suitable to so many Guns The Author tells us that King Henry view'd this mighty Army of his near the City of Metz where he saith it was drawn up in Battalia but he forgot A great oversight to inform us here of two very considerable points the one of what altitude or depth both the Foot and Horse were the second what distances were kept or order'd to be kept between the several Files and Ranks both of Horse and Foot and how great the Intervals were between the several Batallions and Bodies as well of the Cavalry as the Infantry for thereby we should have been able not only to have made a probable conjecture but determinately to have known how much ground the whole Army took up in longitude but there are others who are guilty of this neglect as well as this Author of ours who hath fail'd in this With these indeed formidable Forces did the French King intend to defie and fight within the Bowels of the German Empire Charles the Fifth a greater and braver Prince than whom though he had not been elected Emperour of the Romans either for propriety and large extent of Patrimonial Dominions or for personal Courage and Prudence the Western World had not seen since the time of Charles the Great But whilest this Magnanimous King is viewing and exceedingly pleasing himself Henry views his army with the sight of his gallant Army a beggarly and contemptible crew of some Souldiers some Soujats and Grooms and some Countrey Clowns in sight of this great Prince his Nobility in splendid equipage and of his whole Batallions charg'd those who were appointed to guard the Baggage and in spite of the King then in his greatest strength carried a rich and considerable And receives an affront booty into Theonville an Imperial Garrison not far from the place Nor was this affront done so publickly to so powerful an Army at all reveng'd only some Light Horse were sent before the Town to vapour and brave the Imperialists who fail'd not to sally out and skirmish with the French from which bickering neither party carried away any thing but blows And at length Henry's great preparations came to nothing for the two German Princes having not without some stain to their Honour made their Peace with the Emperour without the French Kings privity he was glad to return and defend his own Territories against Charles who was horribly incens'd against him for offering to assist his Rebels for so he call'd those Electors against his Lawful Authority As this French Army which I think so much represented the Phalange Conclusion vanish'd so the Macedonian Phalanx it self on which Aelian bestows the Titles and Epithets of Invincible Inexpugnable and Irresistable after it had in Philips and his Son Alexanders time given the Law to the Eastern World and after their deaths had been kept up by Alexanders Successors and Great Captains the space of one hundred and sixty years yielded to fate and was brought to nothing in Perseus his time and Macedon it self reduced to a Province by the Romans of whose Legions Art and Order of War we are in the next place to take a view PALLAS ARMATA Military Essays ON THE ANCIENT ROMAN ART of WAR BOOK II. CHAP. I. Of the Ancient Roman Government and Militia in General THE hand of Heaven which cast the Empire of the best part of the known World into the lap of the Romans was the more visible in that before they came to any great progress of Conquest and after too their State was Inward Diseases of the Roman State obnoxious to those difficulties which might have render'd it not only incapable to overcome its Enemies but subject to be a prey to any of its Neighbours And of these any who have perus'd their Histories may if they please with me observe them which follow First Their frequent change of Government as from Kings to Consulâ— First then to Consuls joyn'd with Tribunes of the People from these to a Decemvirate from that to Military Tribunes invested with Consular Authority from them to Consuls again from these to a Triumvirate and from that to Emperours Secondly The almost continual â—arrs and debates between the Senate and Second the People not only concerning the â—ex 〈…〉 and division of Lands but even about the Supreme Power of the Governament it self in which the Commons ever gain'd ground and at the long-run obtain'd the principal points and marks of the Soveraignty those were the 〈…〉 of Magistrates yea of the Consuls making and repeating Laws power of Life and Death and the last Appeal Thirdly The constantly Seditious Orations and Practices of the Tribunes Third of the People whereby they publickly obstructed many times the Levies of Souldiers and the pursuance of many Victories gain'd against their Neighbours Whilest the State was yet in its Infancy all those alterations and contentions proceeding from an inward disease of State could not choose but exceedingly weaken it in the undertaking any great action abroad But Fourthly Their Cruelty and Ingratitude to their own Citizens and Captains Fourth who had done them the best and greatest services some whereof I shall instance in in another place few of them all escaping a severe censure enough to withdraw any generous Spirit from a desire to serve them Fifthly Their frequent making Dictators almost upon every sudden apprehension Fifth of fear or supposed danger an Office so unlimited having power to do and command what they pleas'd without comptrol appeal or â—ear to be question'd after their time expired that it is a wonder none of them prevented Julius Câ—sar in usurping the Soveraignty Sixthly Their making two Consuls of equal authority the very fuel of discord Sixth at home and of most dangerous consequence abroad when a powerful Enemy necessitated them to joyn their Forces Take some Instances In one of the Wars against the Volscians Lucius Furius was joyn'd in equal Command with Marcus Furius Camillus that famous Roman who freed his Countrey from the Invasion of the Gauls in this War young Lucius would needs fight sore against old Camillus his advice and well beaten â—e was and had been utterly routed if the old man had not waited hiâ— opportunity and come to his rescue with the Triariâ— Fabius the Dictator nick-nam'd the Cunctator had Minutius joyn'd in equal command with him who would needs with the half of the Army fight Hanâ—â—bal whether the Dictator would or not The Carthaginian beats him and had made an end of him and perhaps of the War too if old Fabius had not parted the fray But the Romans escap'd not so easily at Cannae for there Terentius Varro in spite of his Colleague Paulus Aemilius fought with the same Hannibal where both of them receiv'd such an overthrow that if he who gave it them had follow'd Maharbal's advice and immediately marched he might in all probability have din'd the fifth day after in the Capitol and for
injury done whether it be to Princes Subjects or Embassadours and that no satisfaction after it is required can be got And indeed this War should be formally denounc'd otherwise it derogates from the Justice of the cause This to me seems clear from the definition the Civilians give of an Enemy Hostes say they sunt qui nobis aut quibus nos bellum decernimus caeteri Indictio Belli latrones aut praedones sunt Those are enemies who either have denounc'd the War against us or we against them others are Thieves or Robbers And Cicero in his Offices Nullum Bellum est justum nisi quod aâ—t rebus repetitis geratur aut denunciatum ante sit indictum No War is just but what is made for restitution or denounced or indicted before Neither will the War that Joshua made against the seven Nations of the Canaanites impugn what I have said of the just cause of a War for though these Nations had perhaps done no wrong to the Israelites yet Joshua had a particular Warrant from God for what he Joshua his Wars did which few or none but he can pretend to It is true neither he nor Moses were commanded to fight with the Amalekites yet the Lord approved of it afterward The Grecians denounc'd their War by a Caducâ—us The Romans by their Feciales whose custome was to stand on the Roman Territory and throw a Spear or Javelin against the Land of those whom they declared Enemies In these later times besides the denunciation of the War a Declaration ordinarily called a Manifesto is emitted by the Aggressor whereby he either doth make the Justice of his War appear to the world or at least endeavours it And though the persons of Embassadours were wronged and violated against the Law of Nations yet the War should be denounc'd by a Letter or some such way saith Grotius yet we read not that David used any such previous civility to Hanun King of Ammon after he had affronted his Embassadours A Civil War may be likewise two-fold the one sort is of the great men of Civil War twofold a Free State one against another as that of Sylla against Marius Father and Son and Caesar against Pompey Father and Son among the Romans or in a Monarchy of those who are competitors for the Crown as the War was between the Houses of York and Lancaster The other is of Subjects against their Soveraigns which can never be lawful let the pretext be never so specious I mean on the Subjects part for I make no doubt but a Soveraign whether Prince or State not only may but ought by the power of the Sword to reduce their Rebellious Subjects to their Duty when by no other means they can prevail with them Both these kinds of Intestinâ— Wars are called Civil because they are inter Cives unius Reipublicâ— Among the Citizens of one Common-wealth It is the worst of all Wars and that wherein there is not so much as the least shadow of Civility This War arms Brother against Brother for which we need not search History for Examples In this War the Son thinks he doth a meritorious work if he betrays his own Father and the Father conceives he super-erogates if he sheaths his Sword in his Sons Bowels because saith he he did not rise to fight the Lords Battels even It is the worst of Wars perhaps against the Lords anointed for this War extinguisheth all natural affection among the nearest in Blood This sort of War sends Coblers and other Mechanicks to the Pulpits to torture their Audience with Non-sence This converts Souldiers into Preachers who by vertue of their double callings belch out Blasphemies against the great God of Heaven and rebellious and opprobrious Speeches against his Vice-gerents on Earth And on the other hand this War metamorphoseth Preachers into Souldiers and tells them that a Corslet becomes them better than a Canonical Coat and a broad Sword better than a long Gown It whispers them in the ear that Christ would not have bid those of his Disciples who had two Coats sell one of them and buy a Sword if he had not intended to leave War as a Legacy to his followers as well as Peace It tells them they ought in their Sermons to summon Subjects under the pain of eternal damnation to rise in Arms against the Soveraign Power because they are bidden Curse Meroz who would not come out to help the Lord against the Mighty Yet very few of them can tell you whether Meroz was a Prince a City or a Countrey But I dwell too long here Not long after the Flood we find numerous Armies raised by Nimrod and his ambitious Successors to subject others of Noah's race to their lawless dominion And indeed if the Stories of these very ancient times be true as they are very much to be doubted we read not of so great Armies except some in Holy Writ as those which Ninus and the famous Semiramis and the Kings of India whom she invaded brought together It is pity we should not know how they were armed and in what order they fought I suppose there were Wars in the World before there was any to record them The Egyptians wrote in Hieroglyphicks and therefore I believe next to Moses we are obliged to the Grecians for giving us a glimpse of Antiquity And truly even they wrote the occasions the causes the beginnings the progress and issues of Wars so confusedly and fabulously that we can Ancient Histories fabulous build but little on their relations till themselves became renown'd by the stout resistance they made against the Persian Monarchy and yet even then they give us but little light how other Nations besides themselves manag'd the War what Art or Order they used in their Battels or how their Combatants were Armed The Sacred Story mentions no Battel fought after the Flood or before it till that of Chaderlaomer and other three Kings against the five Kings of the Plain But we may presume there were many bloody bickerings before that when Nimrod Belus Ninus and Semiramis if Ninus was not Amraphel one of the four Kings whereof I much doubt impos'd the yoke of Slavery on so many Nations In this Battel fought in the plain of Sodom and Gomorrha the five Kings were beaten but how either they or their Adversaries fought with The Battel of Sodom what Arms or in what Order the History tells us nothing The Conquerours carry away a great booty and many Prisoners and among them Lot and the endeavouring his rescue made the War just on his Uncle Abrahams side He follows and overthrows the four Kings and brings back all the Goods and Prisoners Abraham had no particular Warrant for this War but it was approved for thereafter Melchizedec the Priest of the most High God blessed him nor was it needful for the Father of the Faithful to denounce the War because he look'd upon himself there as an Ally if not
enemy than the Foot can it will be answered that they can also ride sooner from an enemy than the Foot can go I shall easily grant that three or fourscore years ago the Curiassiers of Germany and Gens d'Armes of France being all Gentlemen might very well have Precedency at door or board of the Foot-Soldiers but could not thereby pretend to any Superiority or command over them But now the case is altered for in Germany Denmark Sweden the Low-Countries and here with us in Scotland and England for most part the horsemen are levied out of the Plebeians as well as the Foot And I believe the Gens d'Armes of France are much fallen from their Primitive Institution most of their Cavalry being composed of the Vulgar except the Ban and Arreerban which consists of Gentlemen that have Estates in lands who by the tenure of their Lands and Inheritance are bound to serve the King on horseback so many days within and so many days without the Kingdom But before I go further I conceive my self obliged to anticipate an objection which both may and will be made by the great Champions of the Cavalry and it is this that many at least some States and Kingdoms have been and some at this day are whose strength consisted and consists in Horse and not in Foot But though I grant them all they seek which yet I will not do they gain nothing unless they make it appear that a War can and may be managed with horse alone and not with any Foot which they will never be able to do First they say that in the days of Yore the greatest strength of France consisted in Horse that Kingdom indeed gloried much in a noble and couragious Cavalry but examine their stories you will find that the most glorious of their Kings Charles the Great his Father Pepin and his Father Charles Martel their famous atchievements in France Saxony Germany Spain and Italy were done with Foot as well as with horse many of their Kings fought on foot and Orlando Nephew to Charles the Great when he had fought well on foot died of thirst and wounds Those of their Kings who made their Cavalry their greatest strength in the field bought it dear when they were so often worsted by the Spaniards Flemings but most of all by the English whose greatest strength consisted in Infantry This made the French Kings beg and hire Foot from Scotland Germany and mostly from the Switzers These last being discontented with Lewis the Twelfth made all France tremble when with a numerous Army in which not one Horseman was to be seen they were like to fall like an Inundation on that Kingdom and were come the length of Dijon in Burgundy and had reach'd Paris without stroke of Sword if the Duke de Tremouille had not amus'd them with a Treaty in which he was forc'd to grant them all they desir'd and for performance gave them what Hostages they required Francis the First perceiving the error of some of his Predecessors in trusting too much to Horses ordered seven Legions of Foot all French to be levied enrolled and paid each consisting of seven thousand men to stand perpetually in time of Peace and Wars and these he call'd and I think very deservedly the sinews and nerves of France Next they will object that the Mamaluks kept their Empire in Egypt and Syria above two hundred years with Horse and without Foot This is a horrible mistake for their Towns and Forts were taken by Foot and defended by Foot without Horse They also lost their Empire by putting too much trust in their Horse for the Great Turk Selim with his Foot and Cannon beat and kill'd Campson Gaurus in the Field and Tomomby at Cairo and so put an end to that Tyrannical Monarchy Thirdly They will instance the Persian who defends his Kingdom without Foot only with Cavalry but this is a mistake for their Towns are defended with Foot and Ismael in the Calderan Plains payed dear for trusting so much to his Horse when he was chac'd away by Selines Foot and Artillery Since that time the Kings of Persia have endeavour'd but without success to get European Officers to Train their Foot and order their Artillery for my part I can as soon dream that the Persian Squadrons of Horse put themselves in Enchanted Castles as that they defended their Towns against Sieges and Assaults of the Turks with Horse and no Foot And I can as soon fancy that the Sophi rode with forty thousand Persians all on Horseback over the Walls of Babylon as that he took it back from the Turk without an Infantry The Hungarians will come next in play but they never managed any of their Wars without Foot though they pay'd as dearly for trusting too much to their Cavalâ—y as ever any did their Army consisting most of Horse being routed by Solimans Foot and Cannon and their King kill'd and most of their Kingdom made a Province the remainder of it falling into the House of Austria's lap hath been these hundred and twenty years well defended by German Foot It will be in vain to bring Pole on the stage for peruse the Histories of that Nation you will find none of their Wars to have been made either offensively or defensively without Foot to imagin that the Polonians conquer'd the half of Prussia from the Knights of the Teutonick Order and took in so many well wall'd Towns without Foot against that warlike fraternity is a meer speculation Nor have they bought the great trust they repose in a numerous and valiant Cavalry at a cheap rate In the year 1621 Pole was sav'd almost by a miracle for assuredly Prince Vladislaus would not have defended his Fathers Kingdom though he had eighty thousand Horse and some thousands of Foot with him against Sultan Osman who invaded it with three hundred thousand Turks the great Body and strength whereof consisted in the Janizaries who mutinying against the Grand Signior forc'd him back to Constantinople But what a risk did Pole run lately in the years 1655 and 1656 and 1657 where Charles Gustavus overcame that Kingdom with an Army of twenty thousand men most of them Foot and observe what a well train'd and order'd Infantry can do Anno 1656 when the rebellious Polonians had returned to their duty and that their King John Casâ—mir in the head of one hundred thousand Horse and a considerable number of Foot and Cannon assisted and flankt with some Trenches and Redoubts was routed and beat out of the Field by the King of Sweden and the Elector of Brandenburgh both whose forces in Horse and Foot did not exceed thirty two thousand If all this be true that I have said as I believe it is then I may conclude that the Foot-service is more necessary more honourable and of greater trust than the Horse one Since I believe I have made it appear that a War in all its parts points and dimensions may be managed with
under Charles Gustavus both Kings of Sweden and some of the Emperours Armies had them likewise Some Lieutenant-Generals of the Infantry I have likewise known but these are not in all Armies But a Major-General of the Foot is thought a necessary Commander in all Armies though they be never so weak when any of them is wanting or out of the way the oldest Colonel officiates for him The English call him Serjeant Major-General of the Foot and in some places he is order'd to be constantly President of the Council of War The name of Adjutant-General denotes his charge and office for he is a helper Adjutant-General to those General Officers of whom I have spoken in this Chapter The orders and directions he gives are not to be look'd upon as his own but the Generals and therefore his person must be known to both Officers and Soldiers of the whole Army If he have a Regiment he may of himself in some urgent occasions give such directions as he thinks warrantable and for which he knows His Duties he can be accountable otherwise whether he be a Colonel or not he must be sparing to give any other Orders than those he hath received He must be very ready active and stirring of a quick judgment to receive and of a ready utterance to deliver his commands In an Army Royal when it is encamped or lyeth in Quarters or yet when it is marching two Adjutant Generals one for the Horse and one for the Foot if they be men of active bodies and minds will be sufficient but in a Battel they are too few To supply which defect and not to increase the number of Adjutants the Commander in chief ought to have half a dozen of understanding Gentlemen well mounted and these as the General rides along the Army either to marshal or encourage it should ride with him that the whole Army may know them as such who are to be employed to carry the General 's directions which may be very many according as the many emergencies and changes of things may make him alter his commands and the fittest persons for that employment are such Reformado's as have been Majors of Horse and Foot formerly I have seen this place of Adjutant-General made very contemptible by some Generals who have fill'd it up His Charge made despicable with men whose mean understanding little experience dulness of spirit and weak intellectuals render'd them despicable and ridiculous to those to whom they pretended to bring their Orders He is or should be a great helper to the Major General whether of Horse or Foot But where there are two or three Major Generals of the Infantry and perhaps as many or more of the Cavalry I think there needs no Adjutant at all for I know no reason why every Major General should have an Adjutant General nor will men be sound to engage in a charge that is made so common unless it be such insignificant persons as these I have spoke of In France this Adjutant General is called Aidâ— de Camp and in Aide de Camp and Aide Major some Foot Regiments the Major had his Adjutant who was called Aide Major and this for most part is one of the Lieutenants who hath no allowance for it In the old English Discipline of War this Adjutant was called a Corporal of the Corporal of the Field Field and there were four of them in every Army wherein they were well known they were mounted on good and swift horses their charge and employment was the very same in all things with that of our Modern Adjutants If I have rightly described an Adjutant General I must confess I differ from Monsieur de Gaya who hath lately written a short System of the Art of War in his Nineteenth Page he would have us believe that the charge of an Adjutant General or Aide de Camp as he calls him is fit for a young man of quality and in which says he it is easie for him to learn and make himself perfect Indeed I acknowledg we are bound still to be learning what is good yet I cannot allow an Adjutant to be an Apprentice and though it becomes him to be taught by his Betters yet he should be so perfect in the Military Art that he is bound to teach others nor can I allow him to be very young since he imbraceth a charge which befits none but an experienced Soldier But Monsieur de Gaya adds he should be wise vigilant and vigorous I confess a young man may be wise but I believe wisdom here is taken for experience whereof young men of quality may be very oft destitute But Monsieur de Gaya forgot to bestow the qualification of Courageous upon his Aide de Camp which if he want being he is to carry and distribute his Orders in the time of hottest danger I will not give a rush for all his wisdom vigilancy and vigour He says also that his Aide de Camp should be always tous jours besides the General Officers to carry their Orders where they are necessary But if he be always with them how can he be from them when he carries their Orders where they are necessary certainly he must be but sometimes Quelquefois with them and sometimes from them Besides all these General persons mentioned some would have a Quartermaster General for the Horse besides the Quartermaster General of the Army because this last stays constantly at the head Quarter with the General of the Army and the other should be constantly with the Horse But I think places and offices Places should not be multiplied should not be multiplied in Armies and therefore the Quartermaster of the oldest Regiment of Horse may officiate in the Cavalry in the absence of the Quartermaster General of whose office I shall speak in my Discourse of Castrametation Though many of these General Officers of whom I have spoken may seem to be more burdensome than useful to either Prince State or Army yet this present Emperour Leopold was glad to make use of them all in his late War against the Turk to satisfie that noble desire of honour which many Princes and other persons of high and eminent quality had to serve him against the common Enemy of the Christian name I have told you of all the Duties these General persons are bound to pay in Qualifications of all these General Officers their several charges but I have not spoke of those parts vertues and qualities wherewith some who write or speak of that Subject would have them endued they will be too tedious to rehearse neither can I well do it without Tautologies But I shall tell you that the qualifications required by some Authors for a Captain General being divided between him and all the General persons under him may in my opinion serve them all sufficiently and what these are you may read in the next ensuing Chapter CHAP. XIV Of a Captain General or Generalissimo IF
he is to advance his march speedily to gain a pass or advantage of ground or stop his march and encamp and fortifie and if nothing else will help he should draw up in Battel either fronting that same way as he was marching or facing about to fight the enemy whether he be in his front or reer and let God dispose of the Victory as seems good in his eyes Our Modern Armies have marched and do still march one of three several An Army may â—arch in three several manners ways these are first by dividing an Army into three several Bodies Van-guard Battel and Arrier-guard secondly by marching in two distinct Bodies as they use to fight and these are commonly called Battel and Reserve Thirdly all in one Battel whereby is meant the half of the Cavalry in the Van the other half in the Reer and the Foot between them To clear all these three ways of marching let us suppose our Army to consist of six Brigades of Horse and eight of Foot These are divided after the first way thus In the Van-guard First manner in three Bodies three Brigades of Horse and out of these a strong party of three or four hundred Horse to go before to search the ways and discover That party should be about one English mile before the three Brigades of Horse and out of it should be small parties sent out about half an English mile which should constantly acquaint the great party and it the Brigades behind and so from hand Van-guard to hand till the Intelligence of all they learn comes to the General After these forlorn Troops of Horse follow commanded Musqueteers with Pioneers to smooth and make plain the ways for the Artillery whether it be by cutting Trees or hedges or filling hollow grounds or Ditches After the three Brigades of Horse follow some Field-pieces suppose the half of those that are with the Army and some Waggons loaded with Ammunition immediately after them march two Brigades of Foot these are follow'd by the Baggage of the whole Van-guard and behind it a commanded party of Horse and Foot so you see this Van-guard is a petty Army of it self In the next place comes the Battel in this order First two Brigades of Foot after them the Prince or his Battel General in person attended with the Guard of his Body and Servants behind these the General or Colonel of the Artillery who is followed by the great Ordnance and whole Train of Artillery after it cometh in due order the Baggage belonging to the General Officers and to all the four Brigades which compose the Battel in the Reer whereof march two more Brigades of Foot and these sometimes are brought up by a party of Horse After the Battel comes the Reerguard of our Army and that is the Reverse of the Van-guard for first Reer-guard marcheth its Baggage with a commanded party of Horse and Foot next follow two Brigades of Foot then some Field-pieces behind them the other three Brigades of Horse who have a party behind them at the distance at least of one English mile to give them advertisement if an enemy be following And this is the first and a very commendable manner of the march of an Army But observe to make the greater expedition especially if an Army be numerous these three great Bodies may march three several ways if the Country conveniently Thâ—se three Bodies may march three several ways afford them and this makes a speedy march but in this case the Battel must have two Brigades of Horse which it had not before and consequently the Van guard and Reer-guard each of them but two whereas by our former marshalling each of them had three when they divide they are appointed to meet at such a time and place as the General shall appoint whether that be every night or every third fourth or fifth night this is done when an enemy is not near The Commander in chief marcheth and â—dgeth constantly with the Body of the Infantry and the Artillery And these great Officers who command the Van-guard and Arrier-guard have Majors attending them every day and night besides Ordinance-Horsemen to receive their Directions and bring them speedily to them in regard some new intelligence may rationally move them to alter the manner of the march or any Orders they gave concerning it The second manner of the march of an Army is in two Bodies Battel and Second manner in two Bodies Reserve You will be pleased to remember that the Army we now speak of consists of six Brigades of Horse and eight of Foot which I thus order In the Battel shall first march 400 commanded Horse who shall have a smaller party before them to discover next them Pioneers or Country people with a party of Musqueteers or Fire-locks to plain the ways then four Brigades of Horse Next them Field-pieces then three Brigades of Foot after them the Prince or he who commands by his authority the General or Colonel of the Artillery follows after whom comes the great Ordnance and whole Train which is followed by the Coaches and Waggons belonging to the General and all the other General Officers after them comes the Baggage belonging to all the Brigades of the Battel in that same order that the Brigades themselves march after which come two Brigades of Foot and then a party of Horse brings up the reer of the Battel The Reserve follows in this order First a Commanded party of Horse and Reserve Foot then the whole Baggage that belongs to the Reserve next to it Field-pieces with their Waggons of Ammunition after them three Brigades of Foot and then two Brigades of Horse about one English mile behind them follows the Reer-guard of Commanded Horse These two great bodies for expedition These two Bodies may march two several ways sake may likewise march two several ways if the General have no apprehension of an enemy and join when he gives order for it Observe when an enemy is in the reer the Battel is the Reserve and the Reserve is the Battel and consequently more Brigades should be in the Reer than in the Van and in the Reer at such an occasion the Commander in chief of the Army should be The third manner of an Armies march is when it neither marcheth in two Third manner in one Body nor three distinct Bodies but in one intire Body which is frequently practised let me then once more refresh your memory by telling you our Army consists of six Brigades of Horse and eight of Foot Three Brigades of Horse march first and make the Van-guard these have before them commanded Horse Pioneers and Musqueteers as the others had Then follow four Brigades of Foot the General after them next him the General of the Artillery with his whole Train after it marcheth the other four Brigades of Foot and these eight Brigades of Foot compose the Battel of the Army the other three Brigades of
