Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

a poor man, so high was his sense of honour that he declined gifts which seemed in his mind to carry with them the imputation of mercenary motives on the part of the recipi

ality of our army organization, which assign-
ed the troops of the line to the Commander-
in-Chief, and the two Woolwich corps to
the Master of the Ordnance, no doubt did
much to keep their claims in the back-ent.
ground.

But although thus denied an opportunity
of showing their fitness for every branch of a
soldier's duties in any campaign in which
British troops have been engaged in Europe,
officers of engineers have from time to time
been able to burst through these official
shackles, and thus assert the injustice to
which their corps was subject.

During the Crimean War, Captain Simmons, as a general of division, assisted by Lieutenant Ballard as a brigadier, did good work with Turkish levies against the Russian troops stationed on the eastern shores of the Black Sea; and in truth the fighting material they had to make use of was indifferently good in comparison with the welldisciplined troops of the Czar with whom they had to contend. Deteriorated by the evil example of the enervated bullet-fearing Pashas who commanded them, these soldiers of the Sultan were at first but imperfectly reliable under fire. But when they came to find leaders who really performed the duty of leading, the old courage of Central Asian ancestors was once again kindled in these sons of Islam. The campaign in Mingrelia, including the passage of the Ingour river, may well stand a comparison as a piece of soldiering with any of the operations carried on at the same time in the Crimean peninsula.

As our leading journal justly remarked, on the occasion of his resigning his command in China, Charles Gordon there set an example of courage, of modesty, and of unspotted honour, of which his country may well be proud.

Lord Napier's services are so fresh in our memories that it seems unnecessary to recapitulate these further proofs of an engineer officer's capacity for command. Lest, however, some critics may consider that the success of the Abyssinian expedition indicates a talent for organization rather than a fitness for fighting, it may be well to refer to former services of this general; to his enterprising tactics while commanding the division which did the hard work of the last China war, and to his daring operations while commanding a brigade of troops during the Indian Mutiny. His action with the well-organized army of mutineers at Jowra Alipore was one of the most gallant affairs of the campaign of 1857-1858. One day at the end of a forced march he found his fatigued little force in the immediate neighbourhood of the rebellious army of the Maharajah Scindiah -an army composed of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, equipped from British arsenals and drilled by British officers. Without a moment's hesitation he made up his mind to attack at any odds. Taking with him a battery of horse-artillery and a few squadrons of cavalry, he worked his way in silence round the shoulder of the low hill that separated the contending forces, and suddenly making his appearance on the enemy's flank, plunged headlong into their dense ranks. A clear field and twenty-two guns were the reward of this day's work, by which Robert Napier effectually set at rest any doubts as to the calculating spirit of the engineer being in any way detrimental to the dash of the soldier.

In China, again, a young captain of the corps not long ago found himself gradually developing from an adviser of the Imperial generals into the position of Commander-inChief of their entire forces. In this capacity Captain Gordon raised armies, fought battles, and reconquered provinces. Here, too, imperturbable courage on the part of one man served to convert a mob of timorous Orientals into a really useful fighting force. And when at length his firmness and fearlessness had overcome the many obstacles he had to encounter, in the shape of an active enemy, unwilling recruits, and endless official thwartings offered by orthodox mandarins to this resolute white devil-in short, after the insurrection which threatened the very throne of China had been quelled by his personal efforts,-Gordon returned to his ordinary engineer duties without carrying with him any outward benefit. Having done his duty as an English officer, he now as an English gentleman refused the offers of service and of rewards made to him by the grateful Emperor of China. Although

