belongs unto them as four Waggons of Powder eight Waggons of Shor with all things answerable And these are the repartitions of the Artillery which are to be ordered to march in the Van of an Army of forty thousand men After this body and division of these Ordnance three thousand Light-horse or Dragoons are to be ordered to march and after them ten thousand Foot And in the Rear of these all the Munitions belonging to the one half of the Army as Bridges Planks Powder Shot Cordage Pallisadoes Pikes Shovels Crabs Coins as well of Wood as Iron together with all the Tools belonging to the Carpenters Smiths and the like Artificers All which are to be handsomely lodged in Waggons The Victuallers or Sucklers of the moyety of the Army are to be ordered to march in the next place with the Hospital followed with the Carriages and Waggons belonging to the General and the other Commanders in chief and after them that part of the Baggage belonging partly to the Vant-guard and partly to the Battel After these may march twelve thousand Foot ordered into small Bodies having in the Rear of them a Body of Waggons of Baggage whereof part is to belong to the middle-Guard or Battel and part to the Rear-Guard followed with the Generals Life-Guards and the suit of the Ambassadours Next again after these may follow the Munitions and Engines serving for the use of the Rear with the Artillery Bridges and the like appurtenances and after them eight thousand Foot making the Gross of the Rear Then as formerly in the Van may be ordered to march four Cannons four Demy-Cannons three Culverins or Quart du Cannons and lastly three Field-pieces with all that belongs unto them both of Powder Shot and other necessaries with the requisite attendants And after them two thousand Foot to serve as a defence and coverture to all the Artillery of the Rear And last of all are to march five hundred Horse answerable to the like number in the point of the Van who are to bring up the Rear and to discover that part of the Campagnia that way that so no un-foreseen Alarms may be given by the Enemy to any considerable loss And in this order may an Army on all sides be sufficiently provided in a march against all attempts especially when the Enemy is not in view but somewhat remote But if the Enemy be in view and an assault to be expected and the Army nevertheless of necessity to march and this befall in a large Plain or Champion Country this order now described is to receive some alterations For it will be needful to have a large Front of Pikes being ten or six deep in File with wings of Shot on each side the which all together are to make an equal Front between which Shot and Pikes the Artillery is to march in the intervals And in the midst right behind the Cannon or Artillery may march two Bodies of Pikes and betwixt them the Carriages or Baggage And last of all in the Rear of all may be ordered a Body of Pikes with divisions of Shot on each side equalizing with those of the Front and on each side of them some Troops of Horse to serve as wings to this Body of the Rear And in this Form and Order an Army may both march and if need be fight without being disordered or much impedited in its way For if the Enemy shall charge in Front this order may be maintained and receive the Enemies charge be it either of Horse or Foot by the Front of Pikes and the Shot in the wings shall oportunely gall them in the mean time and the Artillery also give them a Salve as they make up and both Shot and Cannon be well secured either by the Pikes if the Enemies Foot shall charge or by the Horse in the Rear which are to advance if the Enemie charge with his Horse And if the Enemy charge in any of the Flanks it may be sustained by those Pikes which march there if his charge be with Foot and withal he shall be galled by the shot both of Van and Rear and if his charge be with Horse it may be opposed by the Horse marching in the Rear who are to advance to that end And if the Enemy give on in the Rear his Foot may be received with Faces about by the Body of Pikes which are ordered there and also be much annoyed by those Shot flanking those Pikes and the Shot well secured as well by their own Pikes as the Pikes in the Flank and especially by the Horse marching in the Flanks of this Rear And all this while the Carriages of Baggage and Munition may likewise be very sufficiently secured by their being ordered to march in the very center of the Body of Pikes But because it may fall out upon occasions either of passages or ways or present work and employment that the Train of Artillery may be forced to march by it self apart and severed from the main Body of the Army in this case the order and conduction of it may be that half the Pioneers and Labourers make the Van marching under their Chiefs and Commissaries and to be freed from the trouble of any strangers not belonging to their Train nor with any of their Waggons After which Pioneers all such Waggons are to march as carry the Spades Mattocks and the like Utensils Next unto these the Field-pieces are to follow after them the Culverins then the Demy-Cannons and lastly the Cannons And thus ordered marcheth the Vant-Guard and in the very same order may also march the Rear And after the Cannons in the Rear may follow all the Furniture belonging to the Artillery and with it the Bridges the Boats the reserve of the Munitions and especially the Magazine of Powder the Tents in general and the Generals Tents Though true it is that these are sometimes ordered to march in the Van that so they may be first in the Quarters the better to be fitted for receit and entertainment After these are to march all the Fire-works all the Ladders Planks Chains Nails and Sacks and the like implements And after them the rest of the Pioneers and Miners followed with the Waggons of small shot with the Store of Lead with those of the Pikes and Arms to spare And then the Waggons of the great shot the which though properly they are to be ordered to march next after the great Guns yet in respect that the small shot and other small parcels are more subject to the pillage of the Common Souldier they may best be secured in this manner And in the last place are to come up the Waggons belonging to the General of the Ordnance his Lieutenants with the Gentlemen and Officers of that Train And then again the Smiths and Carpenters And in rear of all the Provost of the Artillery is to march together with the remainder of the Baggage and the Victuals of the whole Train And thus may the Artillery belonging