you daily see for it is a sign of a very mean Officer when he tells you he likes not such a thing because he never saw it before I wish with all my heart that this following Treatise may afford you some help to so noble a Study In it I give you few or rather no rules of my own I am not so vain but I go very far back to search for them in all the remains of Antiquity And let it not offend you that I illustrate Rules and Customes of War by several Instances I do it purposely because the Nature of Man is rather led by Example than driven by Precept This seems to impose that only to invite to a Noble Emulation Besides the right or wrong doing of an action with all its circumstances is better clear'd by the first than by the last And if I seem to clash with the old Masters or new Tacticks of the Ancient or Modern Art of War I give my Reasons for it which you may either approve or disapprove as you please without doing me the least injury When I tell my own opinion of Military Customes looking back as far as I could find any glimmering light of History to direct me I give also my Reasons which you may likewise reject if you please for by so doing I shall neither be condemn'd for Heresie nor Schism If any Gentlemans curiosity leads him to enquire Why I Print this Book I shall Answer him first I can sincerely assure him Vanity to make my self known in the World push'd me not to it else I had not let it lye unprinted by me ten whole Years after first I wrote it Next very few could importune me to publish it since very few did know I had writ it Nor did I indeed make it publick to disabuse some gay men by letting them see they knew no more than their Neighbours and yet the doing so had been Charity if my offer had been receiv'd as kindly as I intended it The consideration that induced me to it was in short this When I had ended all I had resolv'd to say of the Grecian and Roman Art of War and durst not hazzard on the vast Ocean of the Modern Art I was encourag'd to proceed to that and to bring all I intended to as great perfection as I could by a great Master and good Judge in those affairs And when I had done so that Noble Person after my concealment of it some years desir'd to peruse it and as he had perswaded me to finish so he prevail'd with me to publish these Essays But be pleas'd to know he was such a one as his Majesty had made choice of in the year 1666. to command his Scottish Army towards the end whereof he routed the Rebels at Pentland The very same Person was again entrusted by his Majesty with the conduct of his Forces in the year 1679. and continues still in that Command and is well enough known by the Name of General Dalyell But I am afraid you may ask me What mov'd me to begin to write these Discourses But for that if I were put to the Rack till I give you my Reason I could give no other than this That being out of employment and not accustom'd to an idle life I knew not how to pass away my solitary and retired hours with a more harmless divertisement THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK BOOK I. Military Essays of the Ancient and GRECIAN ART of WAR CHAP. I. OF the Ancient Militia in General Page 1 CHAP. II. Of the Armies and order of War of the Ancients 4 CHAP. III. Of the Election Levy and Arms Offensive and Defensive of the Grecians 7 CHAP. IV. Of the Great Englines and Machines of the Training and Exercising of the Grecians 9 CHAP. V. Of the Grecian Infantry 12 CHAP. VI. Aelian's Marshalling the Grecian Infantry examined 14 CHAP. VII Of the Grecian Cavalry and some observations of it 19 CHAP. VIII Of the Great Macedonian Phalanx of its number and how marshall'd with some observations of both 23 CHAP. IX Of the Grecian March Baggage Encamping Guards and of their Paean 26 CHAP. X. One of our Modern Armies compared with the Great Macedonian Phalanx 28 BOOK II. Military Essays of the Ancient ROMAN ART of WAR CHAP. I. OF the Ancient Roman Government and Militia in General p. 33 CHAP. II. Of the Military Election and Levy of the Roman Souldiers 40 CHAP. III. Of their Arms Offensive and Defensive and of their Military Oath 42 CHAP. IV. Of Sieges and Defence of Towns and Forts of the Great Engines and Machines used in them by the Romans and other Ancients 49 CHAP. V. Of the Military Exercises Duties Burthens Marches and Works of the Roman Souldiers 57 CHAP. VI. Of the Roman Infantry of all its several Bodies and their-Officers 61 CHAP. VII Of the Roman Cavalry and all its Officers 74 CHAP. VIII Of their Trumpeters Hornwinders and of the Classicum 79 CHAP. IX Of the Roman Pay Proviant and of their Donatives 81 CHAP. X. Of a Roman Legion marshall'd according to Titus Livius with Lipsius his amendments 84 CHAP. XI Of a Roman Legion marshall'd according to Flavius Vegetius 87 CHAP. XII Vegetius his Legion review'd and examin'd 89 CHAP. XIII Of a Roman Legion marshall'd according to Polybius 95 CHAP. XIV Of the Distances and Intervals between the several Bodies and Batallions of the Roman Horse and Foot 96 CHAP. XV. Of the Roman Allies and Auxiliaries and of the mistakes of some Authors concerning them 102 CHAP. XVI Of a Roman Consular Army and of some mistakes concerning it 105 CHAP. XVII Of a Consular Army marshall'd in the Field and of some General Officers belonging to it 108 CHAP. XVIII Of several figures of Armies used by the Ancients in their Battels 112 CHAP. XIX Of some Customes used by the Romans and other ancient Nations before in the time of and after their Battels 115 CHAP. XX. Of the March of a Consular Army 118 CHAP. XXI Of the Quartering Encamping and Castrametation of a Consular Army 121 CHAP. XXII Of the Roman Guards Watches Watch-word and Rounds 133 CHAP. XXIII Of Prisoners of War Treaties Parleys and Articles among the Ancients 136 CHAP. XXIV Of the Military Punishments and Rewards of the Romans and other Ancient Nations 145 CHAP. XXV Polybius his comparison of the Macedonian Phalanx and the Roman Legion review'd 150 BOOK III. Military Essays of the MODERN ART of WAR CHAP. I. OF the Modern Militia in General p. 157 CHAP. II. Of Levies the manner of several Nations in making them of the Duties of Souldiers when they are levied of their Age and how long they are bound to serve 163 CHAP. III. Of Armour or Defensive Arms used by several Nations both for their Cavalry and Infantry 168 CHAP. IV. Of Offensive Arms or Weapons used by the Infantry of several Nations 171 CHAP. V. Of Offenffve Arms or Weapons used by the Cavalry of several Nations 173 CHAP. VI. Master Lupton's Book
a Subject of some of the five Kings particularly him of Sodom The Text makes this action of Abraham a surprizal for it is said he smote them in the night We find he Armed three hundred and eighteen of his own Servants but with what kind of Arms either for Offence or Defence we know not and yet it would seem his Servants had learned to handle their Arms for some of our Translations have it He armed his train'd Servants By this place of Scripture it appears that these Kings had fought together before because it is said the five Kings rebell'd against Chaderlaomer whom they had serv'd twelve years now it is more than probable they had fought at least once with him before they offer'd to do homage to him but Moses mentions not that as not being to his purpose his design there being only to give us the Story of Abraham Pharaoh follow'd the Israelites with six hundred chosen Chariots saith Moses and with two hundred thousand Foot and fifty thousand Horse saith Josephus but how these Chariots these Horse and these Foot were arm'd what order they kept in their pursuit or what discipline they had neither the one nor the other tells us But we may suppose well enough that the Egyptians good Warriours Egyptians were well armed and knew the Art of War and that Joshua and other Captains of the people of Israel might have learned from them the contemplative part of their Military skill which afterward they practis'd on those Nations they were ordain'd to root out And if the Kings of Egypt had War with the Ethiopians while the Israelites were under them I make no doubt but many of them serv'd in these Wars Xenophon commends very much both the valour and the skill of those Egyptians who were with Croesus at that Battel which he fought with Cyrus And it is very like that the Grecians themselves got the rudiments of their Art of War in Egypt as well as of other liberal Sciences and it is like Lycurgus taught the Rules of the So were the Spartans Military Art to his Spartans which he had learned from the Egyptians as well as he did other civil constitutions From the Lacedaemonians did the Thebans learn their discipline of War The Theban Epaminondas and Pelopidas taught it to Philip of Macedon and he to his Son the Great Alexander whose glorious acts obscured all the famous exploits of the rest of the Grecians We need not doubt each of these added something of their own to what they had Facilâ— est invâ—ntiâ— addâ—re learned for by such means all Arts come to perfection CHAP. II. Of the Arms and Order of War of the Ancients TO find out the Arms or Art of War of these Ancient Nations whether Jews or Gentiles till the Grecians wrote their own actions we have very little light To begin with the Israelites In the foregoing Chapter I observed that their great Patriarch Abraham fought with four Kings and routed them he was no doubt the first but not the last of the race of Heber who fought a Battel I told you also it is not known how he armed his servants and followers That all or some of them had Swords is no more but a probable Swordâ— conjecture for we do not read of that Weapon in Scripture or any other Book till Simeon and Levi who were Abrahams great Grand-children covering their cruel revenge with the cloak of Religion of so old a date is that mischievous practice destroy'd the Sechemites with Swords for it is said Each man took his Sword That the Israelites had Arms wherewith they fought against Sihon and Og and other people is not at all to be doubted In the Wilderness they could not get them and therefore I think that they brought them out of Egypt with them should be no question but how they came by them to me is a very great question For I think it not at all probable that those Kings or those Pharaohs who so grievously oppress'd them would suffer so many hundred thousands of them to be arm'd no more than afterwards the Philistines when they had the upper hand would suffer a Smith to dwell in Israel For my part I believe at their coming out of Egypt they borrow'd all manner of Arms from the Egyptians as well as they did better movables for they had alike right to all But what kind of Arms they used when they fought with those Nations whom they extirpated what Art or Order they used in their Marches and Battels both before and after they came to the Land of Promise we are yet to learn yet we find mention'd for the Offensive Swords Javelins and Arms of the Israelites Spears and for the Defensive Targets and Shields I suppose Head pieces could not be wanting are recorded to have been in the Magazines of their several Kings nor did they want their great Artillery of Balists and Catapults as shall be declared in its proper place Yet if all the Philistines according to their several Statures were proportionably arm'd as their Champion Goliah was and all the Israelites as well arm'd as their Neighbours the Philistines we may safely conclude they were as well arm'd every jot as the Greciaâ—s or Macedonians were afterwards We find likewise they had Chariots but how many or how arm'd or order'd we know not We may also probably conjecture their Files were ten deep when they marshall'd their Batallions for I find they had Companies and Regiments much Their Order about the number of those of our latest modern Wars for we read of Captains of thousands who were such as our Colonels Captains of hundreds who were Centurions and like our private Captains Captains of fifties such as our Lieutenants It is pity Josephus who was a great Captain himself did not transmit the Military Art of his Countrey-men to posterity it had been worth his labour As little or indeed less light doth any Author afford us to know the Arms Order and Discipline of the Assyrians to whom the first Monarchy is given Assyrians by the universal consent of History But we find that not only they but the Persians Indians and other Nations used Elephants and Chariots The Elephant of India is said to be a far more couragious Beast than that of Africk They are yet made use of in the Wars of that Countrey Of old they carried wooden Towers on their backs wherein were lodged armed men who threw Darts and Javelins among the bands of the enemies through which these dreadful Creatures were furiously driven who of themselves were sufficiently able to break the strongest and best compos'd Squadrons of armed men But when they were gall'd and wounded and turned head then The Elephants they did that mischief to their Masters that was intended for the Enemy The Romans before their Wars in Greece made no use of them and though at first Pyrrhus terrified them with the sight of these indeed terrible
be out-wing'd as assuredly he was it will easily be granted Alexander at Arbela but eight deep that the more ground he took up in Front the less subject he was to that danger And this Curtius confirms when he tells us that the Commanders of the several Bodies had orders given them to extend their Batallions as far in length as without eminent danger they might lest saith the same Author they should be environ'd I conceive then it cannot be doubted but Alexander studying how to make as large a Front as feasibly he might against so numerous an Enemy he made his heavy arm'd Foot Phalange but eight deep as that which suited best with his present affairs and as he had seen other Grecian Captains do before him for by that means he made himself master of twice as much ground as he had when it was marshall'd sixteen in File That he had Reserves is most clear both from Curtius and others for Nicanor follow'd the Phalange with the Argyraspides or Silver Shields and these were heavy armed observe it and Cenos with a Band of men which And had Reserves saith Curtius was appointed note this to be a Relief Then Horestes Lincerta Polycarpon and Philagus all with several Bodies follow'd the Phalanx And that all these were Reserves Aelian himself nor any for him will not be so impudent as to deny But I shall speak more of the marshalling this Army in the Chapter following the next I come now to the third Reason which is pretended for sixteen deep of Third reason for 16 deep the heavy armed Phalange And it is this Though the Pikes of all those Ranks that stand behind the fifth or if you will the sixth be useless in regard they can reach but little or nothing beyond the File leader and you will remember these Ranks are not fewer than ten if not eleven yet being at close order with their Pikes advanc'd they bear forward with the weight and force of their Bodies those five or six Ranks that are before them and so make the Impression the greater and stronger they take all occasion of flight from them and impose a necessity on them to overcome or dye I answer first that this pretended advantage if it was any at all was very oft dear Answered bought Secondly I say five Ranks having their Pikes presented to the Enemy three Ranks behind them might have serv'd sufficiently to bear forward the five before them or if Aelian thought six Ranks might present all their Pikes with advantage then let four Ranks be allowed behind them to bear them forward to the charge and hinder them to fly and this will make in all but ten Ranks and so still six Ranks might have been disposed of either to enlarge the Front or make a Body in the Rear for a Reserve And thirdly I say when Aelian's six formost Ranks were busie in fight the ten behind them who were to bear those six forward were at their closest distance which he calls constipation and so not able to open very suddenly and face about in so good order and so soon as was requisite to receive or beat back the charge of an unexpected Enemy For certainly they must first have open'd backward and then fac'd about both which must have been done by the command of some of their Officers probably the Lieutenant and it is well enough known how confusion and disorder which seldome fails to attend such occasions stops the ears and dulls the judgement of Souldiers that they can neither hear nor understand the words of Command aright I will fetch two instances from History and those I believe will prove all I have said and clear this whole matter pretty well At the Battel of Cynocephalae or Dogs heads fought by Philip the last King Battel of Cinocephalae of Macedon except one against Titus Flaminius a Roman Consul the half of Philips heavy armed Phalange on the right hand bore down all before it and trod over the Legions gaining ground so far that the Macedonian thought the day his own But Flaminius having observ'd that the left Wing of the Phalange could not draw up in any close order because of the unevenness and knottiness of the Mountain whose little hillocks represented the heads of Dogs sent a Tribune with a Legion and some Elephants up the Hill to charge that Left Wing which he smartly doing easily routed it and immediately fell on the Rear of the victorious Right wing and without opposition cut it in pieces Now if the Left Wing of the Phalange which had no convenient ground whereon to draw up had plac'd it self on the top of the Hill at a distance behind the Right Wing as a Reserve the Romans durst never have hazarded to have come between them or if the last ten Ranks of the Right Wing who serv'd for nothing but to bear forward the other six Ranks had fac'd about according to Aelians rule they could not so easily have been broken But the close posture or constipation of these last ten Ranks to bear forward the formost six Ranks made them uncapable to do that quickly which the present necessity required or else the sudden charge of an unlook'd for Enemy did so appal them that they knew not what they were doing nor who commanded or who obeyed which as I have said frequently falls out in such cases So this Phalanx cast in Aelian's Macedonian mould cost King Philip very dear but another modell'd after the same fashion cost his Son Perseus much dearer At Pidna a Town of Macedon King Perseus fought with Lucius Aemilius Battei of Pidna a Roman Consul and the ground for his Phalange being as good as his own heart could wish the Roman Legions were not able to resist its furious charge but gave ground in several places insomuch that the Consul seeing Fortune look with so grim a countenance upon him began to despair of the Victory and to tear his Coat of Arms but being of a ready judgement he quickly espied his advantage for he saw the Phalange open its constipation some small Bodies of it pursuing those who gave ground and others fighting loosely with those of his Romans who made stouter opposition and therefore order'd some of his Legionaries to fall into those void and empty places of the several Phalangarchies and these getting entrance at those intervals came upon the sides of the Macedonian Pike-men and so without much trouble made most of them dye on the place If but a third nay a fourth or fifth part of this Phalange had been standing at a convenient distance in Reserve ready to have charg'd the weary and disorder'd Legions will any man doubt but that in all humane probability Perseus had been Master of the Field But the want of that lost him in the twinkling of an eye his Wife and Children his Kingdom his Riches which he lov'd too well his Honour and at last his Life The Defect then of
a Grecian Troop of Horse consisting of sixty four to be marshall'd three deep as most of our Modern Troops now are and so there should have been in it twenty one Files for 21 multiplied by three produceth sixty three and he who shall make the sixty fourth shall be the Trumpeter with whom we could not meet before in Aelian's enumeration of the Officers of a Troop What distances were kept between Ranks or Files between several Troops or yet between greater Bodies of the Horse Aelian tells us not Yet writing of the right ordering of Batallions I think he was obliged to speak of Distances for who can marshal an Army unless those be condescended Nor of Distances on I conceive that assuredly the Rhombus was oblig'd to keep a great Distance both between its Ranks and its Files otherwise it could not turn to either Right or Left hand or to the Rear without Wheeling and this if I mistake not was one of the advantages the Thessalians proposed to themselves by that form of Horse Battel But when either it or the Wedge was to charge they were oblig'd to serr together as close as they could otherwise they could not pierce so home as was expected by those who cast them in those moulds It is probable that the Square Bodies of the Grecian Horse were exercis'd did march and fight at those distances used now in our Modern Militia Our Author makes the number of the Cavalry in a Macedonian Army to be half the number of their Velites or light armed Foot I told you those were eight thousand one hundred ninety two therefore the Horse must be four thousand ninety six The smaller Bodies of which he composeth this Cavalry are shortly these Sixty four Horse-men made a Denominations of the several Bodies of the Horâ—e Troop and were called an Elarchy its Commander Elarchas our Ritmaster Two Troops made an Epilarchy of one hundred twenty eight Horse-men its Commander Epilarchas for whom we have no Officer unless a Major and I find no such man among the Macedonians Four Troops made a Talentinarchy of two hundred fifty six Horse its Commander Talentinarchâ— is represented by our Lieutenant Colonel Two Talentinarchies made one Hipparchy of five hundred and twelve Horse he was called Hipparcha our Colonel Two Hipparchies made an Ephipparchy its Commander Ephipparchâ— had under him one thousand twenty four Riders our Brigadieer may resemble him Two Ephipparchies made a Telos which consisted of two thousand forty eight Horse its Commander was called Telarcha whom if you please our Major General of Horse shall represent Two Telarchies made up an Epitagma and this consisted of four thousand one hundred ninety six Horse-men which compos'd the whole Phalange of the Macedonian Cavalry its Commander was called Epitagmarcha for him our Modern Militia furnisheth us with a Lieutenant General or if you will a General of the Horse Now though our Author hath given us the exact number of both the smaller and greater Bodies of the Macedonian Cavalry Inexcusable omission yet he hath not at all told us how many of them were heavy armed and how many light armed for which he is inexcusably to blame CHAP. VIII Of the Great Macedonian Phalanx of its number and how marshall'd with some Observations on both APhalanx signifieth a number of men great or small Train'd and Instructed The signification of Phalanx in Military Duties and order'd in Ranks and Files By this Definition any Foot Company or Horse Troop is a Phalanx as well as an Army and a whole Army is a Phalanx as well as a particular Company or Troop It is true in Authors the word Phalanx is ordinarily taken for the great Body of sixteen thousand three hundred eighty four heavy armed Foot which formerly I have out of Aelian described to you of which I shall tell you thus much more that he saith it had two Horns for so the Translator renders the word Kâ—ras and those were the Right and Left hand Horn which we either simply call the Right or Left hand or the Right and Left Wing But indeed I wonder why Aelian divides the whole Phalange of Foot into two Horns Right and Left and why so many of our Commanders in the Modern Wars imitate him in dividing a whole Body into the Right or Left Wing never considering that naturally and really there is a Body between two Wings and the same error is committed in dividing a whole Batallion of armed men into two Flanks very ordinarily done by some Drill-masters And here no doubt Aelian forgot himself for the Phalange of the heavy armed Foot was divided as I â—old you before into four lesser Phalanges or Phalangarchies two whereof made the two Wings which he calls Horns and the other two compos'd the Body These four Phalangarchies made three Intervals how great we know not out of Phalangarchies which before the fight issued the light armed and if they prevail'd they pursued their Victory being followed by the Phalange but if they were beaten as for most part they were they retired to the Rear the same way they came and then the four Phalangarchies closed together to give or receive the charge according as they were ordered by their Superiours But now I am to speak of the whole Macedonian Army which was called The great Macedonian Phalanx of both Horse and Foot the Great Phalanx consisting of heavy and light armed Foot and Horse not reckoning their Chariots and Elephants Their heavy armed Foot were sixteen thousand three hundred eighty four the Velites were eight thousand one hundred ninety two the Horse four thousand ninety six Add all these together you will find the Macedonian great Phalanx to consist of twenty eight thousand six hundred seventy two Combatants A Story goes that either the Great Alexander or Julius Câ—sar or both should have said That they desired no more than thirty thousand men to conquer the whole World Certainly if either of them or both said so they meant that that number should still be kept compleat and full for though they should have been constantly Victorious and never have lost one man in Battel or Skirmish yet sickness and toyl would have made all that number to have moulder'd away before they could have march'd over the tenth part of the then habitable World But I do not at all believe that either of them said so for true Histories if there be any truth in Histories assure us that both of them had Armies which far exceeded that number At Arbelâ— Alexander had more than double the number of a Macedonian Army and yet Aelians numbers did noâ— always hold at that same time when he fear'd to be surrounded I suppose he wish'd his forces to be more numerous than they were Neither do I believe that his Father Philip who was the framer of the Phalanx did keep himself precisely within that number for at Cherâ—nea where he routed the Confederated Greeks he exceeded