In thus venturing to cite a few instances of services rendered in the field by Royal Engineers, we feel that we undertake what may seem to many a superfluous task. For ordinary reason and experience ought alike to teach us that such services are not likely to be below the level of those performed by men whose natural aptitude for military stu dies has not, in the first instance, been determined by the test of examination, nor has afterwards been developed by a professional education. The regimental routine prescribed as the sole training of most officers of our army is excellent as a means of teaching them habits of order and obedience, but be

yond a certain limit its action is apt to be injurious. Long subjection to its monotonous restraint tends to merge the man into the machine-or rather into an isolated fragment of a machine,-useful so long as the entire apparatus is in gear, but helpless so far as individual movements are concerned. If any one doubts the evil effects of this system of cherishing the military attributes of an army at the expense of its warlike qualities, let him look at the last struggle between Austria and Prussia. No troops in the world are better disciplined than those of the Kaiser. None have higher courage. That they went down before the soldiers of North Germany was not due to the mere mechanical superiority of the needle gun. The same intelligent spirit of soldiering which supplied the Prussians with that admirable weapon was visible throughout every phase of their proceedings, visible in the strategy of their generals as well as in the individual efforts made by every man of the force. Sadowa, to use a well-worn expression, was simply the victory of mind over matter.

tary, those young Frenchmen contrived somehow or other to beat their orthodox antogonists,-quite in opposition to the rules laid down for such cases, it is true, but beat them they certainly did. The Austrians could of course console themselves with the reflection that their very defeat but the better proved their rigid adherence to established rules of procedure. With one of Molière's doctors they might even say, "Il vaut mieux mourir selon les règles que de réchapper contre les règles." Sentiments of this kind might very possibly have soothed the court circles of the Vienna of that time. But we doubt if Englishmen of the present day would be content with such an apology offered on behalf of a British army beaten under similar circumstances. We question whether the nation, on hearing that its flag had been so soiled, would be satisfied by an explanatory circular from the Horse Guards assuring us that the unpleasant result had been brought about in strict accordance with the regulations of the service.

+

That radical reforms are required in the To our country that seven weeks' war in organization of our army appears to be the Germany ought to carry a special warning. conviction of the country, and symptoms are If any lesson were to be gathered from it, it not wanting to show that the earliest efforts was assuredly this, that mere courage, active of its reformers are likely to be directed or passive, is no longer sufficient to save an to the system on which it is supplied with army from defeat. The tactics pursued by officers. Already the movement against our best generals in the Peninsula and at the sale of commissions has assumed formiWaterloo, which almost invariably consisted dable dimensions. Setting himself astride in relying on the unflinching resolution with this hereditary cheval de bataille, a memwhich English troops can endure the on- ber of the present Administration has slaught of assaulting columns, would be of not hesitated to proclaim the necessity of little avail in a modern battle-field. The abolishing this and other practices, which conditions of the combat are altogether al- tend, in his mind, to make the army a createred by the use of arms of precision of the ture of the Crown rather than a servant of present day. Any general in the field at the country. And doubtless many members tempting to handle troops after the time of the House of Commons are prepared to honoured maxims to this day practised on support this gentleman in effecting important English parade-grounds would never repeat changes in this respect. How far the prethe operation. Long before his cumbrous sent purchase system may be beneficial, and columns had taken up their alignments and how far it may be injurious to our army, dressed up to their points, his ranks would we need not now inquire. Much may be urged show sad gaps. An enterprising enemy in support of each view of the case. might sorely violate his notions of "proper we, who may now be set down as endeavourfronts" and "proper pivots" by falling head- ing to advocate certain claims of the Royal long on him without regard to any other Artillery and Royal Engineers, in which this principle of war than that of securing success, systems does not obtain, may possibly be reIn arms, as in all things, innovations invari-garded as but partial judges of this matter. ably meet with the cry of "heterodoxy, heterodoxy," from the praisers of past times. Napoleon and the other generals of the French Republic adopted methods of fighting utterly at variance with the good old types of strategy laid down in the ingenious treatises on warfare with which the Austrian commanders of the day were thoroughly conversant. Departing from the hallowed prescriptions of the old masters of the art mili

And

At the same time, as it happens that these corps are the examples selected by Mr. Trevelyan and his school to prove the advantages of the principle they seek to promote, we may venture to point out what seems to be the secret of success in their instance. And at the outset we may mention that there is this radical difference in the Ordnance corps from the model organization which these abolitionists seem to have set be