that so the more easily they may be carried from place to place and to be rejoyned when they are to be used and then to be covered with fagots and earth or with mats made and kept wet that the Enemie may not endanger them by Fire-works And these Galleries may be larger or lesser as cause requires carrying the heighth of nine feet and the bredth of six though true it is that the larger they are the better they are as admitting a freer passage for men be they either Souldiers or Pioneers Now whilst these approaches are thus in action Batteries are to be raised and planted to perfect which respect is to be had of their security their execution their form and the expedition Batteries may be secured against the shot from the Town by Gabions seven foot high and six foot broad filled with solid earth well trodden and against Sallies by Trenches well furnished with Souldiers to repel the Enemy Batteries may prove defective in their execution both by being over-remote and by the manner of mounting of the Guns The distance therefore from the part to be beaten upon is not to be above two hundred paces nor nearer then one hundred for when they are within the one or without the other the ball loseth of its best force As for the forms of Batteries the Guns are best mounted when they may stand parallel with the Batterie because when they are under the horizon the ball affecteth its natural repose when above it suffereth violence As for the form of the body of the Batterie the most proper is that of a half Moon preferable to all others in regard that it discovers wider flanketh better and requireth fewer Gabions then any other form Touching expedition in point of a dispatch the aptest course is for the Master or General of the Artillery to make use of a sufficient number of Cannoneers for the attending upon the Batterie and the Work it self is much forwarded by a Trench cast ten foot before the front of the Batterie where the Souldiers may be lodged and shrowded from the Enemie and withal it will serve for the traverse of the Guns But all this though never so throughly observed proves defective in the particular of making an assaultable breach without the use of Mines or Mining for though the use of Mines at the first coming up of great Guns was for a time neglected yet hath the practice of them been revived by reason of the perfection of modern Fortification the which by occular demonstration hath evidenced that Artillery is not otherwise profitable for expugnation then onely to take away Defences And therefore in this ensuing Chapter we shall advertise somewhat of them CHAP. XIII Mines how to be made and used How to lodge the Powder in Mines IN the use of a Mine there is nothing more to be suspected nor more perillous then a Counter-mine from the Enemie to avoid which the way whereby it may be done is to be declined either on the one side or other as occasion and the site of the place will suffer A Mine therefore is not to be carried in a right line but courbed and crooked And the sides thereof are in many places to be bored with long and fit Piercers of iron that so the Enemies Counter-mining may be heard which cannot be so closely nor secretly wrought upon but by this means may be discovered and heard In the carrying likewise of a well-contrived Mine an especial care is to be taken against the sinking and falling down of the earth from above whereby the Miners may be buried to prevent which it is to be well fourred or underpropped with pieces or pillars of Timber seven foot high if the part will bear it and the breadth of the Mine is to be five foot sided with planks and roofed with boards And if the ground be found over-moist and stored with Springs of water it is also to be floored with boards leaving a small Trench for the water to pass away or digging some small Wells to the same intent The Mine being thus and in this manner conducted to the destinated part where it is to do execution a bed or chamber is to be framed for the receipt of the powder the which being lodged in it to a sufficiencie is to be very carefully closed up that no air may enter save only at that small hole through which the train of Powder is to pass into the chamber or bed of the Mine whereby the whole mass of Powder may be fired at the time when it is to do execution And it is to be observed that the nearer the passage or thorow-fare of the Mine approacheth to the Chamber the narrower it ought to be so that though at the mouth of the Mine it may be seven foot high and five foot broad and at the half way five foot high and four foot broad yet at the very chamber it ought not to be larger then onely for the entrance of the barrels of Powder to be put in one after another But above all things an especial care is to be had by the Conductor of the Mine that before he begin his work he be very attentive and diligent in taking the exact distance that is to be between the