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
be found then to raise them in any other part best tending that way The more modern practice hath been and is to erect these Citadels in such a posture and in such a part that the one half of them might be within the Walls of the Town the other half without as the situation would bear And this was principally done that supplies might be brought in or out unto the Citadel without being in danger to be hindred by the Town if it should happen to be impatronized either by Rebels or by an Enemie But this way hath not passed without reproof because the part without the Walls may be so ruined either by Battery or Mine that the part within shall not be able to put into it any sufficient supplies It 's my opinion therefore that Citadels within Towns of War are most properly sited when they stand upon the most eminent and elevated part and if it may be upon the very Walls of the Town and so serve in the nature of a Bulwork also to guard and flanker the Curtains of the Wall on each side but yet so as not to be offended by the over-vicinity of any of the Bulworks and that they be contrived with one or more secret Posterns or private and close Avenues that Munition and Men may at all times be conveyed into them and that every way they have a full command upon the Town wherein they stand and be able especially to beat upon such parts thereof as are most frequented and especially the Market-place and Ports so that if the Town should chance to be surprised by an Enemie or turn Rebel it may not onely be battered by the Fort but the parts thereof disarmed and means and commoditie afforded for the receipt of all such supplies as may be intended for the regaining of the Town As for the Forms of these Citadels howsoever the Triangular and Quadrate Forms are disapprovable in Royal Forts as formerly was noted yet in these in regard they are generally but small they may be allowed to consist of four sides and indeed not of above five yet is their circuits not to be so little but that there may be a sufficiencie of Retreat upon all occasions for otherwise they may suffer much As for their Walls Curtains and Bulworks they ought to be in my judgment somewhat larger and their ditches deeper then those of the Town as sustaining the greater charge and undergoing the more of danger It is also very necessary that within these Citadels Mounts or Cavaliers be raised in the midst of them not of stone for these may not onely be easily ruined by an Enemies Counter-battery but withal prove dangerous to the defendants in Guard near at hand but of good earth the top of which is to be circled with Gabions or solid entrenchments And thus may the Territory and Champain round about be commanded with the Ordnance mounted upon them and the Enemie be disabled from making his approaches but with much molestation and danger As for the way to furnish these Citadels with water it must be done by Wells or Cisterns or both in convenient places And for their Arms Victuals and Powder Caves and well-secured parts must be framed wherein to store them and especially for their Powder that it may be so distributed and repartited that it be not either by chance or treachery fired all at once But of this more shall be prescribed in another place Now the benefit and assistance that have been found by these kind of Citadels was evidenced in that of the Campi doglio at Rome which recovered that Citie from the Gauls In that of Tarento which held out five years after the taking of the Town and was the means of reducing it And of late in an Action of our own in the journey to the Island of Rey where the Citadel of the Town of S. Martins though it lay without the Town because the Town was unwalled after we had been possessed of the Town and whole Island for three months space by its holding out against us put us to a Retreat with the loss of our cost and labour and the lives of some of our best men CHAP. VIII The best matter whereof to build Forts How to be wrought where there is sand AS for the substance and matter whereof the Works of this Nature are to be made and to subsist it is earth and of earth the perfect clay is the best And yet when this is to be had provision is withal to be made of store of brush and fagots Of which in raising the Bastions or Scarps one fagot is to be laid in every three foot of ground and so thoroughout the whole Work only the Front of the Work is to be made up with good Turf with the Green side outwards and to be well lined with brush and fagots with good mold thrown both upon them and into them the which will not onely make it firm but comely And where none of this prime earth is to be had but that onely of the middle sort which is part of a firm clay and part of sand then ought there to be provided the greater store of this brush and fagots and mud or the like stuff to be thrown into the Fagots and a fagot to be put between every two Turffs of earth But where nothing is to be gotten but meer sand onely which is the worst of all sorts of earth a very great abundance of brush and fagots are to be had in readiness and the most firm and stable Turff is to he fetched elsewhere and to be proportioned into eight Spans in largeness and sixteen in length And the rows of Turff are to be doubled the one upon the other and with great Pins or Dibbles of strong wood each of them of two foot in length to be pinned and fastned together And every course of two Turffs are thus to be pinned putting withal into every course a sufficient store of fagots filled with sand and in the face of all some of the best earth is again to be laid to the thickness of four Spans that so this earth may be scarped by little and little to cause the VVork to shew fair two Scarps being to be made between every five foot of ground always mingling withal within and near unto the firm earth some Straw or Mud or the like stuff And indeed these fagots or brush are the most principal materials as well for defence in Cities as in all approaches upon them neither to say truth can any defences at all be suddenly raised by any means without them nor any half Moons or the like so that it may well be said Want Fagots want Defences And this is evidenced in no part more then in the Low-Country-VVars where most of their designs reflect upon the taking and keeping of strong Towns and where all both defences and approaches are chiefly made up with these fagots witness above all others the last famous Siege of 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