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

When the elements of drill and discipline have been fairly mastered by a young soldier, it is right that he should acquire knowledge of the varied kind which is necessary for the application of these to the wants of warfare. A mere capacity for manoeuvring troops is but a poor qualification for commanding an army; and yet, Heaven knows, this is about the limit of learning attainable by many of our officers, whose mornings are occupied in dawdling through drill and orderly-room duties, and whose afternoons are filled up by strolling in search of such bonnes fortunes as are to be met with in the streets of the country quarters in which they find themselves. Surely it is better for a man to be engaged in healthy occupation for the mind and the body than to be condemned to the life-long listlessness of mere barrack work.

fore themselves, in so far that in them none of
the officers have risen from the ranks.
Moreover, although admission to the Royal
Academy is nominally open to all competi-
tors, yet the nature of the qualifications
which are exacted does in reality restrict the
candidates to certain classes of the commu-
nity-classes, in fact, which can afford to
pay £130 a year for their boys during their
training at Woolwich, and can make them
some annual allowance afterwards during
their subaltern days at Chatham.* In short,
the officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal
Engineers are the sons of the gentle folks of
England. This condition of the question
may no doubt seem of small moment to en-
thusiasts whose abstract notions of a perfect
military organization may be summed up in
the supposititious bâton de maréchal which
each French soldier is said to carry in his
knapsack. But to those who have an every-
day acquaintance with the subject the cir-
cumstance is hardly capable of being over-
rated in importance.

If certain critics choose to cavil at the employment of engineers on duties which may seem to belong to the civilian rather than the soldier, we would ask these gentlemen to look at the many engineers who held high commands during the late war in America, and then to tell us if the usefulness of Robert Lee, of Meade, of Beauregard, and their brother officers, was in any way impaired by the varied callings of peaceful life which had occupied their previous years of military inactivity. We would even ask these objectors to look at the case of Lord Strathnairn, whose regimental work may be said to have ceased on his reaching the rank of captain, and then let us know whether his subsequent successful career as a general can be considered to establish the inferiority of a comprehensive course of training, civil as well as military, compared with that finite instruction which is comprised within the red boards of the Queen's Regulations for the Army.

Men who have mixed much with the Eng-
lish soldier well know that the respect and
obedience he yields to an individual of the
class which he designates as gentlemen are
not to be obtained by persons of a lower so-
cial position. On service the display of
courage will always insure a leader being
followed, irrespective of birth or breeding;
but in barracks and barracks, be it remem-
bered, constitute the normal scene of duty
the English soldier will usually be found
much less tractable to the orders of the
most meritorious officer that ever rose from
the ranks than to the most careless of subal-
terns freshly set free from Eton or Sand-
hurst. In course of time a juster apprecia-
tion of human equality may possibly pervade
the rank and file. At present, however, it is
well that their existing sentiments on this
subject should not be overlooked in any
scheme devised for commanding them.

In addition, however, to the mere circum-
stance of social condition, the Engineer offi-
cer has, as we have seen, a professional edu-
cation such as is seldom enjoyed by his
fellows in the line. His future occupations,
too, being of an ever-varying nature, are
better calculated to develop his capabilities
as a man than the monotonous repetition of
one small round of mechanical duties which
constitutes the military career of most officers
of our army,

*The cost of a cadet varies according to circumstances. The sons of officers are admited on lower terms than those of non-military men; and, again, the lower may be the rank of the parent, the less is the amount required for the boy. £130 may be

set down as the average cost.

We think most Englishmen will agree with us in considering that able generals are not sufficiently numerous in our army to warrant us in refusing to seek for them wherever they can be found. In making this selection, it seems unwise that the country should be denied the choice of some 2300 officers of artillery and engineers, whose military training has been more carefully conducted than that of any soldiers in its service. In justice to these ordnance officers, too, it is right that the mischievous ban which hitherto has excluded them from commands should now be removed. Its existence is the veriest mockery imaginable of the claim of intellect or of culture to appear arrayed in a red coat.