beginning of it and the end with the precise consideration of all its winding and traverses that so he may be sure of the right placing of the bed of the Mine under the part upon which it is to do execution lest otherwise not onely the whole labour and cost be lost but prove prejudicial to his own partie To which end also the declination or sloping of the chamber or bed is to be made parallel to the Scarp of the Wall for if it decline either more or less then the Scarp it will there break forth because it shall there finde the least resistance and so in stead of an assaultable breach make only a small hole in the Rampart And thus far touching the conduction of Mines and the firing of them CHAP. XIV Of Breaches and the Assault How the Ditch is to be passed over THe Mine being thus fitted and fired before any assault be offered or attempted the breach is to be viewed and judged whether it be assaultable or no and all the Defences are to be taken away both in Front and Flank And this is to be done by planting the Cannons in such a manner that they may thorowly discover them and hereby the Assailants put upon the breach with the better security and hope of success as well in respect of themselves as of their Seconds and Thirds if need be As for the ordering of the Souldiers which are to assault some appoint the armed men to be flanked with the shot others put the shot in the Front and Rear of the armed men But for mine own part I conceive the most approved order to be that the armed men be flanked with shot onely placing some three or four ranks of
are better able and provided to sustain the Enemies resistance at their landing then the Foot who must needs be much encumbred and tired by their wading thorow the water and especially if the Foord be broad or deep And besides the Horse thus marching in Front shall oportunely discover the condition of the passage where it is at best and worst and may also be ready to relieve and succour any of the Foot that by any accident may be endangered in the water And this was Caesars order in his British War in his passage over the River of Thames and at the River Sicoris in his Spanish War And if the Foord be deep and withal of a swift current it will be necessary to place a great number both of Horse and other great Cattle as well above the part where the Army is to Foord it as also below for hereby the Horse that stand above will break the force of the Current and the Horse that stand below may succour and take up any such as shall happen to be overswayed by the force of the stream and withal add courage to the Souldiers in general to adventure And this course was practised by Hannibal in a passage of his Army over the River Po where in stead of Horse his Elephants were thus ordered to this purpose A second course to this end but requiring more time though with less peril may be to abate the depth of the Foord and violence of the Current by dividing the River into many Chanels As Cyrus did the River Euphrates when he took Babylon from Baltazzer and Semiramis the same River if we credit Herodotus long before as afterwards Alexander Neither hath this practice been altogether amongst the Ancients for at the last siege of the Town of the Borse when the States took it in that small River that ran through the Town was so diverted that the Town was not only streightned in point of water but all such Passages and Avenues drowned as might have facilitated a Reliefe from abroad and the approaches upon the Town it self made by far more easie and accessible As for the kindes of Bridges proper for these conveyances of Armies over Rivers whereof we spake of one even now Of these there are many sorts but those most in use and indeed most commendable as are made upon flat-bottom Boats or Punts wheresoever these are to be procured But withal whatsoever the Bridges be or howsoever contrived it is to be received for a Maxime that whensoever an Army is to pass over any of them and the Enemie within the distance of half a days march no part of the Army ought to be severed from the main Body that no advantage may be taken by the Enemy to intercept or come between them and their Friends And this holds not onely in the passages by Bridges but by Boats or Foords or any other And thus you have directions for the marshalling of Armies in a march And these well observed though an Army should be forced to march even by night need no other additions save onely that extraordinary care be had in providing a sufficient number of able Guides which are to be distributed throughout the whole Army That a well chosen Watch-word be given whereby every Piece and individual Person may be known one to another That many Altes be made to hold all the parts together and no Stragglers lost That the quantity and length of the march be so laid and with that discretion limited that the Souldiers be neither disabled by over-long journeys nor oportunities lost by sickness and lastly that especial endeavour be practised to procure good intelligence of the Enemies proceedings As for such marches as are to be made over Mountains thorow Woods and Boggie and Marish grounds and the like it is not to be expected that any certainty can be prescribed as touching their forms for they are to be accommodated to the ground and ways that necessity throws them upon and commonly are extended in great lengths made passable by the labour of Pioneers but best secured by vigilancie CHAP. VIII Of the ordinary way of ordering a Royal Army to Battel The Leaders in this order where to place themselves and who to be A censure of the defects of this order formerly described Of the Generals placing himself betwixt the Battel and the Rear The best place for the General in a battel