Organization: How Armies are Formed for War

The “New Model” Army

The Swedish Army under Gustavus proved so effective and successful in the Thirty Years’ War that it became the model for the organization common to all armies during the seventeenth century, which may be well studied by British soldiers in the “New Model” Army, raised in the Civil War on Cromwell’s suggestion. This army, perhaps the best disciplined and most effective the world has ever seen since Roman times, was never beaten during its many campaigns. The “New Model” is the true ancestor of the British Army, which has proved itself not unworthy of its descent. We still wear the red coat common in Cromwell’s army, and have its organization and military terms in use to-day. Marlborough’s army was practically the same as the New Model Army, only with bayonets for pikes, and flint locks for match locks.

The New Model Army was organized much like the armies of Maurice and Gustavus. It was composed as follows:

The Horse were formed in 11 Regiments of 600 men each, with 6 Troops. The Foot were in 12 Regiments of 1,200 men, each with 10 Companies. The Dragoons, which were practically Mounted Infantry, formed one Regiment of 1,000, in 10 Companies. Regiments had been formed in England after 1618. The Colonel had a Company of his own, and, as he could not command it himself as well as the Regiment, it was commanded by the Lieutenant, who was therefore styled Lieutenant of the Colonel, or Lieutenant-Colonel. That officer’s connection with the Commanding Officer caused him to be of such importance that his position was that of Second-in-Command of the Regiment, and he eventually became the Commanding Officer, as he is to-day. In the Horse, the Colonel had, similarly, a Troop, which was commanded by the Lieutenant, who ranked as Junior Captain, and was called Captain-Lieutenant. Horse Regiments had thus no Lieutenant-Colonel, and Cavalry Regiments have no Second-in-Command in any army to-day.

All Regiments had a Major (originally the Sergeant-Major), whose duties were those of our Adjutant. The latter officer was introduced after the Restoration in 1660, to perform the duties of the Major, who had become Second-in-Command, owing to the Lieutenant-Colonel having become Commanding Officer. Like the Colonel, the Lieutenant-Colonel and Major had each a Company of their own to provide their emoluments, and these were stronger than those of ordinary Captains, so as to bring in more pay to the senior officers.

Each Regiment had a Provost-Marshal to enforce discipline, a Surgeon, and a Chaplain, and Infantry had a Quarter-Master and a Drum-Major.

The Troops of Cavalry had four Officers—Captain, Lieutenant, Cornet, Quarter-Master—and three Corporals and three Trumpeters. There were no Sergeants of Horse, so that even to-day in the Household Cavalry the word Corporal-Major is used instead of Sergeant-Major.

The Infantry Companies had three Officers—Captain, Lieutenant, Ensign—and two Sergeants, three Corporals, a Quarter-Master-Sergeant, and two Drummers.

The Artillery was at this time of little account. The lighter guns—3- to 6-pounders—were attached in pairs to each Regiment, like our Machine Guns to-day. This practice survived during the eighteenth century. The heavier guns—9- to 12-pounders—with a few larger ones up to 20-pounders, were drawn by teams of horses or oxen, driven by civilians on foot. They formed, with the wagons carrying ammunition both for guns and match locks, the Train, controlled by the Waggon-Master-General. Each gun was served by a Master Gunner and two Under-Cannoneers, while the train was managed by Waggon-Masters, assisted by Furriers (French Fouriers) and clerks, and a number of artificers of all sorts.

The Head-Quarters of the Army consisted of a General as C.-in-C., with a Second-in-Command, naturally called the Lieutenant-General, who commanded the principal Arm—the Cavalry. There was a Sergeant-Major-General who commanded the Infantry, and was, as his name implies, the Chief Staff Officer of the Commander-in-Chief, as the Sergeant-Major was the Staff Officer of the Colonel of a Regiment. In these titles the Sergeant has long been dropped, and the (Sergeant) Major-General is still, as in the “New Model,” the junior rank of General Officer. A Master-General of the Ordnance controlled the Artillery, Engineers, and Train.

The two Generals of Horse and Foot had each a Staff, consisting of an Adjutant-General and a Quarter-Master-General. Under the Master of the Ordnance there were a Comptroller of the Ordnance, and an Engineer-General with several assistant Engineers, but no men.

The list of Administrative Officers on the Head-Quarters Staff is interesting, as showing the antiquity of many of our military titles:

The Judge-Advocate-General.

Two Provost-Marshals-General—one for the Horse, one for the Foot.

The Commissary-General of Victuals.

The Commissary-General of Horse Provisions.

The Waggon-Master-General, in charge of Train and baggage.

Medical Officers.

The Chaplain to the Army.

Two Treasurers-at-War (or Paymasters).

