CHAPTER XVI
THE EVOLUTION OF INFANTRY
During the sixteenth century, foot soldiers began to be called Infantry (French Infanterie), after the practice of the Italian Condottieri, who used to call their soldiers their “lads,” as English officers have always had a habit of doing. They used the word Fanti, from Latin Infans, a child who could not talk (in, not, and fari, speak). Similarly, Blücher addressed his men on their toilsome march to Waterloo as “meine Kinder” (“my children”), and Americans talk of their soldiers as “the boys.”
The rise of Infantry from its position of abject inferiority to the mounted men-at-arms may be dated from the fourteenth century, when English archers overthrew the chivalry of France at Cressy and Poictiers, and Swiss halberdiers that of Austria at Morgarten and Sempach. In the next century the Swiss phalanxes (who had now replaced their halberds by pikes) defeated the Burgundian Horse at Morat and Nancy, thus assuring the independence of their country. About the same time the Hussite peasants of Bohemia, effectively organized by their great leader, John Zisca, were holding their own against the horsemen of Austria. Towards the end of the fifteenth century a new type of Infantry arose in the Suabian Landsknechts (country fellows), an appellation corrupted into “Lance Knights” in England, and “Lansquenets” in France. They imitated and improved on the organization and tactics of their neighbours, the Swiss, and soon began to rival them as Infantry.
The Halberd and Pike
Like the Swiss, the Landsknechts were armed with the long pike. The halberd, discarded during the fifteenth century, was a formidable weapon, with its triple combination of pike head for thrusting, axe blade for striking, and crook to drag the horseman down. But its eight-foot shaft was not so effective against a charge of Horse as a hedge of eighteen-foot spikes, with butts on the ground, in the hands of half-a-dozen ranks, one behind the other. The pike now became the general arm of Infantry, and only finally disappeared in 1700.
The Firearm
Modern Infantry, however, knows not the pike, and may be said to have really originated when firearms were first carried by foot soldiers. Of these weapons the first was the arquebus (arc-bouche, or bow with a mouth), a short tube carried in a small log or stick, the stock (German for stick). The charge was fired from the breast by applying, to a hole called the vent, the lighted end of a match, or rope steeped in saltpetre so as to smoulder. In the fifteenth century we find the arquebus made longer, and of smaller bore, and the stock shaped so as to fire from the shoulder. It was then provided with a cock to hold the match, and bring it down at the side of the barrel on a pan filled with a priming of powder, which fired the charge through a side vent.
About 1520 the Spaniards began to make several improvements in the firearm. It was made of larger bore, and all were of uniform calibre, whence it was called a caliver. Being heavier, a forked rest was provided to fire from. About 1530 a lock, copied (like the shaped stock) from the crossbow, was added, so as to bring the cock and match sharply down on the pan. The perfected matchlock was called a musquet, and its use spread from Spain into Flanders, and thence through Europe in the sixteenth century. In the next century it was made lighter, which allowed the rest to be abolished.
The musket, as it was spelt later, then became the general firearm of the Infantryman or Musketeer, until replaced by the rifle in the nineteenth century.
Musketeers
At first, only a few picked men were armed with muskets, and were styled “the Shot.” They were employed to skirmish on the flanks of “the Pikes,” among whom they took refuge when attacked. But as their efficiency and fire power increased, Musketeers grew in importance and numbers, till the end of the sixteenth century, Maurice of Nassau had an equal number of soldiers termed “Shots” and “Pikes” in his Companies. Infantry had now asserted its superiority to Horsemen, who could neither break the central mass of Pikes, nor endure the fire of the Musketeers on the flanks.
Infantry under Maurice of Nassau
Maurice’s army represented the best organization of the period, and was the model followed fifty years later in the Parliamentary wars by his British allies in the Netherlands. His Companies and Regiments were not yet of fixed strength; they were organized on the same lines as the Landsknechts, but were formed of equal numbers of Pikemen and Musketeers. He introduced the division of the Company into three Sections, each under an Officer, with a Corporal, two Sergeants, and three Drummers. Maurice, owing to improved drill and discipline, was able to reduce the deep formations of his day to ten ranks, which was the least which would give continuous fire by the method then necessary, which consisted of each man retiring to the rear when he had fired, so as to get time for the slow operation of reloading.
