Army Reserve

“ This principle is that of keeping a small number of troops under arms in peace-time, with a large reserve of [Pg 2] trained men ready to be called out in case of war. In our case, the small number under arms in peace-time is represented by the Active Army, both British, Indian, and Colonial, [2] and the large reserve by the 1st and 2nd Class Army Reserves, the Militia, the Militia Reserve, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers. ”

“ It is at the disposal of the minister of war, who can decree the recall of all men discharged to the reserve the previous year and all those whose time of service has for any reason been shortened. The reserves of the active army are composed of those who have served the legal period in the active army. These are recalled twice, in the eleven years during which they are members of the reserve, for refresher courses. The active army and its reserve are not localized, but drawn from and distributed over the whole of France. ”

“ Reserves play an important part in modern warfare. From the executive, who prepares national reserves, down to the chief of a platoon of skirmishers, every commander now desires a reserve. A wise government always provides good reserves for its armies, and the general uses them when they come under his command. The state has its reserves, the army has its own, and every corps d'armée or division should not fail to provide one. ”

“ Army Reserve.—A force composed of men who have enlisted for twelve years, a portion of which service, viz. seven or eight and not less than three years, must be passed with the colours, the residue being spent in the reserve. These are known as “short service men.” Other soldiers eligible to enter the reserve force are those who have exceeded their first term of service, men of say thirteen or fourteen years’ service, and are yet under thirty-four years of age.
Artillery.—Horse artillery consists of men mounted on horses or on the limbers of the guns. ”

“ After giving this question of a reserve for the army the most careful thought, after having heard the opinion of many officers of our army,—and those too best qualified to give opinions on a matter of this sort,—I am convinced that, under our system of military enlistment, it is impracticable to [Pg 56] accumulate, with either a long-term or a short-term enlistment period, a dependable reserve force of fairly well trained men. To use our army as a training school would destroy the army as such, and fail utterly to create any reserve that could be depended upon as a large body of troops. ”

“ In the Organized Reserves, cavalry and tank units activated in late 1946 were the 19th Armored Division, the 301st through the 304th Cavalry Groups, the 75th Amphibian Tank Battalion, the 782d Tank Battalion, the 314th and 315th Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalions, and the 83d Reconnaissance Troop. In early 1948 the Organized Reserves became the Organized Reserve Corps, and in 1952 this component became the Army Reserve. With swift advances during the postwar period in the development of atomic and recoilless weapons, rockets, and guided missiles, the tank appeared to many to be obsolete. ”

“ Men placed in the first category serve for two years with the colors, after which they go to the active army reserve for six years. Men in the second category are sent at once into the active army reserve for the period of eight years, after which both they and the men in the first category are passed into the mobile militia reserve for four years, and subsequently into the territorial militia for seven years, making nineteen years altogether. ”

“ END STRENGTHS FOR RESERVES ON ACTIVE DUTY IN SUPPORT OF THE RESERVES. Within the end strengths prescribed in section 411 (a) , the reserve components of the Armed Forces are authorized, as of September 30, 2009, the following number of Reserves to be serving on full-time active duty or full-time duty, in the case of members of the National Guard, for the purpose of organizing, administering, recruiting, instructing, or training the reserve components: (1) The Army National Guard of the United States, 32,060. (2) The Army Reserve, 16,170. (3) The Navy Reserve, 11,099. ”

“ Royal Malta Artillery, 2 garrison companies; West African Frontier Force, 2 batteries, 1 garrison company, 1 battalion M.I., 6 battalions infantry; and King's African Rifles (East Africa) , 5 battalions, besides the Indian troops in imperial services.
The army reserve, formed of men who have served with the colours, consists of four classes. Sections A, B and C consist of men who are fulfilling the reserve portion of their original twelve years' liability. Section A, which receives extra allowances, is liable to be called up in a minor emergency; section B is the general reserve ”

“ The term in the first reserve has been extended far beyond that originally contemplated, but in practice the service in the first and second reserves is merely nominal, and in the militia or national army likewise, as the men are only called out once a year for manœuvres, save in case of war or emergency. ”

“ THE BRIGADE IN RESERVE It is one of the rules of war to hold the best troops in reserve, and put them into the fight at the critical moment. No brigade in the army stood higher than the "First Virginia," as it was called. 121The Eleventh Regiment, which stood as high as the highest, was in reserve at the battle of July 18, 1861, at Blackburn's Ford. The brigade was in reserve at Williamsburg on the 5th of May, and now again at Seven Pines on the 30th of May, and also soon afterwards at Gaines' Mill on the 27th of June, and in many other battles during the war. ”

“ Whenever an army takes the offensive, it should always contemplate the possibility of being compelled to act on the defensive, and by the posting of a reserve between the base and front of operations the advantage of an active reserve on the field of battle is gained: it can fly to the support of menaced points without weakening the active army. It is true that to form a reserve a number of regiments must be withdrawn from active service; but there are always reinforcements to arrive, recruits to be instructed, and convalescents to be used ”

“ The men for the Reserve might be taken at a lower height, and from the age of sixteen to forty-five; but [Pg 18] serving in the Reserve should not exempt individuals from taking their turn if drawn in the mean time for the First or Regular Army. When the Reserve, or a part of it is embodied, a few officers and non-commissioned officers (receiving additional pay when so employed) , should be taken for a short time from the Regular Regiments, to assist in the formation and drilling of the corps; but any permanent staff for this purpose must be found not only useless, but expensive. ”

