Le soldat Guettoit sou colonel pour lui presenter un placet, Fr. the soldier watched his colonel, in order to lay his petition before him.
GUEUSE, Fr. a rough piece of iron, which has been melted, and has not gone through any further process or purification.
GUICHET, Fr. a small door or outlet, which is made in the gates of fortified towns. It is generally four feet high, and two broad; so that a man must stoop to get through. In 1669, the high town of the city of Albuquerque, in Spain, escaped being surprized by means of one of these outlets. In garrison towns, the guichet is left open for the space of one quarter of an hour after the retreat, in order to give the inhabitants time to enter.
Guichet d’une porte d’écluse, an opening which is made in the gate of a sluice, and which closes by means of a flood-gate. It serves to let in water when wanted.
GUIDES, (guides, Fr.) are generally the country people in the neighborhood where an army encamps: they are to give you intelligence concerning the country, the roads by which you are to march, and the route by which the enemy may approach you. Guides should be faithful, because, in giving you false intelligence, or guiding you wrong, they may greatly endanger the army. Several guides are requisite, as every corps that marches by night should have one at least. There is sometimes a captain, or chief of the guides, who should be a man of intelligence, active, and attentive to the diligence and fidelity of his people. He should always have a sufficient number with him, and who are well acquainted with the country.
In time of war, particularly in the seat of it, the guides invariably accompany head-quarters, and a certain number is allotted not only to general officers, but to all detachments made from the main body, either for the purpose of combating the advanced posts of an enemy, of protecting escorts, or securing convoys. Guides, in an army, may be justly called its principal outsets. They are to a body of men what the eyes are to the human frame. They cannot, however, be too jealously watched.
Guides, the name given to the non-commissioned officers who take positions to mark the pivots, marches, formations, and alignements in modern discipline; it is expressed in French by the word jaloneur, from jalon a post. See [Jalon].
Guides of manœuvre, the name given to those which the French call jaloneur, and the British markers. The use of guides, is perhaps one of the best conceived and ingenious methods which could be devised to perfect the art of manœuvring troops; and one of its happiest advantages is its fitness for raw or undisciplined troops, which by the aid of guides of manœuvre, may be brought to comprehend and execute every species of movement in company, platoons, divisions, or battalions, in one third of the time formerly required; and in a manner much more perfect than was formerly considered as the utmost excellence. See Am. Mil. Lib.
GUIDES, corps of, under the new French dynasty have a new organization of which we hear only by some decisive effects.
Corps des Guides, Fr. The corps of guides. This body was originally formed in France in the year 1756, and consisted of one captain, one 1st lieutenant, one 2d lieutenant, two serjeants, two corporals, one anspessade, and twenty privates, called fusiliers-guides.—Twelve out of the twenty-five (which was the effective number) were mounted. These consisted of one Serjeant, one corporal, and ten fusiliers. Their particular duty was to carry orders that required dispatch; and on this account they were always attached to head-quarters. The twelve fusiliers were mounted on small active horses, about four French feet, five or six inches high. They were supplied with a saddle, blue saddle-cloth trimmed with white, holster-caps the same; and they were armed with a fusil and cut-and-thrust bayonet, a pistol, sabre, with a cartouch-box, containing 20 rounds. They wore half-boots, or bottines.—Each man carried, moreover, one field utensil out of the twelve belonging to the company. These utensils consisted of four hatchets, four shovels, and four pick-axes. The thirteen fusilier guides on foot were armed with a fusil six inches shorter than the regular musquet, with a blade-bayonet and a cartouch-box, holding twenty rounds of ball cartridges. Their uniform was a blue coat, waistcoat, and breeches, with flat white metal buttons. The hat was bordered with common white lace for the soldiers, and of a superior quality for the serjeants; which latter had three silver brandenburgs hanging from each shoulder. The corporals had three made of white worsted, and the anspessade two ditto. The daily pay of the captain was 4 livres, or 6s. 8d., the 1st lieutenant 1 livre, 7 sols and 6 deniers, equal to 2s. 4d., the 2d lieutenant 1 livre, or 10d., each serjeant 13 sols, or 6¹⁄₂d., each corporal 10 sols, or 6d., each anspessade 8 sols, 6 deniers, or 4¹⁄₂d. and each private 6 sols, 6 deniers, or 3¹⁄₂d.