Physicians who were ordain'd for their cure He had the oversight of the Chariots Carts Waggons and Pack-horses of all the Mechanick Instruments for cutting and preparing Timber and Wood and Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance other matter for making Warlike Machines and the Engines themselves All this seems to make this Officer to be the Lieutenant-General of the Roman Artillery The Praefectus Fabrorum was he who most resembled our Modern Master of Praefectus Fabrorum or General of the Artillery the Ordnance or General of the Artillery for it was he who had the prime care of the Armamentarium or Magazine in which was ordinarily not only store of all kind of Arms and Engines for Expugnation and Propugnation of Towns and strong Holds but also of all kind of Instruments and Materials for making them and more particularly for the making up and defending their Hibernâ— or Winter-quarters in which were Shops for making all manner of Arms and Weapons both for offence and defence and under his Conduct were also all manner of Materials for making Bridges for which purpose little Boats were carried along with their Armies with Smiths Carpenters Joiners and other Artificers with those who had skill to work in Mines for though the Soldiers not only helpt but also perfected most of those works yet there were some deputed who had skill both to work themselves and to direct others Neither will this prove that the Roman Armies carried Pioniers along with them for these were the Soldiers but only that some Companies were deputed to whose more special care all these works were recommended and these were of a very old Institution in the reign of Serviâ—â— Tulliuâ— King of Rome for he appointed two Companies of Carpenters and Smiths for that purpose We read also frequently of Legates in Roman Armies at the first Institution there was but one and he was sent with the Consul to represent the Senate and people by whom he was chosen and sometime the Consul had power to â—huse his own â—â—gate He sat in Council with the Consul and gave his advice but neither he nor the whole Council might impose on the Consul who constantly kept a Negative voice and the Soveraign command over all In the Consuls absence the Legate commanded absolutely and before him went fix Lictors or Serjeants with Axes and Rods. But when the Consul returned the Legates command ceased In process of time there were two Legates ordain'd Legates for each Army and thereafter as many Legates as there were Legions over which they had the command according as Lipsius in the Second Book of his Commentary declares in which I shall not oppose him though I find no such thing in History I am sure neither Pompey nor Caesar had so many Legates as they had Legions either when they were present themselves or when they were absent Pompey had seven Legions in Spain and with them but two Legates these were Petreius and Aâ—ranius When Caesar was in England he had but one Legate with three Legions and a great Cavalry in Gaul and that was Labienus Nor do I find that either of those two great Captains had a Legate for each Legion that fought at Pharsalia In the time of the Emperours and perhaps in the reign of Augustus there was a Legate for every Province and it may be a Legate or more for every army besides In every Army there was a Questor he was the Treasurer kept the Casâ—â— Questor or Treasurer paid the Army distributed the Wheat to the Men and the Barley to the Hoâ—ses To him was delivered all the Pillage that was taken from the enemy eitherin Villages Towns or Camps He sold it all and out of the money gave either the Army their Wages or Donatives according as he had order from the Consul whose directions he was bound punctually to obey Though the power and command of a Dictator was uncontroulable in matters Dictator both of Peace and War yet in the fields his Authority was no greater than that of a Consul but yet there was this difference the first could not be call'd in question afterwards whereas the second might Where a Dictator was he chose his own Master of the Horse and though this title seems to import Master of the Horse that he who had it had no power over the Foot yet it was not so for under the Dictator he commanded both Horse and Foot and was in effect his Lieutenant-General Thus you have in this Discourse and in those of the Infantry and Cavalry a full account of all the Officers that I have read of in any Author that belonged to a Roman Army Though the Army which we have described in this and the foregoing Chapter had the name of a Consular Army and that Vegetius makes a Praetorian Army to be but half the number of the Consular one yet it is needless to bring Instances from History to prove that greater arâ—â—es than these consisting of four Legions have been commanded not only by Confuls but by â—roâ—â—â—â—uls Prâ—tors and Proprators in several of the Roman Wars The chief Commander of the army when he was to march from the City The Consuls state when he went to any Expedition was obliged to sacrifice in the Capitol and there to take his Auspices the foreboding Omens or as Philemon Holland calls them the Osses of his good fortune in that Expedition and then he rode out of the City in great state and splendor Paludatus in a glorious and rich Embroidered Coat of Arms convoyed by a gallant company of his choicest friends with his Lictors or Serjeants before him with Axes and bundles of Rods the ordinary number whereof if the General was a Consul was twelve These solemn Rites Ceremonies and Customs might not be neglected if they were the Generals had neither the prayers and good wishes of the people nor the willing obedience of their armies Caius Claudius going to Illyria went from Rome in the night-time without any solemnity but so soon as he came to his army he found his Soldiers in a mutiny which though he punisht severely enough yet he found himself necessitated not only to go back to Aquileia but to return to Rome it self there to make his Vows sacrifice and go out of the City in pomp according to the accustomed manner But for all we have said of Roman armies we see not yet where the Velites Velites neglected were marshall'd nor how they fought we must believe that which is most probable that they were marshall'd behind the Triarii and that they marched through the Intervals of the heavy armed to the Van and fought there till they did either beat the enemy or were beaten by him back to the Reer If any desire to see the figure of a Consular army he may meet with one of them in Terduzzi his Book of the ancient and modern Machines and another in Lipsius his Commentary on Polybius each after the fancy
Consul was to storm a Wedg and yet it was a Phalange condensed only smaller at the point than at the rest of its dimensions And he might have call'd it a Testudâ— or Tortoise if he had pleased for they stood all covered with their Shields and great Targets which representing the Tortoise covered with its shell gave that figure of Battel its denomination The Globe-battel was a Batallion that appear'd to be of a round figure and Globe or Ring-figure if it was perfectly round the English have worded it well in calling it a Ring I find it oftner mention'd in modern than in ancient stories I should think those who use it were on the defensive for men standing in a perfect Globefigure can neither pursue nor run away without breaking their order and figure of their Battel and so unglobe or unring themselves Mr. Elton gives us its figure and tells us right ingeniously how it is made but sure it is not feasible for great bodies to cast themselves into that figure I incline to their opinion who think it was but a Wedg of a lesser body and being smaller seem'd more Circular And I the rather think so because Caesar in his Books of the Alexandrinâ— War says that Domitius one of his Legates sav'd a Legion by casting it in a Ring when the rest of his Army was routed at Nicopâ—lis by Pharnaces for if that Legion had been in a perfect round figure it could not have retir'd as it did from him who by his victory was master of the Field The Tenaille Tongs or Shears was nothing but the reverse of the Wedg Tenaille or â—ongs and was to be used only against it for whereas the Wedg was sharp at the point to pierce any Batallion that stood against it so the Tenaille open'd its arms to receive and embrace the Wedg having its bulk notwithstanding behind to oppose it if it could not be broke by the arms of the Tenaille And a Squadron may very soon cast it self in a Tenaille either by advancing its two flanks the Body standing â—ied ferme or yet by making the middle part against which the point of the Wedg prepares retire a little both the flanks standing still either the one or the other way makes the Squadron a Tenaille The Saw was a great Batallion composed of several Squadrons all marshalled The Saw in the form of Wedges the angular points of which Wedges represented the teeth of the Saw and the Bodies of the several Wedges standing in a direct line represented the body of the Saw Some have writ that the several Maniples of a Roman Legion did represent the Saw taking the Bodies of the Maniples for the Teeth and the Intervals for the body of the Saw But how could that be for the Bodies of the Maniples and the several Intervals between these Bodies were all of one equal front and so are not the teeth and body of a Saw and unless these Maniples had been made a little sharper at the front than of either ten or twelve men the resemblance would not have holden We do not read that the Romans used it at all CHAP. XIX Of some Customes used by the Romans and other Ancient Nations before in the time of and after their Battels THe Grâ—cians sung a Hymn and a Paan both before and after their Battels but before they begun unless they were surprized they offer'd Sacrifices Sacrifices to such of their Gods and Goddesses as either they hoped would be for them or feared might be against them The inspection of the Entrails of the sacrificed Beasts was an ordinary thing with the Greeks as all their Historians tell us nor was this custome peculiar to them for the Enemy of Mankind was worshipp'd by the Romans and other Nations as well as by the Grecâ—ans Before the Romans came to the Battel they were somewhat nice in observing how the Sacred Pullets did eat their allowance which furnish'd a fair occasion to the Chicken-masters to usurp a power to perswade or disswade the Consuls from fighting when they pleased Instead of these in our Modern Wars before the Battel the Turk with great devotion attends the sight of the new Moon and both he and other Mahometans howl loud enough to their Impostor who is otherwise so taken up that he hath no leisure to hear their habblings Christiaâ—s either humbly offer or should humbly offer the Sacrifices of their Prayers to the True God who gives Victory to whom he pleaseth In the Primitive times they sung a Paan and a Hymn Crux Vâ—cit After the Heathens thought they had made their Deities propitious their Chieftains labdured to encourage their Armies with good Words Speeches Orations and Promises of Rewards Their Speeches were sometimes premeditated and sometimes extemporary The Roman Generals used to harangue Harangues their Armies when they were to promalgate new Ordinances to punish grievous Crimes or to fight with an Enemy sometimes in the Camp and sometimes in the Field And all this was also done by other Nations though it may be not so well When the Roman Generals resolv'd either to fight or offer Battel they caus'd The Scarlet â—r Purple Coat of Arms. a Scarlet or Purple Coat of Arms to be hung upon the point of a long Spear at their Praetorium or Pavilion and this was Signum Pugna the sign of Battel and then every one prepar'd himself for his proper work But before that for most part the Souldiers had direction to refresh themselves with Sleep and Meat and this indeed was well done of them but they were not the only Refreshment men who did it other Nations used it particularly we read that Hannibal practis'd it at Treâ—ia for there he order'd his Army the night before he fought to take their rest and refreshment and next morning set upon the Romans when they were fasting to which Livy in his twenty first Book mostly attributes his Victory After these things the Army was marshall'd in the Field whereof I have already spoken sufficiently Being ready to come to the shock the Tessera or Word was given which The Tessera or Word all both Officers and Common Souldiers received that by it they might know one another and so discern an Enemy The Tessera was either one Word or one Sentence as Foelicitas Libertas Venus Genetrix one of Julius Caesar's Optima Mater given by Nero The worst of Sons Among the Emperours after their conversion to the Faith Deus Nobiscum God with us was ordinary and so it continues to be often used among the German Danish and Swedish Armies Next to the Word was the Shout and this either was not or should not be raised till the Armies were at that distance that they could immediately come to blows This was done to encourage their own men Baritus or shout and terrifie their Enemies Livius in his fourth Book informs us that where this cry or shout was very loud
by conversion or facing to the Rear by themselves and the other two Batallions in that same manner were to second them What I have said of one Legion is spoken of all the four of a Consular Army the two Roman Legions and the two of the Allies But in Polybius his description of the march of a Consular Army there arise Some difficulties and doubts concerning the march of the Baggage to me some difficulties which Lipsius hath not at all clear'd nay nor spoken â—f though he speak enough of that which may be well enough understood without him As first consider how it can be imagin'd that the ground would always allow the Romans to march in the order I last spoke of that is every great Batallion of a Legion to have its Baggage in the Van of it For by such Not at all clear'd by Polybius or any other a March in a Countrey full of Hedges Ditches and Inclosures it is not possible but their Legions would be wonderfully embarass'd with their Servants Horses and Baggage neither could the three Batallions of every Legion or of all the three upon the attack of an Enemy make their evolutions from among their Baggage so dextrously and readily but they might by an active pursuer be brought to inextricable difficulties I am therefore of opinion that Time hath robb'd us of a page or two of Polybius his Writings which would have explain'd this and have made us know his own sense better than either Lipsius or Tâ—rduzzi doth The last of these two doth wonderfully please himself in affirming that an Army should always march in that very order wherein he who commands it resolves to fight Here he fights with his own shadow for I suppose none will deny that an Army should march in Batallions great Bodies Brigades and Squadrons yea all in Breast if the ground will permit it But if not then I hope Terduzzi will permit a General to march in such Bodies small or great as with conveniency he can But what if I deny to Terduzzi the thing it self for I dare aver never Roman Chieftain intended to fight an Enemy in that order as Polybius makes the Consular Army to march For who will fancy the Hastati fought with their Baggage before them or that the Principes advanced to the relief of the Hastati through their own Waggons and Carts But grant him all he says to be true what is that to the thing in question which is whether the ordering the Baggage to march between the several Batallions of a Legion was conducible to obtain the great and main end and scope of all Armies which is to overcome an Enemy And since I think it was not I am still of the opinion that Polybius his right meaning is not yet fully elucidated to us either by himself or any other person whatsoever And I will deal yet more freely I do not well or rather not at all understand Roman Souldiers carried all their own Baggage what is meant by the Baggage of the several Batallions of Hastati Principes and Triarii for what belonged to the Souldiers was carried on their own backs if all be true that we have told you formerly except their Tents and their Hand-mills and these I think might with little loss have taken their hazard in the Rear of every Legion nay of the whole Army if the Enemy was expected in the Van or they might securely enough have been sent to the Van if the Enemy was in the Rear So as still Polybius his dividing the Baggage of a Legion into three parts and putting a third before every Batallion is mysterious to me Lipsius stands gazing and admiring at the excellent order of the Roman march and crys out Mira eorum hic Providentia Dispositio Their Providence and Order here saith he was wonderful But I wonder much more that this Order of theirs did not sometime bring mischief upon them For first you are to believe that the daring Romans for most part sought their Enemies who in that case could not but be in their Van either marching to mete them or marching away from them If the Enemy marched to meet them the Roman Baggage either before the Legion it self or between the several Bodies of it could not but give them those inevitable embarasses and inconveniences whereof I have spoken If an Enemy marched from them why did so prudent a people as the Romans were make their own Baggage a hinderance to them in overtaking that Enemy in whose pursuit they marched For let any man consider it right the Great Baggage that is the Artillery Engines and Machines or the stuff whereof they were to be made their spare Arms the Shops where and Utensils wherewith they were made the Consuls Pavilions and great Baggage the Treasurers train of Moneys and Proviant and many times of Plunder would take up so much ground between the several Legions and Troops that without these hinderances a Consular Army might have joyn'd an Enemy in less time by half then it could do with them which Caesars speedy march from Gâ—rgâ—via after the Aeduans without Baggage did sufficiently demonstrate What advantages the Nervians proposed to themselves by the manner of the March of the Roman Baggage between Legions and sure these advantages had been greater if every Batallion of a Legion had had its Baggage in the Van of it will be known to any who will attentivâ—â—y read Câ—sars Second Book of the Gallick Waâ— for they having learn'd how the Romans us'd to march resolv'd to set upon his first Legion whilest its Baggage gave a stop to the â—est to come up to its assistance Câ—sar who was as happy as prudent and as prudent as fortunate learn'd their design by his Spies and presently alter'd the manner of his Countries March He commands his Cavalry to set forward and after it six Legions and after them the Baggage of his whole Army and in the Rear-guard two Legions more If he had not done so he might have receiv'd a notable yea an indelible affront from that stout and warlike Nation which as it was left him not the Field without a very bloody resistance Nor was this the only time Câ—sar did so though it is the only time mention'd by Lipsius and Terduzzi for when he advanc'd with four Legions against the Bellâ—vaci he caus'd three Legions to march first then the Baggage which his fourth Legion followed Perhaps he practis'd this more frequently though it is not often mentioned And in all his Retreats he ever sent his whole Baggage to the Van of his Army Thus you see Great Câ—sar who lived long after Polybius did not tye himself so strictly to the custome of the Roman March but he both could and did alter it according as he thought it stood with the conveniency of his affairs and so should all prudent Captains do But I cannot get one view of the Velites in all this March and here our Authors
We cannot tell how the Vâ—lites march'd leave us again to our conjectures Certainly if the whole sixth Book of Polybius his History be extant and if some parcels of it are not lost as I shrewdly suspect there are he forgot himself when he forgot to tell us where and how the Roman light armed who made up more than the fourth part of the Infantry marched for to tell us as Lipsius doth that they marched where the Consul appointed them is to tell us just nothing for neither heavy armed Foot nor Horse marched where they pleased but where the General ordered them Yet it is a probable and a very rational conjecture that the Velites marched nearest that place where the Enemy was whether that was in the Van Rear or Flank of the Army since they were by their skirmishes to begin the Fight But I fear in the next Chapter we shall have more groping before we find the quarter where they lodged Observe that the Legions of both the Romans and Socii did change Van and Rear daily by turns I have told you before the Roman ambulatory March was twenty Italian miles in four hours and the cursory twenty five But I suppose without Baggage and with it twenty miles was Vnius diei justum iter The just march of an Army for one day CHAP. XXI Of the Quartering Encamping and Castrametation of a Consular Army AFter a long and it may be a hard and tedious March it will be time to Quartering iâ— Towns and Villages lodge our Consular Army and lodged it must be in Towns and Villages or in the Fields If in the first they had nothing to demand from their Hosts but Bed and Lodging and were to pay for all they spent in meat drink or fire In the time of the Emperours the Legates and Presidents of Provinces caused them to furnish the Armies as they marched through their jurisdictions out of the publick Magazines which was discounted from their wages by the Treasurers or caused the Countrey people to bring in provisions of all kinds as to open Markets where they were sold to the Souldiers for ready money at the ordinary rates of the Countreys in which the Armies chanced to be the contraveners and disobeyers of orders being severely punished The way in which Officers and Souldiers used to be quartered in Houses to avoid strife between them and their Hosts was this The whole house was as equally divided as might be into three parts whereof the Master of the house chose the first the Souldiers the second and the third and last returned to the host who by this means had two thirds When the Army was to be quartered in the Field which we call Encamping Souldiers hard labour in Encamping and which consisteth of two parts Castrametation and Fortification the common Souldiers had a harder labour than in their days March in regard beside the measuring the ground they were to Fortifie the Camp with Ditch Rampart and Pallisado and to pitch the Tents of all their Commanders and cleanse their quarters before they got leave to take notice of their own Tents or Huts In the matter of Castrametation which is one part of Encamping after the Roman way we are to borrow all our light from Polybius and our own conjectures for Vegetius speaks but very little of it and that little is in very general terms But for the Fortification of the Camp we are more obliged to Vegetius than Polybius The first spends five full Chapters on Encamping to wit the twenty first twenty second twenty third twenty fourth and twenty fifth of his first Book and either for fear that he had forgot something in all these Chapters or else according to his custome to refresh his own or our memories he falls again to his Castrametation in the eighth Chapter of his third Book The summ of all he saith on that Subject will amount to this Summ of what Vegetius saith of Castrametation He laments that in his time the ancient custome of fortifying Camps was worn out for want whereof says he we have known many Roman Armies afflicted by the sudden incursions of the barbarous Nations Besides saith he if they be worsted in any Battel having no Camp to retire to they fall by the edge of the Sword unrevenged like brutes neither doth the Enemy make an end of killing them till he is weary of pursuing them He says The Army is to Encamp where it may have store of Fuel Wood Water and Fodder where the air is wholsome and free from Marishes and if it be to stay any time it must be well looked to that no Hill be near from whence an Enemy may infest it and that the place be not subject to inundations of Waters The Camp is to be of such an extent that neither Men Beasts nor Baggage be pinched for want of room nor must it be so large but that the Fortifications of it in all its circumference may be sufficiently defended by the men that are within it This is all he says of Castrametation As to the Fortification of the Camp he tells us one and the same thing of it in the twenty fourth Chapter of his first Book and in the eighth Chapter of his third Book and it is shortly this That there were three several sorts or ways of fortifying a Camp First if there was but little danger the Rampart should be made but three foot high suppose above the line and this Rampart was to be made of Turf cut out of the place where the Ditch should be and the And of fortifying the Camp loose earth of the same the which Ditch should be nine foot broad and seven deep and this was called Fossa tumultuaria or a Ditch suddenly cast up and it seems was used when the Army was to stay but a night or two and no enemy near it Thus far Vegetius is clear but in describing the other two ways of fortifying he is extreamly confused both in his first and third Book But if I guess right at his meaning he intends to tell us that the second way of fortification was when an imminent danger of an enemy appeared then the Ditch was nine foot deep and twelve broad and the Rampâ—rt above the line four foot high â—â—d thirdly when they found themselves in the greatest hazard the Rampart was planted about with these Stakes and Palisado s which the Soldiers were obligeâ— to carry about with them So that reckoning from the top of the Rampart to the bottom of the Ditch it was thirteen foot high and the Ditch it self twelve foot broad I would he had said either eleven or thirteen for then he had not contradicted himself for he told us before that in Fortification the Romans were accustom'd to observe an odd number The Turf whereof the Rampart was made used to be half a foot deep one foot broad and one foot and a half long Thus far Vegetius concerning the Fortification of the Roman
voluntary death rid themselves from all fears and dangers and rob their enemies of the glory of their Captivity Thus Saul King of Israel desired his Armour-bearer to kill him and because he would not he did it himself that he might not fall into the hands of the uncircumcised Thus Virius Vibius perswaded seventy Capuan Senators to sup with him and every one of them to drink a draught of Poyson to shun the Rods and Axes of the Roman Conquerours Thus the Great Hannibal poysoned himself that the Treacherous King of Prussia might not deliver him into the hands of his implacable enemies the Romans Thus Brutus and Cassius dispatched themselves that they might not be grateful and welcome spectacles to Anthony and Octavius Caesar Thus Cato made Vtica Victrix caâ—sa Diis placuit sed Victa Catoni famous by pulling out his own Bowels that he might not be beholding for his life to merciful Caesar Thus Scapula to shun the same Caesars just resentment for his sedition caused a huge pile of burnt-wood to be heaped up supped plentifully took Nard or Spikenard and Rosin inwardly and then commanded a slave to kindle the fire and to throw him in it after his freed servant had at his intreaty cut his Throat Thus Mark Anthony and his beautiful and beloved Cleopatra opened to themselves two several doors of death that they might not assist at Augustus his Triumphal Entrance into Rome Thus Vaodicea Queen of the Britons chose rather to poyson her self than be the object of the Romans contempt to whom in restoring to liberty her oppressed Country she had done much mischief What some others who were not Heathens have done like this in latter times moved by the fearful examples of the calamities and inhumane usage of those who have been Prisoners of War before them shall be spoken to in its own place CHAP. XXIV Of the Military Punishments and Rewards of the Romans and other Ancients AS in all well order'd Commonwealths the Vertuous should be cherished and the wicked chastised so in Armies which both in Oeconomy and Policy do not only represent but are indeed either well or ill govern'd Republicks those who in ancient times did signal services were rewarded and those who transgressed Military Laws were punished And if Martial Animadversions Military Laws should be severe and severely executed be more severe than the Civil ones there is reason for it because on the right or wrong managing the War depends the safety or ruin of the State and upon the least mistake of one Military order may follow the loss of that Army to which is intrusted the management of that War The great Master of War Caesar says Fortuna quam in reliquis reâ—us tum praecipâ—e in bello parviâ— momentis magnas commutationes efficit Fortune saith he as in other affairs so more especially in War makes inconsiderable accidents produce vast changes and alterations That which Lamachus in Plutarch says is now common Non licet bis in bello peccare In War one cannot do wrong twice that is in summa rei in the principal points of War as in the loss of an army the ill Marshalling of it the ill fighting a Battel the loss of a considerable Town or Pass by negligence sloth treachery or cowardise Vegetius in the Thirteenth Chapter of his first Book says Praliorum delicta emendationem non recipiunt The errors committed in fighting Battels are not capable of amendment And in the fifth Chapter of his Third Book he tells us Siquidem nulla sit negligentia venia ubi de salute certatur There is no pardon for a neglect where men fight for the common safety Now though it be an unquestionable truth that when subjects do their Prince and Country service they do but their duty and when they do either of them disservice or transgress Laws they deserve punishment yet it is as true that men naturally are much encouraged to vertue by seeing rewards liberally bestow'd on those who are faithful and loyal as they are frighted or terrified from vice by the punishments they see inflicted on the wicked and disloyal I think it was no flash but a remarkable saying of a Noble English General who by an Rewards encourage as well as punishments deter exemplary hanging of some Plunderers in his Army did encourage the Country Gentlemen to intreat him to hang some more for taking Geese and Hens and yet they were making no great haste to bring in either meat or money for the entertainment of the Army Nay Gentlemen said the General all hanging and no money will not keep any Army together a little hanging and a little money will do better And indeed it is so all punishment and no reward proves but one support instead of two to the continuance of either Commonwealth or Armies Many of the ancient Governours of Republicks and Commanders of Armies knew very well how to dispence both rewards and punishments Some Nations whom both Greeks and Romans qualified with the title of Barbarous were extreamly inhumane in their punishments So we read that he who came last to Some ancient Nations inhumane in their punishments the Rendezvouz of the ancient Gauls was either cut in pieces or thrown quick into a fire And Caesar in his Seventh Book of the Gallick War says that for petty faults Vercengentâ—rix caused noses ears and hands to be cut off and the eyes of Delinquents to be put out and in that manner sent them home to their friends but for greater crimes he caused them to be burnt quick or put them to death by some more lingring torture Though the Grecians were severe in their punishments yet we find them not ordinarily cruel in them their Animadversions being for most part rather Ignominious than Capital It is said of the Lacedemonians from whom others had their breeding in the Military Art that they punisht a Coward by clothing him in a Womans apparel and making him stand every third day in their Markets or other publick places which was lookt on by men of spirit as worse than death We find the ordinary death to which the Grecian Delinquents in Armies Grecian punishments were put was that of stoning which perhaps they learned from a more ancient people than themselves the Israelites it being a custom with them to take their Malefactors without the Camp and there stone them to death This punishment was no new invented one in the time of Alexander for Q. Curtius speaking of the Conspiracy against the King says all that were named by Nicomachus so soon as the sign was given were stoned to death More patrio after the custom of the Country Punishments of another sort were inflicted by the Great Alexander after his great Soul began to deviate from the path of Vertue such was his inhumane torturing to death the noble Philâ—tas perhaps with that same justice that he caused his father Parmâ—niâ— to be murthered whose Conduct had so much contributed
