Military Necessity. As understood by modern civilized nations, consists in the necessity of those measures which are indispensable for securing the ends of war, and which are lawful according to the modern law and usages of war. Military necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb of armed enemies, and of other persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable in the armed contests of war; it allows of the capturing of every armed enemy, and every enemy of importance to the hostile government, or of peculiar danger to the captor; it allows of all destruction of property, and obstruction of the ways and channels of traffic, travel, or communication, and of all withholding of sustenance or means of life from the enemy; of the appropriation of whatever an enemy’s country affords necessary for the subsistence and safety of the army, and of such deception as does not involve the breaking of good faith, either positively pledged, regarding agreements entered into during the war, or supposed by the modern law of war to exist. Men who take up arms against one another in public war do not cease on this account to be moral beings, responsible to one another, and to God. Military necessity does not admit of cruelty, that is, the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering, or for revenge, or of maiming or wounding, except in fight, or of torture to extort confessions. It does not admit of the use of poison in any way, or of the wanton devastation of a district. It admits of deception, but disclaims acts of perfidy; and in general, military necessity does not include any act of hostility which makes the return to peace unnecessarily difficult.
Military Orders. Religious associations which arose from the mixture of the religious enthusiasm and the chivalrous love of arms which almost equally formed the characteristic of mediæval society. The first origin of such associations may be traced to the necessities of the Christian residents of the Holy Land, in which the monks, whose first duty had been to serve the pilgrims in the hospital at Jerusalem, were compelled by the necessity of self-defense to assume the character of soldiers as well as of monks. (See [Saint John of Jerusalem].) The order of the Templars (see [Templar, Knights]) was of singular origin. Those of [Alcantara] and [Calatrava] (which see), in Spain, had for their immediate object the defense of their country against the Moors. These orders as well as that of Avis in Portugal, which was instituted with a similar view, followed the Cistercian rule, and all three differed from the Templars and the Knights of St. John in being permitted by their institute to marry once. The same privilege was enjoyed in the Savoyard order of Knights of St. Maurice, and the Flemish order of St. Hubert. On the contrary, the Teutonic Knights, who had their origin in the Crusades (see [Grand Master]), were bound by an absolute vow of chastity. With the varying conditions of society, these religious associations have at various times been abolished or fallen into disuse; but most of them still subsist in the form of orders of knighthood, and in some of them, attempts have recently been made to revive, with certain modifications, the monastic character which they originally possessed.
Military Positions. See [Positions, Military].
Military Punishment. See [Punishment, Military].
Military Regulations. The rules and regulations by which the discipline, formations, field-exercise, and movements of the whole army are directed, to be observed in one uniform system. See [Army Regulations].
Military Science. See [Logistics], [Stratagem], [Strategy], [Tactics], and [War].
Military Secretary. An officer on the personal staff of generals in high command. His duties are to conduct the correspondence of his chief, and to transact a great amount of confidential business, which would dangerously occupy the time of the general himself. In the British service the military secretary to the commander-in-chief is usually a general officer. To a commander-in-chief in the field, he is for most part below that rank, while to a general commanding a division only, an assistant military secretary is allowed. His staff pay is of course additional to the officer’s regimental or unattached pay.
Military Service. In the feudal ages, a tenure of lands by knight’s service, according to which the tenant was bound to perform service in war unto the king, or the mesne lord, of whom he held by that tenure. As the king gave to the great nobles, his immediate tenants, large possessions forever, to hold of him for this or that service or rent, so they in time parceled out to such others as they liked, the same lands for rents and services as they thought good. And these services were divided into two sorts, chivalry and socage; the first whereof was martial and military, whereby the tenant was obliged to perform some noble or military office unto his lord. This was of two kinds: either regal, that is, held only by the king, or common, when held of a common person. That which was held only of the king was called servitium, or serjeantia, and was again divided into grand and petit serjeantry. The grand serjeantry was where one held lands of the king by service, which he ought to do in his own person; as, to bear the king’s banner or spear, to lead his horse, or to find a man-at-arms to fight, etc. Petit serjeantry was when a man held lands of the king, to yield him annually some small thing towards his wars, as a sword, dagger, bow, etc. Chivalry that might be holden of a common person was termed scutagium, or escuage; that is, service of the shield, which was either uncertain or certain. Escuage uncertain was likewise twofold: first, where the tenant was bound to follow his lord, by going in person to the king’s wars, or sending a sufficient man in his place, there to be maintained at his cost so long as was agreed upon between the lord and his first tenant at the granting of the fee. The days of such service seem to have been rated by the quantity of land so holden; as, if it extended to a whole knight’s fee, then the knight was to follow his lord forty days; if but a half a knight’s fee, then twenty days; and if a fourth part, then ten days, etc. The other kind of this escuage was called castle-ward, where the tenant was obliged by himself or some other, to defend a castle as often as it should come to his turn.
Military Stores. See [Stores, Military].
Military Tenure. Tenure of land, on condition of performing military service.