A military dictionary

by William Duane

To Spunge the gun, (écouvillonner le canon, Fr.) To cool and cleanse the bore of a piece of ordnance by means of a wet spunge which is fixed to the end of a long pole.

SPURS, in old fortifications, are walls that cross a part of the rampart, and join to the town wall.

Spurs, instruments fixed to the heels of horsemen, with which they can at pleasure, goad the horse to action.

SQUAD. A diminutive of squadron. It is used in military matters to express any small number of men, horse or foot, that are collected together for the purposes of drill, &c.

To Squad. To divide a troop or company into certain parts, in order to drill the men separately, or in small bodies, or to put them under the direction and care of some steady corporal, or lance corporal. In every well regulated troop or company, the men are squadded in such a manner, that the most minute concern with respect to the interior economy can be instantly accounted for. The following distinct instructions have appeared in print. We quote them the more readily because they not only coincide with our own ideas on the subject, but seem perfectly calculated to preserve good order and discipline. They relate chiefly to the cavalry, but are equally applicable to infantry corps.

Each troop, it is observed, ought to be divided into two squads when under forty. Into three or four when above, according to the number, with an equal proportion of non-commissioned officers in each; and when the eldest is on duty, the charge of the squad falls on the next in the squad, and so on. First the stables must be divided as equally as possible into these divisions, and the men must belong to the same squad that their horses do: so that the foot and horse billets, and those for the married men’s rooms of a squad, go together. The squads must be as distinct and separate as possible; in short as much so as two troops are, never crossing each other. The stables must likewise be squadded entire; that is, no one stable should be allotted to two separate squads; for which reason, the proportion of numbers in each squad cannot always be exactly equal. The squad is entirely in charge of its own serjeant, or, in his absence, of the corporal who commands it, with relation to every quarter and stable duty, parades on foot and horseback. The quarter-master, in the cavalry, has, of course, the general inspection of the whole.

When a corporal has charge of a squad, he must not look after his own horse at such times as interfere with his squad duty: he can generally manage to do it at the morning stable, and in the evening he can get him done before the regular hour. On a march, or after a field day, he cannot do it so conveniently, and of course orders another man to do it. When a detachment of an absent troop is in a quarter, it must be attached to a particular troop, whichever may be judged most convenient. It must be considered as a separate and distinct squad, quartered by itself, (as far as it can be, consistent with the proper quartering of its recruits) and under the command of its own non-commissioned officer, unless the troop to which it belongs cannot spare a non-commissioned officer with it; in which case it must be given in charge to a non-commissioned officer of the troop to which it is attached.

The same rules for squadding hold good on a march, and in all situations whatever; and the list of quarters must be made out accordingly.

The non-commissioned officers must always be kept to the same squad, as nearly as they can be. The policy of this instruction is obvious, as they will thereby be made acquainted with the character of every man in the squad.

Recruits should always be quartered and squadded with old soldiers who are known to be steady and well behaved; and those men that are at all irregular in their conduct, must be separated and distributed in squads which are composed of good old soldiers.