If, notwithstanding their early training and their after services, these officers shall still be denied this act of justice, then let

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

yond a certain limit its action is apt to be | tary, those young Frenchmen contrived
injurious. Long subjection to its monoto- somehow or other to beat their orthodox an-
nous restraint tends to merge the man into
the machine-or rather into an isolated
fragment of a machine,-useful so long as
the entire apparatus is in gear, but helpless
so far as individual movements are concerned.
If any one doubts the evil effects of this
system of cherishing the military attributes
of an army at the expense of its warlike qual-
ities, let him look at the last struggle be-
tween Austria and Prussia. No troops in
the world are better disciplined than those
of the Kaiser. None have higher courage,
That they went down before the soldiers of
North Germany was not due to the mere
mechanical superiority of the needle gun.
The same intelligent spirit of soldiering which
supplied the Prussians with that admirable
weapon was visible throughout every phase
of their proceedings, visible in the strategy
of their generals as well as in the individual
efforts made by every man of the force. Sa-
dowa, to use a well-worn expression, was
simply the victory of mind over matter.

togonists,-quite in opposition to the rules
laid down for such cases, it is true,—but
beat them they certainly did. The Austrians
could of course console themselves with the
reflection that their very defeat but the
better proved their rigid adherence to estab-
lished rules of procedure. With one of
Molière's doctors they might even say, "Il
vaut mieux mourir selon les règles que de
réchapper contre les règles." Sentiments
of this kind might very possibly have soothed
the court circles of the Vienna of that time.
But we doubt if Englishmen of the present
day would be content with such an apology
offered on behalf of a British army beaten
under similar circumstances. We question
whether the nation, on hearing that its flag
had been so soiled, would be satisfied by an
explanatory circular from the Horse Guards
assuring us that the unpleasant result had
been brought about in strict accordance with
the regulations of the service.

That radical reforms are required in the To our country that seven weeks' war in organization of our army appears to be the Germany ought to carry a special warning. conviction of the country, and symptoms are If any lesson were to be gathered from it, it not wanting to show that the earliest efforts was assuredly this, that mere courage, active of its reformers are likely to be directed or passive, is no longer sufficient to save an to the system on which it is supplied with army from defeat. The tactics pursued by officers. Already the movement against our best generals in the Peninsula and at the sale of commissions has assumed formiWaterloo, which almost invariably consisted dable dimensions. Setting himself astride in relying on the unflinching resolution with this hereditary cheval de bataille, a memwhich English troops can endure the on- ber of the present Administration has slaught of assaulting columns, would be of not hesitated to proclaim the necessity of little avail in a modern battle-field. The abolishing this and other practices, which conditions of the combat are altogether al- tend, in his mind, to make the army a createred by the use of arms of precision of the ture of the Crown rather than a servant of present day. Any general in the field at- the country. And doubtless many members tempting to handle troops after the time of the House of Commons are prepared to honoured maxims to this day practised on support this gentleman in effecting important English parade-grounds would never repeat changes in this respect. How far the prethe operation. Long before his cumbrous sent purchase system may be beneficial, and columns had taken up their alignments and how far it may be injurious to our army, dressed up to their points, his ranks would we need not now inquire. Much may be urged show sad gaps. An enterprising enemy in support of each view of the case. And might sorely violate his notions of "proper we, who may now be set down as endeavourfronts" and "proper pivots" by falling head-ing to advocate certain claims of the Royal long on him without regard to any other Artillery and Royal Engineers, in which this principle of war than that of securing success. systems does not obtain, may possibly be reIn arms, as in all things, innovations invari- garded as but partial judges of this matter. ably meet with the cry of "heterodoxy, At the same time, as it happens that these heterodoxy," from the praisers of past times. corps are the examples selected by Mr. Napoleon and the other generals of the Trevelyan and his school to prove the adFrench Republic adopted methods of fight- vantages of the principle they seek to proing utterly at variance with the good old mote, we may venture to point out what types of strategy laid down in the ingenious seems to be the secret of success in their intreatises on warfare with which the Austrian stance. And at the outset we may mention commanders of the day were thoroughly con- that there is this radical difference in the Ordversant. Departing from the hallowed pre- nance corps from the model organization scriptions of the old masters of the art mili-which these abolitionists seem to have set be

