Army regulations

“ Nobody ever thinks of obeying an order; and all the regulations of the Horse Guards, as well as of the War Office, and all the orders of the army applicable to this peculiar service, are so much waste paper. ”

“ Frequent changes are certainly not desirable, if tactical development is not to be interfered with and if inconveniences are to be avoided in organizing our mobile army from our peace organizations, Reservists, and Landwehr. On the other hand, the regulations must keep abreast of requirements if the conditions to which they owe their existence have changed. ”

“ As the Commander of the Forces has reason to believe many horses and mules are kept by [Pg 122] even the soldiers of the army, and maintained by means entirely inconsistent with discipline and good order, he desires officers commanding regiments and brigades, to inquire into the number of horses and mules which are attached to the regiments under their command, and to enforce the immediate sale of those not allowed to be kept by the regulations of the army. ”

“ On the 14th of June, Congress resolved to raise several companies of riflemen, by enlistment, for one year, to serve in the American Continental army, established the pay of the officers and privates, and appointed a committee to prepare rules and regulations for the government of the army. On the l15th of June, it was resolved, that a general should be appointed to command all the Continental forces, raised, or to be raised, for the defence of American liberty ”

“ The obedience to orders of general regulations must depend upon the attention of general officers commanding brigades, and commanding officers of regiments, and their determination to enforce regularity and discipline, but obedience to them requiring execution can be secured by other means. ”

“ It provided only that 'All suttlers and retailers to a camp, and all persons whatsoever, serving with the continental army in the field, though not inlisted soldiers, are to be subject to the articles, rules, and regulations of the continental army.' (Emphasis supplied.) ”

“ The corps should be quickly assembled in square, or close column, and the orders or regulations, which should be few in number, as almost every thing could be arranged before hand at the Horse Guards, ought to be read distinctly to them by the commanding officer, a field officer, or the adjutant; and when thus assembled, any explanations, or farther directions, which might be necessary, could be given, and the orders themselves more forcibly impressed upon the minds of the soldiers, which is rarely properly done, if left to company officers, or non-commissioned officers. ”

“ A regimental mess at home or abroad, is admirably calculated to keep up respectability, by insuring a proper degree of genteel economy; but of this the officers of corps cannot avail themselves in the field, and then it becomes requisite to act upon established regulations. The officers of a company should be made to have in common, a tent of a particular size and shape, and they should all three contribute towards its purchase, as well as towards the procuring of two horses or mules, which they should be obliged to keep. ”

“ The army and navy and the troops designed for the internal security are subject to special laws, in the matter of military offences, both for the maintenance of discipline and for the form of the trials and the nature of the penalties. ”

“ The law specifies that the total armed force shall include the regular army, volunteer army, officers' reserve corps, enlisted reserve corps, and the National Guard of the various States, subject to call for duty within the borders of the United States. ”

“ The administration asserts the right to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion. It contends that it may now take one out of every twenty-five men, & any part or the whole of the rest, whenever its occasions require. Persons thus taken by force, & put into an army, may be compelled to serve there, during the war, or for life. They may be put on any service, at home or abroad, for defence or for invasion, accordingly to the will & pleasure of the Government. The power does not grow out of any invasion of the country, or even out of a state of war. ”

“ The commanding officers of regiments must likewise enforce the orders of the army regarding the constant, real inspection of the soldiers' arms, ammunition, accoutrements, and necessaries, in order to prevent at all times the shameful waste of ammunition, and the sale of that article and of the soldiers' necessaries. ”

“ In the event of war, the King can call out the Landsturm in accordance with the law. Article 36. The armed force (of the nation) can only be employed for the suppression of internal troubles, and the execution of the laws, in the cases and manner specified by statute, and on the requisition of the civil authorities. In the latter respect exceptions will have to be determined by law. Article 37. The military judiciary of the army is restricted to penal matters, and will be regulated by law. Provisions with regard to military discipline will remain the subject of special ordinances. ”

“ While all admit the necessity, for the preservation of proper discipline, of having Rebel property for the use of the army taken formally under authorities duly constituted for the purpose, and not by indiscriminate license to the troops, none can be so blind as to fail to see the bent of the sympathies controlling the General in command. ”

“ As indicated at the beginning of the second chapter, a number of Administrative Services are required, to provide the Fighting Troops with all they need to keep up their strength and efficiency. An army cannot act without a service of communication for transmission of Orders; it cannot exist without a supply of food and clothing, fight without ammunition, or move without transport to carry these stores. To maintain its discipline there must be Police, and a department of Military Justice. ”

“ They shall have especially the right to hold inspections at any time, and receive, besides the regular reports and announcements of changes for publication, timely information of all promotions and appointments concerning their respective contingents. They shall also have the right to employ, for police purposes, not only their own troops but all other contingents of the army of the Empire who are stationed in their respective territories. ”

“ Military law, as applied to any persons excepting the officers, soldiers, and followers of the army, for whose government there are particular provisions of law in all well regulated countries, is neither more nor less than the will of the general of the army. ”

