A military dictionary

by William Duane

Exemts des maréchaussées. Certain persons employed to keep the public peace. Maréchaussée means in a literal sense, marshalsey. But the functions of the exempts were of a nature peculiar to France. They held their situations under commissions, bearing the great seal, which were forwarded to them by the secretary at war. The privileges they enjoyed were to be exempted from all taxes, &c. but they could not institute any species of criminal information without the concurrence of the greffier or sheriff.

EXERCISE, in military affairs, is the practice of all those motions and actions, together with the whole management of arms, which a soldier is to be perfect in, to render him fit for service, and make him understand how to attack and defend. Exercise is the first part of the military art; and the more it is considered the more essential it will appear. It disengages the human frame from the stiff rusticity of simple nature, and forms men and horses to all the evolutions of war. The honor, merit, appearance, strength, and success of a corps depend wholly upon the attention which has been paid to the drill and exercise of it, according to prescribed rules and regulations; while on the other hand we see the greatest armies, for want of being exercised, instantly disordered, and that disorder increasing in spite of command; the confusion oversets the art of skilful masters, and the valor of the men only serves to precipitate the defeat: for which reason it is the duty of every officer to take care, that the recruits be drilled as soon as they join the corps.

The greatest advantage derived from the exercise, is the expertness with which men become capable of loading and firing, and their learning an attention to act in conformity with those around them. It has always been lamented, that men have been brought on service, without being informed of the uses of the different manœuvres they have been practising; and that having no ideas of any thing but the uniformity of the parade, they instantly fall into disorder and confusion when they lose the step, or see a deviation from the straight lines they have been accustomed to at exercise. It is a pity to see so much attention confined to show, and so little given to instruct the troops in what may be of use to them on service. Though the parade is the place to form the characters of soldiers, and to teach them uniformity, yet when confined to that alone, it is too limited and mechanical for true military use.

The great loss which the British troops sustained in Germany, America, and the West Indies, during the war of 1783, from sickness, as well as from the enemy, was chiefly owing to a neglect of exercise. An army whose numbers vanish after the first 4 months of a campaign, may be very ready to give battle in their existing period; but the fact is, that although fighting is one part of a soldier’s business, yet bearing fatigue, and being in health, is another, and at least as essential as the first. A campaign may pass without a battle; but no part of a campaign can be gone through without fatigue, without marches, without an exposure to bad weather; all of which have exercise for their foundation; and if soldiers are not trained and enured to these casualties, but sink under them, they become inadequate to bodily fatigue, and eventually turn out a burthen to the country.

It is not from numbers, nor from inconsiderate valor, that we are to expect victory; in battle she commonly follows capacity, and a knowlege of arms. We do not see, that the Romans made use of any other means to conquer the world, than a continual practice of military exercises, an exact discipline in their camps, and a constant attention to cultivate the art of war. Hence, both ancients and moderns agree, that there is no other way to form good soldiers but by exercise and discipline; and it is by a continual practice and attention to this, that the Prussians arrived at that point of perfection which was long so much admired in their evolutions, and manual exercise.

Formerly in the British service every commander in chief, or officer commanding a corps, adopted or invented such manœuvres as he judged proper, excepting in the instance of a few regulations for review: neither the manual exercise, nor quick and slow marching were precisely defined by authority. In consequence when regiments from different parts were brigaded, they were unable to act in line till the general officer commanding had established some temporary system to be observed by all under his command.

These inconveniences were at length obviated by the rules and regulations compiled by general Dundas on the system of the Prussian discipline, as established by Frederic the Great.

During the American revolution, a committee of officers was appointed by congress to digest a system of discipline for the military forces of the United States. A considerable body of materials were thrown together by the several officers, which proving too voluminous, amounting to three volumes folio, Baron Steuben, an officer who had been in the Prussian service, was appointed to make a digest, which was afterwards adopted, and continues still to be the only regulation for discipline. This work which is very brief, was of much use where there was no sort of order established, or rather where utter disorder prevailed; but is not by any means adapted to the uses of a good discipline in the present state of military knowlege. It is confined to the duties of a regiment of infantry only, and is in fact no more than an abstract modification of the Prussian system of 1741. The war department of the United States, has had the provision of a more enlarged and competent system under preparation for three or four years, and the commander in chief (general Wilkinson) had made great progress in a general arrangement of a system comprehending all the details of drill, exercise, manœuvre, formations of separate, and co-operating bodies, and of various kinds of troops; as well as the police of camps, garrisons, rank, and rotation; and other regulations, but public service having called him off to the southern frontier, and general Dearborne having resigned, the system of Steuben remains, while the new discipline of Europe has become known to all the volunteer corps of the Union, commanded by intelligent officers; and the old discipline of Steuben, has from actual deficiency been superceded.

Infantry Exercise, includes the use of the firelock and practice of the manœuvres for regiments of foot, according to the regulations issued by authority.

When a regiment of foot is drawn up, or paraded for exercise, the men are placed two and sometimes three deep, which latter is the natural formation of a battalion. In order to have the manual exercise well performed, it is in a particular manner requisite, that the ranks and files be even, well dressed, and the file leaders well covered: this must be very strictly attended to both by the major, and his adjutant: all officers also, on service in general, where men are drawn up under arms, or without, must be careful, that the ranks and files are exactly even; and the soldiers must learn to dress themselves at once, without the necessity of being directed to do it. The beauty of all exercise and marching, consists in seeing a soldier carry his arms well, keep his firelock steady and even in the hollow of his shoulder, the right hand hanging down, and the whole body without constraint. The musquets when shouldered, should be exactly dressed in rank and file; the men must keep their bodies upright, and in full front, not having one shoulder too forward, or the other too backward. The distances between the files must be equal, and not greater than from arm to arm, which gives the requisite room for the motions. The ranks are to be two paces distant from each other. Every motion must be done with life, and all facings, wheelings, and marchings, performed with the greatest exactness. Hence a regiment should never be under arms longer than three hours without rest. See [Firings], [Manual] and [Manœuvres].