A

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

When the elements of drill and discipline have been fairly mastered by a young soldier, it is right that he should acquire knowledge of the varied kind which is necessary for the application of these to the wants of warfare. A mere capacity for manoeuvring troops is but a poor qualification for commanding an army; and yet, Heaven knows, this is about the limit of learning attainable by many of our officers, whose mornings are occupied in dawdling through drill and orderly-room duties, and whose afternoons are filled up by strolling in search of such bonnes fortunes as are to be met with in the streets of the country quarters in which they find themselves. Surely it is better for a man to be engaged in healthy occupation for the mind and the body than to be condemned to the life-long listlessness of mere barrack work.

fore themselves, in so far that in them none of
the officers have risen from the ranks.
Moreover, although admission to the Royal
Academy is nominally open to all competi-
tors, yet the nature of the qualifications
which are exacted does in reality restrict the
candidates to certain classes of the commu-
nity-classes, in fact, which can afford to
pay £130 a year for their boys during their
training at Woolwich, and can make them
some annual allowance afterwards during
their subaltern days at Chatham.* In short,
the officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal
Engineers are the sons of the gentle folks of
England. This condition of the question
may no doubt seem of small moment to en-
thusiasts whose abstract notions of a perfect
military organization may be summed up in
the supposititious bâton de maréchal which
each French soldier is said to carry in his
knapsack. But to those who have an every
day acquaintance with the subject the cir-
cumstance is hardly capable of being over-
rated in importance.

If certain critics choose to cavil at the employment of engineers on duties which may seem to belong to the civilian rather than the soldier, we would ask these gentlemen to look at the many engineers who held high commands during the late war in America, and then to tell us if the usefulness of Robert Lee, of Meade, of Beauregard, and their brother officers, was in any way impaired by the varied callings of peaceful life which had occupied their previous years of military inactivity. We would even ask these objectors to look at the case of Lord Strathnairn, whose regimental work may be said to have ceased on his reaching the rank of captain, and then let us know whether his subsequent successful career as a general can be considered to establish the inferiority of a comprehensive course of training, civil as well as military, compared with that finite instruction which is comprised within the red boards of the Queen's Regulations for the Army.

Men who have mixed much with the English soldier well know that the respect and obedience he yields to an individual of the class which he designates as gentlemen are not to be obtained by persons of a lower social position. On service the display of courage will always insure a leader being followed, irrespective of birth or breeding; but in barracks and barracks, be it remembered, constitute the normal scene of dutythe English soldier will usually be found much less tractable to the orders of the most meritorious officer that ever rose from the ranks than to the most careless of subalterns freshly set free from Eton or Sandhurst. In course of time a juster appreciation of human equality may possibly pervade the rank and file. At present, however, it is well that their existing sentiments on this subject should not be overlooked in any scheme devised for commanding them.

In addition, however, to the mere circumstance of social condition, the Engineer officer has, as we have seen, a professional education such as is seldom enjoyed by his fellows in the line. His future occupations, too, being of an ever-varying nature, are better calculated to develop his capabilities as a man than the monotonous repetition of One small round of mechanical duties which constitutes the military career of most officers of our army.

* The cost of a cadet varies according to circumstances. The sons of officers are admited on lower terms than those of non-military men; and, again, the lower may be the rank of the parent, the less is the amount required for the boy. £130 may be set down as the average cost.

We think most Englishmen will agree with us in considering that able generals are not sufficiently numerous in our army to warrant us in refusing to seek for them wherever they can be found. In making this selection, it seems unwise that the country should be denied the choice of some 2300 officers of artillery and engineers, whose military training has been more carefully conducted than that of any soldiers in its service. In justice to these ordnance officers, too, it is right that the mischievous ban which hitherto has excluded them from commands should now be removed. Its existence is the veriest mockery imaginable of the claim of intellect or of culture to appear arrayed in a red coat.

If, notwithstanding their early training and their after services, these officers shall still be denied this act of justice, then let

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »