exactly obedient to it to keep silence And when the Parties are numerous enough to compose Battalions and Squadrons to observe in going to the Charge the just wideness of the Intervals for the Reserves or second Line to relieve the first Line But if there must be any Error therein to be sure the Interval ground be rather inlarged than streightned For 't is better the Reserves should have too much room to march up to the Front than too little since the latter will render them almost useless But before I come to Treat of that part of Disciplining the Soldiery which consists in drawing them up into Battalions and Squadrons which I intend to discourse of when I come to Treat of Battels I shall crave leave to offer some Considerations on what we generally observe and seldom or never alter whatever the occasion requires And that is the drawing up our Shot and Pike six deep and our Horse three deep And this I should not presume to do had not I been emboldened to it by some Experiments of my own which God did bless with success For when I found my self over-winged by the Enemy they drawing up their Foot six deep and their Horse three deep I judged it best for me to Fight my Foot four deep and my Horse two deep whereby I added one third of more hands to the Front and Breadth of my Battalions and Squadrons For I was fully satisfied that it was likelier I should be worsted by the Enemy if he fell into my Flanks and Rear holding me also to equal Play in the Front than if four Ranks of my Foot should be broken or two Ranks of my Horse that the third Rank of the Horse and the fifth and sixth Ranks of my Foot should recover all again for I had often seen Battalions and Squadrons defeated by being overwinged But I never saw the last Rank of the Horse and the two last Ranks of the Foot restore the Field when the four first Ranks of the Foot and the two first Ranks of the Horse were Routed For commonly if the two first Ranks of the Horse are Routed they themselves for they still are broken inward Rout the third Rank and though the like cannot truly be said of the Foot in all points yet in a great measure it usually follows But I must confess that he who makes such an alteration in Military Discipline unless he be a Sovereign Prince or have sufficient Orders to do it ought to resolve his success only must Apologize for it that is to be victorious or be kill'd I should therefore humbly desire that fighting no deeper than four for the Foot and two for the Horse where the ground is fit might well be considered and then let true Reason give the Rule For my own part I will ingeniously acknowledge that after having as throughly weighed all the Arguments for and against it as my weak judgment could suggest to me I would without hesitation if it were left to my own Election fight my Foot and Horse no deeper than four and two in any case where the ground would admit me to extend my Battalions and Squadrons to the full For if I fight against equal Numbers and equally good Soldiers to my own 't is more likely falling into their Flanks and as much into their Rear also as I overwing them the depth of a File in each Flank that I shall Rout them then it is that before I perform that they shall have pierced through my four Ranks since Rank to Rank of equally good Soldiers and equal in Number will more probably hold longer play one with the other than Soldiers equally good can defend themselves at once if briskly charged in Front Flanks and Rear and since the Flanks and Rear of Foot them selves fight with great disadvantage against those who Charge them there all at once but when Horse are Charged in the Flanks and in the Rear 't is next of kin to a miracle if they 'scape being broken For the Troopers in the Ranks when they go to Charge are as close as the Riders knees can endure it and therefore 't is impossible for the Flanks to do any thing or the last Rank to face about and consequently they must have their backs expos'd to the Shot and Swords of their Enemy The Foot indeed will easily face about but then if the depth of Files be the advantage I have it who Charge every where four deep and they every way defend but three deep at the most If this way of fighting will afford me solid and great advantages against an Enemy equal to me in the goodness and number of his Soldiers I do not think it can be denied but if I fight against fewer or worse men than mine but greater and more certain benefits will result from it The chief Objection to this way of fighting that I know of is as to the Musketeers who being but four deep and advancing firing the first Rank cannot have loaded their Muskets again by that time the fourth Rank has done firing so that there will be an intermission of shooting To that I answer Let the Musketeers Charge their Muskets with such Cartridges as I have mentioned and the first Rank will be as soon ready if you are but four deep as the first Rank will be if you are six deep loading with Bandeleers especially if I use the Fire-lock and the Enemy the Match-lock Besides you will still have a Rank to fire till you fall in if you begin to fire but at a short distance which I would do to choose if I were six deep Lastly were both these