Of the lining of the Horse with the light-armed or Musqueteers Of the long-Bowe how to be ordered and employed wherein it is preferable and hath the advantage of the Musquet How the Horse are most advantagiously ordered and placed in a battel The best Forms and proportions of Horse-battels The censure upon these Forms and the use of them The depth that Horse-battels are to be ordered into Of some words of Command both to Horse and Foot Of doubling Files and Ranks and the use of them A modern form of ordering a Fight much approved of Why an Army is thus to be ordered Objections answered IN the last foregoing Chapter we propounded some directions how Armies were to march In this we shall speak of the forms of embattelling them to fight and shall purposely omit many sorts of them as being to little or no purpose save to express the cunning of a curious Serjeant-Major-General and to please wanton Spectators but shall apply my self to such as are most of use The customary way of ordering an Army-Royal to a Battel as well Anciently as more Modernly hath been to divide it into three Battaliaes or main Bodies and these three Bodies have been and yet are by some Nations ordered into one joint Phalanx by others distributed into maniples or small divisions Between which divisions for the prevention of some confusions they leave intervals or distances that by them and through them one Battel or Body may the more conveniently second the other And the breadth and depth of these maniples are to be made answerable to the Enemies forces and the nature of the ground but with such distances that if the Vant-guard should happen to be broken it may conveniently retreat thorow them behind the Battel which thereupon is to joyn and advance and so to renew the Front and receive the Enemy afresh And in the like manner upon the like occasion is the Battel to do behind the Rear And as the one Body is thus relieved by another so may one maniple by another and that without either the advancing or retire of the whole Body As for the Leaders of these several Bodies those of the Vant-guard are to be the Lord Marshal with the one half of the Colonels and half of the Captains having the best men in the Front And in a retreat the same men are to bring up that Rear The Leaders of the Battel and of the Rear are to be the other half of the Colonels and Captaius As for the Generalissimo's place according to this order it is to be between the Battel and the
over-winging of the Enemy or else to make the fairer shew and outside of an Army whereby to dis-hearten the Enemy and withal to deceive him The doubling of the Files or Depth to be done either in respect of the straitness and narrowness of the place or for the better strengthening of the battel or to draw an Enemy to fight when you have the advantage of him And thus have you the Genuine uses of both these kinde of doublings as well in length as depth wherein nevertheless due heed is to be taken that in doubling of the Front there be not given so much length that it fail in its due depth nor so much depth that the Front be over-narrowed and so subject to be environed the want of length and depth in an ordered Army for a battel being equally disadvantagious and reprovable For when it is embattelled over-shallow it can endure no shock when over-deep it is easily encompassed and in danger to be utterly ruined that way To comply therefore with all these advantages and provide against the defects I shall describe a modern form of embattelling an Army for a fight that hath received a very general approbation and deserves as general an imitation And it is in this manner supposing the Army to consist of twenty thousand men all other numbers being to be proportioned accordingly in the Front of the Van are to be Wings of the best Troops of Horse to be somewhat advanced before the main Front of the foot of the Van These Horse to be divided into several maniples or small bodies and the Divisions to be well lined with Musqueteers The Van of the Battel or Middle-Guard to be ordered into four Brigades of Pikes and Musqueteers the middle Front of every Brigade being to be somewhat advanced before which part the Artillery is to be placed and to secure it three divisions of Musqueteers with some Troops of Horse near unto them are to be ordered immediately behinde these four Brigades and all these bodies are to be well lined with Musqueteers in every one of their Divisions and for a strength to these also some Cannons may be placed in the Rear of them all In the Rear of the right Wing is to be placed rwelve Troops of Horse and as many in the Rear of the left Wing As for the Rear of the main Battel or Middle-Guard it is to be ordered into three Brigades of Foot the which are to serve for a Reserve of that Body And every middle Front of each Brigade to be somewhat advanced as those in the Van. And in the Rear of all these two half Regiments of Horse of five Troops apiece Now the grounds of this order of embattelling of an Army for a battel are these That every part of it consisting thus of several maniples and small Bodies if any one of them should happen to be broken yet is there not so much danger any thing near as when an Army is ranged into great Battalions because they may with far more ease by reason of the agility of their motion as being little Bodies and the small piece of ground which they take up to move in be restored and supplied then a main great Body can possibly be Secondly In that though the thinness of the Files which are said to be at the best when they are not above six in depth may not perhaps be able to endure any main shock or force yet by this order shall more hands be brought up to fight at once then can be in