The Muster-Master-General.

The Scout-Master-General, who was what we should call the Chief Intelligence Officer; he had two Assistants and twenty Scouts.

The Armies of the Eighteenth Century

Throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century the Armies of Europe much resembled those of the seventeenth, of which the “New Model,” just described, is an example. They were formed of a number of Regiments of Cavalry, and separate Battalions, or at most Brigades, of Infantry, accompanied by a long train of guns and motley wagons carrying food and baggage. These were drawn by teams of oxen and horses hired in the country, driven by wagoners on foot.

There was no grouping of the units of the army into larger organizations, except on the battlefield, when fractions of the battle array were sometimes temporarily placed under a named Commander. The whole army marched, camped, and fought as one body, covering but little ground compared with the armies of to-day, owing to its smaller numbers. It was thus always under the eye of the Commander, whether on the march, in camp, or in battle.

The march columns were shortened, when possible, by moving the Infantry in column of sections down the broader roads, or even in battalion column across the open fields alongside. At night, to prevent desertion and marauding, billets were never used, and bivouacs seldom, but the army lay concentrated in a formal camp in order of battle, so that it could, without delay, form up in front of the camp ready for the combat.

In battle, the disposition of the army was in two lines of Infantry, among which some of the lighter guns were dispersed in pairs, while the heavier ones were massed on the wings and at the centre. The Cavalry were on each flank. The wagon train was parked in rear under a strong escort for its protection against marauding cavalry. The marshalling of the army in due precedence of each unit, and placing the army in correct position without overlapping or crooked lines, was a delicate process, which would often take hours to perform.

Whether in camp, or in battle, each of the Regiments was separate and unconnected, and each received its Orders direct from the Commander, who himself personally watched their execution. He thus commanded in the strictest sense, and needed little assistance from his Staff Officers, who were chiefly used to gallop to the troops with his Orders.

The above gives a picture of the earliest regular armies in Europe, such as those commanded by Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Marlborough, and Frederick the Great. The latter, however, introduced, during his long wars, several improvements in his army, which became, during the Seven Years’ War, the model of Europe owing to its extraordinary success, opposed though it was to the larger but inferior armies of Austria, Russia, and France. Some of the details of Frederick’s organization have been mentioned in previous pages dealing with each Arm.

Frederick himself generally acted against the two first-mentioned enemies, and detached a very able General, Ferdinand of Brunswick, to oppose the French. Ferdinand had under his command an allied force, formed of small separate armies of all Arms, provided by Prussia, Britain, Holland, Brunswick, and Hesse. These remained under their own Commanders, and were virtually what were later known as Divisions.

In Frederick’s army the only trace of higher organization is found in his dividing the whole for battle into two Wings and a body of Cavalry, and allotting separate Commanders to each portion. In this, we perhaps find the germ of the Army Corps system adopted in the next century.

UNIFORM

Uniform, or clothing of a uniform pattern, was not customary till the middle of the seventeenth century. It had been seen in the red coats of selected troops which Henry VIII. brought in; but the historic red coat was first given to the whole army by Cromwell, and continued after the Restoration. Uniform was brought in by Louis XIV. later, and its use spread everywhere. Gustavus had distinguished his Brigades by coloured scarves. The English, fighting for Protestantism in aid of the Netherlands against Spain, wore Orange and Blue scarves, whence perhaps the adoption of one or other of these colours to represent the Whig in English politics in the eighteenth century. Cromwell’s army wore an Orange scarf, whence no doubt came the hue of Protestant Ireland, which was to a great extent settled by his parliamentary soldiers.

MILITARY MUSIC

Music had long been used by soldiers, and was encouraged by Henry VIII.; but marching in step to fife and drum was invented by the Swiss in the fourteenth century, copied in the fifteenth by the Landsknechts, and from them adopted in all armies. It is interesting to note that the roll on the drum always heard before the band begins a march is the old Landsknechts’ drum march.

FLAGS OR COLOURS

Flags were probably derived from the Knights’ Banner. They were used as Standards by the Swiss, from whom the Reiters and Landsknechts copied the custom, which was then universally adopted. Their varied hues caused them to be styled Colours in England during the reign of Elizabeth. The flag was used not only to distinguish the combatant sides, but also the different regiments, and the men were taught to close and rally to it, and to associate with it ideals of duty and self-sacrifice which still cling to the Colours to-day.

The flag was carried on a time-honoured system which became an art. The various ways of waving and folding it were originally signals for movements which the musicians looked to for guidance, so that the flag-bearer in a sense led the music. The traditions and coquetries of this art were gradually lost, and only survive in the pride of the drum-major in the play of his staff, as he leads the drums at the head of the regiment.