XII. The men are to be furnished with two flints; twenty four rounds of ball cartridges, each: six in their cartridge boxes, and the residue packed in kegs.
These regulations are to be strictly observed in every particular; and any officer who may violate them, by omission or commission, will be brought before a general court-martial.
Given at Head Quarters, city of Washington, Dec. 15, 1808.
This closes the whole body of Regulations for the United States force, as far as the American editor has been able to collect them.
To buy or sell at the Regulation, to give or receive no more for a commission than what has been settled by the king’s authority in the British service. When an officer is allowed to retire from a regiment with permission to sell, the one next for purchase is supposed to pay the regulation price or his commission; but it frequently happens that parties agree among themselves with respect to terms; and it sometimes occurs, that young men of interest and fortune stop the regular promotions of officers by overbidding the market. This traffic, so infamous in its principle, as well as in its abuses, was exhibited in an odious light in the case of the duke of York and his courtesans in 1809.
Cavalry Regulations, specific instructions for the formations and movements of cavalry.
Infantry Regulations. A system of tactics for infantry. The general principles for the formations and movements of cavalry and infantry being invariably the same, their more particular explanation in several points, is to be found in the regulations for the infantry. See American Military Library.
General Regulations and orders. A collection of certain general rules which were published for the British army by authority on the 20th of August, 1799, and which are to be considered as the ground work of those instructions that generals commanding districts, and officers in the command of brigades and regiments, forts or garrisons, may find it necessary to issue to the troops under their respective commands. To use the words of the adjutant general, this publication does by no means comprehend the whole detail which the various duties and services, and the interior economy and management of regiments may require. They are principally extracted from a book, intituled The Rudiments of War, which was published by N. Conant in 1777, they are directed to be considered as the standing orders of the army at large. They cannot be altered, or in any sense be deviated from, without the king’s or commander in chief’s approbation. It is however to be observed, that a book manifestly calculated for the interior management of the army, and consequently a necessary companion to the rules and regulations, should have been more specific. Many circumstances, apparently insignificant in themselves, and, of course, unnoticed at head quarters, grow into objects of serious discussion among the different regiments of the service, both at home and abroad. It is an old maxim, that he who neglects small faults will soon fall into great offences.
RE-IMBODY. To re-imbody, is to imbody again any regiment or corps that has been disbanded. Thus, the English militia is disbanded, and partially re-imbodied for 28 days in every year during peace.
REIN, that part of a bridle which extends from the head of a horse to the hands of the rider, &c.