great Bodies and shall also be more able to do execution on the sudden Thirdly In that in this order every part so fenceth flankers and backs one another and is so apt to second relieve and support one another so ready either to send out supplies or to receive them as that the whole Body looks like some Master-Piece of Fortification and indeed becomes so having as it were its Bastils Towers Bulworks and several Retreats So that though many several and individual persons may chance to be laid on the ground yet shall the whole order be preserved from being dis-joynted and much more the great Body of the Army from being routed Thus I have laid down a forme of ranging an Army for a Battel which some have stiled Admirable And yet I must tell you that it hath not been free from objections and those made by some old Souldiers or at the least Souldiers of elder time For first they say that in respect that private Companies cannot hold long in their full strength and due numbers being in the Field by reason of sickness slaughter and the like accidents that thus to order an Army into small bodies and as it were into private and particular Companies by themselves their Vollies of shot can neither be great nor the harm great that the Enemy shall receive by them But to this it may be answered that we speak not here of the ordering of particular Companies by themselves but of small Bodies made up of private Companies as cause shall require so that though it be true that the strength of the Army may be weakned by these accidents of death or otherwise yet the divisions may stand fast and full Though it is as true that there will be fewer Divisions which makes nothing against the order in general Secondly these Objectors say That the mixing of the Shot and Pikes together in distinct Companies weakneth and disableth the whole Body for say they by casting off the Shot in this manner the intervals and streets are made so empty and wide that the Enemies Horse are enabled to break in and disorder them And if the Shot be not thus cast off but kept close and so made to discharge in Countermarch they are hereby apt to be thronged together by the Pikes and the distance of place being taken from them the use of their weapons also must needs fail them and so all come to ruine But to this Objection also it may be answered That all this may be helped by the uniting of these bodies into one as shall be found necessary nor need these Shot be so removed from their Body of Pikes by any casting off but that they may be reunited with ease on a sudden nor shall they be thronged by their Pikes or deprived of their distances of place because they shall not need holding this order to discharge at all in Countermarch Thirdly and lastly it is objected against this foresaid order of embattelling an Army into small Bodies that in what manner soever the Shot be employed there must needs be a weakness in the Rear so that the Enemies Horse may break in at pleasure But to this it is again replied that the uniting of the small Divisions being carefully observed assureth against all these assaults and perils And that all these objections fall rather upon the embattelling of a single Regiment then the forming of a Battel or Army made up of ten or twenty thousand men And thus
to a great Army march in good safety in all common passages and in a large and open Country several and apart by it self And if it shall be thought that the Train will hereby be over-lengthened it may be helped by dividing it into three parts but in such a manner that the Vant-Guard may take the right hand the Battel the left equalling the Front with the Van and the Rear-Guard with the Ordnance and their appurtenances to march betwixt them both And hereby also the whole Train marching the more closed shall become the stronger and readier and every man prepared to know and fall into his proper rank and place without the least confusion As for the conduction and ordering of the general Carriages and Baggage belonging to an Army when it is to march It hath been found as well with the Ancients as Moderns to be disponed in five several parts As either before the Army when there was a suspicion of the Enemies charging in the Rear or behind when the Army was led towards the Enemy or on the one Flank when there was an expectation to be charged on the other or in the center of the Battel when a charge was looked for on all sides And thus much touching the ordering of an Army in its marching thorough a plain and champion Country it remaineth to speak somewhat about the conduction of an Army over Rivers and the like In which case if the Enemy be in appearance or near unto the Rear it will be fit in the first place to pass over some six or eight Pieces of the smaller sorts of Ordnance and so to lodge them on the other side of the River under good covertures that they may fully discover and play upon that part whence the danger is expected But withal a large half Moon is to be raised on the opposite side wherein the rest of the Ordnance are so to lie mounted that they may play upon all the approaches of the Enemy and withal flanker their friends and so favour them in their passage during the which interim those Pieces on the further side are likewise to be kept in continual play that so the Enemy may not without apparent hazard approach the Rear of the Army And if there be any suspicion of the Enemies falling upon the very tail of the Rear some small entrenchment is to be made wherein some small Pieces may be lodged and guarded with a convenient number of Musqueteers who are there to stay and make good the place until the Army be passed over the River and then themselves are last of all to take their passage in the last