of this also we find both old and new examples as of old in the War between the Romanes and Spaniards mentioned by Livie Cecab 3. lib. 9. wherein the Ausetanes the Illergetes with some others are said to leave broad intervals betwixt the Wings and the middle part of their Battel to give passage to their Horse to come up to all charges And I find the like likewise to be practised by the King of Sweden in the battel of Liptzwick where he ordered divers Reserves of Horse in the Rears whence they were drawn up and did very good service towards the atchievement of that famous Victory Sometimes also it hath been found that the Horse have been ordered in the Front of the body of Pikes But I believe that this was onely done when that side did much exceed the other in number and strength of Horse and when there was some distrust in the worth of the Foot As in that battel
did then furiously French-like charge with their Horse upon ours and being by far the greater number instantly routed them forcing such of our Horse as sought their safety by flight to break in upon our own Foot to their utter disorder and the rest of our Horse that could not do so were all either taken or slain The execution likewise upon our Foot became hereby very great and the greater by reason that there were no kindes of Works cast up to command the entrance of the passage upon the Dike So that the Enemy was emboldned to charge home all alongst the way of our march upon the very Dike it self even to the very Bridge that we were to pass over where also by reason of the improvidence in making it without rails on the sides our men in the haste and terrour of their disorder thrust one another into a Creek of the Sea and were there smothered in the water and mud And here it was that we lost the most and best of our men Now because in these Retreats it may fall out even with the most provident Generals that an Army may be forced to lie and lodge in the open Field very near unto an Enemy it will not be amiss to propound some courses touching this particular And in this case it hath been practised that every Regiment should lie down and lodge in the very same order that they marched all the day before with all their Arms by them the Pikes to stick up an end close by the bearers as they lay and every Rot or File that is every six of Musqueteers to bring their Musquets to their Rot-masters or leaders of their File who were to see them set with their mouths upright and so bound together with a piece of Match that they might stand ready at hand upon all alarms As for the person of the General himself and the Officers of the Field they were to bestow themselves in their Coaches or the like and the private Captains to make use of such kinde of frames of wood as in the Low-Countries are termed Horses being very proper for that purpose and of which it is good for every Captain to have one Touching the Horse-Regiments every man was to ease himself and his Horse by alighting and resting himself on the ground and by feeding his Horse near unto him And in this posture to take repast and sleep and so to attend the light of the ensuing morn for the pursuance of their intended retreat And thus having given some notes touching the Dislodgings and Retreats of an Army we will finish this Chapter with some Rules touching Incampings In these Incampings the General Quarter-master is especially to observe these particulars following That friends as near as may be be lodged by friends and this as well for preventing of tumults as the faithful seconding one of another That such Horse as are most unready and unfit for sudden occasions be covered with Foot for three parts of them at least That no impediments as Merchants Victuallers Artificers be lodged amongst the Souldiers and That the Camp be well entrenched And because an Army be it never so well entrenched lying thus will be forced to send Forragers abroad it is a necessary Providence and especially if the Enemy be any thing near that some convenient number of Troops do by turns stand by their Arms that they be always ready to answer all alarms which is greatly furthered and a Rescue the sooner and with less dismay performed when some Captains are thus found always in point and ready to march at the first word of Command And hereof we have a punctual example at Caesars first landing in this our Island For he having received a great loss in his Shipping by a Tempest the which encouraged the Britains so much the more to oppose him the which himself also suspecting he caused his Army to be strongly entrenched And sending out one of his Legions in its turn to fetch in Corn the Enemy on a sudden assaulted it the which being discovered by an unusual dust Caesar instantly took two Cohorts which might amount to the number of 720 men which were in station before the Ports of the Camp commanding that other two should supply their places and led them on to the succour of the Legion that was abroad the which he found in a dangerous fight with the Enemy And without this oportune supply had in all likelyhood been cut off and was thus relieved As for the Forms of Trenches they are to be regulated either by the advantage or disadvantage of the site Their flanks are to be distanced about seventy Paces one from another Their depth bredth and heighth according to the time and intention of stay in that place and the expectance of an Enemy In them entrances or passages are to be laid out for Horse Foot and Carriages And to be covered with Ravelins without and Bars within And these Trenches are to be furnished with convenient Artillery so ordered and mounted that being well flanked they may command the Campagna round about And besides all this the Camp is to be secured by strong and vigilant Guards some whereof are the main Guards the rest the pettie Guards One main-Guard is to be near the Generals Quarter and the Commander thereof is stiled The Captain General of the Watch. Another main-Guard is to be in every Regiment which hath likewise its Captain by whom the Rounds are laid out and the Rounders sent abroad to visit the Guards of the Companies and out of the Main-guard by the Generals Lodging the Rounders are taken out to visit all the petty Guards And because it may be dangerous when in one Discipline two Rounds meet in their Circuit that they which speak first in taking the Word of the other may hereby help the Enemie to rob the Word To prevent it it hath by some been thought a provident course that the two elder Rounders should make an exchange of their Companions and so proceed to finish their Circuit without giving or taking the word of any Round at all The which I onely offer to our present Commanders to take into their consideration As for the petty Guards they are of two sorts for either they consist of many persons and are then termed a Corps du Guard or of one single man who is called a Centinel A Corps du Guard may either be of Horse which is a Guard without the entrenchments of the Camp or of Foot who watch within before or at the Ports of the Trenches or any where else where the Ser jeant-Major shall hold it fit In the setting out of the Centinels it is to be observed that they be not placed over-far from any Corps du Guard lest by being surprized by an Enemy the secrets of the Army be discovered And because it cannot chuse but be full of hazard and subject to many casualties for an Army to be brought up any thing near to an over-powerful Enemy a