Brigades
Maurice drew up his army for battle according to the old Swiss fashion in three lines, styled “van,” “battle,” and “rear,” and each line constituted a Brigade, a new, but as yet an indefinite, unit, composed of several Regiments. This is the first introduction of that term, which is derived from the Italian briga, French brigue (a quarrel), and means “a band of opposing combatants.”
Battalions
The Battalion has, from the fifteenth century onwards, always been the fighting unit of Infantry. Battalion—French Bataillon—is in Italian Battaglione (battaglia, or battle array).
In the early sixteenth century, when the Company was only an administrative unit, the Battaglie were its tactical subdivisions, and formed small units fighting separately. Hence Battaglione, “the great battaglia,” was the name given to a large fighting unit and consisting of a mass comprising several Regiments and some thousands of men. This “Battalion” was gradually diminished in size, to meet changes in tactics which demanded a more flexible formation for mobility, and a smaller target, less vulnerable to the rude artillery of the day. The experience of the more successful leaders pointed eventually to forming a Battalion of a few hundred men, so that two or three could be furnished by a Regiment, instead of forming a huge Battalion of several Regiments. The fact that sometimes the Regiment formed only one Battalion accounts for the constant confusion between the two terms, and their indiscriminate use even to-day.
Spanish Infantry—Sixteenth Century
The remarkable efficiency of the Spanish Infantry which was fighting against Maurice for the domination of the Netherlands should not be overlooked. They had, besides musketeers, bodies of swordsmen with bucklers, active enough to overcome the pikemen. The Spaniards were the first to establish depôts for their army in war, where recruits could be trained by a few old soldiers. Their Regiments were of some 1,700 men, and the Companies varied from 150 to 300. The good order of the Spanish Army, and its strict discipline, were its most remarkable features. In the latter half of the sixteenth century the Spanish Infantry was undoubtedly the best in Europe.
Infantry under Gustavus
The next development of Infantry is seen in the Swedish Army as organized in the Thirty Years’ War by the great Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. Its efficiency and success made it the model of the organization of all the armies in Europe, and they still retain its main features.
Gustavus modelled his army on that of Maurice, but made many improvements in it. His purpose was to increase mobility, and to adopt a definite organization of units. With the first object, he lightened the musket, so as to do away with the cumbrous rest, and increased rapidity of fire by adopting a cartridge to hold the powder. He added to the Musketeers till they equalled the Pikemen, and improved the mobility of the latter by shortening the pike.
As regards organization, he adopted Brigades much smaller than those of Maurice, and made them a definite unit of two Regiments of Infantry, as they still are in every foreign army.
The Regiment had always been the administration unit, and the Battalion the tactical unit. Gustavus definitely fixed the size of the Battalion, two of which formed a Regiment. Here we find the origin of the two-Battalion Regiment, which was universal in Europe for the next hundred years.
The Regiment was 100 strong, and was divided into eight Companies, so that the Battalion had four Companies. Hence we find that Battalions in foreign armies have always had four Companies, putting on one side the Grenadier and Light Infantry Companies, which were added later, as described on page 190. The British Regiment, which was not divided into Battalions, kept the eight-Company organization of Gustavus, and, when eventually a second Battalion was added, it kept the same number of Companies.
The Regimental Officers were those of the Landsknechts—the Colonel, the Lieutenant-Colonel, and the Sergeant-Major or Staff Officer, called later the Major. Four Surgeons were added to the Regimental Staff, which was a new departure, as up to this time medical arrangements had been the concern of the Captains only.
The Company comprised 72 muskets and 54 pikes, and was divided into six Sections, each under a Corporal, four being of musketeers and two of pikemen. The two Sections of musketeers on each flank formed a new fighting unit, the Platoon (French peloton, a little bundle), which could act independently of the rest of the Company under the Lieutenant or Ensign, while the Captain commanded the two centre Sections of pikes. When pikes were eventually given up, the centre Sections disappeared, and the two Platoons on the flanks then constituted the whole Company. A Platoon thus became a Half-Company, as the Peloton still is in France. Platoon fire (Half-Company volleys) was in use in the British Army till the nineteenth century.