hundred But in Aemilius his Army against the Macedonian Phalanx the Legions were of six thousand whereof the Triâ—rii according to Polybius being only six hundred the Hastati and Principes must have consisted each of two thousand and the Velites must have been fourteen hundred And by this account Aemilius his Hastati would have possest in Front above five thousand foot of ground so it is clear that the Hastati of the weakest Consular Army out-wing'd the Macedonian Phalange and thereby was able to fall upon its Flanks supposing still which cannot he deny'd me that the Roman Cavalry gave the Grecian Horse work enough and they carrying short managable Arms might easily disorder the Phalangites being once enter'd within their great Body so that the Principes and Triarii coming up fresh to the medley would not find much difficulty to make that great bulk a prey Observe likewise if you consider the great Intervals of the Roman Maniples all the Phalangites who in Battel met with these Intervals were useless for they had no Enemy to fight with These conjectures of mine I have presum'd to add to Polybius his weightier considerations But notwithstanding all that is said for the Legions advantage over the Reasons why a Phalanx rightly order'd had the advantage of a Legion Phalange I am bold with submission to Polybius to say If the Phalange be order'd as I spoke of in my Discourses of the Grecian Art of War that is not so deep as sixteen and consequently of a larger Front and thereby not so apt to be surrounded or out-wing'd and with Reserves I conceive not only those conjectures of mine but all Polybius his reasons will come to nothing or signifie little Neither indeed can I at all be perswaded to believe that so soon as the Legionaries were enter'd at the void places within the Ranks of the Phalanx that presently they were Masters of it for though the points of those Pikes within which the Romans were come were indeed useless yet so were not the points of all those Pikes that were at a convenient distance from them besides I hope it will be granted that a Legionaries offensive weapon the Sword was no more servicable to him at that close fight than the Sword of a Phalangite was to him that carried it for it is not imaginable that he was bound to keep his Pike longer in his hand than it was useful for him nor his Sword in its sheath longer than it was time to draw it in defence of his life And what I now speak of a Phalange not so deep as sixteen and consequently of a greater Front among the Grecians and of Reserves which the Romans call'd Subsidia is no vain speculation of mine for I have formerly demonstrated the truth of it out of good Authors though I confess I am convinced such Phalanges were not at Cinecephala where Q. Flaminius beat Philip the Father nor at Pidna where L. Aemilius beat Perseus the Son both Kings of Macedon To confirm my opinion that the Legion by its constitution had no advantage Roman Army beat by Xantippus a Grecian over a Phalange rightly order'd I shall use the authority of Polybius against Polybius for he in his first Book relates to us how the Carthaginians in the first Punick War were brought so low that they were ready to accept any reasonable conditions of Peace till they gave the command of their forces to Zantippus a Lacedaemonian that had come out of Greece with some mercenary Laconians and was one of those who in this age are called Souldiers of Fortune who making use of the Grecian Rules which he had learn'd in his own Countrey marshall'd the Carthaginian Army in several Bodies of Horse and Foot each to second another adding the help of his Elephants and chusing the most Champaign grounds he could extended his Front to so great a length that the Romans using their accustom'd order were out-wing'd surrounded and totally routed by him and the Consul Attilius Regulus with five hundred more Romans were led Captive into Carthage Here Xantippus meerly by the Grecian Art of War worsted the Romans who made use of their own Art But I will go a greater length may not we imagine that Amilcar in the And by Amilcar and Hannibal who followed Xantippus his Art pursuance of that first Punick War and his Son Hannibal in the beginning of the second imitated Xantippus and manag'd the War according to that pattern he had left behind him I suppose we may believe it If this do not prove that the difference between the Grecian and Roman Art of War did not always make the one Nation victorious over the other then take more Instances Pyrrhus King of Epirus at his first coming into Italy with a Grecian Army And by Pyrrhus Grecian Arms and Art of War did beat the Romans in Battel so did he the second time A fancy took him to arm his Souldiers after the Roman fashion and then he was beaten by the Romans Hannibal when he came first to Italy beat the Romans in set Battel and I believe with these kind of Arms and that order of War which Xantippus used in Africk and consequently Grecian But Polybius tells us in his seventeenth Book that the same Hannibal To what Polybius attributes Victory armed all his Carthaginians after the Roman manner no doubt with those Arms that he had taken from them now as he had beaten them formerly with Carthaginian and Grecian Arms so he beat them frequently afterward with Roman Arms. Therefore this noble Historian in that place doth not attribute Hannibals Victories to any advantage his Souldiers had either in Arms or Art over the Romans but to his own singular Prudence his Courage and Conduct and extraordinary Qualifications and to use Polybius his own expression His Capital Engine But when saith he a Roman General equal in abilities to him came to command the Roman Armies then Victory flew from Hannibal over to Scipio But let us ask the question Why so Since both Captains were equal in Valour and Conduct and if there was any odds the Carthaginian no question had it because of his long experience and almost matchless policy in feats of Arms and that there was but little difference in their Arms or manner of Militia Here Polybius is at a stand and gives no reason for it but that Fortune would have it so What Fortune was to him that is Providence to us He was ignorant of what the wisest Eccles Ch. 3. and Ch. 9. of men said long before the foundation of Rome was laid That there is a time for every purpose under Heaven a time to kill and a time to heal a time to gain and a time to lose And in another place That the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor favour to the men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all And indeed that happeneth to all and to
than we were before their invention of the truth whereof take a short view What vast Provinces and goodly Countries the Turk since the birth of Gunpowder hath acquired in Asia Africk and Europe is obvious to our sight though the Histories of all Nations were silent And though in the general we are told We have but confused notions of the Turkish Militia that his order is good the Government and Discipline observ'd in his numerous Armies is strict and excellent yet the particulars have been hitherto related to us but very confusedly neither doth Mr. Rycaut in his Book of the present state of the Ottoman Empire Printed a few years ago help us much but rather gives us occasion to think that the Turks have lost their ancient Art of War or if they still retain it we must wonder how these Unbelievers have triumph'd over so many both Christian and Mahometan people with so undisciplin'd and disorderly multitudes as his relation makes them to be for he saith their principal Foot which are the Janizaries reputed to have been the strength and support of that great Monarchy fight confusedly and the Spahies who are the best of their Cavalry fight likewise in little good order he says that sometimes they charge thrice and if they then break not the enemy they fly and withal he makes their Artillery very insignificant in regard that as he writes they have no Gunners but such as either they take Prisoners or are sold to them for Slaves who stay no longer with them than any fair opportunity is offer'd them to run away Though perhaps the Victories which the great Tamberlan obtain'd and the And of Tamberlans order of War celerity he used in making these Conquests which have render'd him so famous be not so vast as Stories make them yet we may believe his Atchievements to have been extraordinary in regard the Great Mogul of India derives his Pedigree in a lineal descent from him and at this day possesseth a vast and a Great Empire which is but a remnant of a far greater acquir'd by Tamberlan whose Discipline is cry'd up to have been exceeding strict his Art of War so exact and orderly that he never went out of the Field without Victory or from a besieged Town without either its submission or destruction It is written of him that the day he fought with Bajazet at Mount Stella his Army consisted of a Million of men and yet he made use of them all in the time of the Battel If this be all true is it not pity that the manner of his Encamping Besieging Embattelling and fighting is not left on record to posterity And to come home the Scottish the English and the French Histories tell us what bloody Engagements have been among them and what Battels have been fought with various success but except that we are told that the French As also of the Scötish French and English Gens de Armes were numerous besides their other Cavalry that the English used the Bow and the Bill and had men of Arms likewise and that the Scots fought on Horseback with Lances and Jacks of Mail and on foot with long Pikes Battel-axes Bows and two-handed Swords what know we more of the Art of War that any of all the three practis'd of the order they kept how strong their several Bodies and Batallions were or what names they gave them how deep they Marshal'd either their Horse or Foot how they Embattell'd how they Encamped and how they form'd their Sieges for all these we have nothing but ill grounded conjectures and very confused notions I know not whom we shall justly blame for this great defect but the several Generals of several Armies belonging to several Nations and in several ages who if either they could not or would not write the History of their own or others actions as Xenophon and Thucydides among the Grecians Julius Caesar and Cato Many Historiographers defective among the Romans Monluc and a few others in our Modern times yet I think they were obliged to cause their Secretaries to keep exact accounts of the manner of these Sieges and those Battels which under their Command were either form'd or fought that so they might have been transmitted to posterity Some have done so but most have neglected it thinking it enough if their actions were generally remember'd recommending the particulars to the information of Historians which many times is such that it looks rather like a Romance than a true story But I had rather you should hear Monluc that famous Marshal of France upon this Subject who in the Third Book of his first Tome says That Historians who write the feats of War describe seldom or never the Particularities Monluc his Complaint of them of the action as how such a Castle was surprized in what order such a Town was assaulted or in what manner defended how such two Armies were Marshal'd before they join'd in Battel how the Horsemen were arm'd and how the Foot with many more circumstances necessary to be known by those who in time coming desire to be instructed and especially such as intend to serve their Prince and Country in Military Employments that from thence they may learn how to demean themselves in the like occasions But says he the whole multitude of Historiographers conceive they do enough if they tell us such a Battel was fought such a Prince or General gain'd the Victory such a City was besieged and yielded and such a one was taken by assault For himself he professeth he wrote his Commentaries to be registers of the actions of his time the particulars whereof might serve to inform those who were to come after him how to carry themselves either in Sieges Assaults Skirmishes Rancounter or Batteâ— for those saith he who think they know not so much as I will be glad to learn of me but those who fancy they know enough already need no Master In another place he says Historians are to be blam'd for not writing particular things and of particular men they think says he they do enough if they name Princes or Captain-Generals and pass over with silence all other persons that are not of so large a Stature Thus far Monluc Marshal of France To this same purpose you may see Polybius his complaint in his Twelfth Book Polybius his complaint of them where he says Historians first err in not writing things truly and as they were done and next that they give no particular account of the manner of Battels Skirmishes Surprisals and Sieges and this he attributeth to their want of skill and therefore wisheth that all great Captains would write the Histories of their own actions themselves These Complaints of Polybius and Monluc are just but I complain of another kind of Historians who take upon them to give us descriptions of all â—hose The Authors complaint of some of them Particularities without having receiv'd particular relations from the principal
First strict Laws are made for the observance of Religious Duties a submission For Religion to Church-Discipline and a due respect to be given to all Ecclesiastical persons against Atheism Blasphemy Perjury and the prophanation of the name of God Secondly for the maintenance of the Majesty and Authority For Loyalty of the Prince or State in whose service the Army is that nothing be done or spoke to the disparagement of himself his Government his Undertakings or the Justice of any of his actions under all highest pains Thirdly for honour respect and obedience to be given to all superior Commanders from the highest For Obedience to the lowest of them and none of their Commands are to be disputed much less are they themselves to be affronted either by gestures words or actions But this is to be understood that the command be not diametrically contrary and prejudicial to the Prince his service but indeed such commands would be so clear that they need no canvasing otherwise any disobedience opens a door to resistance that ushereth in sedition which often is supported by open rebellion To clear which suppose what frequently falls out that the Governour of a well fortified and a well provided place offers to deliver Disobedience to unlawful Commands lawful it up to an enemy without opposition those under him may resist so unjust and so base a command and they not only may but ought to resist him for the disobedience in such a case of the subaltern Officers and Soldiers is a piece of excellent service done to their Master and if they do it not they are lyable to those Laws of War which for giving over a Fort in that fashion sentences the Governour to an Ignominious death the inferiour Commanders to be shamefully casheer'd and the common Soldiers to be disarm'd and made serve as Pioneers to the Army which were acts of great injustice if Inferiors were bound to give a blind obedience to all the Commands of their Superiors whatever they be without exception And such a case it is when an Officer commands those under him to desert their Post whether that be in Town Camp Leaguer or Field and go over with him to the Enemy If they do so and are ever retaken he is punisht for his treachery and they for their obedience to so illegal a command Fourthly Articles of War are made for due and strict keeping of Guards For keeping strict Guards and Watches and Watches and here as in many other points observe the severity of Military Law for he who after tap-too dischargeth any Hand gun be it Pistol Musket Fusee or Carrabine unless against an enemy or he who sleeps on his Centinel or deserts it or he who is drunk on his Watch are all to die these be crimes which the Municipal Laws of most Nations do not punish with death yet in the Laws of War this severity is thought no more than necessary Fifthly Laws are made against those who stay behind or straggle in ordinary Against straglers or extraordinary Marches Sixthly Against Fugitives and Runnaways either such as leave their Colours Against Runnaways when they are in Garrisons or Quarters and desert the Service under any pretence without a Pass or such as run away from their Colours or their Officers in the field in time of Skirmish or Battel or such who in storms and assaults desert their Posts till either they are wounded or have made use of their Swords all these are lyable to death and those who wound or kill any of them in their flight in their going or running away are not to be accountable for it Seventhly Against those who make any Treaty or agreement in the field Against Treaties with an Enemy with an enemy without the command or consent of him who commands in chief And here again observe another case wherein Inferiors are to refuse obedience the Military Law condemns a Colonel for such a Treaty and every tenth Soldier of his Regiment to die with him for giving obedience to so unjust a command Eighthly Against those who surrender fortified places unless extream necessity Against needless Surrender of Forts and several other crimes require it of which I shall speak in a more proper place Ninthly Against those who mutiny burn houses without the Generals command commit robbery murther theft or violence to those who have the Generals safeguards and against those who keep private correspondence unless order'd to do it by the General all these crimes by most Military Laws are punisht with death Tenthly Against private Combats or Duels the Combatants and Against Duels their Seconds are to die and if superior Officers knew of the Combat and did not hinder it they are to be casheer'd with Ignominy a necessary Law enough yet seldom put in execution Eleventhly Against those who sell play or pawn or change their Arms Against sellers or pawners of Arms. either defensive or offensive whether he be a Horseman or a Foot-Soldier he who doth any of these is not only punishable but likewise he who bought won or took them in pawn Twelfthly Against false Musters whether it be of Men Horses Arms Against false Musters Saddles or other Furniture by these Articles not only those who make the false Muster but all those who help to make it are punishable Thirteenthly Against those who detain the pay of either Horsemen or Against those who detain the Princes Pay Foot-Soldiers any Officer guilty of this deserves to die Neither if an Officer have lent money to a Soldier may he pay himself or retain in his hand what he pleaseth but must give him as much of his pay as can entertain him to do his Masters service Fourteenthly Against those Officers whatsoever they be except the General Against those who give Passes who give Passes The Swedish Articles order a Colonel who presumes to give a Pass to lose his life and to lose his charge if he permit any under his command to go home without the Felt-marshals knowledg Other abominable crimes such as Adultery Incest Sodomy Beastiality Greater Crimes Parricide are examin'd try'd and punisht according to the Municipal Laws of the Prince or State who is Master of the Army And many smaller Smaller faults faults are left to the cognizance discretion and arbitrament of a Court of War A Council of War and a Court of War are commonly by ordinary A Council of War Soldiers confounded as if they were one thing whereas they are very different the first being composed of those persons whom the Prince or his General calls to consult with concerning the managing the War and these are indeed but Counsellors and have in most Armies their President who is nominated by the Prince or State they do but advise for the Prince or his Captain-General have a negative voice and retain a power to themselves to do what they please A Court of War consists of
who fears God and hates vice especially bribery A Lawyer he should be in regard most Articles of War have their rise from Law and many cases chance to His Qualifications and Duty be voided in Courts of War where no Military article is clear but must be determin'd by the Civil or by the Municipal Law of the Prince to whom the Army belongs and the Judg-Marshals duty is to inform the Court what either of these Laws provides in such cases Some Princes remit the whole Justice of the Army so absolutely to the Judg-Marshal that they give him power to punish Soldiers who transgress publick Proclamations of himself without the Colonels consent yea whether he will or not The Provost-Marshal General and all Officers of Justice of the Army whatever name they bear are to obey the Judg-Marshals directions and orders He may cause Delinquents to be apprehended and send them to the Regiments to His Power very great which they belong with direction to the Colonels to call Regiment Courts of War at which he may appoint the Provost-Marshal or his Lieutenant to be present and to appeal from it in case any unjust or partial sentence be pronounced All complaints whether in matters Civil or Criminal use to be brought before him and in many of them he hath power to give judgment himself without any Court and in others he hath authority to oblige Colonels to do Justice wherein if they fail he may bring them before a General Court to answer for their partiality All differences that are among Merchants Tradesmen Mark-tenters and Sutlers who are permitted to frequent the Army or that happen between any of them and the Officers and Soldiers are brought before him and in them all after due examination of the whole fact and witnesses he hath power to judg and give sentence He hath power to call together a General Court of War and to call such Colonels to it as he thinks fit but herein he seldom acts till the General or Feltmarshal advise the matter with him Such Colonels as he cites to be Assessors and do not appear he may fine and by the Fiscal exact the Fines he hath imposes He is bound to examine all Prisoners of War as also all such as frequent the Army and may be suspected to be spies All Testaments Contracts and Obligations between party and party are judged to be in force when they are signed and attested by him He hath power of the Measures and Weights within the Army and may order the Marshals to set fitting Prices on all vendible things that are for Back or Belly And he is to have a care that the Provost-Marshals neither wrong the Soldiers nor the Merchants Victualers or Sutlers and he is Judg in any difference that may arise between any of them A Provost-Marshal General is by those who do not well understand his Office A Provost-Marshal-General taken at best to be but a Jaylor but by some to be a Hangman But no Jaylor ever durst assume the power which all Military Laws and Customs give a Marshal for he may by vertue of his Office without any command or permission of his Superiors apprehend those he finds actually transgressing the Articles of War or in any other gross misdemeanor and according to the quality of the fault either detain them Prisoners with a Guard or yet clap them in Irons But he His Power in an Army may neither dismiss them nor yet impose further punishment on them without order from either the Commander in chief of the Army or the Judg-Marshal General At some times and in some occassons he is permitted yea commanded to hang or shoot to death such as he finds in contempt of late Proclamations stragling robbing burning or Plundering And for that reason a Guard of Horse is allow'd him these the French call Archers Whosoever offers to oppose him in the exercise of his charge be what he will is to die for it All Provost-Marshals of Regiments Troops or Companies whether of Horse or Foot are to swear obedience to the Commands of this Marshal-General and whoever pays it not is by the command of the Auditor-General turn'd out of the Army with the consent of the Colonel or Captain according as he is a Regiment or Companies Marshal All Marshals of Regiments are bound when they are in the field every morning and evening to wait on the Marshal-General to receive his directions according to Emergencies and he who fails in either attendance or obedience is punishable according to the quality of the fact I have told you that in General Courts of War he is the Accuser and is to see the sentence put in execution He is to have a strict eye over his inferior Marshals that they do their Duties uprightly and impartially and that they permit not the Soldiers to wrong the Victualers and Sutlers nor those to wrong the Soldiers by taking greater Prices or selling with less measures or weights than those appointed by the Auditor-General He ought to take pains to learn what the Prices of things His Duty are in these Towns where the Mark-tenters buy their Wine Beer Tobaco Vinegar Oyl Bread Bacon and other Provisions that accordingly the General Auditor may know with the greater justice to impose the Prices But the truth is the Buyers are too often abused and the Prices set too high by the collusion of the Provost-Marshal with Sutlers and the Sutlers bribing the Judg Marshal The Provost-Marshal General hath a Jaylor under him who must be paid by His Jaylor every Prisoner his Jail-money and if Irons be clapt on him he must pay for them besides He is to have a pottle of Wine or Beer of every Hogshead that is brought to the Camp by the Sutlers and the Tongue of every Beast that is slaughter'd in it and for these he agrees with the Regiment-Marshals The same power he hath in the field with an Army the like he hath in all Garrisons though he come to any of them but accidentally or upon some emergency Under the Marshal-General are Hangmen and those are the fellows who glory that all this great show and parad of Justice of Courts of War of Judg-Marshals of Provost Marshals and Clerks would be but a fanfare and signifie nothing at all if it were not for them They avouch that they are the Pillars the props and supporters of Justice for if say they the Executive part of the Law be the life of the Law then Hangmen who are the true and unquestionable Hangmen Executioners of the Law keep life in the Law by taking away the lives of the Breakers contemners and transgressors of it I have known another high Justitiary in Swedish Armies of equal power with the Marshal-General for what power this last hath in Quarters Garrison or Camp the same hath the other in the field on a March he is qualified with the title of Rumor-master General whether he be made use of