Boats under the favour of those Guns planted at the first on the further side of the River And in this manner did that famous Prince of Parma make his passage with his Army over the deep River Wale when Henry IV. of France with his Army followed him a long march in his Rear Thus I say may an Army make his passage over a River with Boats with good security though an Army of Enemies follow it in the Rear But if an Enemie lie on the further side of the River of purpose to hinder the passage of an Army over it then that course is very approvable which in the like case was put in practice by that super-eminent Commander the King of Swedeland when Tilly was on the further side of the River to oppose him who to that purpose made choice of a point of land so made by the serpentine bending of the River that he was to pass over the bank whereof on the side where the Kings own Army lay being a Pikes length higher then was that on Tillies side being also plain and without covert but the Enemies side Woodie and close Upon this point the King caused a running Trench to be cast up round about wherein Musqueteers were so lodged that out of it they might with good security give fire into the opposite Wood where Tilly with his Army lay in covert And the same Line or Trench had a great Battery besides at each end of it whereon some Demy-Cannons and Culverins were mounted with many lesser Batteries betwixt them for some smaller Pieces all alongst the point the which also were every where lined and intermingled with Musqueteers The Bridge for the passage of the Kings Army for by a Bridge they were forced to pass was made with Planks and the like materials The means to support this Bridge was by certain strong Tressels whose feet were long enough to fathom the depth of the River And these Tressels had great stones made fast to their legs wherewith to sink them and the length of the Tressels were proportioned to the just depth of the River in every place where they were to be placed so that the Planks upon the uppermost part of the Bridge were to lie almost even with the surface of the water The Bridge thus fitted and laid over the Kings Pioneers were instantly commanded to pass over upon it and cast up a small Half Moon with a Pallisado fitted unto it upon that side of the River the which works were so contrived as that they did answer in every particular those of the Enemies made for his Musqueteers and withal served to cover the Bridge and to latch such great shot as should be made upon the Bridge And these Pioneers were secured in their workings by the Cannons and Musqueteers of their Party lodged on the opposite side of the River Now the reasons inducing to the choice of the Part and the manner of the Works were in that the crookedness and serpentine course of the River did afford a conveniencie by flanking it on every side to defend the Bridge being laid over just upon the point of land so that it could not be touched by any of the Enemies Batteries though they were on each side thereof because by the sudden shouldering away of the bank of the River at either end none of the Enemies Cannon could bear or beat upon the Bridge but that either the bullets fell short being latched by the Half Moon aforesaid and the heighth of the bank of the River or else flew quite over the Kings Leaguer and so did no execution By which means the Kings Army passed over safely and being over routed the Enemy and killed their General that brave old man And thus you have some rules and advertisements about the conduction of an Army over Rivers by Boats and Bridges But if an Army be to pass over a River by a Foord and an Enemy ready to resist on the further side As it is to be known that that Army runs a great hazard which is thus put to it so is it not to be practised but upon most urging causes and then with all cautions possible among which I shall propound these following That in the passage the most of the Horse be ordered to pass in the Front and the Foot to march close up after them for the Horse
much of the ranging and ordering of Armies for a fight we shall in the ensuing Chapter give some Advertisement touching the Dislodgings Retreats and Entrenchments of a Camp-Royal CHAP. IX Observations upon the certainty of Orders for dislodging a Camp Of Retreats when to be made in a Campagne and when to be made in narrows How to be ordered and the Reasons Of an Army forced to lodge in open Fields Of the encamping of an Army Of the forms of Trenches Of Guards due to Entrenchments and where to be placed Forms of Entrenchments when an over-powerful Enemy is very near BEing in this Chapter to speak of the Dislodgings Retreats and Entrenchments of a Camp-Royal we will first begin with the first of them An Army being to dislodge and the General having given notice hereof to the Lord Marshal he the Marshal is to do the like to the Quarter-master-General and the Quarter-master to the Provost-Marshal-General and he to the Quartermasters of the Regiments and they to the Colonels and Captains and those to their subordinate Officers who are to warn the common men Now in the first place the Provost-Marshal-General is to give order to the Provost-Marshals of the Regiments that they give Command to the Pioneers Sucklers and the rest that are not Souldiers to be in a readiness and employ themselves in the filling up of the Trenches that they are to forsake and in the firing of the Quarters and this to be done whilest the whole Camp are putting themselves into their Arms that so nothing may remain entire to give relief or any way to serve the Enemies turn after they are forsaken by themselves This being done and the one half of the Scouts sent before to make discoveries that Corner or Wing