The same principle was directed to be applied to the European infantry, to the promotion of officers of artillery to the command of battalions, and of corps; to the chief engineers, to the colonels commandants, and officers to command regiments of cavalry, and to the rank of major-generals from that of colonels.
It was further ordained, that should any captains or subalterns obtain leave from that period to exchange from one regiment to another, they were to come into the regiment to which they were removed as youngest of their respective ranks, according to the practice in the British establishment.
It was also ordered, that each regiment of native cavalry, and native infantry, in the absence of the colonel, should be under the general command of the senior lieutenant-colonel, who was to have the particular command of the 1st battalion, and the junior lieutenant-colonel that of the second battalion.
The same regulation prevails in the Indian, or native corps, with respect to the appointment of paymasters, that exists in the royal service.
About the same period, a very satisfactory regulation took place in favor of the European and native or company’s troops, to prevent the growth of much existing jealousy between them and the king’s troops. To give every officer of the company a king’s commission, of the same date with that which he received from the company, with a retrospect founded on the date of the king’s commission they then held, so as to prevent supercession by the various promotions which had recently taken place by general brevet in the British army.
NATURAL FORTIFICATION, consists in those natural obstacles which are found in some countries, and which impede or prevent the approach of an enemy. Thus a place, the avenues to which are easily closed, or which is surrounded by impassable rivers or marshes, is defended by natural fortification.
NAUAB, Ind. See [Nabob].
NAVAL, Fr. This word is used to convey the same meaning among the French that it does with us, viz. armée navale, naval armament; combat naval, sea fight, or naval combat; forces navales, naval forces. It is remarked in the Dictionnaire de l’Academie Francoise, that naval, when used in the masculine gender, is not susceptible of the plural number.
Naval armament, the fitting out a fleet, with all kinds of provisions and military stores, for actual service.
Naval camp, in military antiquities, a fortification, consisting of a ditch and parapet on the land side, or a wall built in the form of a semi-circle, and extended from one point of the sea to the other. This was beautified with gates, and sometimes defended with towers, through which they issued forth to attack their enemies. Towards the sea, or within it, they fixed great pales of wood, like those in their artificial harbors; before these the vessels of burthen were placed in such order, that they might serve instead of a wall, and gave protection to those without; in which manner Nicias is reported by Thucydides to have encamped himself. When their fortifications were thought strong enough to defend them from the assaults of enemies, the ancients frequently dragged their ships on shore. Around these ships the soldiers disposed their tents as appears every where in Homer: but this seems only to have been practised in winter, when their enemy’s fleet was laid up, and could not assault them; or in long sieges, and when they lay in no danger from their enemies by sea, as in the Trojan war, where the defenders of Troy never once attempted to encounter the Grecians in a sea-fight.