Bodies of Foot it is the easiest motion of all the rest and cannot be suddenly done and therefore is dangerous if an enemy be near to take advantage of the disorder of the motion Thirdly If all the three Countermarches Laconian Macedonian and Chorâ—an Third be of very little use and great danger in the Infantry as I have endeavour'd to make appear in one of my Discourses of the Grecian Militia then I suppose it will be easily granted that the use of any of the three is as little and the danger as great in Bodies of Cavalry Fourthly That I conceive Wheeling a more proper motion and more easie Fourth for the Horse than for the Foot it is a motion that hath been much used by Horse in fight for unless in wheeling they are charged in the flank and if so they are ill seconded they are quickly reduced to their first posture but it is not so with the Foot for if the Body be but indifferently great suppose fifteeen hundred men standing at three foot distance in files and six in ranks you must â—irst make them come both ranks and files to their close order before you can wheel your Battel and that requires some time for it is a motion of it self and the greater the Body be the longer time it will have to make that first motion for great Bodies move slowly Next the motion it self of wheeling the Battel is not soon done if well done for if it be not order'd discreetly the Body is immediately in confusion Thirdly when you have wheel'd this Body of fifteen hundred men you must beg yet a Cessation of Arms from your Enemy till you put your Battel in a fighting posture which you cannot do till you reduce them to their first order for at close order your Musqueâ—eers cannot fight and therefore you must cause your Battel to open it is true the ranks will quickly open backward but the files being no less in a Body of fifteen hundred men than two hundred and fifty must have such a time to open though they do it with all the hast imaginable that a resolute Body of Horse will Charge thorough them before you end these three motions But a Body of Horse being in rank and file at that distance at which it is to fight needs no command to close ranks and files before it wheel nor no command to open them after it hath wheel'd being constantly in a posture to receive an enemy And with submission to great Drill masters I should think the motions of Facing and Countermarching of Bodies of Horse whether greater or smaller might be spared in their Exercise because you may face an enemy with a Squadron of Horse either in flank or reer by wheeling either to the right or left hand or by either of the two about a great deal sooner with a great deal of more ease and with a great deal of less danger than you can do by either Facing or Countermarching Fifthly Observe that no man can or will attain to a perfect understanding of Fifth either postures motions or evolutions in the Training particular men or yet Bodies of Horse and Foot by reading the words of command in a Book or Paper or looking upon the figures of them for the Military Art is practical one shall understand what belongs to Drilling and Training more by looking on the real practice of it three days than by the contemplative study of it three years when you see a Countermarch in the Field you will quickly understand what an Evolution it is when you see the figure of it in a Book but you will not so soon know what it signifies when you see the figure before the practice And lastly I avouch it to be the essential duty of a Captain to Exercise his Sixth Troop or company himself whether it be of Foot or Horse nor should it be permitted that his Lieutenant should do it when he is present much less a Serjeant as I have often seen for thereby he Uncaptains himself and changeth places with his Lieutenant And this is too ordinary a Military grievance against which the Earl of Swafford guarded by an express instruction that no Lieutenant should exercise a Company unless the Captain were absent which he might not be without either sickness or that Lords own permission a very just command And by the same reason all Colonels should exercise their Regiments and in their absence their Lieutenant Colonels but when either of them are present the Major ought neither to be commanded nor of himself offer to do it and this is contrary to the opinion of many who will impose so many duties on a Major that they make thereby Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels Cyphers or very insignificant Creatures CHAP. XI Of Compaies Regiments and Brigades of Foot what they have been what they are how they are Marshal'd of all their Officers their Duties and Qualifications I Suppose most Military men acknowledg the Infantry to be the Body of an Army with it the Artillery Munitions and Provisions lodg and so doth he who commands in chief The members of this Body are Regiments or Brigades and the sinews and arteries of these are Companies A Company is a Band of armed men Marshal'd in rank and file a rank and file differ in this that the first consists of men whether on horseback or foot standing in one A Rank and a File front side for side the second of men standing in one row or lane one behind another so they may easily be converted a file into a rank and a rank into a file The number of these ranks and files must be determined by the number of men appointed to be in each Company for which there is no general rule every Prince and State ordering that as they please neither do they restrict themselves constantly to one number but appoint their Companies to be stronger and weaker as the emergency of affairs or the present Ratio Belli seem to require it In former times ever since Gunpowder was invented it has been so likewise for sometimes Companies were more numerous than at other times yet never were the weakest of them of so small a number as generally now they be The first time I remember to have read of a Company of one hundred in the Modern War was in the Civil Wars of France in the Reign of Charles the Ninth about one hundred years since in them I find that the Protestant Foot-Companies Company of one hundred strong were but generally one hundred strong for which I can guess at no reason unless it were that many Gentlemen who were forc'd to take Arms and durst not stay at home might be invested with Charges and Imployments suitable to their qualities yet methinks it had conduced more to the advancement and prosecution of the grand design that Troops and Companies of Gens d'Armes or Curiassiers had been made up of those numbers of Gentlemen a service very
have discharged their shot even in the hottest Piece of service and without the help of Musquet-rests And I suppose it needs be thought no Paradox in me to say that five ranks of Musqueteers can fire one after another without intermission and Five deep the first of the five be ready to fire again before the last have discharged let any Commander try it with expert Firemen he will find it will be done easily enough And that you may see that this is no new conceit of mine I shall tell you that Giovio informs us that at Vienna the twenty thousand Harquebusiers that were in the Christian Army were all marshal'd five deep and so made four thousand files It is without all peradventure that the best Commanders then in Europe were there who would not have permitted this if they had not known that the first rank could have fired and made ready again before all the other four had discharged neither must you impute this to the ignorance of the Historian as being a Churchman for he is so punctual as to write nothing of any Military action but what he had from the relation of the greatest Captains that were upon the place And truly if you will consider all I have said or all that may be said on this subject Reasons for it you may perhaps think with me that both Musqueteers and Pikemen may be marshal'd five deep with no inconvenience at all to the service I think I hear some speculative persons cry out that this is against the rules of all Tacticks who reject odd numbers as unfit for doubling But stay do you exercise for shew only or for use If only for shew I grant you should neither have odd ranks Objections against it nor files but if for use I say that five deep is better than six deep for those very reasons that made six deep better than eight deep and eight better than ten You say you cannot double your ranks at five deep what then I say you need not for I would have your ranks no fewer than five when you are ten Answered deep why double you your ranks is it not to make them five and thereby to enlarge your front and why then may you not be five ranks at first and thereby save your self the labour of doubling And as it is not at all necessary to double your ranks when your Batallion consists of no more but five ranks so I conceive the doubling of ranks not necessary when your Battel is but six deep for three ranks of Pikes is not strong enough either to give or receive a Charge nor are they numerous enough for Musqueteers to fire one rank after another without interruption it not being feasible for the first rank to fire and be ready before the third rank have discharged so that when six ranks are made three it is only for a parting blow for the Musqueteers to fire kneeling stooping and standing Now you may order the first three ranks of five to fire in the same fashion kneeling stooping and standing and you have by the bargain two ranks in reserve till the first three recover and those two ranks may afterward fire the first rank kneeling and the second standing and then all the five ranks have fired and are as ready either with Buts of Musquets or Swords to receive the enemy if he advance as the six ranks doubled in three and in far better order Either then your doubling of ranks is unnecessary in service or five deep at first is as good if not better as ten ranks to be doubled in five or six ranks doubled in three And though five ranks cannot be doubled the inconvenience of that is not so great as the advantages it hath of a large front and bringing many hands to fight and if upon any emergency which will fall out very seldom you conceive your front too large you may quickly help it The Authors private opinion by causing your files to double and then you are ten deep But I shall quickly part with this opinion when I hear a stronger argument against it than that which says that thereby ranks cannot be doubled for the truth is it is my private opinion that there be many superfluous words in Exercise and though I think doubling of ranks and files too sometimes convenient before the near approach of an enemy yet I hope none will deny that both of them are very improper in the time of service But Loquendum cum vulgo is a Golden sentence Well we have our Foot-Company no stronger than one hundred men and Seventeen Files in a Company of one hundred men divided into three parts whereof two are Musqueteers and Pikemen are glad to be admitted to make the third These must be marshal'd six in one file now seventeen times six is more than one hundred and sixteen times six is less than one hundred Add therefore three Corporals to the hundred Soldiers you shall have seventeen compleat files and one man over whom you may appoint to help the Ensign to carry his Colours for a Furer is not allow'd him in all establishments A Company being thus marshal'd in seventeen files eleven must be Musqueteers and six Pikemen to wit on the right hand of the Pikemen six files of Musqueteers and on the left hand five files The Captain is to teach his Soldiers to keep their just distances between file The several kinds of Distances and file end between rank and rank Distances are ordinarily threefold Order open Order and close Order The first of three foot the second of six the third of one foot and a half to which in some case is added open open order which is of twelve foot At Exercisings both ranks and files should stand at open order in Marches the files at order but the ranks at open order because of the Pikes which must have more ground than Musqueteers require and in service both the files and ranks of Musqueteers must be at order that is three foot distance but the Pikemen both in file and rank at close order that is at the distance of one foot and a half I must tell you in this place of a general mistake Mistakes in reckoning Distances and is the very same I accused Vegetius of in the Roman Militia and it is this All say that the files when they stand in Battel should be at order that is at the distance of three foot as indeed they should But if you ask how many foot of ground seventeen files whereof our Company consists possess in front they will immediately answer you fifty and one And here there is a double Distance of Files error first no ground is allowed for the Combatants to stand on for the distance of three foot between files takes up that one and fifty foot or very near it Secondly they make seventeen files to have seventeen distances whereas they have but sixteen This oversight I
have observ'd in most Tacticks Lieutenant Colonel Elton is very clear in his definition of a distance which though I told you of it before I shall again give you Distance says he is a place or interval of ground between every rank and rank and every file and file as they stand By this description then three foot of distance being allowed between every file and file there are in seventeen files sixteen distances or intervals which make but forty and eight foot then you are to allow seventeen foot to the Combatants that is one foot for every man to stand on seventeen being added to forty eight make sixty five and so many foot of ground doth a Company possess in front if it consist of seventeen files for the ground of the ranks you are to compute it thus Six ranks take six foot to stand on and thirty foot for five intervals six foot being allow'd for open order in all six and thirty foot which a Distance of Ranks Company Regiment Brigade or Army of Foot constantly possesseth from the toes of the Leaders to the heels of the Bringers up unless you bring the ranks to stand at order which you may frequently do with very good reason and then the five Intervals take up but fifteen foot which being added to the six foot on which the ranks stand make but twenty one foot And when Pikes are to give or receive a Charge you may bring them to close order that is one foot and a half and then the five Intervals take up but 7½ foot these being added to six make 13½ foot Observe that in Exercising this Company of seventeen Files you are to set aside one of the Files because it is odd and so The Colours will hinder the doubling the Files The Colours of the Company are to be on the head of the Pikes neither can they conveniently be between the second and third rank in time of Battel as some would have them to be for you may easily consider what room an Ensign can have with his Colours between ranks when they are at order much less at close order as they should be in the time of Battel It will be fitting before I go further to meet with an objection concerning Objection against my Distances of Files Distances it is this The three foot of distance allowed between Files say they must be reckoned from the Centers that is from the two middle parts of the two File-leaders as from the middle part of the right hand File-leader to the middle part of the File-leader who stands on his left hand I wonder at this notion for hereby two File-leaders take up one foot of ground and so doth the rest of the File and there are but two foot of Interval between the two files and this cannot at all quadrate with the definition of distance for that is an Interval between Files and not betwixt the two middle parts of two mens Bodies And the Authors of Tacticks should have been clearer in their expressions and have said two foot between Files which they knew was too Answered little and have added that every File should have one foot of ground to stand on for what language is this a man shall have half a foot for his right middle part and another half foot for his left middle part for this way of their reckoning of the three foot of distance amounts to just so much and no better language which I conceive is very improper besides by this account the right and left hand Files would have each of them one half foot of ground more than any of the rest of the Files the right hand Filemen hath it by the right middle parts of their bodies and the left hand Filemen by the left middle parts of their Bodies because these two Files on these two hands have no Sidemen which you may easily conceive if you please a little to consider it Let us in the next place see what Officers are appointed to have the command Of Officers of a Company and inspection of this Company and here we may find some difference in the several establishments of Princes and States yet in this we find all agree to have a Captain a Lieutenant an Ensign Serjeants Corporals and Drummers except the Spaniard who rejects the Lieutenant as useless some allow no more Officers than those I have spoken of some allow more to wit a Captain of Armies a Furer a Fourier and a Clerk or Scrivener And besides some allow Lancepesats or Lancpresads as they are commonly called as also Reformado's and Gentlemen of a Company But neither Lancepesats Gentlemen of the Company nor Reformado's are Officers and though Corporals be yet they carry Arms and march in rank and file I shall describe all these and all the Officers of a Foot Company beginning with the Reformado and ending with the Captain Those are called Reformado's or Reformed who have been Officers suppose Reformed Officers Commissionated and those only and are out of charge and bear Arms till they can be prefer'd In some places they are permitted to be without Arms. A Gentleman of the Company is he who is something more than an ordinary Gentleman of a Company Souldier hath a little more pay and doth not stand Centinel In French he is called Appointe and with the Germans he is called Gefreuter They march and watch with Arms they go common Rounds and Patrouills and near an Enemy they are to be the forlorn Centinels whom the French call Perdus Lancespesate is a word deriv'd from the Italian Lance spesata which signifies a broken or spent Lance. He is a Gentleman of no ancient standing in the Militia for he draws his Pedigree from the time of the Wars between Francis the First and his Son Henry the Second Kings of France on the one part and the Emperour Charles the Fifth and his Brother-in-law the Duke of Savoy on the other part in those Wars when a Gentleman of a Troop of Horse in any Skirmish Battel or Rencounter had broke his Lance on his enemy and lost his Horse in the Scuffle he was entertain'd under the name of a Broken-Lance by a Captain of a Foot Company as his Comerade till he was again mounted But as all good orders fall soon from their Primitive Institution so in a short time our Monsieur Lancespesata for so he was called was forc'd to descend from being Lancespesata the Captains Comerade and became the Corporals Companion and assisted him in the Exercise of his Charge and therefore was sometimes called by the French Aide Caporal But when the Caporal grew weary of the Comradeship of his Lancespesata he made him officiate under him and for that had some allowance of pay more than the common Soldier which he enjoys in those places where he is made use of and still keeps the noble Title of Lancespesata though perhaps he was never on Horseback in his life corruptly
Lancepresado The Germans Swedes and Danâ—s acknowledg Reformado's and Gentlemen of Companies but reject the poor Lancespesat The Hollander in his Militia acknowledgeth all the three and so I believe do the French But to our establishment at home I believe they be all three strangers and so most of them are in other places Companies of hundreds are divided into three Corporalships two Corporals are Musqueteers and one is a Pikeman His right Title is Caporal A Caporal or Corporal an Italian word deriv'd from Capâ— which signifies a Head this Caporal being the Head of his Squadron And from the same word Capo it would seem the The way of a French Caporals punishing Soldiers by making them staâ—d long Centinel is prejudicial to the service Captain of a Company or of an Army hath his denomination A Caporal ought to be an experienc'd vigilant and a laborious Soldier he hath an absolute command of his Squadron neither may any in it disobey him if any do the Caporal may beat him with his Sword and commit him to prison when a Musquet-rest was in fashion he was permitted to beat with it He is to warn all his Squadron or a part of it according as he receives order to the watch or to be sent on party or other duties Upon the watch the Corporal having got orders from his Superiors appoints when where and how long each of his men are to stand Centinel and he is bound to teach them how they His Duties are to behave themselves when they are Centinels and is to visit them frequently but if he find any one of them asleep he must not leave him as he found him as an Athenian Captain did who kill'd a sleeping Centinel but he must bring him to the Corps de Guard and there make him Prisoner till further order The Caporal is to receive the Rounds at his Court of Guard and take the word from them But of this I shall tell you more in another place He is also obliged when he is not on the watch to teach all that belong to his Squadron their postures and to handle their Arms. So you see this Caporal of ours hath work enough to do for all the pay or wages he gets In some places a Piper is allowed to each Company the Germans have him A Piper and I look upon their Pipe as a Warlike Instrument The Bag-pipe is good enough Musick for them who love it but sure it is not so good as the Almain Whistle With us any Captain may keep a Piper in his Company and maintain him too for no pay is allowed him perhaps just as much as he deserveth Two Drummers are universally allowed in every Company of one hundred Drummers men and more as also of the Caporals according as the Company is strong They ought to be skilful to beat a Gathering a March an Alarm a Charge Retreat Travaille or Dian and the Taptoo If they can do that well and carry a message wittily to an enemy they may be permitted to be Drolls for to be graduated Doctors is a thing not at all required at their hands The Officers of a Company who march not in rank and file are divided into Under Officers Commissionated and Uncommissionated the Captain Lieutenant and Ensign are called Commissionated Officers all the rest are Uncommissionated these are the Clerk the Fouâ—ier the Furer and Captain of Arms all these four where they are made use of are called under-Officers and the last three of them are under the command of the Serjeant who is also an Uncommissionated Officer The Clerk or Scrivener is he who keeps the Rolls of the Company receives Clerk the Pay and gives it out according to the directions of the Captain to whose command he is only lyable and to whom only he is accountable and in his absence to the Lieutenant He ought to have so much literature as to read and write fair and to have some skill in Arithmetick this under Officer is allowed in all establishments A Fourier is a French word used now in most Languages It is he who makes Fourier Quarters for the Company in Towns and Villages by Billets and in the Fields by a designation of a plot of ground appointed for the Quarter of a Company He is to wait upon the Regiments Quarter-master and what commands he receives from him he is to communicate them first to his Captain and then â—ut them in execution He is Quarter-master of the Company and should have skill to give to every Soldier the ground allow'd him for his Hut and to give to all alike it is his duty to see all the Huts built of one length and breadth that there may be an uniformity of them all it is also his duty to receive the Companies Proviant by the Regiment Quarter-masters direction whether it be at the Quarter-masters own lodging or Hut or at that of the Proviant-master General A Fourier is allow'd with the French Germans Danes and Swedes but neither with the Hollander nor with us at hoâ—e A Captain of Arms is he who hath the oversight of the Arms that they be Captain of Arms. fixt and bright I think he should be a Gunsmith that he may make them fixt and bright he is a member necessary enough though not allow'd in all establishments The Furer is he who is allowed to help the Ensign to carry the Colours for which he hath pay the Germans call him Gefreuter Caporal which is Corporal Furer of the Gentlemen of the Company for with them they are properly under his command And both he the Captain of Arms and Fourier do duty with Halberts among the Germans Danes and Swedes we have no Furer with us A Serjeant is a French word for those who are appointed by the Justice to A Serjeant apprehend and imprison men for either Criminal or Civil matters are called Serjeants yet this word is now become universal for that Officer of the Company who commands next the Ensign In the high Dutch he was called Feltwebell but now the word Serjeant hath prevailed over all When Companies were three hundred strong there were three Serjeants in it now for most part all Companies have two It is a charge of very much fatigue for to him it belongs His Fatigue and Duties to see all his Captains commands obeyed he gives all the Under-Officers except the Clerk their directions what they are to do almost in every particular and the like he doth to the Caporals He receives the watch-word and all other Orders from the Major of the Regiment carries them to his Captain receives his and delivers both to his Lieutenant and Ensign to his fellow Serjeant to the Caporals and when it is his turn watcheth with his Halbert either on a Post alone or under a Commissionated Officer Yet for all this his place in many parts of the world is not thought creditable but sure it is not dishonourable
Protestant War in France 100 years ago Charles the Ninth and his Brother Henry the Third they managed them at as small an expence as possibly they could yet they obliged every man at Arms to keep three Horses two strong Coursers and one Gelding every Archer and Light-Horse-man two a good Horse and a good Nag And I suppose you will really think it strange how they could keep so many when I tell you what allowance of pay they had Every man of Arms had 45 French Livres in the Month about Three pound fifteen shillings Sterling every Archor and Light-Horse-man had Thirty Livres about Two pound ten shillings A Captain of all three had five Riders pay allow'd him the Lieutenant four the Cornet three and the Quartermaster two very inconsiderable wages but assuredly they had either other shifts or things were at easier rates in France then than they have been since In the times of the Emperours Ferdinand the First Maximilian the Second Rodolph the Second and Matthias I find that the German Establishment was Old German Companies of Horse particularly Curiassiers that no Ritmaster or Captain of Horse should have any Rider in his Troop but Gentlemen and that every Troop of Curiassiers should consist of Three-hundred Riders many whereof were bound to maintan three serviceable Horses and all the rest two at least and every one of these Gentlemen who kept either two or three Horses were to keep a lusty fellow well Hors'd in quality of a servant armed with a long Gun wherewith they rode when commanded before the Troop and fired on the Enemy and immediately retired behind the Troop as I told you the Carabineers did these being equal in number to their Masters made up Three hundred and resembled the French Archers These Dutch Servants had the Emperours pay or that of some German Prince but their Masters received it with their own nor had the Masters power to put away these Servants or the Servants to go from the Masters so long as the War lasted but if any difference arose between them it was voided by the Ritmaster or Marshal of the Army These German Companies of Horse had for Officers a Captain a Lieutenant a Cornet a Quartermaster Their Officers and six Corporals whom they called Ritmasters which is to say File-leaders each whereof had fifty Troops under his command two Trumpeters There was likewise allowed to every Troop a Priest a Clerk a Chirurgion a Dagmaker a Saddler and a Smith All these Curiassiers were armed for offence with two Pistols a Sword and a Lance so long as this last was in fashion so if you will reckon all that belonged to this German Troop both Masters and those who attended them who were all obliged to fight you will find it consisted of six hundred fighting men and of nine hundred Horses at least But since that time I have seen four Regiments in that same Country who were not all of them together so strong In later times Commissions have been given for levying Regiments free Squads and Troops but all Regiments did not nor do not consist of alike Troops and Regiment of those times number of Companies nor all Companies of alike number of Riders nay not under one Prince you shall see a Lieutenant Colonel have four Troops in his Squadron which he calls free because he acknowledgeth no Colonel or other Commander under the Major General and each of these Troops to have fifty or sixty Riders being oblig'd to have no more by their Ritmasters Capitulation You may see in that same Army a Regiment of six Companies each of Seventy men another of eight Troops each of fifty horse so little is an uniformity in equal numbers of Troops or of Horsemen in every Troop regarded or look'd after I saw one Regiment in the Sweedish service I may say one for I saw not such another in any of their Armies in which were according to Capitulation twelve Troops each of them consisting of one hundred Riders effectively but four of the Regiments of that Army were not so strong as that Regiment was alone Troops Squads and Regiments of Horse in our Modern Wars are not cast into Wedges or Rhombs as some of the Ancient ones were at which manner of figures Aelian makes his Grecian Companies to be very dexterous The Square front being now only in use The number of Ranks of either Regiments or Troops whether they be strong or weak are alike in all because the depth of the Battel is determined by the Prince or State to be alike in all and in the matter of this depth there hath been great variance among those who assume to themselves the title of Tacticks who teach the rules of War Many would have the file of Horsemen to be five deep others will not hear of How deep Horse should be marshaled Difference of opinions that because thereby ranks cannot double an objection which I have answer'd already in my discourse of Exercise Others will have six because that admits doubling of ranks but that is rejected because if six deep be enough for the Foot it will be too much for the Horse There be others who would have every Troop of Horse to consist of sixty and four Riders and these being Marshall'd eight deep and eight in front according to the square root make a perfect square of men and Horse and this speculation seems very pretty but I Square Root reserve my answer to it till I speak of the square root it self for the present let it suffice that if six deep be too many for a Cavalry eight deep will be very far out of purpose The late Earl of Strafford as he appointed in his Military Instructions the foot to be eight deep so he order'd his Troops of Horse to be four in File But Universally now for any thing I know unless it be in the Low-Countries the Horse are Marshall'd three deep without Three deep regard to doubling of ranks whereof I have already spoken and assuredly this of all others brings most hands to fight When you have known how deep the Troop is to be drawn up you should cause to be set down in paper in what order you will Marshal your Horsemen whom you ordain to be Leaders and whom Bringers up and whom for the right and left hand files that all your Riders may be placed according to their dignity then it will be an easie matter to draw up your Troop and for the Major to draw up the Regiment for being that all the Horsemen are arm'd alike there is no separation to be made of one part of the Troop from another as there is of separating the Pikemâ—n from the Musqueteers in Foot-Companies the Major giving every Ritmaster his place of dignity according to his antiquity or Commission and those intervals being kept that are appointed the several Troops be they few or many are very soon cast into the mould of a Regiment In my discourse
