Regulation, a term generally used in the British army to signify the regulated price at which any commission, or saleable warrant is permitted to be disposed of. These prices have been fixed by the king. For particulars see Military Finance, page 160.
REGULATIONS, for the American army.
There is no coherent or consistent system of regulations in existence for the military establishment of the United States. The economy of military arrangement is as essential as the discipline of the field, to assure the effects of military operations. There should be a well digested system of regulations, and upon that system should be engrafted a staff, susceptible of adaptation to the peace or the war establishment, to the smallest or the largest force. The French have derived the greatest advantage from their regulations, which have been formed by a well digested body of principles adapted to all circumstances, and the enforcement and execution of which is always distinctly appropriated to the proper officers of the staff. At present the regulations of the United States army is confined to a few general orders from the war department, on detached points of service; and of occasional orders of the commander in chief, issued upon some exigency, at remote periods; and adopted into permanent use. In many instances these regulations have been altered by the war office, in others the circumstances which gave rise to them have ceased, and the regulations become obsolete or inappropriate. In 1810, an attempt was made, by the establishment of a quarter-master general’s office, to commence something like a system; should this be accomplished it may be beneficial, though the want of information in the duties of a staff, particularly if those heretofore arranged under the quarter-master general’s department alone are to be adopted, that it is to be feared the system may remain defective, should the old English model, now exploded by the British themselves, be kept in view instead of the more enlarged system introduced in modern wars. The treatise on the staff by Grimoard, contains the best body of regulations extant. It has been translated, and will form a part of the American Military Library.
The following are among the principal regulations in force at the beginning of the year 1810.
(General Orders.)
Head Quarters, Fort Washington, May 22, ’97
To prevent the necessity of repetition, to establish principle, without which there can be no permanent order, to define the rights of individuals, to exclude caprice, to promote economy, and precision, to disseminate an uniformity of duty and of service throughout the army, and to impress the necessary ideas of subordination and discipline, the following regulations have been digested, and must be duly respected by all ranks.
I. Precedence in command is attached to seniority of corps, and the oldest commission subject to such deviations as the commander in chief may deem essential to the national weal, and the point of honor is determined by the following gradation.
1. Guard of the president.
2. The attack.