Judging distance drill, practice; remedies applied to materials in the field.
[IV. THE STAFF SCHOOL.]
The Staff School at Turin has only existed since the year 1850. Previously to that time the Staff was supplied by picked scholars from the Accademia Militare.
The whole Staff Corps of the Sardinian Army only consists of thirty-six Officers, viz., twenty-four Captains, and twelve of higher rank; no one of a lower rank than Captain being admitted even as attached to the corps, a regulation which appeared to be considered inconvenient.
Officers are required to have served four years before their admission, as is the case in the Austrian Staff Schools, and they must not have exceeded their twenty-eighth year. Again, as in Austria, the Officers on leaving the school are ranged strictly in the order of merit, as tested by a final examination; and the ablest obtain appointments to the Staff in the same order. The Sardinian School has, however, some peculiarities, partly arising from the higher position which the Special Arms (Armi dotti) of Artillery and Engineers hold in Sardinia than in Austria or Prussia. The method of admission is as follows:—
An Officer requests his Colonel to recommend him for admission to the Staff School. Great caution seems to be observed in giving this recommendation; but having obtained it, an Officer has no further difficulty in entering the School. In consequence of the small numbers of the Staff Corps, the demand for entrance is not very great, and there is accordingly no competitive examination. The numbers in the School have, during the first five years of existence, varied greatly—from fourteen or sixteen to four or six. A year (or rather eleven months) is the time occupied by the studies; the first six months being given to theory, the last five to practice. The time thus occupied lasts from ten till three in the afternoon.
The amount of knowledge required for admission into the School is stated, in the “Note” of Colonel Petitti, to be an acquaintance with Geometry and Algebra, as far as Equations of the Second Degree.
The practical work consists in the usual surveys of countries, plans, &c. The young Officers are taken by the Inspecting Colonel of the School into the country, and worked hard for four or five months. There have hitherto been only places for one or two of these Officers on the Staff at the end of the year, and these (as has been already mentioned) have always been the most distinguished pupils of the School. The rest become teachers in the regimental schools. Officers leaving the Staff School do not appear to have a right to a step immediately (as in Austria) by virtue of their having been at the School; but the Sardinian system of making all the appointments above the rank of Major by selection gives them a prospect of advancement. Examinations are held in the School every three months, at which the Professors give marks of proficiency; these are combined with those obtained in the final examinations in determining the position of the pupils.
The Professors in the Staff School are all military men. The building is very good, and, although small, contains a library, instruments, museum, and all the apparatus for maps.
Among the conditions which must be met favorably to be admitted to the Royal Staff Corps are the following:—