A military dictionary

by William Duane

Subordinate staff, at the discretion of the commanding officer.

The servants of platoon officers are always to accompany them on duty, and will be included in the same detail: no officer on furlough can be allowed more than one servant, and him without arms.

This allowance is a liberal one, and but too sensibly impairs the strength of the line. If gentlemen will mess, as in all other armies, it will be found abundant; otherwise they must employ domestics to be fed, paid, and clothed from their privy purses, as no further indulgence on the part of the public can be admitted.

The commanding officers of corps, posts, and detachments, will be held responsible for the strict observance of this order, and the violation by whomsoever permitted or committed, will be followed by an arrest, and the sentence of a general court-martial.

X. Four women per company complete, and in that ratio, are permitted to draw provisions and no more; washing the clothes of the company is to be performed by these women, at such price as the commanding officer of the regiment may establish; the officer commanding the company will be held responsible that it is fairly and impartially distributed, rating an officer as four men; mistresses or kept women are prohibited to the officers—the habit is a vicious one, it is repugnant to the rules of society, it is burthensome to the service, ever pregnant with discord, often afflictive to the meritorious soldier, always disgraceful, and frequently destructive to men of merit; the ceremony of marriage heretofore performed by the officers of the army, is also strictly forbid.

XI. Discharges for services fully performed to be given by the commandants of regiments, upon the certificate of the captain or commanding officer of the company in which the soldier served; but in all other cases by the commander in chief, or superior authority—retiring officers are not to take off soldiers with them as waiters or in any other capacity; a contrary practice has lost many valuable men to the service, and has perplexed the company accounts.

XII. The power of granting furloughs is in the commander in chief, on the recommendation of the colonel or officer immediately commanding the applicant, unless where the authority of the president is interposed.

XIII. Settling is restricted to the permission of the commander in chief, or officer commanding a separate department, but no permission is to be granted, except to citizens of the United States of known probity, and attachment to the government.

XIV. As we have no chaplain, the troops are to be inspected by companies every Sunday, and by regiments, battalions, or detachments, monthly; when returns of inspection are to be made out agreeably to the established form, these returns are to be regularly transmitted to the commander in chief, under the certificate of the commanding officers of companies, and the inspecting officer, who in the absence of the inspector, is to be appointed by the commanding officers of corps, posts, or detachments.

XV. The appointment of adjutants and quarter-masters of corps, hertofore in the commander in chief, appertains of right to the lieutenant colonels commandant, who have the power of removal from office. The regimental paymaster is elective by the officers of the regiment, under the orders of the colonel.