denied which yet I must say I have on Experiment found to be true and a demonstration is the strongest proof It is not enough to say one method hath such Objections to it which the other hath not but all Objections to both methods are to be examined and that Rule is to be observed which on the whole matter has the least For how few things in the world would be entertained as best if only such were so against which no Objection could be made The first of the Ancients which I have read of who found it much more advantageous when the ground allowed it rather to extend the Ranks than deepen the Files was that great Captain Cyrus in his famous Battel against Cressus King of Lydia for Cyrus finding himself over numbred took off half the depth of his Files and added them to his Front whereby he won the Victory by overwinging Cressus As the drawing up the Infantry but four deep and the Cavalry but two deep where the ground will allow it has great advantages in Fight over those who draw up the Foot six deep and the Horse three deep so it has in marching for the shallower the Files are in the several Divisions the shorter the Army or Regiment must be in their long march which is a great ease to the Soldiers in and towards the Rear of
the Army or Regiment For I have often seen but am not Philosopher enough to give the reason of it that let but 1000 men march in their long march even in a bare Champion Country and though the Van move very slowly yet the Rear must trot to keep the same distance they were at at their first beginning to march and if it be thus but in 1000 men what must it be in 20 or 30000 men Besides the less long your Army is in their marching order the sooner the Rear of it will be come up to incamp or to go to Quarters and the Baggage and Train also nor is it less beneficial if an Army during its march has the Head or the Rear of it assaulted or both at once to have the Division come more expeditiously to the Fight which it has by making the Ranks of the Division broader and the Files shallower The ordinary Discipline we observe in drawing up a Foot Regiment of ten Companies in Battalia which 't is well if they make Nine hundred effective Men in Rank and File is either in one Battalion which is seldom practised but when the Army is very great or in two or three Battalions which are the more usual wayes and I think the more rational For the greater your Battalions are of Foot or Squadrons of Horse the more unwieldy they are and not only the likelier to be Disordered but the harder to be Rallied into their due form again whereas when Battalions or Squadrons are of a competent number those inconveniencies are avoided and yet if need require two may join and make one big one but still the same Officers to command each Battalion as if they were divided though really they are united whereby they keep the activeness of small Battalions and when they please the strength of great ones by their union And men are readilier brought into order after being broken or discomposed when a chief Commander assisted by his inferior Commissioned Officers do act separately among a few than when but one though proportionately assisted acts singly in chief over many A Regiment of Horse also which usually consists of six Troops is formed into two Squadrons each of three Troops or into three Squadrons each of two Troops I am for the forming it generally into the most Squadrons for the same Reasons I mentioned before Besides great Battalions of Foot are more allowable than great Squadrons of Horse not only because men on Foot take up less room to turn in than men on Horseback do but also because men only are better commanded than men and horses can be especially in the hurry of a Fight where the shouts of the Soldiers the noise of the Shooting and the Drums and the fluttering of the Colours make often the boldest Horses of private Troopers disorderly enough and likewise because the Foot are the solid steddy Body of the Army especially the Pikes and are not to follow the Execution which is the proper duty of the Horse and therefore the Foot may consist of the larger Battalions To which I shall add that a Regiment of Five hundred Horse consisting of six Troops having three Troops united into one Squadron will make upwards of Eighty one private Troopers in every Rank when the Horse are drawn up three deep and if in two Troops in a Squadron three deep will make 55 in a Rank And I have seen old Troopers find it difficult enough to march in one Squadron a small space of ground in exact order Forty a-breast though the ground be plain but if it be any wayes incumbred or uneven 't is more hard to do it And then if your Horse be drawn up but two deep each Squadron though but of one Troop will be Forty one in a Rank which is broad enough for the broader the Rank is the more difficult it is to march it orderly so that I am more desirous to form the Horse of an Army into many and less Squadrons than into few and great ones for the Reasons before exprest I had in this place begun to set down the several sorts of Discipline which are practised in drawing up a Regiment of Foot in one two or three Battalions where the Colours should flie how many