of the Army which lay next to the Enemie is first to stir seconded by the Body of the Vaunt-guard Then succeedeth the other Wing and then marcheth the Battel followed by the Artillery and Baggage covered with the Rear-guard closed with Troops of Horse serving withal as Scouts to the Army and to beat up Stragglers This hath been received for a general order of dislodgings But surely this cannot be so precisely and punctually observed but may and must suffer alterations according to the quality and condition of the Country and Ground that the dislodging is to be made in for hereby an Army may sometimes be forced to march in broken ranks at another time have liberty to do it in an entire body neither can the place of the Baggage be so ascertained to be either before or after the Middle-guard but that in some cases it may better be ordered in the Flank of the Army provided that that Flank be the securest part for the place of most security is always the most proper for the placing the impediments And thus much touching dislodgings of an Army As for the ordering of Retreats it is to be done in Battalia if the ground will allow it when the Enemy is in sight and in Front And in the first place the Rear is to march off and whilest they turn faces about from the Enemy the Van and Battel are to stand their ground as ready to receive all charges This done the Battel or Middle-guard is to move and in all points to observe the orders and manner fore-practised by the Rear and in the mean time the Van to make a stand and when the Rear and Middle-guard have again made Alt the Van it self is to retreat and to have the Wings of the Horse at the same time to move and flank with it And lest the Enemy should charge upon the Rear some numbers of Musqueteers with some Cornets of Horse are to man it And thus may a whole Army maintain and continue a Retreat so long as the Enemy shall continue in a pursuit and the ground be a Champian But if an Army in the retreat the Enemy following be to pass through any narrows as upon Dikes thorow Lanes over Bridges in this case assoon as any considerable part of the Foot is entered any of these streights the Horse are to pass in the Rear of that first Division and in the room whence these Horse departed a strong stand of Pikes well flanked with Musqueteers are to make it good against the Enemies Horse and to stand firm and keep their ground And for the bringing off of these Pikes and Shot it will be necessary that some Brest-work or half Moon or both be cast up at the point of the entrance upon the narrow wherein Musqueteers are to be lodged and if cause require some small Field-pieces as Drakes or the like to beat upon the Enemy at his approach and make good the entrance The which small Pieces may be brought off upon the Narrow in the Rear of all upon their proper Carriages with their muzzles towards the Enemy and upon all occasions to be guarded and secured by the Pikes in whose Rear they retreat Now the grounds and motives of this Order are That though during a retreat in a champian and open ground the Horse may be ordered to come up and retreat in the Rear because with a small wheeling about they may advantagiously charge the Enemies Horse in Flank if they should attempt to fall on upon that Rear and the Rear of the Foot also with faces about may the whilest receive the Enemies charge with the Body of their Pikes and gall them with the Shot wherewith they are lined Yet when an Army is to pass in any streight these Horse shall then best secure themselves by wheeling about into that Rear of the Division of Foot which hath first entered upon that streight for hereby a stand or alt may be made good against the charge of the Enemies Horse by the rest of the Pikes which are not entered upon the streight and these Pikes brought off under the favour of the Field-pieces and Musqueteers in the half Moon and behind the Brest-work formerly mentioned and they themselves brought off under the protection of the last Rear of Pikes and the Drakes or Field-pieces in the Rear of them to be secured partly by their own beating upon the Enemy as they retreat and partly by the last Reserve of Pikes and Shot when he chargeth home And the want of the making use of this order in our retreat at the Island of Rey was the visible cause of our miscarrying in it For all the while we marched in open ground though all our Horse retreated in the Rear of our Foot and the Enemy both in Horse and Foot doubled our number yet meddled they not with us but made alt when we did and marched when we did But our Forces being got up to the narrow of the Dike betwixt the Salt Pans and our Van and Middle-guard well entered upon the Dike and the Front of our Rear so close up with them that our Horse could not wheel to put themselves betwixt the Rear of them and the Front of our Rear the Enemie
Rear and that as well in regard that it is the place of most security as that upon all occasions his advice and command may there be best given and taken And the Ensignes are to be ordered into the midst of the Maniples or somewhat nearer the Front As for the Artillery it is to be ordered before the Front without the corners of the Vant-guard upon the most elevated ground that it may the better play upon all parts Only if the Enemy be expected to charge on all parts then is the Artillery to be placed on all parts and such Pieces as are not for the present employment to be bestowed between the Battel and the Rear unless the fight be before a Town or Camp entrenched and then it is left either in the Town or Camp and so is the Baggage likewise and all the unprofitable persons But this ordering of an Army for a Battel hath not passed without reprehension in divers particulars