There were thus eight Platoons in the Battalion. We shall find that they still formed the fighting units in the Infantry of Frederick the Great, the Companies being then only the administrative units, although they subsequently superseded the Platoons as the fighting units of the Battalion.
The Company Officers were, as in the Landsknechts, the Captain, the Lieutenant, the Ensign, and the Sergeant. The latter had an assistant, the Second Sergeant, and there were 4 Under-Sergeants, besides the 6 Corporals of Sections. Three Fifes were added to the three Drums in each Company, in which we see the origin of the Drum and Fife Band.
French Infantry
During the wars of Louis XIV., in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the development of Infantry was advanced by the reduction of the number of pikes to one-third of the Battalion, and then to a quarter and a fifth, till at last they were only found in a central group in each Company, so small as to be called a Picquet, or “little body of pikes,” whence the word Picket, meaning the Support of the Outposts, probably because the musketeers furnished the sentries and the pikes the Support.
The pike was replaced in France about 1670 by the bayonet, named after the city of Bayonne, and probably suggested by the habit of the Basques of fixing the wooden handles of their long knives into the muzzles of their guns when smuggling in the Pyrenees. As the musket could not be fired with the bayonet fixed, its use was inconvenient, till the idea occurred about 1700 of attaching it by a ring clasping the muzzle. The British Army adopted the bayonet by 1688. The musketeer had become virtually a pikeman too. The pike, now unnecessary, was abolished in all armies about 1700, but in England it survived for a century in the spontoon, a short pike carried by junior Officers, just as the halberd had survived for Sergeants.
In the French Army, under Louis XIV., we find the Brigade an important unit in the organization of Infantry. Colonels were selected for this Command, which gave an opportunity for promoting the best men, without infringing the vested right of the Colonel to his own Regiment.
One of the early Brigadiers so selected was the famous Martinet, whose discipline has become proverbial. He was Colonel of the Model Regiment formed in 1668, and afterwards Inspector-General of Infantry.
Fusiliers
After the middle of the seventeenth century an important change in the firearm was invented, by which the charge was ignited by flint and steel instead of match, giving more certainty to the fire. The new flintlock was called a fusil (from fucile, flint); it was at first given to picked shots, called Fusiliers, for skirmishing work, but about 1700 all Infantry were armed with flintlocks. It was introduced in Great Britain in the shape of “Brown Bess,” the musket used until rendered obsolete by the introduction of the percussion cap in 1840.
The individual Fusiliers carried out what were later termed the duties of Light Infantry (see p. 188). By their superior shooting and activity they were better fitted to move rapidly in front of the heavier Infantry, so as to annoy the enemy by their fire, and clear the way for the main body. These Fusiliers were before long grouped into separate Battalions of Fusiliers, which were created in France in 1671, and later in England and Prussia, where they survive to this day.
Grenadiers
During the Thirty Years’ War grenades (grenada, the pomegranate) or hand-thrown bombs were introduced. This brought in another variety of Infantry. Grenadiers were powerful, tall men, picked from the Battalion to throw the grenades. They were soon collected into one “Grenadier Company,” which was added to those of each Battalion, and took its place on their right.
This was done in France in 1667, and in England in 1678. Grenadiers then gave up their special duty, and were armed with the fusil for Light Infantry duties, for which, however, they were eventually found too heavy and slow.
The Grenadier Company continued during the eighteenth century to form the right Company of the Battalion in most European armies. Some of the Grenadiers were assembled in special Grenadier Regiments, like the “Grenadier Guards” in England. In Germany and Russia the title exists to this day, although the special functions of Grenadiers have been obsolete for two centuries.
Thus, during the later portion of the seventeenth century, there were four different kinds of Infantry—Pikemen, Musketeers, Grenadiers, and Fusiliers.
The changes in armament had the effect of reducing the number of ranks in battle. The first phalanxes of pikes had 25 ranks, which Maurice reduced to 10, and Gustavus to 6; by 1700 the number of ranks had become 4, which Frederick reduced to 3, and Wellington, on entering Spain in 1808, to 2. Two ranks became the rule in Great Britain in 1824, and in the French service in 1859. The Prussians were the last to give up three ranks, in 1888, but the third rank had long been used only for skirmishing.