divisions of Pikes and Shot there ought to be and where to be drawn up and of how many Files each should consist of according to our Discipline of having our Foot consist one third of Pikes and two thirds of Shot where are the proper places of the Field Officers and Commissioned Officers according to the several Forms of Battalions the Regiment is to be drawn up in and many other Particularities of this Head But since there are Printed Books also in English on this Subject I shall refer the curious and the unknowing therein to those Books and only apply my self to such things as I have not seen or heard hath hitherto been treated of in our Language and I also do this the rather because under the Head of the Essay which shall treat of fighting a Battel I shall discourse of forming Battalions and Squadrons more particularly And though possibly I might without any impropriety under the title of Disciplining insert all the several Functions in War Yet I shall divide them into many distinct Heads for the ease of the Reader who commonly is better pleased to peruse many short Discourses than one very long one and every one having a distinct title is more readily turn'd unto and found out The Ordering of Garisons HAving already discours'd of the Choosing and Educating of the Soldiery of the Arming and of the Disciplining of them I shall now write of the Regulating of Garisons which seems to me to be the next Head in course to be Treated of The Well-ordering of them is the hopefullest way to preserve them and the preservation of them is the preservation of a Kingdom How many Armies have been ruin'd or broken before Garisons resolutely defended and according to the exact Rules of the Military Art And how many Garisons have been lost or surprized for want of due care in those entrusted to keep them whereby whole Countries have been subdued as the consequence of one neglect especially if the Garison taken be either the chief Arsenal of the Countrey or lie on some Navigable River or Sea-Port whereby the entrance into a Kingdom is facilitated to an Enemy and into which he durst not have adventur'd while he left at his back so important a place I shall therefore on this Head set down First The usual practice in appointing and distributing the Guards Secondly The custom in going the Grand Round Thirdly The common manner of giving the Word For the ordinary course in all three I suppose submitting it still to better judgments may be unsafe and very hazardous Therefore where I have had the Honour to command in Chief I have altered the usual Form and I believe with good reason else I am sure I would not have
and the breadth is to be the very same of the whole Companies when they have Hutted viz. 24 Foot From this void space of 20 Foot the Soldiers begin their Street or Line of Hutts in manner following There is left for them 200 Foot in length intire and 24 in breadth the 24 in breadth is to be divided into three equal parts the middlemost is to be the Lane in the two outward two thirds the two Files of Hutts are to be made and the Lane of 8 Foot is to be left between them and no Man must dare to enlarge or lessen his Hutt above 8 Foot from Out to Out lest he thereby subvert the whole Order of Camping the length of every Hutt is to be at most 7 Foot and 3 are to be in one Hutt I lay Incamp'd several years and all in Tents the Troopers and Foot Soldiers had Trench-Tents not so large as these sort of Hutts yet I allow'd every six Foot Soldiers but one Trench-Tent and every three Troopers but one Trench-Tent because of their Saddles and Furniture and with this allowance they were satisfied Behind the last Hutts of these two Files of Hutts there is a void space of 20 Foot in length and the breadth is that of the Lane and the two Files of Hutts beyond which said void place the Suttlers and Victuallers have their Hutts which are 10 Foot long and their Hutts for their Drink and for their dressing their Meat is also 10 Foot long and this void space of 20 Foot between the Soldiers last Hutts and the Hutts of the Victuallers and Suttlers is left because by continual dressing Meat for the Soldiers the Hutts of the Victuallers are apt to take Fire and this vacuity in case they do take Fire is convenient for People to quench it before it can take hold of the Soldiers Hutts in none of which on any pretence Fire is to be allow'd So the whole 300 Foot in length for the Lodgment of one Company is thus employed 40 Foot for the Captains Lodgment 20 For the Street between it and the foremost Hutts of the Soldiers 200 Foot for the Soldiers Hutts 20 For the void space between their Hutts and the Victuallers Hutts 10 Foot for the Victuallers Hutts and 10 Foot for the Kitchins and Cellars of the Victuallers and Suttlers In all 300 Foot in length The Doors of the Soldiers Hutts do all open into the Lane and the Right-hand File of the Hutts open just opposite to the Left-hand File of the Hutts Only the foremost Hutt of each File of the Hutts have their Doors to open towards the 20 Foot Street between them and the Captains Lodgment of which two Hutts one is for the Lieutenant and the other for the Ensign And the two last Hutts of the File of Hutts have their