then that Captain-General commissionates Lieutenant-Generals to command petty Armies under him but when he joins his forces the Command of the Lieutenant-General seems to cease because he is but the Deputy of him that sent him and a Representative is no more a Representative when he whom he represented is present The Roman Consuls had their Lieutenant Generals who were called Legates who commanded Armies apart Roman Legates when the Consuls thought fit but had no command when the Consul was present Nor doth Caesar give those Legates even in the Consuls absence an absolute power for speaking of one of his own Legates in the French War I believe it was Labienus he commends him for not hazarding a Battel with the Gauls though he seem'd to have the advantage because saith he a Legate hath not that power which he hath who is Imperator or Commander in chief One of the Dukes of Aumale commanded an Army in France against the Protestants with the Title of Lieutenant-General but so soon as he join'd forces with Henry Duke of Anjou who was Captain-General for his Brother Charles the Ninth the Duke resign'd both his Title and Office But notwithstanding all this Lieutenant-Generals continue both in their Title and Office in their Generals presence and I have known Felt-marshals have Lieutenant-Generals under them who have commanded both the Horse and Foot of their Armies even when the Felt-marshals were present as the Earl of Bramford who was Lieutenant-General to Felt-marshal Barrier and King who was Lieutenant-General to Felt-marshal Leslie I think the great Dukes of Muscovia have a very commendable custom to chuse any of their Colonels who they fancy are qualified for it to be Generals or Lieutenant-Generals of a competent number of forces fit for the expedition they are to be imployed in and so soon as that piece of service is A good custom done the Colonel lays down his Commission and returns to his former Charge without the least thought or imagination that he is disparag'd thereby the frequent practice of this custom banishing such thoughts out of all mens heads Neither would such a practice be fancyed to be a degrading of men from former honours in other places of the world if they were but a little habituated to it The French gives now the Title of Lieutenant-Generals very frequently I suppose they are independent one of another and are the Kings Lieutenant-Generals which is very proper and obey none but such as he commands to give Orders to them A General of the Cavalry commands it under him who is Commander in General of the Cavalry chief of the Army whatever title he bear whether General Felt-marshal Lieutenant Felt-marshal or Lieutenant-General He is to see the Troops and Regiments of Horse kept at that strength that they are appointed to be of and if by Battel long marches great fatigue or other accidents of War the numbers of men be diminisht Horses lost or made unserviceable it is his duty when they come to Quarter to see the Troops made strong the Horses put in good case and the Riders well cloth'd and arm'd In Musters he is obliged to see that no Colonel or Ritmaster wrong the Muster-masters by His Duties making a show of borrow'd men Horses or Arms whereby the Prince may be cheated in his Purse or disappointed in his service He is to take care that the Cavalry be paid and provided with Proviant and Fodderage and good Quarter He should also be a person who understands something of the Foot-service in regard that when the greatest part of the Horse is sent in any Expedition ordinarily some Foot are sent with them and then it is the General of the Cavalries office to command both But it is a pity that all General persons should not make it their study and their work to understand both the Foot and Horse-service for I have seen considerable parties of Foot more harass'd and spoil'd in a-short time under the command of an Officer of Horse than if they had been routed by an enemy so little discretion some have to know the difference between a man and a Horse It seems in the Low-Country service the General of the Horse commanded next the General and in his absence over the Army even when they had Felt-marshals but that custom is not now in other places where Felt-marshals and Lieutenant-Felt-marshals command the Generals of the Horse and it would seem that the Estates of the Vnited Provinces have now voided the difference otherwise since they qualified the two Commanders in chief of their Armies with the Titles of Felt-marshals Prince Maurice and Wurz A Lieutenant-General of the Horse being in his Generals absence to do the Lieutenant General of the Cavalry same duties he should have the same qualifications If the Cavalry be marshal'd in one Body the General is to stand on the right hand of it and the Lieutenant-General on the left But if the Horse be drawn up in two wings the General commands the right and the Lieutenant-General commands the left wing A Major-General of the Cavalry is to receive the word and all other Orders Major General of the Horse from the Commander in chief of the Army he is to impart them to the General and the Lieutenant-General of the Cavalry and after he hath received their commands he is to give all to the Regiment Quarter-masters of Horse which they carry to the several Regiments All complaints and differences between Officers and Horsemen or among themselves are first brought to him which he should endeavour to compose in an amicable way but if he cannot Major-General of Horse he is to proceed according to the Articles and Constitutions of War He hath the inspection of all the Guards of Horse and orders them and keeps lists of Convoys and Parties that the several Officers and Troopers may have their turns in which a Major-General should show himself very impartial for very few or none there be who will not think themselves wrong'd in their reputation His Duties if others be prefer'd to them where either danger may probably be look'd for or profit expected unless it can be made clear to them that it is not their turn to go on that party or with that Convoy It is the Major-General who marshals the Cavalry in Battel having first advised about the manner with the General of the Horse or in his absence with the Lieutenant-General If he be an understanding active stirring and vigilant person a General and Lieutenant-General may be laid aside as in many Armies over Christendom they are though not in all This Officer the English qualifie with the Title of Commissary General of the Horse The Duties of a Lieutenant-General and Major-General of the Foot are the General Officers of the Foot same which I have told you belongs to those of the Horse mutatis mutandis Generals of the Foot are but rare Banier was under Gustavus Adolphus and Lind
of 10000 men making square Battels and therefore their 10000 men were drawn up a 100 in rank and a 100 in file and a 100 times a 100 makes 10000. And so their Batallion was square of men and might have been also of ground if they allow'd no greater Intervals of ranks than of files which hardly they could do being they were all offensively arm'd with Pikes both long and strong But our Author saith that Cyrus was glad of this wishing Croesus's whole army had been marshal'd a thousand deep for then he had sooner destroy'd it as I have told you in the second Chapter of my Discourses of the Grecian Art of War Yet Xenophon tells us that these Aegyptians fought best of any of Croesus his army yea so long till they had fair quarter given them And withal he informs us that Cyrus his own army his Foot I suppose he means were marshal'd 24 deep and that was eight more than the depth of the Macedonian Phalanx CHAP. XVII Of the Modern way of Embatteling and Marshalling Armies AS all Armies are marshal'd according to the pleasure of those who command them so their pleasure often is and ever should be over ruled by the circumstances of time the posture of the enemy they have to do with the Weather the Sun the Wind and the ground on which they are to fight if the General find by his foreparties or Vancouriers that his enemy is before him drawn up in Battel ready to receive him he will do himself an injury to march forward for it is not to be fancied that his adversary will be so courteous as to permit him to marshal his army but will take his advantage and fall upon him before he can draw up his Van especially if his march have been thorough any close or strait Country and in such a condition as that a Generals A General should have a ready wit own ready wit and resolution must serve him for Counsellors for there will be no time given him to call a Council of War But we speak now of Embatteling Armies when Generals have half the choice of the ground The manner was in many places and still is in some to marshal Armies in three distinct Bodies one behind another the first was called the Vanguard the second the Battel the third the Reer-guard But several times every one Armies marshall'd in three distinct Bodies of those consisted of three Bodies likewise these were two wings of Horse and one Body of Foot and when they march'd these three great Bodies were called the Van Battel and Reer Their proper Title was to be called so when they marched for many times when they drew up in order of Battels it was in one Breast and then the Horse were divided in two wings and the Foot made the Battel This was done when the ground was very spacious and to prevent surrounding otherwise Armies seldom fight but in two Battels if not in three But as I said time ground the power of an enemy minister occasions to a Commander of an Army to alter the ordinary custom and frame a new method of his own to serve him for that opportunity I shall give you one instance and that of a mighty army marshal'd as few before it have been and I believe none since It was that which Charles the fifth and his Brother King Ferdinand had at Vienna when they lookt for Sultan Soliman the ground was very spacious and though their numbers were very great yet those of the Turk were How the mighty Army of the Emperour Charâ—es the Fifth was marshal'd at Vienna very much beyond them and they fear'd to be out-wing'd by his numerous Horse The order of their Battel was to be this if they had fought They had sixty thousand arm'd with Pikes Halberts Partisans and other long Staves these were divided in three great Batallions each of twenty thousand on the right hand stood one of them on the left hand the second and the third in the middle There were about six or seven thousand Harquebusiers on foot to attend each of these great Batallions of Pikes who were to have several little Intervals thorough which these Harquebusiers were to salley and fire incessantly before the grand Batallions till they should be necessitated to retire through these same Intervals to the Reer and then the Pikes were immediately to close and fill up those void places These three great Batallions separated one from another made two great Intervals in each of which stood fifteen thousand Horse Here then you see upon the matter one of the bravest Armies of Christians that ever was marshal'd in one front without reserve only some thousands of men were order'd to guard the Baggage and Munitions scarce read of before or since Here you see the Pikemen make the Wings whereas both before and since they made the Body Here you see the Firemen marshal'd behind and ordain'd to fally from their station and do their service in the Van and then to retire to their place according to the custom of the ancient Grâ—cian and Roman Velites and not marshal'd on the wings of the Pikes And here you see the Horse who before that time and since made the wings of an army make now the Body of it strongly flanked with Pikes this being the inversion of former Ordinances of War was then thought necessary to prevent the surrounding and the impetuosity of the Turks numerous Cavalry Armies for most part now are marshal'd in two distinct Bodies the Vanguard and the Arreer-guard which are commonly called Battel and Reserve But it is not only difficult but purely impossible for any the most experienced General to set down any one certain rule or order whereby he may constantly Battel and Reserve keep one manner of marshalling or one form of Battel as it is called forma aciei though he could be assur'd that his Regiments or Brigades of both Horse and Foot should constantly continue of one strength since the place situation Houses Villages Castles Hills Valleys rising heights hollow grounds Waters Woods Bushes Trees and Marshes do occasion such alterations as make the form or mould of an Army cast in one place change so much as you shall not know the face of it on another piece of ground perhaps not above one or two hours march from the former And in this as I said before the General is to act his part and take such advantages as he may and readily possess himself of such places which being in the enemies power might do him prejudice One of his great cares in Embatteling would be to secure both his Flanks of an Army to be well secur'd in â—attel flanks which are called the right and left hand of his Army with some River Brook Ditch Dike or Retrenchment if these cannot be so readily got then he may do it with the Waggons or Baggage of his Army for in time of-Battel it is almost impossible for a Batallion or
not marshalling the Battel and Reserve in this order at the Battel of Woodstock fought in the Error aâ— Woodstock Battel year 1636 was either the Swedish error or mistake for Banier who commanded the right wing of the Swedish forces being overlaid with numbers had been undoubtedly beaten if the Battel and left wing had not prevail'd so soon as he saw the danger he sent Post after Post to Lieutenant General Vizthumb who commanded the Reserve commanding him to advance instantly to his succour but he made no great haste the Swede having obtain'd the Victory Vizthumb next morning is question'd for his slow advance he justified himself by making it appear that if he had advanc'd immediately those who were running away in Troops would have routed him at least have so disorder'd him that he could have done no service and therefore he stood firm in his first ground till all the runnaways were past him and then march'd up in good order Most of this was known to be true but if Battel and Reserve had been marshal'd in the manner I spoke last of there had been no danger of that whereof Vizthumb was afraid for there had been room enough for him to have advanc'd and for those who fled to have run away But it seems it was order'd otherwise But we shall marshal an Army both ways first with the lesser and next with the greater Intervals and we shall suppose our Army to consist of sixteen thousand Army of 16200 Horse and Foot divided into seven Brigades of Foot and six of Horse Horse and Foot and a few more We shall draw them up in a fair Campaign or Heath which hath very few or no encumbrances of Houses Trees heights or hollow places and the right hand of it shall be fenced with some unfordable water and the left with the Waggons of the Army The Army it self shall consist of seven Brigades of Foot and six of Horse Each Brigade of Foot shall consist of 1800 men in all 12600. The six Brigades of Horse shall consist of 3600 which being divided into six parts gives 600 Horsemen besides Officers to every Brigade in all 16200. In the first way of marshalling I shall allow as I should do one foot of ground for every Foot soldier to stand on and three foot distance between files but because some think this too much have patience and at my second marshalling of the army I shall allow them less though no less belongs to them To every Horseman I allow four foot of ground for himself and the distance between him and his sidemen Some will think it too much but Bockler allows him six this is too much at next marshaling I shall allow him less than four On the right wing of the Van guard or Battel shall stand two Brigades of Horse and on the left wing as many and between the wings the Body shall be Marshal'd in Battel and Reserve with lesser Intervals composed of four Brigades of Foot On the right wing of the Reer-guard or Reserve shall stand one Brigade of Horse and on the left wing another Brigade of Horse and between the two wings the Body shall be composed of three Brigades of Foot The length of the Battel you may compute thus every Brigade of Horse being six hundred and drawn up three deep consists of two hundred Leaders for each of these four foot are allowed that is eight hundred Multiply eight hundred by four which is the number of the Brigades of the Battel the product is 3200. Three Streets or Distances each of eight foot-broad must be allow'd in every Brigade inde twelve Streets in four Brigades these make 96 foot then you have two Intervals on the right hand one between the two Brigades of Horse and another between the Horse and the right hand of the Foot and as many you have on the left hand of the Battel in all four great The Longitude of the Battel computed Intervals each of them of 24 foot for more some will not allow inde 96 foot add 3200 to 96 and both to 96 you will find the aggregate to be 3392. And so much ground doth the four Brigades of Horse possess with their Intervals Each Brigade of Foot consisting of 1800 men being six deep hath 300 Leaders these possess 1200 foot 1200 being multiplied by four which is the number of the Foot-brigades of the Battel produceth 4800. There must be a distance of six foot between the right hand of the Pikemen and the right wing of the Musqueteers and another on the left hand these two Distances take 12 foot and therefore four Brigades require 48 foot Now four Brigades have three Intervals each of 24 foot inde 72. Add then 72 for greater Intervals to 48 allow'd for lesser Distances the aggregate is 120 add 120 to 4800 the aggregate is 4920 so much ground doth four Brigades of Foot possess with their Intervals Be pleased to add 4920 to the 3392 Foot which the four Brigades of Horse possest you will find the aggregate to be 8312 foot which being divided by five to make paces the Quotient is 1662 and two foot so much ground do our four Brigades of foot and four Brigades of Horse take up in front the Intervals between Brigades being allowed to be no greater than 24 foot According to this allowance the Reader may easily calculate the longitude of the three Brigades of Foot and two Brigades of Horse which make the Reer-guard or Reserve if he conceive it worthy of his pains To marshal our Army of 16200 men another way in order to Intervals I shall in the first place allow no more ground to either Foot-soldier or Horseman Marshal'd in Battel and Reserve with greater Intervals for himself and distance from his sidemen but three foot in all But for the great Interval between two Brigades I shall allow as much ground as a Brigade may stand on that the Brigade in the Reserve may possess it when order'd to advance You will remember we agreed that four Brigades of Foot and four of Horse should make the Battel and three Brigades of Foot and two of Horse should make the Reserve which I marshal thus On the right hand of the Battel two Brigades of Horse but between them an Interval of as much ground as one of the Brigades possesseth On the left hand of the second Brigade of Horse an Interval of 24 foot on the left hand whereof four Brigades of Foot marshal'd in one front these four must have three Intervals each of them capable to contain a Brigade of Foot on the left hand of them an Interval of 24 foot and then two Brigades of Horse with such a distance between them as that the two Brigades on the right wing had The Reserve I marshal thus One Brigade of Horse drawn up at a convenient distance directly behind the Interval between the two Brigades of Horse on the right wing of the Battel Then on its
left hand three Brigades of Foot drawn up directly behind the three Intervals appointed to be between the four Brigades in the Battel and on their left hand the second Brigade of Horse drawn up behind the Interval appointed to be between the two Brigades of Horse which makes the left wing of the Battel The Longitude of the Battel marshal'd as I have said you may compute thus Longitude of the Battel computed The two Brigades of Horse on the right wing each consisting of 600 Horse and consequently of 200 Leaders both of them 400 Leaders each whereof hath three foot of ground allow'd him require 1200 foot and the Interval 600 the distance between them and the Foot 24 as much you are to allow to the left wing of the Horse add these together you will find the aggregate to be 3648. Each Brigade of Foot consisting of 1800 men six deep hath 300 Leaders and so the four Brigades have 1200 Leaders each of these hath three foot allow'd him inde 3600 foot so every Brigade hath 900 foot of ground as much must every Interval have now there be three Intervals and three times 900 amounts to 2700. There must be in every Brigade two Intervals each of six foot between the Pikes and Musqueteers so 12 foot in every one and in all the four 48. Add 48 to 2700 and both of them to 3600 the aggregate is 6348. So much ground is requir'd for the Foot of the Battel Add 6348 to 3648 which was allowed to the Horse the aggregate will be 9996 which will want four foot of two Italian miles I shall neither trouble my Reader nor my self to compute the Longitude of the Reserve What I have said of two ways of Marshaling this Army of 16200 Horse and Foot is meant only in order to Intervals for it is most certain an Army may be drawn up in as many several figures and forms as there may be Generals to succeed one another in the command of it Between the Battel and Reserve there should be as great distance of ground as a Brigade of Foot possesseth in its Longitude but if the Army be marshalled in three bodies then the distance between Battel and Reer-guard must be double that distance that is between Van-guard and Battel that there be room for both to rally this was observ'd by two late Princes of Orange Maurice and Henry in drawing up their Armies following therein the practice of the Romans in their Intervals between their Hastati Principes and Triarii CHAP. XVIII Of the Women and Baggage belonging to an Army of the General Waggon-master and of his Duties OUR levied men being arm'd paid exercised disciplin'd divided into Troops Companies Regiments and Brigades with Officers belonging to them and sufficiently proyided with General Officers and a Train of Artillery and at length marshal'd in order of Battel are now ready to march but I am afraid the Baggage will disturb them unless it be put in some order The great number of Coaches Waggons Carts and Horses loaded with baggage the needless numbers of Women and Boys who follow Armies renders a march slow uneasie and troublesome And therefore the Latins gave Baggage justly called Impedimenta baggage the right name of Impedimenta hinderances But because without some baggage an Army cannot subsist it would be his eare who commands in chief to order the matter so that the baggage may be as inconsiderable and small as may be and that it march in such order that every Waggon-man Carter and Baggage-man may know his own place that so they may neither disturb one another nor yet hinder the march of the Army The place where the Baggage should march is appointed according to the knowledg the General hath of his enemy if he be in the Reer the Baggage should be sent before the Army if he be in the Van it should be in the Reer But in these places there should be Baggage should have Convoys of Horse and Foot with it a Convoy of Horse and Foot strong or weak according as occasion seems to require And of Convoys for Baggage I shall say these few things in general In them these Horsemen who are not very well mounted may well enough be employed but no men are to be set there whether of Foot or Horse that are sick lame or wounded for that were to betray both them and the Baggage to an enemy When Convoys are put to fight for defence of their Charge as many times they are for the desire of booty spurs men to desperate attempts they should if conveniently they can cast themselves within the Waggons and Carts drawn up round for that purpose from whence Musqueteers may do notable service and out of which retrenchment the Horse may as they see occasion make handsome Sallies If they cannot get this done they should be sure to put as much of the Baggage or all of it if they may between them and their own Army and themselves between the Baggage and the enemy whether he fall out to be in the Van or in the Reer Sometimes if the danger appear to be both before and behind the Baggage marches in the middle of the Infantry and though some be of the opinion that the Baggage should still follow the Artillery yet that doth not nor cannot hold in all cases and emergencies the marching of both Armies and Baggage many times depending on contingents of which no determinate rule can be given The way to regulate Baggage is to appoint under a severe penalty that no Company Troop or Regiment shall have more Waggons Carts or Baggage horses than such a set number already order'd by the Prince or his General The number of Waggons Carts and Baggage-Horses should be determined which should be as few as may be with full power to the Waggon-master General to make all that is over that number prize with an absolute command to all Colonels to assist him in case of opposition In the former Discourses we have seen that the Grecians and Romans to free themselves as much as was possible of this great Embarras of Baggage loaded their Soldiers like Mules and Asses this perhaps did suit those times better than it would do ours But most of our Modern allowances for Carriages of an Armies Baggage hath been in the other extream I shall instance four The Swedish Kings and their Generals allow ten Waggons to every Troop of Horse and two to every Company of Foot and a Sutlers Waggon to every one of them sometimes two to a Troop of Horse besides the Waggons allowed to Swedish allowance of Waggons the field and Staff-officers of Regiments Let us then suppose that the Cavalry of an Army consists of five thousand Horse and these divided into a hundred Troops and fifty Horse in a Troop were thought fair in the German War These hundred Troops had for themselves a thousand Waggons and a hundred for their Sutlers Model these hundred Troops in
will be or the way narrower as for most part it chanceth to be you may see I say how many miles may be between your Front and your Reer And indeed though the Train of Artillery by the sticking of great Guns and Pot-pieces in deep dirty or clay ground give no retardment to the march as frequently it doth or that an Army meet with no extraordinary encumbrances as happily it may yet it will be no marvel to see the Van at the head quarter before the Reer-guard be march'd out of their last nights Leaguer though the march be fourteen or fifteen English miles long and therefore there is good reason to allow as little distance or Interval between several bodies or batallions as may be and to A close march the best and securest divide an Army into two three or more bodies and march several ways to make the greater expedition when it may be done safely and without danger of an enemy and if he be in your Reer and that you intend not to fight dividing so you keep good order facilitates your Retreat The two Princes of Orange Maurice and Henry both of them excellent Captains order'd that in a march when one Regiment was divided into two great Partitions there should be no more but fifty foot of distance between them and only eighty foot between one Regiment and another These Princes caused their Armies to march according to ancient custom in three great Bodies Van guard Battel and Reer-guard and those they called Tercias or Tersos a Spanish word which signifies Thirds and so the Spaniards called their Regiments of old and for any thing I know they do so still These Tersos of the Princes of Orange were indeed grand Brigades and these had Maâ—â—rs who were call'd Majors of the Brigades besides Majors of Regiments And in a march the Princes allowed no greater distance between these great bodies but an hundred or a hundred and twenty foot at most And herein they did not quadrate with the opinion of some of our modern Captains who will have as great a distance between Brigades as the longitude of a Brigade is which we may suppose to be very many times a thousand foot though sometimes less and consequently if there be ten such Brigades of Foot the very nine Intervals between the ten Brigades takes up nine thousand foot near two Italian miles and therefore if the way be not very broad there will be several miles between the Van and the Reer of the Infantry but the reasons brought by those that are of this judgment may be demonstrated to be but weak by a visible practice When an Army is to go over a Pass a Water or a Bridg the whole To march over a Pass or a Strait Bodies of it should be order'd to march very close losing something of their ordinary distances that one Brigade or Batallion being past another may immediately follow without intermission Captain Rud the late Kings Engineer a very worthy person says at the passing a strait an Army should make an halt and draw up in battel and then pass over so many in breast as the place will permit and when they are all over draw up again before And not lose time they march For the last part I shall agree with him for no sooner should any Forlorn-hope Troop Company or Regiment be over a Pass but they should draw up in Battel till some others be over and if there be not ground enough they should advance by little and little till they find a more spacious field where they may draw up in breast and expect the rest or if he mean that every particular Regiment or Brigade should draw on that side of the strait which it is to pass till the Reer of that Regiment or Brigade come up and then begin their march over I shall yet agree with him but for a Van of an Army to stay till the Reer come up before it begin to pass a strait is a great loss of time which in the march of an Army is very precious for in an Army but of an indifferent strength that halt shall be the space of at least four hours and this furnisheth an opportunity to an enemy to oppose the passage or wait his advantages on the other side of the strait with more force policy and deliberation CHAP. XX. Of Quartering Encamping and Modern Castrametation Of the Quarter-master General and of the Quarter-master of the General Staff THE day is far spent and the Army hath march'd far Quarter must be made somewhere and it must be either in Towns Villages or the fields If the Army be dispersed in several Villages or Hamlets it is done that it may To Quarter in Villages be refreshed for some short time and when there is no danger of an enemy If it be to lodg for one night and an enemy is near then both Horse and Foot stand in the field all night with strong Guards Forlorn-hopes Rounds and Patrovilles If an enemy be not near ordinarily the Head quarter is in some little Town or Village and the Cavalry quarter'd round about in Hamlets the Infantry is encamped close by the Head-quarter and if it be but to stay a night or two it doth not usually Entrench but as the old Grecians did Encamps on some place something fortified by nature as on a hill or some defensible ascent or where a river may be on one hand and a marsh on the other and where the place iâ— defective they must help it with Spade and Mattock if danger is apprehended Or if the Foot must lodg in a Champagn their Waggons To Quarter in the Field drawn about them will be an excellent good shelter against sudden Infalls and this the Germans call a Wagonburg that is a Fortification of Waggons and it is better than the Roman Fossa Tumultuaria in ancient times Where ever this Night-leaguer chanceth to be he who commands in chief must be careful to chuse such a place as wants for neither wood water nor foderage An Alarm-place should be appointed for the Horse in case their Quarters happen to be beat up in the night as also a place of Rendezvouz at which the whole Army is to meet next day if it be all in one Body and at such an hour as the General shall appoint The Encamping of an Army for some considerable time requires an orderly To Encamp and fortifie for a long time Castrametation and Fortification and though it be not very ordinary yet it hath been and may be occasion'd by several accidents and emergements such as these When an enemy comes unexpectedly whose strength and designs are not known when a Prince or his General thinks it not fit to hazard a Battel Reasons for it when he would preserve the Country behind him whether it belong to the Prince himself or to his friends or that he hath won it from his enemy When the Pestilence or other