Light Infantry
The changes in the evolution of Infantry may be seen to be due to an ever-acting desire to have some picked troops, more mobile, and better armed than the rest—that is, Light Infantry, as they were styled later. The object of these troops was that they should act in advance, or on the flank, of the main portion of the army. They would thus guard it against surprise when at rest, or on the march, or in battle break the force of the attack by what became known as skirmishing (from Italian scherma, fencing). Such Light Infantry were first seen at the battle of Pavia, in 1525, when 1,500 arquebusiers were extended in front of the Battalions. At first these picked troops were formed out of each Battalion, but there arose a general tendency to gather them under one Command, and form them into special Companies. The same tendency soon began to group these Companies into special Battalions, which gradually lost all idea of their special functions, and tended to become ordinary Infantry, while retaining their original special designation. We see this process acting when the Grenadiers were found too heavy for “light Infantry” work; and these duties were then allotted to the “Fusiliers,” or picked shots armed with the light fusil, who eventually became Fusilier Battalions. These, like the Grenadier Battalions, had by the end of the seventeenth century given up their distinctive mode of action, and become identical with the rest of the Infantry, while retaining the title of Fusiliers; so that when Pikemen were abolished, soon after 1700, there existed only one sort of Infantry, although certain Regiments and Companies were termed Grenadiers and Fusiliers.
Light Infantry and Rifles
But after all these changes the need of Light Infantry in war remained none the less urgent, and again special troops began to be formed for Light Infantry duties. Thus, Infantry, which had just been reduced to one type, once more differentiated during the eighteenth century into two kinds—ordinary and light Infantry.
The process began during the Seven Years’ War about the middle of the eighteenth century. The Austrian Light Infantry, called Freischarren, or “free hordes,” irregular troops formed from the less civilized races in the army, caused the Prussians constant annoyance. This led Frederick the Great to copy the idea, by collecting Austrian deserters, and smugglers and wilder spirits from among his own people, to form Light Infantry. He also raised from foresters and gamekeepers special troops called Jägers, literally “huntsmen,” who were armed with the more accurate rifled musket used for sport, and were well fitted for sharp-shooting. The French followed suit, and in 1759 formed Corps of Chasseurs (the equivalent word to Jägers), and in 1805 raised light troops of small men, called Voltigeurs—that is, “men who can turn quickly,” from their agility. The British, too, began to form Light Infantry out of their newly raised Highland Corps about the middle of the eighteenth century. Later, in consequence of British experiences in America with the backwoodsmen—good shots using rifles—special Battalions of Rifles, like those of France and Prussia, were raised before the end of the century.
These various descriptions of light troops in all armies were sharp-shooters, armed with rifles, and accustomed to independent action at the front. Their development followed two separate lines. The Light Troops were attached to each Battalion in the form of a Light Infantry Company, or sometimes grouped in special Battalions styled Light Infantry, a title they still keep. The riflemen formed the Battalions of Rifles, which still exist in all armies under various names, but clothed generally in the green uniform which German gamekeepers still wear. Green was the customary dress of a forester, as we are reminded by the common sign for a country inn—“The Green Man.” The addition of one or two Light Infantry Companies, and sometimes of a Grenadier Company, raised the number of Companies in a Battalion to ten in England, five in Prussia, and six in France, during the late eighteenth century. Napoleon’s Battalions had six Companies, as had all armies on the Continent (except the Prussian) up to 1866, after which the Prussian organization, with four, was introduced, and still rules. French Chasseur Battalions (Rifles) have retained six companies, as a more supple and mobile organization for their special duties.
The Light Infantry Companies were much used during the Napoleonic wars, but were soon afterwards abolished. The Rifle Battalions gradually lost their special character as Light Troops, while retaining their uniforms and designations, and are at present armed, trained, and used exactly like ordinary Infantry, which has, however, adopted their rifle and their extended formation in battle.
The tactical work of Light Infantry may perhaps be said to be now done by Mounted Infantry, and it may be asked whether the Rifle Regiments of the British Army might not have taken up the duties of Mounted Infantry, for which they seem suited by their origin as picked troops, and their Peninsular reputation and regimental traditions of mobility and independent action. In Germany a similar suggestion has been recently made to provide Rifle Battalions with cycles, and send them out to the front with the Cavalry—in fact, to turn them virtually into “Mounted Infantry” on cycles.