Doors to open towards the 20 Foot Street between them and the Victuallers and Suttlers in which two Hutts the two Serjeants are lodged And the Victuallers and Suttlers Hutts are open towards the Hutts of the Soldiers that the Soldiers may come to them in a direct Line This may be the Lodgment of an intire Company of 100 Men with their Officers and Suttlers and Victuallers But if a Foot Company consist of 150 Soldiers then the Lodgment of that Company shall consist of the three Files of Hutts and if it consist of 200 Soldiers then it shall have four Files of Hutts and three Lanes and so more or less as the Company is in number But every Hutt and every I ane is to continue the same for its Dimension and only the breadth of the ground for the Lodgment of it is inlarg'd but never the length of 300 Foot alter'd else it would unavoidably disorder the Lanes or Streets of the whole Camp which will be regular while the length of every Lodgment is equal so that a Company which consists of 150 Men has 16 Foot in breadth added to it 8 Foot for the File of Hutts and 8 Foot for the Lane but the breadth of the Captains Lodgment in the Front and the Suttlers and Victuallers in the Rear are still to be as broad as the whole breadth of the Hutts and Lanes to make the long square of the whole Lodgment equal in the Lines and in the Sides of it This is to be also observed that between every five or six Hutts a space of about three Foot is to be left to hinder the Fire if by any Accident it should take in any of their Hutts which commonly are thatch'd but the Victuallers Hutts ought alwayes to be cover'd with Sods or the Hydes or Skins of the Beasts they kill which are not so liable to take Fire In ancient Times they used Tents instead of Hutts for then the way of making War was in the Field and Armies were daily in motion and in such cases Straw Rushes or Flags to cover and Wood to make Stakes and Roofs were not alwayes at hand nor to frame the Roofs easie but now that for the most part War is made in the Besieging of strong places or in standing Camps both Officers and Soldiers use to Hutt which is more warm and more lasting than Tents however in the pitching of Tents where they are used the like Order may be observed as is set down for Hutts I shall now proceed to shew how a Foot Regiment is to be Lodged in an Intrenched Camp If a Regiment consist of 20 18 15 12 10 or 6 Companies the Regiment is to be divided into two equal parts and every Company of it is to be Lodg'd as the Company of 100 or 150 or 200 are as is newly before set down and if there be an odd Company let it be Lodg'd in the Files of Hutts of the Right-hand Division if the Companies be unequal in number it matters not for the length of 300 Foot being constantly observed the breadth only varies according to the greatness or smallness of the Company but the long square must still be observed for the preserving the Regularity of the Camping throughout the whole Army When the Regiment is divided into two parts there must be constantly allow'd 300 Foot in length for the Lodgment of the intire Regiment but as to the breadth of the Lodgment it varies according to the quantity of the Companies alwayes keeping this standing Rule as is before exprest viz. that 200 Foot in length of the said 300 is to be kept intire for the Hutts of the Lieutenant Ensign Serjeants and private Soldiers with their Corporals and every Company of 100 Men is to have 24 Foot in breadth for their two Files of Hutts and the Lane between them of eight Foot wide The rest of the 300 Foot viz. 100 Foot is to be thus divided 40 Foot for the Lodgment of the Colonel and each of the Captains which takes up the whole breadth of the Lodgment of the Regiment 20 Foot for the Street between their Lodgment and the Hutts in File 20 Foot for the Street
ground to believe he will attempt you during the obscurity and while you are unintrenched to cause great Piles of Wood or Fagots or some such combustible stuff to be ready to be kindled in fit places and at fit distances that if he advances you may the better see how to point your Cannon and dispose of your small Shot most effectually and by such Fires also terrifie and disorder his Horses which generally are frighted at the sight of Fire especially in the Night This I find was practised near Lorges in Beausse by Anthony King of Navarre Francis Duke of Guise and the Constable Montmorancy when Lewis Prince of Conde and the Admiral of Chastillion prest by the necessity of their Affairs went to attack the Royal Army by Night and which so much disheartned the Assaulters as they retreated The Quartering of your Army at all times but especially when that of the Enemies is very near ought to be in such manner as that the Soldiers may be soonest in Battalia to receive him and therefore to lodge it in the Form you will fight is still the very best that is that such Forces as compose your Wings and Body may have only to go out of their Hutts Tents Villages or Houses to be in the Figure you will fight in else in case of an Alarm the disorders will be many and dangerous but this way there can be but few if any The nearer you draw towards your Enemy or your Enemy to you your Quarters