long ago The Quarter-master of the General Staff is only needful at the Headquarter Quarter-master of the General Staff and when he knows from the Quarter-master General where that is he goes thither with the force Troops and makes the Billets ready choosing out the best houses for the General and then divides the rest among the general Officers according to the quality of the charges they have This Officer hath often a list sign'd by the General of the names of many others besides General Officers who are to be lodged at the Headquarter and these are often Colonels of foot but more commonly some reformed Officers Colonels Lieutenant Colonels and Majors and others also who have served the State or Prince before and wait on the Commander in Chief for imployment But many times it falls out that there are not houses at the Headquarter to serve the half of the General Officers and in that case this Officer is to divide all the Barns Stables Yards Enclosures and Hedges as equally and proportionably as he can for in quartering no man hath power to appropriate a piece of ground to himself In such a Camp as we are now to describe this Quartermaster divides the ground given by the General Quartermaster to the General Officers according to that length and Breadth that is allotted to every one of them and that is more or less according as the person is of higher or lower quality The greater an Army is the stricter and better order it should keep in encamping for unless it be well looked to multitudes breed confusion Those numerous Armies we read of under the Assyrian and Persian Monarchs had no doubt the Art of encamping but much more I think are we obliged to believe that Moses Joshuah and other Great Captains of the Israelites in The Israelites excellent Castrametators â— their forty years wanderings in the Arabian Wilderness had the art of castrametation in its perfection which I conceive was derived either by written directions or Tradition from one Generation of that people to another and so made the quartering of those vast Armies we read of in holy writ led out to Battel by the Kings of Israel and Judah easie to them Tamberlan that famous Tartarian King is much commended for the excellent order he kept and the rules he gave both for the march and Encamping that numerous Army of his consisting of a Million of men And I doubt not but the Turk hath very good So are the Turke Constitutions for the regular Castrametation of those multitudes of men which usually he leads after him But though some undertake to describe both his Politick and Military Government yet they give us but a very general intelligence of the last whatever they may seem to do concerning the first Whether the Great Cyrus Encamped his Army as Xenophon says he did and if he did so whether he had learned it from the Assyrians or the Persians or invented it himself matters not much it is enough that it is universally thought to be excellent and in the Modern Wars prefer'd to the Roman Castrametation The manner of his Encamping as that Author informs us was shortly this He Cyrus his manner of Encamping lodged himself in the midst of his Army and in the Center of it about him were the Guards of his person and his Engines of War such as Tortoises Rams and the like as also his Magazine Without these were his Horsemen and about them lodged his light armed Foot as Slingers Darters and Archers and without all these quarter'd his heavy-armed Foot who served for a wall says our Author to the rest of his Army though no doubt he had a retrenchment when necessary without them If then a whole Army Horse and Foot Train of Artillery Magâ—zine of Provisions the whole General Staff all the Waggons and Baggâ—ge be to Encamp Imitated in our Modern Castrametation in one Leaguer according to this Pattern given us by Cyrus he who commands in chief should lodg in the center of the Army and his Guards next him about him the General Officers Train of Artillery Magazine of Proviant and Waggons without all these the Cavalry whether they be Curiassiers or Harquebusiers and without them the Infantry which ought to be nearest the Rampart as fittest to maintain it and soonest ready to run to the Parapet of the Wall or Gates of the Camp till the Horsemen have time given them to saddle and bridle their Horses But before the Quarter-master General begin to measure out the Camp it will be fitting that the General by Trumpet and Drum make his pleasure Some proclamations from the General known in these particulars That none presume to come near the Quarter-master General while he is doing his Duty but Quarter-masters Fouriers and a few to serve them lest by a multitude of spectators and gazers he and those with him be disturbed in the exercise of their charges That none offer to pull up take away or remove any staves or marks that are planted or fixt for designation of Quarters Huts or Tents That no Officer or Souldier presume to take any more or any other ground than that which is allotted to him by the Castrametator That no Turff be cast up within the circumference Must preceed the castrametation of the Camp for spoiling it especially in rainy weather That no fires be made among the Tents and Huts but only in those places which are allotted for them All these things should be intimated or what else the present circumstances of place time accidents or emergences may require The Quarter-master General should have Lists given him of the numbers of every Regiment Troop or Company both of Horse and Foot and because all Regiments are not alike strong of Companies nor all Companies alike strong Lists must be given to the general Quarter-master of men the Rolls must mention how many Troops and Companies are in each Regiment and how many men in each Company A List must be given him by the Quarter-master of the General Staff how many General Officers are to be lodged about the General he must have Rolls of all the Persons Guns great and small and Waggons belonging to the Ordnance The like he must have from the Proviant Office The Waggon-master General must give him a List of those Waggons which cannot conveniently quarter besides the Regiments to And from whom whom they belong but he must not add to that number that is allowed by the establishment of the Prince or State to whom the Army doth belong Observe that the Quarter-master General after he hath got all these Lists draws a platform of the figure of the whole Camp on paper and shews it to the General of the Army and it being approv'd by him the Quarter-master goes about his work Observe next that there must be no measures in the Army but conform to those of the Quarter-master General whether these be feet roods toises
How guards march to the Parade Companies one two or three sometimes out of a Regiment as the duty seems to require these meet at the several Captains Tents or Huts and after the Drums have done beating the Gathering the Captains march with their several Companies in good order to the Parading place of the Regiment or of the whole Army more ordinarily to the last which is either a place appointed peculiarly for it or is the Forum or Market-place near the Generals Lodging or Pavilion Here they are drawn up according to the antiquity or precedency of the Regiments to whom they belong by either the Major General or Adjutant General of the Foot At this Parade should all the Majors of the Foot be as also one Sergeant out of every Company and most of the Captains of the whole Army The Companies being marshall'd in breast the Major or Adjutant General calls the Majors together to whom he imparts the several orders and directions of the General which may and very oft doth vary every night because they depend on emergencies The Majors stand in a ring on How the Orders and Word are given to the Majors both hands of him according to their dignity the first standing on his left hand in whose ear he whispers the Word and he whispers it to him who standeth on his left hand and so successively till the youngest Major deliver it to the Major General If it be returned right to him there is no necessity to send it about the other way as some would have but if the Word be not deliver'd right to him then he gives it to the Major who stands on his right hand and so it is re-deliver'd to him by the Major who stands on his left hand not without a check to him or them by whose inadvertency it was mistaken This word for most part is the name of a Town a Country or a Castle sometimes it is the proper name of a Man and sometimes it is a Sentence as it pleaseth him who gives it who is still he who commands in chief Men may pass any Sentinel without it in the night time but none should pass the Corps de guards that An abuse i◠making it common are on the Fortification unless they give the Word And from the misunderstanding of this many gross abuses are committed as when Servants or other mean persons are sent in the night time either into Camps or Towns concerning affairs very lawful in themselves and have the Word given them that they may pass the Guards which should not be suffer'd for if the business is necessary and will admit of no delay as the sending for a Physician Apothecary Chyrurgion or Minister for sick or wounded persons in such cases addresses should be made to him who commands over the whole Guards who is obliged to send a Caporal or a Gentleman of a Company along with the person that is sent who should see him pass and re-pass without interruption When the Major General imparts his orders to the Majors the Sergeants of the Parade should make a ring at a good distance about them standing with their Halberts order'd and this both to shew with what respect orders should be given and receiv'd as also to hinder any to come near and hearken to what is said or spoken either to the Majors or among themselves After the Majors have done their business with their Major General they Where Orders should be given by the M 〈…〉 in Fo 〈…〉 fied Camps should give both the orders they have received from their superiours and their own to the several Regiments and many think they should do this at their own quarters beside the Colours which I think is formal enough and may well enough be done but my humble opinion is they should do it at the great Parade and therefore I said before that at it there should be a Serjeant of every Company there and the reason I give for my opinion is this that the several Companies that are to be sent from that Parade to divers places of the Fortification there to keep Watch may carry the Word along with them and so not need to wait so long as for the Major first to go home to the quarter of the Regiment and then give out his Orders and send them to the Companies that are on duty in several Posts And to anticipate that objection which I suppose will be made against my opinion that Majors are to give to the Companies All Commissioned Officers should be present at a Parade the orders of the Colonels as well as of the Major Generals I say that at Parades all Colonels all Field and Commissionated Officers should be present for a Parade is the Exchange of Officers neither should any thing excuse their absence but indisposition or being on present duty and this is incumbent for Officers to do where-ever the Parade be whether in Camp or Garrison when the Major gives orders to his Sergeants he doth it in the same manner as the Major General doth to the Majors and should have a ring of Musketeers about him to hinder any to approach or hearken unless they be Commissionated Officers of that Regiment who may be within the ring and may hear but ought not to speak while the Major is discoursing to the Sergeants After Orders and the Watch-word are given every Captain marcheth How the Posts are divided to that Post that is appointed him and that appointment is made two ways either as the Major General pleaseth in sending Companies several nights to several Posts and not constantly to one or it is done by billets the way thus The names of the several Posts being writ in several Papers they are cast into a Hat and are drawn by the Majors who according to the billets they draw send their Captains to their Posts And this indeed is the best way for it saves the Major General from suspicion of partiality and doth a more general good than that for it prevents Treachery whether it be in Camp Garrison Town or Castle After the Watch is set it should not be permitted to any whether he be No Officer or Common Souldier should go from his Guard Officer or Common Souldier from the highest to the lowest to leave his Post unless sickness occasion it neither indeed should an Officer of what quality soever he be by absenting himself give example for Souldiers to desert their Posts those Officers who do it should be exemplarily censur'd yet for most part this piece of Discipline is neglected which too often encourageth an Enemy to make attempts which perhaps otherwise he would forbear Truly it is a shame to hear what excuses I have heard in more places of the World than one and none more ordinary than for an Officer to say I was no longer from my Guard than I was taking my Dinner and Supper at my Lodging If Officers would dine or sup in their Corps de
Master-pieces of a Captain are to make a Retreat to take a fortified place Four Master-pieces of a Great Captain and to defend one Of the first I shall speak in this of the other two in the two following Chapters Here I am not to speak of those petty Retreats which parties of Horse and Foot make purposely dissembling fear to make an unwary Enemy follow too eagerly till he be brought to that Ambush prepar'd to intrap him as is frequently practis'd in skirmish when two Armies face each other or in Battel when they fight or when either an Army or a strong party faceth a Town whether it be block'd up or not But this discourse is of the Retreat of an Army from the Post it once undertook to maintain from the Countrey through which it once intended to march or from the Town Castle or Fort which it once intended to besiege or block up The occasions of Retreats may be these Pestilence Flux or other contagious Occasions and Reasons of Retreats Diseases in the Army want of Provisions and Munitions the approach of an unexpected or a strong Enemy some Disorders Discontents or Mutinies or just apprehensions of them the couragious or sometimes obstinate holding out of a fortified place contrary to expectation the sudden diminution of the Army by some accident of War not foreseen or to joyn with those Forces who are coming to strengthen the Army which conjunction without such a Retreat might be hinder'd by an active Enemy Or though none of those be yet he who commands an Army often retires for reasons known only to himself or when he thinks it not conducible for his Masters service to hazard Battel with an Enemy though no stronger perhaps not so strong as himself To make a Retreat from an advancing Enemy or from Armies whose conjunction cannot be hinder'd is not at all difficult if he who is to make it Retreats should be made in time have so good Intelligence as he may begin it in time but if it be bad or uncertain or that his Scouts and Parties disappoint him nothing is more difficult and in this place I refer you to my Discourse of Intelligence when an Enemy is near orders are given and obeyed with so great haste and confusion that the March looks rather like a flight than a retreat and this hath ruined many Armies and loaded their Generals with dishonour and disgrace If for want of good intelligence an enemy comes unlooked for or that a General have fought with loss in both these cases the retreat should begin in the night It is true all Retreats infuse fear in an Army which is augmented by the darkness and horror of the night and therefore the common Souldiers should be encouraged and told by their several Officers that the Retreat will be but of a short continuance and that if an Enemy follow they will face about and fight him but withal very strict and severe Discipline should be kept that none straggle for in such occasions they are very apt to run away and indeed at some times and in some places it is better to hazzard a Battle than to offer to retire for if an Army must be lost it is done To begin a Retreat in the Night with more honour by the first than by the last But if an Enemy be near and a Retreat is resolved on it should I say begin in the night because in the day time it will be seen and then it is not to be supposed that an Enemy will be so supinely negligent as not to follow the Rear immediately but though one Enemy know of anothers dislodging yet he will be very cautious to pursue him in the night time having just reasons to fear Ambushes and other stratagems and if a retiring Army get the advantage of one nights march he who commands it may next day possess himself of some fortified place or Pass and thereby be able to force him who follows to stand and then he may advise whether In some cases better Fight than Retire it will be more convenient for his affairs to continue his retreat or to fight and many times this last succeeds well but sometimes it succeeds ill but I say still better fight than still retire when the retreat cannot probably be made without the loss of all or most of the Army A Champaine or a long Heath a numerous Cavalry of a pursuing Enemy the weariness of both Men and Horses of the retiring Army hunger and want of sleep very often render the fighting a Battle more feasible than a Retreat Cornelius Arvina a Roman Dictator perceiving the Sabines would storm his Camp not yet well fortified left his fires all burning and retired in the dead time of the night Instances with all imaginable silence and diligence but being overtaken next morning and seeing he could not make his Retreat good without a visible loss faced about and fought with success Cneius Scipio sped not so well because he fought not in time This Consul perceiving three Armies against him in Spain retired in the night time next day the Enemies Cavalry was in his Rear with whom he only skirmished but that retarded his March so much that the Câ—rthaginian Infantry reached him at night before he could entrench himself he fought them but was beaten and killed but if he had faced about in the day time with his whole Army and fought the Enemies Cavalry he knew not what effects it might have produced Philip of Macedon being worsted by the Romans retired in the night time to the Mountains and thereafter presented them Battle Let us briefly summ up some of Hannibals Retreats from the Romans and theirs from him for they will very aptly shew the benefit and safety of Night-Retreats After this great Carthaginian had fought Marcellus at Numistrâ— with equal Hannibals Retreats from the Romans and theirs from him fortune knowing his own wants he dislodged in the Night and retired Marcellus knew it but durst not follow him for fear of his Ambushes Next Year Marcellus sought out his redoubted Enemy found him at Canusium fought with him and was beaten but fought the next day and did beat Hannibal into his Camp out of which he retired that same night Marcellus not daring to follow him In the Bruâ—ian Country the Consul Sempronius is worsted by Hannibal and gets him to his Camp and in the Night with great silence retires and joins with the Proconsul Licinius returns fights the Carthaginian and defeats him and he in the Night retired with safety to Croton Julius Caesar intending to march away from Pompey to Appollâ—nia sent away his sick men and Baggage in the beginning of the Night well guarded with a Caesar's Retrâ—â—â— from Pompey Legion at the fourth Watch he sent away the rest of his Army except two Legions and the Cavalry so soon as they were gone to save a punctilio of honour he caused a March to be sounded
have been an eye-witness of the contrary but I ever said and still think that when an Enemy is near a Retreat is much more proper to be begun in the Night than in the day The timely and orderly breaking up and retiring of Armies from the Sieges of Towns hath saved many of them whereof it will be more proper to speak in the next Chapter when I discourse of the Sieges of Towns and Fortified places The manner of Retreats whether they be made by day or by night useth The manner of a Retreat to be this 1. The whole Train of Artillery except some Field-pieces which should stay in the Rear with the Generals Coaches Chancery and principal Secretary are sent away with a strong Convoy of Foot and some Horse then all the sick and wounded men next to them the Baggage of the whole Army next to it a party of Horse behind whom comes the whole Brigades of Foot and after them the Cavalry and in the Rear of it all the Dragoons with as many commanded Musketeers out of the several Foot-Regiments as the Commander in chief thinks fitting and as many of them mounted on Horses as can be and behind them a select party of Horse and Foot for present service which are to be relieved by turns by those who are before them one Party still facing the Enemy till the Party that was behind them be past This is to be observed if the whole Army march one way but if it can divide and go several wayes the expedition will be the greater the time and place being named the last whereof should be a Pass or fortified place by the General where all shall meet so that he who is first shall stay for the rest unless some command be given afterward to the contrary The same order in retiring is to be kept by several grand Divisions or Wings of the Army as if it marched in one Body But the truth is the Baggage of an Army makes so long a train that it retards Waggons and Carts rather to be left behind in the highways than to be burnt in a close Countrey the Retreat exceedingly especially where there are enclosures and hedges and thefore I wonder that in all Retreats order is not given to leave all Waggons and Carts behind for in a close Country that will be a great deal more advantagious than to burn them and every man should take his best and most precious things out of them leaving all trash and luggage of small value in them which will likewise retard the pursuing Enemy and these goods the officers should cast upon one Horse or two at the most and upon the rest of the Baggage-Horses either sick men should be mounted or Musketeers for service and this should be seen done by the Colonels themselves under pain of Iâ—famy and no less do they deserve who will prefer a little paultry stuff to either the welfare of the whole Army or the safety and preservation of any one sick or wounded member of it yet this is not done so oft as occasion requires it should be which gross oversight can be imputed to none so much and indeed I think to none else but to the General In all Retreats great care should be taken that none get leave to fall behind to prevent which not only all the Superiour and Inferiour Officers of Regiments should do their duties but the General Marshals should severely execute their power against Delinquents and here if at any time it is lawful to shoot those who will not keep Rank and File I told you that some light Field-pieces should be left in the Rear for there they may be serviceable and the loss is not great if they be taken for if he who commands the Army see he cannot with any probability â—ace about and fight nor can retire in that order that I have spoke of being hardly pursued by a powerful and prevalent Enemy he should rather bury or if he cannot do that break and spring his great Ordnance Ordnance to be broke or sprung in sudden Retreats than lose his Army by a hopeless hazarding it to preserve his Artillery and rather leave his Foot to fight for good quarters than lose both it and his Cavalry for the rule never fails That it is better to save some than lose all yet all means should be try'd before either Infantry or Artillery be deserted I have heard that the staying two or three hours for a Mortar which was a great one and bemired in deep and dirty way occasion'd the loss of Prince Palatine and Lieutenant General King 's little Armies in their Retreat from Lemgaw to Vlotho When a party of either Horse or Foot or of both perceives they are neither able to fight nor retire in a Body it hath been and may be practis'd to disband the party he who leads it bidding every man that belongs to it to go what way he pleaseth or shall find most safe or convenient for him and to meet at such a place as he then names so soon as possibly they can That famous Retreat which the two Felt-Marshals Banier and Leslie made in the year 1637. from Turgaw in Saxony made a great noise in the World It was indeed a noble action and the matter was shortly this Banier had besieged Banier and Leslie s Retreat from Tâ—rgaw Leipsick which kept out gallantly against him he makes some breaches and prepares to storm it in that very time come Letters from Leslie shewing that he was forc'd to retire from the River Saal and march towards him Count Gots with an Imperial Army being much too strong for him Banier immediately gave over the storm and the Siege too sends away his Artillery Baggage and Foot and follows with his Cavalry and joyns Leslie at Turgaw this Town they fortifie and bring in a world of provisions both for Man and Horse and resolve to make it the seat of War against all the Imperial and Saxish Armies joyn'd together at that time to the number of fourscore thousand fighting men under the command of Count Gallas for the destruction of the Swede whereof the two Swedish Felt-Marshals had good enough Intelligence yet persisted in their resolution till the Imperialists were come very near them and then they began to cast up another account and found they had lost by their stay there a third of their Forces and therefore though a little too late they resolve to march to Pomerania and so broke up and got over the River of Oder at Landsberg in spite of all opposition and maugre all the Enemies they had about them joyn'd with Felt-Marshal Wrangle without loss of either Infantry or Cavalry A very gallant and memorable action yet it cannot be denied but they should have begun their Retreat sooner and so have sav'd that third part of their Army which they lost Next year Banier made Gallas retire with a quicker pace than he had made when Gallas
