A military dictionary

by William Duane

We have exhibited the elementary branch of military instruction first, merely because it is the point at which every military body must commence; because this is what is now most wanted, and because while it is carrying into practical use, the general system containing all the purposes and uses of an efficient military establishment may in the mean time be prepared and digested.

Having treated so much on this subject, its importance will excuse the discussion of it more at large. To the perfection of a military establishment for the U. States two things are essential.

The first is, that it should be such as to be equally applicable in its operation to the militia and to the army of the U. States, whenever the former are called forth.

The second, that every act and duty appertaining to the military establishment should be transacted by none other than men subject to military order, control, and responsibility; and liable to be put in motion or brought to account for delay or neglect in a military manner.

These two principles lead to the consideration of what would be an efficient military organization; and here we have a host of formidable enemies, ignorance, a disorderly mass; indolence and idleness, hanging on the flanks; the steady habits of old prejudice ever alarmed for its patronage or its place; all immediately exclaim, would there not be great confusion produced by abrogating some duties and introducing others. We shall not skirmish with this motley and unmilitary groupe; we shall come to the point. In considering the subject, it will be found that the present war department in fact corresponds with what is called the general staff in other countries; the president representing the commander in chief, the secretary at war chief of the staff. From this fact it will be perceived, that whatever improvements might take place in the system, it would at first consist only of defining and distributing the duties and details of service by the war department.

After defining and arranging the various heads of service, they should of course be classed according to analogy or the dependency of one kind upon another; so that there would be several heads, under each of which the inferior branches of duty might be distributed. At the head of one of the superior branches should be placed a responsible officer, who would have the superintendance of all the duties, and the direction and control of all those placed in the execution of the subordinate branches; this officer to be responsible to the executive directly in peace; and when the arrangements became necessarily distinct in the field, to become responsible to the commanding officer in the field. These heads of branches should be the efficient staff of the military institution, it is through the perfection of the organization of the staff, and the rigid responsibility for the due execution and for seeing all under them duly performed, that modern tactics is in an eminent degree indebted for its preeminency and its triumphs. Precision, promptitude, and provident foresight, are their invariable laws, and upon these being perfect depends all the success of modern military science; but it must be taken in connexion also with the disciplinary principles which go into action, where the same provident foresight, the same precision, and the same celerity of motion ensure success to all that is undertaken against any force, however numerous and brave, destitute of a system equally provident and combined in its operations.

To commence an efficient system we must take the outline upon the largest scale; that is, in preparing an establishment, of which the end is the defence of all the nation, we must not begin with a system which is only adapted to a peace; an assumption of this kind would render any military system nugatory. To form a system complete, it must be founded in its very nature on the supposition of an actual war. This would no doubt be reversing the present order of things; since it is not to be concealed, that as it is at present constituted, the war department is utterly incompetent to conduct a war; but such as would leave the mind of a general officer, in case of actual war, to labor under a most hazardous and perplexing responsibility. Possibly economy may here take the alarm, we shall quiet this costly chimera.

A peace establishment of the military department we conceive should be treated as the incident; forming and fixing the principles of the institution would not necessarily call for its immediate completion, or the appointment even of a single officer, or the expenditure of a single dollar more than at present; the duties and functions should be defined, but no additional officers employed until occasion called for them, that is war. It is necessary to offer these precautionary ideas to prevent misapprehension, and lest the idea of the formation of a system, that is a coherent and comprehensive regulation for the military department, should be mistaken for a wish to immediately organize an army and staff, and put them into pay. It is barely meant that during peace provision should be made against war, which we do not know how soon we may be involved in.....we shall therefore proceed.

The military system may be said to consist of two principal branches, military operations, and subsistence, both of which must be within the full and ample command of the chief of an army. These two branches become the objects of duty distributed among the staff; which unfolds another important truth, that every officer who has the provision, or charge of procuring supplies of subsistence or clothing, should be responsible in a military manner for the execution of his duty, and liable to military penalties for the abuse or the neglect of that duty. This is a most important consideration; and it is apprehended the scandalous state of the clothing of the army of the U. States, which has been gradually becoming worse for several years past, is a strong exemplification of this necessity. There should not be a single officer of the war department, unless perhaps the accounting officers, who should be exempt from military control, in order to assure a due exercise of their duty between the public and the military establishment; as it would be in the power of men intrusted with the provision of clothing or subsistence at any time.... to betray the army to an enemy.

The beginning should be with the organization of the general staff, and this should be adapted, for the reasons given, to a state of war. The secretary of the war department being in fact the chief of the staff, the rest of the staff should consist of an able practical general officer, a capable chief officer of the artillery, an effective chief officer of the engineers, a vigilant and experienced quarter-master general, and an intelligent and experienced adjutant general, with one or two commissioned officers, as the service might require, attached to each of these several officers as aids, who should execute under a board of war the details of duty; these superior officers, with others called in, should constitute this council or board for the regulation of all the military details; appoint inspectors of reviews; and such other persons as might be required to aid in the service, such as surgeons, draftsmen, &c. They should divide their duties into the military and the administrative, and have cognizance and control over every branch, always subject to the chief of the staff or secretary at war; they should assemble and deliberate, and their consultations and measures, however minute, with their reasonings or objections, should be daily recorded; and these consultations should, whenever required, be presented to the secretary at war, to the president, or to congress when called for.