must alwayes be brought closer and your advanced Guards of Horse and Foot the stronger and your discovery the more vigilant III. The third is To be the first drawn up on the Ground you will fight in which is constantly attended with three considerable benefits The point of Honor which you gain by being the earliest on the spot which animates your own Party and often daunts your Enemies The being thereby enabled without opposition to possess all the advantages of the Ground either for the planting of your Cannon or for casting up Parapetts on some Eminencies which command all about it as Sir Francis Vere did at the Battel of Newport or by drawing up your Carriages or making a Ditch to cover one or both the Flanks of your Wings which you cannot well do if your Enemy be earlier or as early as you on the place The being thereby sometimes in a posture to fall upon and cut off your Enemies Squadrons and Battalions or to Rake them with your Cannon while they are drawing up which is an advantage when it may be taken that is of great use IV. The fourth is That your Squadrons of Horse ought not to be too great for the Reasons which I have formerly mentioned in that Chapter which Treats of the Disciplining of your Soldiery Yet if that need requires two nay three of the small ones may be put into one great one but still I would advise that the same Officers should command the same Squadrons when united as they did before By which means they will retain the Agility which is in small Parties and yet when there is need have the force of great ones and this I propound to be observed because whoever has been practically versed in fighting will hardly deny but that 150 Horse in two Squadrons will be likely to rout and beat 200 Horse in one Squadron And the reason to me seems very evident for besides the opportunity you have thereby to fall into his Flank and Rear whatever Body of Men does fight or has fought disorders it self though it gets the better and being disorder'd a less Number that is not to speak humanely must if the Men be equally good overthrow a greater that is And daily Experience shews how difficult if possible it is suddenly to Rally great Squadrons when by Fighting they have been disorder'd especially if but a small Squadron is at hand to fall on them and improve their being so discomposed Nor indeed can great Squadrons march many Paces though the Ground be clear and level without disordering their Ranks but if it be uneven or rugged they are almost out of their fighting Order before they come to fight which are mischiefs that less Squadrons are not so liable unto But Battalions of Foot as being more Governable may be large according to the occasion and need especially those which are composed of Pikes for a great Battalion or Stand of those in the Vanguard the Battel and the Rearguard of the Infantry are the safety of the whole and under their shelter All Rallyings may be best made V. The fifth is A General must never omit in the drawing up of his Army so to dispose of his Squadrons and Battalions as probably every one of them may come to fight again and again if the need requires before they are totally overthrown It is also observable that in a Battel whoever keeps in Reserve a Body of Men that are not led to fight until all the Enemies Squadrons have fought rarely misses to carry away the Victory and whoever has the last Reserves is very likely at last to be the Victorious One signal Illustration of this Truth among many I shall instance At the Battel of Dreux in France where the Constable Montmorancy assisted by Francis Duke of Guise the greatest Captains of that Age commanded the Royallists and Lewis Prince of Condé and the Admiral the Protestants He and the Admiral defeated all the Forces they saw took the Constable Prisoner past over the Bellies of the Swissers who made almost a miraculous resistance and concluded they had therefore won the Victory In the mean while the Duke of Guise who led the Left Wing of the French King's Army either by design as his Enemies said or as an act of high conduct so cover'd his Troops with the Village of Blainville and the Trees and Shrubs about it that he was not so much as seen by the Protestants nor moved from thence until the Constable was taken Prisoner the Mareschal de St. André killed and all those Forces which were considered by the Protestants as the whole Army of the Royalists were intirely routed and so confusedly flying as he was in no danger to have his Squadrons disordered by the Runawayes of his own Party but then advancing his Troops which were entire he soon turned the Fortune of the day took the Prince of Condé Prisoner and overthrew all that opposed him For 't is a tedious and difficult if not an impossible task to put into good order again an Army that has newly fought so as to bring it suddenly to fight again some being busied about the Pillage and Prisoners they have taken or are pursuing others being loth to return to new dangers and all in effect being so heated and disordered that they do not or will not hear the Commands of their Superiors VI. A sixth is A General must never bring all his Troops to fight at once and therefore is still to draw up his