is that of the Garter instituted by Edward the Third of England under the Patrociny of Saint George as that of the Thistle of Scotland was under Saint Andrew John of Valois King of France instituted the order of the Star under the protection of Saint Owen say the French as one of his Successors Louis the Eleventh instituted that of Saint Michael In the minority of Henry the Sixth of England when the War was hot between that Kingdom and France Philip le Bou Duke of Burgundy instituted the Noble Order of the Golden Fleece under the protection of Saint Andrew The King of Denmark makes Knights of the Elephant and the Duke of Savoy those of the Annunciation Christina Queen of Sueden instituted a new Order of Knighthood which she would have called the Order of the Amaranth which they say never withers and accordingly she appointed the Device to be semper idem The Knights of the Teutonick or Dutch Order those of St. John of Jerusalem called afterwards Hospitallers Knights of the Rhodes and now of Malta as also those of the Sepulchre or Knights Templars were and some yet are very Martial Knights whose renowned Actions are and ever Religious Orders of Knighthood will be on the Records of Fame But there were likewise Religious Orders for they vowed Chastity Poverty and Obedience And from Religion have come most of the Spanish Orders of Knighthood Sanctius the third of that name King of Castile for the more vigorous prosecution of the War against the Infidels instituted the Order of Calatrava in the Kingdom of Toledo The Master of which Order is a person of great Riches and Power His Son Alphonse the Ninth in the time of his dangerons War with the Moors instituted the Order of Saint James which hath since come to that heighth of power that the Master of it is one of the greatest Subjects of Spain But Ferdinand the first Catholick King made himself and his Successors with the help of the Pope Masters of these Orders One of the Kings of Portugal when he had Wars with both the Saracens of Africk and Spain instituted the Order of the Knights of Jesus Christ About the year 1570. the Queen of Navarre caused 12 Jane d'Albret great Medals of Gold to be coined which she distributed among 12 of the most eminent Chieftains of the Reformed Religion as tokens of their fraternity to incite them to Constancy Valour and Perseverance in the Cause against the Roman Catholicks Upon one side of the Medal were these words Assured Peace Entire Victory or Honest Death On the Reverse was the Queens own name with that of her Son the Prince of Bearne who was afterwards Henry the Fourth the Great King of France and Navarre War drains the Treasures of Princes and States so dry that for most part they are not able to pay the Wages and Arrears of those who serve them much less reward them The Roman Oak Olive and Laurel Crowns are out of fashion long ago nor would they signifie any thing but rather be ridiculous unless they were given with all the Wages due to the party who is to be honour'd with one of those Crowns as the Romans were accustomed to do I have observ'd in another place how in many parts of Christendome Officers above the quality of private Captains many times are reduced to beggary to obviate which since Princes and States cannot forbear War or will not live in Peace it would be a great work of Charity in them and would much redound to their Honour Works of Charity and Fame to build some Hospitals and endue them with some small Revenue in which those Commanders who are lame old and poor might get a morsel of Bread which would be an exceeding great relief to those distressed Gentlemen and much encourage younger people to engage in a fresh War for alass though written Testimonies sign'd and seal'd by the Prince or his General may be of good use to young and lusty Gallants who have their Health and some Money in their Purses to look for new Fortunes yet Passes though never so favourable to poor old men are upon the matter nothing else Passes but fair Commissions to beg CHAP. XXVIII The Comparison made by Justus Lipsius of the Ancient and Modern Militia examined IT is one of the Curses that follow'd Adam's fall and I think was inherent in Discontent follows humane nature him before his fall that as he was not so none of his Posterity can be content with his present condition The longing desire we have to enjoy that we want robs us of the content we may have of what we possess Hence it is that old men cry up those customes that were used when they were Boys vilifying the present and magnifying the by-past times Neither is this fastidium or loathing of present things the concomitant of age only for young men who are in their strength are tainted with it Some are displeased with the Government of the State others hugely dissatisfied with that of the Church because none of them are cast in those moulds which they fancy to be better than the present ones and though perhaps they cannot pretend to have seen better in their own times yet they have heard or read of those which they conceive were so absolutely good that nothing can be added to their perfection Others like only of those Governments which have their birth rise growth and perfection in their own giddy brains But to come nearer our purpose few Souldiers are satisfied with their own Countrey Militia for if they have been abroad in the World at their return home they cry up the Arms the Art and the Discipline of Foreigners nor can they find any thing at home can please them And though their occasions have never invited them to take a view of strange places yet their Books afford them matter enough to prefer those Arms those Exercises those Guards those Figures of Battels that Discipline of War they never saw to all those they may daily see Of this disease of Discontent I think Justus Lipsius hath been Justus Lipsius an admirer of the Roman Militia irrecoverably sick and though he did not compile a Military Systeme of his own as Machiavelli did yet I may compare these two in this that both of them were Speculative Souldiers Lipsius is so far disgusted with the Milice of his own time which truly being about eighty or ninety years ago was an excellent one which he might have seen and observ'd better than his Writings shows he did and is so much in love with the old Roman Militia which he never saw but by contemplation that in the comparison he makes of the two in the last Chapter of his Commentary on Polybius he is not asham'd to prefer the Ancient Art of War to the Modern one in all its dimensions As I conceive he was so Rational as to think no man would deny the Modern He compares
conceiv'd his work to be For my part I incline to believe that in History it is promiscuously taken for the sound and sometimes for the Instrument one or many either Trumpets or Horns They were made use of in all Banks and Proclamations The Classicum was an Ensign of Supreme Command for by it all the emergent and occasionary orders of the General were promulgated and by it both Officers and Souldiers were call'd together to hear the Commander in chief's pleasure made known to them And hence it is like it had its derivation because by it the three Classes of Hastati Principâ—s and Triarii were call'd together to Whence â—â—â—â—d â—ts name hear those Harangues and Orations which frequently the Consuls uttered in their Tribunals or Pulpits whether they were for admonition encouragement or punishment and upon the account of this last Vegetius is to be understood of his capital animadversion Lest I forget to do it hereafter I shall in this place take occasion to tell you Badges of Soveraign power that besides this Classicum there were two other badges of Imperial power these were the Praetoriâ—m and the Bundles of Rods and Axes The Praetorium was a fair and a large high Pavilion wherein the Consul lodged and kept his Councils of War The Rods and Axes signified he had power to scourge and behead these were carried by Lictors or Sergeants whereof a Consul had twelve a Proconsul six a Legate as many a Praetor had I know not how many for it makes but little to our purpose When Scipio Pompey's Father-in-law came with his Legions out of Asia and joyn'd with him in Thessaly Pompey order'd a Praetorium to be erected for him and that he should have a Classicum I suppose a knitchel of Rod and Axes too though Caesar doth not mention the last in his Commentary As the Trumpet was of Brass so in process of time the Cornu and Buccina were made of Brass too and all the three who sounded or winded them were called Aeneatores Every Troop of Horse and every Maniple if not Aeneatores every Century of Foot had one either a Trumpet or a Horn or both I find not that these Trumpeters and Horn-blowers had any greater allowance of Wages Proviant or Fodder for either themselves or Horses than other Horse-men and Foot-men had for with the first they rode on Horse-back and with the second they marched on Foot at any time perhaps having spent much of their breath in sounding and blowing they were eased from other works of toil and labour and those were not a few Whether the Buccina was sounded or rather winded at the relief of every guard as Polybius says it was shall be spoke of in my Discourse of Guards and Rounds CHAP. IX Of the Roman Pay Proviant and Donatives IT is reported of that brave Athenian Themistocles that he affirm'd whoever would shape or form the great Monster of War rightly must begin with his Belly and therefore before we joyn our Horse and Foot together we must see how they shall be maintain'd The Romans were a frugal people till their successful Wars made their City the Treasure-house of the Worlds riches The Pay they they allow'd their Souldiers was sparing enough but Vegetius tells us not what it was I find that three hundred years after the foundation of Rome the Horse-men serv'd on their own charges they might do it the better for though their atchievements were often honourable enough yet their expeditions were but short for either upon a Victory or a Rout they hasten'd back to the City But after the Senate began to look far beyond their ancient limits wages were allow'd out of the publick Treasury for both Horse and Foot Polybius in his sixth Book informs us that a Foot Souldier Roman Wages and Proviant had the allowance of two Oboli a day both which if I mistake not make but one English Penny and a small measure of Whâ—at A Centurion had a double allowance and a Horse-man the triple of a Foot Souldiers Proviant and Wages and a measure of Barley every month for his Horse They allow'd to the Socii or Allies as much Wheat and Barley as they did to their own Souldiers but they were oblig'd to maintain themselves with their own Monies But he tells us also that what Proviant Clothes yea what Arms were given to the Roman Souldiers had rates set upon them and were defalcated from their wages Truly I should think their pay at two half-pennies a day could hardly furnish them with Meat much less Clothes and Arms Severe usage or if in that cheap world they could be furnish'd with all three at that rate they could not have much Money to seek at least very little to deposite at their Colours for this defalcation would indeed make their Pay very inconsiderable and very unproportionable to the great duty and services exacted from them But Lipsius will mend the matter presently by telling us that many times the State quit the Souldiers freely what they owed for either Arms Proviant or Clothes or if any thing was taken it was so insignificant that the Souldier parted with it pleasantly and without grumbling I do not care much to be of Lipsius his opinion though he hath not told us who were his Informers for Polybius is positively of another judgement in that place which I have cited Nor do I remember that in any other place of his History he speaks any thing of the Roman Wages Here you may observe what I told you before that in the Roman Infantry there were no other Officers properly so called but Centurions and Tribunes because all others had but the allowance of common Souldiers both in Wages and Proviant A Tribune had the quadruple of a Souldiers Pay Nor can I find that the Praefecti or Decurions of the Horse had any more allowance of either Meat or Money than other Troopers had The Grecian Pay as to the proportion of it was like the Roman a Centurion having a Souldiers double allowance a Horse-man triple and a Chiliarch quadruple But the Roman Souldiers had a greater encouragement to endure their hard Pillage fatigue than Pay and that was the Plunder and Pillage of a Countrey a besieged Town Castle or an Enemies Camp This was not due to them and many times they got no share of it in regard for most part it was brought all to the Quaestor or Treasurers quarters and sold and out of the Monies made by that sale the Army was paid their wages and the overplus was sent in to the Treasury of Rome But the Consul or General having the disposing of it all in his power very often gave it as a largess to the Army either for some good service done or to encourage them to undergo some difficult and hard piece of work to be done Neither had any man liberty to take what he could catch but all was brought to a publick heap and
sold by the Treasurer and then proportionably divided among all according to every A good order mans quality a Centurion receiving double that which a Souldier got a Horse-man triple and a Tribune quadruple So that they who fought in the Field and they who stay'd for the defence of the Camp they who storm'd a Town and they who stood in Reserve shared all alike in the Booty The Romans gave all their Proviant to their Armies in Corn and did not trouble themselves to make it either into Meal or Bread and in their strict discipline Bakers were all banish'd from their Camps and the Souldiers order'd to grind their Corn themselves Hand mills or Querns being allow'd them for that use and thereafter to bake their own Bread Many times they took not the pains to do either the one nor the other but boil'd their Wheat with a little Salt and so eat it up for Pottage They used to carry with them Their ordinary Meat And Drink Lard or Bacon or some other fat wherewith they smear'd their Bread A little Bottle with Vinegar they bore also about with them with a very small quantity whereof they gave a rellish to their Water which was their ordinary drink though Wine was not forbidden them for Mahomet had then not intoxicated the World with his Doctrine nor discharged the use of the juice of the Grape which cherisheth the heart of God and Man The Roman Souldiers then drank Wine for it was allow'd them when conveniently it could be got though Drunkenness was a crime seldome heard of among them There were also sometimes Oxen Sheep and Beeves divided among them for preparing and making ready whereof in the strictest time of their Discipline the Souldiers were permitted to carry a Brass Pot a Spit and a Drinking Cup but I suppose one of every kind of these utensils were not allowed to every one of the Souldiers but to a Contubernium Utensils or Tent-full of them whether that consisted of ten eleven or twelve It was not permitted to them to dine or sup when they pleased but it being known by the Classicum when the Consul went to Table the Tribunes went to theirs and so both Centurions and common Souldiers went to dinner with sound of Trumpet May not a man say that here was a great deal of more state than good fare Those Generals who exercis'd strict discipline appointed their Souldiers to take their dinner standing marry They Dâ—n'd standing and Supp'd sitting they permitted them to sit at Supper and I conceive this was but a very sober courtesie to suffer a man who was weary with toil the whole day to sit down to his Supper at night Besides all this the Roman Souldiery had reason to expect a Donative from Donatives at Triumphs their Victorious Generals when they enter'd the Imperial City in Triumph This custome was very commendable for the Largess given to them incited others to carry themselves gallantly against an Enemy since they saw that in some measure they would be sharers with the chief Commander both in Honour and Profit What was given at that time to the common Souldier was a rule to the Officer for a Centurion got double a Horse-man triple and a Tribune quadruple Scipio the African at his magnificent entry into Rome gave four hundred Asses to every Souldier some say but forty if the first it was noble enough and no more neither for it would have amounted but to twenty five shillings Sterling if the last it was contemptible for it signified but half a Crown Lucius Aemilius who subverted the Macedonian Monarchy gave at his Triumph to every Souldier one hundred Sesterces which might be about fifteen or sixteen shillings Sterling and proportionably to the Centurions Horse-men and Tribunes But besides the evil effects which many of the Consuls avarice produc'd their ambition to bring in great summs of Gold and Silver to the Treasury and their vanity to give their Armies Donatives at their Triumphs set them on to the committing many Insolencies perfidious unjust and disavowable Plunders and Cruelties which makes the names of some of the bravest of them infamous to posterity Take one instance instar omnium of that same Aemilius I just now spake of The desire he had to bring the vast Treasure of King Perseus and all he had scrap'd together in Macedon into the Roman Treasury and withal to give a Donative to his Army at A detestable action his Triumph tempted him and the temptation prevail'd with him to plunder the whole Towns of Epirus the people whereof were no Enemies nor ever had wrong'd the Roman State And this execrable act he did under trust the Inhabitants imagining no such usage nor was plundering all the mischief he did them for he sold their persons to the number of one hundred and fifty thousand of both Sexes for Slaves and with the Money of that sale he gave the Donative we spake of to his Army An action so full of baseness inhumanity persidy and injustice that Sir Walter Raleigh saith If any History spoke but one word to the contrary no man would believe it could be true You may read the story of it in the last Book of Titus Livius The half of the Donatives were ordinarily deposited at the Standards Half of Donatives deposited and Ensigns to be kept there for the use of the Souldiers till their dismission lest they should idly or vainly spend it This reason was sufficient and strong enough but there was another and it was this that the Souldiers knowing a part of their stock and substance to be beside the Colours they should never desert them but manfully fight for the defence of that in the preservation whereof they were so deeply concern'd Though this was certainly a very prudent order yet I cannot consent to what Vegetius saith of it in the twentieth Chapter of his second Book that it was ab Antiquis divinitus institutum For he should have remember'd that he wrote of the Heathen Romans and himself having the knowledge of the true God he knew likewise that the best of their Ordinances were but of Humane and not Divine Institution In that same Chapter Vegetius says that every Legion had ten bags for the keeping this moyety of the Donatives that is a bag for every Cohort and an eleventh bag there was in which every Souldier cast something once a month and that was reserv'd for the Burial of those Souldiers who were able to leave nothing for their Interment A very laudable custome for the Burial of the Dead was ever in all Nations in high request Burial of the Dead Truce for some days or hours to Inter the slain was seldome or never refus'd by the most imbitter'd Enemy Hannibal bestow'd Burial on his Enemy Marcellus And his Brother Asdrubal at the desire of Scipio buried those Roman Tribunes whom he had kill'd in Battel And Justin in his sixth Book tells us that when
was marshal'd in one Division I know some are of opinion that the Majors Company should be in the Reer Objection against that way of marshalling of the Lieutenant-Colonels Division because the third place of honour in the Regiment belongs to him and the Colonel having the Van of the first Division and the Lieutenant-Colonel of the second the Major should have the Reer of the second Division because it is the Reer of the whole Regiment I should easily subscribe to this if it were not for two reasons First though it be but Answered one Regiment yet being divided it should be lookt on as two distinct Bodies and it is more honourable to have the Reer of the first than of the last Secondly when a Regiment is divided into two parts the Major ought to wait and lodg at the quarter of that Division of the Regiment where the Colonel is because from him he receives his Orders Directions and the Word which he is not oblig'd to carry to the Lieutenant-Colonel if the quarters of the two Divisions be divided as many times they are but the oldest Captain is obliged to come and receive them from the Major at the Colonels Quarter the first Captain in that case officiating as Major for the Lieutenant-Colonels Batallion Now if the Major ought to be where the Colonel is as I think he should then I think the Majors Company should be where himself is The Great Gustavus used another way of marshalling his Regiments and Brigades of Foot which taken altogether was not square of front yet all the four parts or Bodies which composed it were square The manner was this Regiment or Brigade marshal'd a third way Suppose one of his Brigades to be eighteen hundred men as I can assure you he had many weaker whereof twelve hundred were Musqueteers and six hundred were Pikemen the Pikes advanced twenty paces before the two Bodies of Musqueteers who immediately join'd to fill up the void place the Pikemen had possest Then were the Pikes divided into three equal Bodies two hundred to each Batallion the middle Body whereof advanced before the other two so far that its Reer might be about ten paces before the Van of the other two The two Bodies of Pikes that staid behind were order'd to open a little to both hands and then stand still all fronting one way to the Enemy by this means the place which the two hundred Pikes possest in the middle remaining void there were two passages like sally-ports between the Reer of the advanced Body of Pikes and the two Batallions that staid behind out of one whereof on the right hand issued constantly one or two or more hundreds of Musqueteers who before all the three Bodies of Pikes gave incessantly fire on the Enemy and when the word or sign for a Retreat was given they retir'd by the other passage on the left hand back to the great Body of Musqueteers where so many of them as came back unwounded were presently put in rank and file the fire continuing without intermission by Musqueteers who still sallied thorough the passage on the right hand and it is to be observed that the firemen fought thus in small Bodies each of them not above five files of Musqueteers and these for most part but three deep So you may consider that near the third part of the Musqueteers being on service the other two thirds were securely shelter'd behind the three Batallions of Pikemen who were to be compleatly arm'd for the defensive These Pikes had Field pieces with them which fir'd as oft as they could as well as the Musqueteers this continued till the Pikemen came to push of Pike with the Enemy if both parties staid so long as seldom they did and then the Musqueteers were to do what they were order'd to do and the order did depend on emergencies and accidents which as they could not be then seen so no certain rules could be given for them In this order did I see all the Swedish Brigades drawn up for one year after the Kings death but after that time I saw it wear out when Defensive Arms first and then Pikes came Worn out to be neglected and by some vilipended For the March of a Regiment if it can all march in one breast it should The March of a Regiment do so but if not and if the ground permit it let the right hand of Musqueteers march in breast next it the Body of Pikes and after it the left wing of Musqueteers But if none of these can be then as many should march in one petty Division as the way can permit as suppose twelve eight or ten and so soon as you come to open ground you are to march presently in Squadrons or as they are now called Squads or in full Battel that is the Regiment all in one front for by that means your Soldiers are readiest to receive an Enemy they march in a more comely order and straggle far less than when they march few in breast and in a long row The Major appoints Captains Lieutenants and Ensigns to lead Divisions and Serjeants to attend the flanks every one according to their dignities but for my own part I never thought it convenient much less necessary that every small Division of a Regiment should have a Bringer up since he must be as some will have it a Commission'd Officer as well as the Leader of a Division should be For first consider that in a Regiment of one thousand strong there are an hundred sixty and six files and admit that the way will permit eight files to march in breast as that falls not always out by that account you shall have one and twenty Divisions consisting of eight Files apiece multiply twenty one by eight the Product is a hundred and Reasons why every petty Division cannot have a Bringer up sixty eight Files which consists of a thousand and eight men eight more than the number Reckon again how many Commission'd Officers you have in ten Companies besides the three Field-Officers you shall have but twenty nine now of these twenty one must be allow'd to lead the Divisions and by that account you have but nine Officers to bring up so you want thirteen Commission'd Officers for that imployment for Serjeants should neither be permitted to lead or bring up but in case of necessity their duty being to attend the flanks Besides all Commission'd Officers are not always present some frequently being either sick wounded or absent on furloff It will be enough therefore if all these petty Divisions be led by Commission'd Officers which yet cannot be unless you allow some Ensign-bearers to stay from their 〈…〉 ours and by this means you may spare six foot of ground between two Divisions for those who will allow Bringers up allow eighteen foot between two Divisions to wit six foot between the Reer of the first Division and him that brings it up secondly six foot between
that Bringer up and him that leads the next Division and six foot between that Leader and the Division he leads This was the order of the two Princes of Orange Maurice and Henry But if there be no Bringer up twelve foot will serve well enough between Divisions Nor am I of their opinion who will have a Colonel of Foot to begin his march on Horseback for since he commands Foot he is bound at first to march on foot though afterwards he may ride And I avouch too that he who leads Bodies of Foot should not ride at all because he may very insensibly make the Reer run after him If the Major lead the Regiment or a part of it in his Colonel A Major still on Horseback and Lieutenant-Colonels absence he is bound to do it in Towns in Leaguers or at Passes on foot because then he Officiates as Colonel but if any of his two superior Commanders be present then he should be constantly on Horseback for being he is not tyed to any one place but must be sometimes in the Van sometimes in the Battel sometimes in the Reer now here now there to see that every Officer and Soldier do their duty he should never be on foot when the Regiment marcheth And because the Captain-Lieutenant cannot constantly march on foot A Captain-Lieutenant others should be ordain'd to assist him by turns and those others should be Captains for by the courtesie of Arms the Captain-Lieutenant is youngest Captain But this assistance he is to get is only in the Field for so soon as he comes near to Town Village or Quarter he is to march on the head of the Regiment behind one of the three Field Officers and all the Captains ought to go immediately to their several Divisions It hath been a custom of a long time and in many places to put several Regiments in one Body or Batallion which they call a Brigade There are of A Brigade these both of Horse and Foot and the Colonel who commands that Body is called a Brigadeer It is not as yet defin'd for any thing I know how strong a Brigade should be three thousand two thousand eighteen hundred or fifteen hundred The Estates of the Vnited Provinces had always Brigades of Foot in their Service but those were strong five or six thousand I have seen six Regiments in one Brigade and yet it did not consist of so many as two thousand men that carried Arms here you may suppose there were Officers enough for so few Soldiers The Colonel who is oldest in that service commands the Brigade There is likewise a Major of the Brigade who receives the Word and other Orders from the Major-General and gives them to the Majors of the other Regiments of the Brigade and they to their Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels and then to the Serjeants of all the several Companies This Major of the Brigade is ordinarily he who is Major of the oldest Regiment of that Brigade When a Brigade marcheth the Regiments of it have the Van-day about by turns but so have not the Companies of the several Regiments It seems something strange to me that a Regiment of one thousand Foot should be divided into two several Bodies the Colonel and Lieutenant Colonels Divisions and yet that Regiment Embodied with another perhaps with other two and march all in one Body Truly I should think if the first be needful the second should not be necessary It is a custom with some Princes to give some of their Colonels more Regiments Colonels of two Regiments than one which I have seen though I confess I never saw any good reason for it for if a Prince or a State will advance a Colonel above or beyond his fellows he may rather give him some higher title and consequently greater pay yet it were the more tollerable if both Regiments were of Foot or both of Horse for then they might make up a Brigade and he who is Colonel of both might be Brigadeer of both But I have known some of them Colonels of Horse and Foot and sure they cannot Officiate in both Regiments at one time and therefore I confess that in one of them a Lieutenant-Colonel is very necessary But it must minister some fuel of heart-burning to many brave Gentlemen who have served Princes faithfully to see some men provided with two Charges who have done no more than themselves 〈◊〉 â—â—rhaps not so much when they have no Charge at all But to him that hath shall be given Observe that in the French Service Majors being commanded to be under Captains the stress of the command of the Regiment lyes on the Lieutenant-Colonel CHAP. XII Of Troops and Regiments of Horse of their Officers and of Dragoons THOSE who serve in the Wars on Horseback are by a general word called the Cavalry which is now understood in all Languages though it be deriv'd either from the French word Chevall or the Italian and Spanish word Cavallo both which signifie a Horse Though the Germans make much use of the word Cavalry yet they have one of their own as proper and significative as it is and that is Reutery We have no other word for it in English but what is borrowed from the French It hath been in ancient times a noble service and still should be so for as I observed before those who served on Horseback especially the men at Arms or Curiassiers were all Gentlemen and most of them of a high extraction but now a promiscuous levy by the Trumpet hath well near abrogated that commendable custom and made men of all sorts so they be of bodies fit for service whatever their birth be welcome to ride in Troops When the Romans said a man was equestris ordinis they meant he was a Gentleman and when they spoke so it was nothing else but that he was of that rank or class out of which Horsemen were chosen to serve in the Cavalry of old challeng'd with reason the precedency of the Infantry Wars This made them with much reason demand as their due the precedency of the Foot though still the Infantry be the strength of the Army but now that Horsemen are Plebeians as well as Footmen the hand and the door is no more due to the one not to the other and in many places Commanders of Horse and Foot who carry alike Offices take the precedency according to their antiquity of bearing charge But in most Courts and Councils of War And hath it yet by the determination of the Prince the Officers of the Cavalry have seats given them before those of the Infantry neither do the last contend for it It was near the time of the Emperours before the Romans had any light armed Curiassiers Horsemen but almost with all other Nations and in all times a Cavalry was divided into heavy and light armed and they are called so from their offensive Arms the heavy arm'd are called Curiassiers Gens