Reconnoissance. The reconnoitring or examination of any tract of country preparatory to the march of an army, in order either to take up quarters for the season, or commence operations against an opposing enemy.
The military reconnoissance of a country is generally performed under the protection of an armed force. It is considered as one of the most essential operations connected with the tactics of the field, and serves as the basis of every movement or combination which it may be proposed to make. Those who are charged with this duty should be habituated to the performance of topographical surveys; in the first place, by the most accurate methods, and with the best instruments; and, secondly, by such methods as admit of being practiced rapidly, on foot or on horseback. In these cases a compass held in the hand must be used for observing the angles, and the distances must be obtained by pacing, or be merely estimated by the eye. The nature of the roads should be described with indications denoting that they are passable for artillery, for cavalry, or merely for infantry; and if defective, estimates should be made of the materials and time requisite for repairing them. In contemplating rivers and marshes as means of retarding an advance of the enemy, it should be ascertained and reported whether by being dry in summer, or frozen in winter, they may not at times cease to be obstacles. It should be also stated how, on a retreat, the roads may be blocked up, the fords rendered impassable, or the bridges destroyed.
Reconnoitre. To make oneself acquainted by personal inspection, as far as may be practicable, with the enemy’s position and movements; also, to survey, and draw in a rapid manner, ground of importance to operations of war, not represented in existing maps, with sufficient accuracy or minuteness; and likewise to particularize the banks of rivers, canals, streams, mountains, passes, positions, villages, forts, and redoubts.
Record. To preserve by committing to writing; to make official note of; as, to record the proceedings of a court.
Record. An authentic copy; a statement of the proceedings of a court or board; a written history; an official account or register.
Recorder. One who keeps a record; specifically, the officer who registers the proceedings of a board or minor court.
Recover. In tactics, a word of command in firing whereby the piece is brought from the position of aim to that of ready.
Recreant. Crying for mercy, as a combatant in the trial of battle; yielding; cowardly. Also, one who yields in combat, and cries craven; one who begs for mercy; a mean-spirited, cowardly wretch.
Recruit. To supply with new men, as an army; to fill up or make up by enlistment. Also, a person enlisted to make up deficiency in an army; a newly-enlisted soldier.
Recruiting. The act of obtaining men for service. The people of the United States and Great Britain resemble each other in their jealousy of large standing armies and their abhorrence of a system of universal service, as well as in their warlike spirit and self-sacrificing patriotism. The organization of the English army, based upon voluntary enlistment, has been pronounced by foreign officers of thorough education and acute observation as unworthy of scientific study,—that is, for home application, although the United States have borrowed a great deal from it,—in the writer’s opinion, to their detriment. In Great Britain the whole recruiting has been placed under the immediate direction of the adjutant-general since 1802. For this purpose, the country has been divided into recruiting districts, at the head of which is placed an inspecting field-officer with the duty of superintending all recruiting parties in his district, and of approving the recruits brought. Staff-officers and sergeants of the Pensioner Force are also occasionally intrusted with the obtaining of recruits. The United States recruiting service is conducted by the adjutant-general, under the direction of the Secretary of War. Recruiting officers consist generally of captains and lieutenants of the line, who must not permit any man to be deceived or inveigled into the service by false representations. If the recruit is a minor, his parents or guardians must, if possible, be informed of the minor’s wish to enlist, and their written consent obtained therefor. Any male person above the age of eighteen, and under thirty-five years, being effective, able-bodied, sober, free from disease, of good character and habits, with a competent knowledge of the English language, may be enlisted. No man having a wife or child can be enlisted in time of peace without special authority from the adjutant-general’s office. The Prussian system is based upon the theory that military service is not a trade or craft, to be followed by a portion of the population, but a duty owed by every male citizen to his country. For further particulars of this system, see [Landwehr]. The Prussian system has been adopted by all other states of the German empire, and also by most of the other European nations.