“ If the question is answered in the affirmative, then it must be recognised that it is impossible to codify the regulations governing the discretionary power which must be vested in the military commander in war, in such a manner that the general or soldier who executes his orders on native soil can in every instance refer to the particular paragraph of the Constitution or the law justifying his action. ”

“ All the business of preparing for the military registration of 10,000,000 men, of providing quarters and instructors for nearly 50,000 prospective officers, for finding arms and equipment for millions of troops yet to be organized, of expanding the regular army to full war strength, of preparing and recruiting the National Guard for war was at hand. ”

“ That the defense everywhere may be both more convenient and more economical, Congress will see the necessity of immediate measures for filling the ranks of the Regular Army and of enlarging the provision for special corps, mounted and unmounted, to be engaged for longer periods of service than are due from the militia. ”

“ As the several States form one Government, united for their common benefit and security, they are to be considered as a Nation—their Militia therefore, should be as far as possible national—an uniformity in Discipline and Regulations should pervade the whole, otherwise, when the Militia of several States are required to act together, it will be difficult to combine their operations from the confusion a difference of Discipline and Military Habits will produce. ”

“ And in certain cases extend to civilians—as when [16] by proclamation any place shall be put under martial law; or when people follow a camp or army for the sale of merchandize, or serve in any civil capacity. It is ordained, that the articles of war shall be read in the circle of each regiment or company mustered once every month, or oftener if the commanding officer thinks proper. A recruit or soldier is not liable to be tried by a military tribunal, unless it can be proved that the articles of war have been duly read to him. ”

“ To place therefore a necessary and Constitutional power of defence and coercion in the hands of the Federal authority, and to render our Militia uniform and national, I am decidedly in opinion they should have the exclusive right of establishing regulations for their Government and Discipline, which the States should be bound to comply with, as well as with their Requisitions for any number of Militia, whose march into another State, the Public safety or benefit should require. ”

“ The chief part of the armed forces of the belligerents are their regular armies and navies. What kinds of forces constitute a regular army and a regular navy is not for International Law to determine, but a matter of Municipal Law exclusively. Whether or not so-called Militia and Volunteer corps belong to armies rests entirely with the Municipal Law of the belligerents. ”

“ Another important lesson taught by our experience since the Civil War, no less than at the commencement of that period, is that prompt and vigorous action, in accordance with established military methods, whenever military force must be employed, necessarily presupposes such knowledge of the laws on the part of department and army commanders as will justify the President in intrusting them with discretionary authority to act without specific orders in each case. ”

“ All claims for the subsistence and services of the levies and militia, or other troops, composing a part of the continental army, or destined to join the army, and moving to such places of destination, or under the command or orders of a continental officer, and all claims for supplies and services beforehand for such troops, are considered as proper against the United States only, and are classed accordingly ”

“ The fact is, that they know perfectly, from being continually engaged in active service, what are the essentials of military discipline, and that they are quite careless of all superfluous forms. Whatever regulations are necessary, in any particular circumstances, are strictly enforced; and the men submit to them, not from any principle of slavish subjection to their officers, but rather from deference to their superior intelligence and information, and from a regard to the good of the service. ”

“ The preservation of the arms, accoutrements and ammunition is of such essential importance, that he must be strictly attentive to have those of the sick, of the men on furlough, discharged, or detached on command without arms, taken care of and deposited with the brigade conductor, as directed in the regulations. ”

“ The commanders of the army groups may, by agreement with the competent naval and air force commanders, reintroduce military jurisdiction for civilians in areas which are sufficiently pacified.
“For the area of the political administration this order will be given by the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
“II. Treatment of offenses committed against inhabitants by members of the Armed Forces and its employees. ”

“ As the standing forces of the State, active-duty forces shall be mainly tasked with defense operations and perform non-war military operations in accordance with regulations. Reserve forces shall conduct military training and perform defense combat tasks and non-war military operations in accordance with regulations; and be transferred to active-duty forces by order of the Central Military Commission in accordance with the mobilization order issued by the State. ”

“ The consequent indecision is increased in the same proportion as the faith the troops and their leaders had in the lauded universal remedy, the normal procedure. In spite of the excellence of our regulations, we should accustom ourselves to the idea that a future war may correct their provisions. ”

“ It is quite natural that the troops themselves should not place their ideal higher than the Regulations require; all the more necessary, therefore, do I hold it to express with all emphasis that our training must go far beyond the limits prescribed for it officially if we are in any degree to satisfy the demands that War will make upon us. ”

“ But though, sir, the regulation of our army be thus violently attacked, the greatest crime of the ministry is, in this gentleman's opinion, that of levying new troops, when we have no employment for our standing forces, of laying unnecessary impositions upon the nation, and alarming with the fears of an invasion, only that the army might be increased. ”

“ With an army in the field, certain persons, not soldiers, are also subject to the provisions of "Military Law," such as civilians serving with the force in an official capacity; persons accompanying the troops with special leave, such as newspaper correspondents and contractors; persons employed with the troops, such as transport drivers; other persons known as followers who accompany the troops either as sutlers or on business or pleasure with the permission of the commander. ”