“ And, impressed with the conviction that an army of reserve ought, until the war shall end, to be constantly kept on foot, to be raised, armed, equipped, and trained at home, and ready for emergencies, we respectfully ask the President to call for such a force of volunteers for one year’s service, of not less than one hundred thousand in the aggregate, the quota of each State to be raised after it shall have filled its quota of the requisitions already made, both for volunteers and militia. ”

“ They were the ones who would show reserve officers that building a bridge or baking a loaf of bread or putting up a crane or organizing a laboratory was a different matter when you did it for the army. Some who had vitality and concentration were hopelessly lacking in capacity for organization. They were particularly impressed with their awful responsibility in having to train reserve officers not only in combat but in the Services of Supply. They would not admit that there was anything about the army which a reserve officer could do as well as a regular. ”

“ These reserves are particularly useful when the configuration of the country leads to double fronts of operations: they then fulfill the double object of observing the second front, and, in case of necessity, of aiding the operations of the main army when the enemy threatens its flanks or a reverse compels it to fall back toward this reserve.
Of course, care must be taken not to create dangerous detachments, and whenever these reserves can be dispensed with, it should be done, or the troops in the depots only be employed as reserves. ”

“ Finding a proper substitute of good character, or paying down say—twenty pounds, under the same rules as those established for the regular army, should entitle individuals to exemption from serving in the army of reserve. And it might fully be expected, that the reserve regiments, under officers so patriotic and zealous as those of our militia always were, would soon become like battalions of the line, and so highly disciplined as [Pg 19] quite to equal them, as was the case with many of our militia corps last war. ”

“ The training in the active reserve consists of two periods of training and maneuvers which last for four weeks each, in the Territorial army one period of two weeks, and in the Territorial reserve, no fixed period. There are more than 2,000 reservists per battalion produced by the length of the reserve service, and when the troops are mobilized the active units can be easily maintained at full war strength. The number available in this way gives enough men for each battalion and regiment in the field with enough men left over for routine home guard work. ”

“ Among the numerous measures carried out by the late Lord Cardwell during the period of his administration of the War Department, none has exercised a wider or more beneficial influence than the introduction of short service and reserve for the non-commissioned officers and men of the army. Indeed, when we consider the results achieved, it seems rather surprising that such a change had not been made long ago, not only in the interests of the men, but also in the reserve of strength which it gives to the country in the event of war. ”

“ And for what it does spend it should get larger results. $100,000,000 a year ought to be enough to maintain an army enlisted to the full strength of 100,000 men to which the army is now limited by Act of Congress. In addition it should support the necessary organization and training schools to furnish all the officers required for the National Construction Reserve and for the National Homecroft Reserve. The officers of the Homecroft Reserve should be permanently located as residents of the community where their regiment is established. ”

“ An Army of reserve may not improperly be called a general depot for effective service. In cases of emergency the whole or detached parts of an army of reserve are generally employed to recover a lost day or to secure a victory. ”

“ First-class reserve, territorials, and the reserve of the territorials amounted to 3,978.000, of which a part had performed only twelve months' service in accordance with the terms of the 1889 law. In Germany, the reserve amounted to 4,370,000, giving an advantage to that country of 400,000 men. The effectives were constantly growing in the one country, with the advance in population, but remained stationary in the other. Whilst France called up every available man for service, Germany was in the happier position of being able to dispense with a certain portion of her resources. ”

“ When their volunteer service is completed they may pass into the reserve, or be subjected to an examination for commissions as officers either in the active army or the reserve. In the reserve, whether as officers or privates, they are liable to be called for duty any time before their thirty-sixth year. ”

“ Those able-bodied young men who are not taken into the Standing or Active Army are sent for ten years to the Ersatz Reserve, which is intended, as in Germany, to provide reinforcements for the Active Army. ”

“ All the nations mentioned in paragraph 6 above have made provisions for supplementing their regular army units by other units made up in whole or in part from reserve troops. The reserves are composed both of men who have completed the regular period of enlistment and have been granted long-term leave, and also of men who have never served regularly with the colors but have received limited periods of military or semi-military training yearly. ”

“ The outpost of a small force should ordinarily hold the enemy beyond effective rifle range of the main body until the latter can deploy. For the same purpose the outpost of a large force should hold the enemy beyond artillery range.
684. The reserve constitutes the main body of the outpost and is held at some central point from which it can readily support the troops in front or hold a rallying position on which they may retire. The reserve may be omitted when the outpost consists of less than two companies. ”

“ In attack, to protect the flanks, to improve fully the advantage following a victory, or to cover defeat; in defense, to prolong the firing line, to effect a counterattack, or to cover withdrawal. It is the colonel's chief means of influencing an action once begun. It should be conserved to await the proper moment for its employment; the combat will seldom come to a successful issue without its employment in some form.
The reserve of a regiment operating as part of a large force becomes a local reserve. ”

“ Fourth.—The order of march to New Carthage will be from right to left.
Fifth.—Reserves will be formed by divisions from each army corps; or, an entire army corps will be held as a reserve, as necessity may require. When the reserve is formed by divisions, each division will remain under the immediate command of its respective corps commander, unless otherwise specially ordered for a particular emergency.
Sixth.—Troops will be required to bivouac, until proper facilities can be afforded for the transportation of camp equipage. ”