As first of the Phalanx and indeed all other over-great Bodies for it being an undeniable Maxime that those Troops stand in best order which can bring up most hands to fight at once it as undeniably followeth that the smaller Troops and divisions must needs do this best and therefore are preferable Because in great Squadrons or Phalanxes many men are drowned in the depth of the Files and Flanks and never appear but when the breaking of the great Body doth present them to the Butcherie The great Squadrons are also reprovable in regard that they are unmanagable and cannot be preserved in order but when the ground is large and plain and withal of an even and perfect level otherwise they must either stand immovable or upon the least motion be subject to shaking and disorder whereas the lesser Bodies are scantled for all places champion or woodie level or uneven of what condition soever Again if two or three ranks onely of the great Bodies happen to be broken or any way disorderdered the whole Body is equally interessed in the disorder and hath far less means to rally it self then a small maniple whereas on the contrary if any violence rout or disorder a maniple it proceedeth no further then to that part where it taketh the disranking of any one of these small Bodies not at all or very little extending to the confusion or disorder of any of the rest by reason that their intervals and separations or distances serve to cut off such inconveniencies and yet no way hinder the general uniting of all their strength into one Body And these are the exceptions against great Bodies and united Phalanxes The second exception against the former order is about the placing of the General himself between the Battel or Middle-guard and the Rear-guard as the former order prescribes Concerning which notwithstanding many opinions are to be found and various Presidents Vegetius in his third Book and eighteenth Chapter saith that the General of the Army is accustomed to be in the right Wing betwixt the Horse and the Foot And he addeth This is the place which governeth the whole Battel as from whence all sallyings out are direct and free so that saith he the General resting thus betwixt the Horse and Foot may best govern them with commands and directions Now of both these there have been found examples of the first Diodorus Siculus affirmeth that it was the manner of the Scythians that the King should be in the middle of the Phalanx And Arrian in his first Book and thirty sixth Chapter affirmeth that Darius took the same place And Leo also cap. 4. Sect 63. and 67. and cap. 12. Sect. 66. giveth the middle of the Battel to the General And Plutarch reports that Timoleon in his fight against the Carthaginians placed himself in the very midst of the Battel On the other side we have it in Xenophon Cyrop lib. 7. fol. 176. that Cyrus in his Battel against Croesus took his place in the right Wing betwixt the right hand of the Battel and that of the Horse that were ordered in the Wing And Alexander the Great though bred amongst the Phalangers did the like in most of his Battels And for the Moderns I find the valiant King of Sweden at the battel of Liptzwick in the right Wing in the Front of some Brigades of Horse and at the Battel of Lutzen in the very Front of the right Wing of his Vant-guard consisting of six Horse-Squadrons lined with five Bodies of Musqueteers For mine own part as amongst these various opinions I cannot approve of the Generals placing himself in the midst of the Middle-guard or Center of the main Body of Pikes in regard that it neither expresseth valour nor can he see about him to discover any advantages or disadvantages and to direct accordingly so on the other side I shall not advise to have any General to be over-hazardous in adventuring his person in the very heighth of the Front especially when the Army falls up to the charge lest the loss of the best bloud of that body procure the languishing of the whole And thus I am sure was lost at Lutzen the best General of the World though to the wonder of the World that headless Army got the day in a fury In mine opinion therefore though a General may place himself at the time of a battel in the right Wing of his own Middle-guard yet ought it to be with some Brigades of Reserve and by no means in the very Point or Post of the Van. For questionless it is a great errour in a General when his courage shall not suffer his judgment to distinguish betwixt the duties of a common Carabine and the General of an Army As for the lining of the Horse with Musqueteers or at the least with the light-armed whereof we gave a touch before it was not uncommon with the Ancients And it was always held that Horse being thus charged could not resist both And we have a notable example hereof in Hirtius de Bello Afric when Caesar having a march to make and but a small number of Horse with his Legionary Souldiers was set upon in his way by the Enemie abounding with Horse and light-armed Numidians amongst them And when Caesars Souldiers fell out to charge the Enemies Horse retreated and the Foot stood fast until their Horse with a short wheeling about returned upon the Rear of the Enemy to their rescue by which way of fight Caesar himself confessed that he was so perplexed that he found no other course to save himself then to recover some hills of shelter near at hand and that had it not been for them he must have fared worse And for those Musquereers wherewith the King of Swedens Horse at the Battels of Liptzwick and Lutzen were lined they were so shadowed from the Enemie by these Horse that when those of the Enemies came up to the charge they did a very great execution upon them before they were aware and were a main means of