Capture

“ So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them. ”

“ A messenger carrying written dispatches or verbal messages from one portion of the army, or from a besieged place, to another portion of the same army, or its government, if armed, and in the uniform of his army, and if captured, while doing so, in the territory occupied by the enemy, is treated by the captor as a prisoner of war. If not in uniform, nor a soldier, the circumstances connected with his capture must determine the disposition that shall be made of him. ”

“ We have marched several hundred miles into the enemy's country, far away from our supplies, and have just arrived at a point where victory yields us no particular advantage, and where defeat would be ruin. Every city we capture swallows up a portion of our army, and diminishes our ability to proceed. ”

“ The capture of slaves is one of the important features of the expedition. A slave becomes the property of the captor, although a certain number are very frequently given in payment to the warrior chief or chiefs who were engaged to help the raiding party. ”

“ Each leader seizes ten men, and every prisoner is forced to carry a certain quantity of wood, stones, and other material. They use these for filling up moats or to dig trenches. In the capture of a town the loss of a myriad men was thought nothing. ”

“ Leave off such devilish habits; spurn every petticoat, and take only weapons, if you happen to come across good ones, and ducats or silver, noble sirs, for they are subject to capture, and useful in any case. ”

“ If I am captured I trust that an opportunity of escape will soon present itself, for I should, if taken, conceal from my captors the fact that I understand their language, and should thus, if I could evade my guard, have every chance of escaping, as in a native dress I could meet and converse with those hunting for me, without their having a suspicion of my being the white slave for whom they were in search. ”

“ Women gathering roots for their half- starved children, children whose parents had been slain, lost in the woods, and wan dering they knew not whither, were about all they thus far could capture.
Shots were exchanged. The cavalry dismounted and fought on foot. ”

“ Henceforth two armies, each tolerably marshalled and fairly equipped, meet each other in the field. Sieges are laid, attacks are delivered, sometimes repelled and sometimes succumbed to; all the combatants are engaged, towns are captured, private parks transform themselves into entrenched camps. ”

“ As you will only be required to meet at a given hour some evening, and to carry off a captive who will not be altogether unwilling to come, there will be little or no risk in the matter, and twenty crowns will not be bad pay for an evening's work. After that you will, as I have said, share in the profits of all future captures we may undertake. ”

“ I explained to him that it was necessary to have a great number of troops to guard and hold the territory we had captured, and to prevent incursions into the Northern States. These troops could perform this service just as well by advancing as by remaining still; and by advancing they would compel the enemy to keep detachments to hold them back, or else lay his own territory open to invasion. His answer was: "Oh, yes! I see that. As we say out West, if a man can't skin he must hold a leg while somebody else does." ”

“ We have captured several hundred prisoners.
Between our right and the Somme the French have made substantial progress and captured a considerable number of prisoners.
Fighting continues.
Our aircraft did most useful work in coöperating with the artillery and infantry. ”

“ Therefore the skilful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. ”

“ Our men drove the troops in front of the lower line of rifle-pits so rapidly, and followed them so closely, that rebel and Union troops went over the first line of works almost at the same time. Many rebels were captured and sent to the rear under the fire of their own friends higher up the hill. Those that were not captured retreated, and were pursued. The retreating hordes being between friends and pursuers caused the enemy to fire high to avoid killing their own men. ”

“ The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept. ”

“ Except a body of about four thousand cavalry, well armed, and fit to make a steady impression in battle, the rest of the army were light-armed troops, mounted on small horses, which found subsistence every where, and carried them with rapid and unexpected marches, whether they meant to commit depredations on the peaceable inhabitants, or to attack an armed enemy, or to retreat into their own country. ”

“ I recommend that you take only such men and horses as can stand the expedition, and that you use every means in your power to save and cherish those you do take. You must leave sufficient cavalry here for the service of this army, and remember that one of the chief objects of your expedition is to gain intelligence for the guidance of future movements. ”

“ As the soldiers, wearing their glittering breast-plates and helmets of polished steel, and with the sun flashing upon the gold and silver eagles which they carried for standards, landed from their vessels and marched on their way to the place where they were going to make their camp, the Britons watched them from their hiding-places with both rage and terror. ”

“ But these shall not travel in war array, for carriers must bear their fighting shields in bundles and their stabbing spears shall be rolled up in mats. Now, on the sixth day of your journey you shall camp at the mouth of the pass which the cattle and the women have already travelled, and his outposts and spies will bring it to the ears of the king that your force is sleeping there, purposing to climb the pass on the morrow. ”

“ The cavalry charged through the streets, sabring fugitives, while the infantry, posted on the footpaths, had their fingers on the triggers of their guns waiting for the unfortunate people to rush from the houses or appear at the windows, the soldiers complimenting each other on their marksmanship as they fired at the unhappy fugitives. ”

“ When it is found expedient to advance rapidly into a country for the purpose of surprising an enemy, getting possession of a town or place, or avoiding superior forces, every species of baggage must be left behind (even the common necessaries of the men: if circumstances require,) the cavalry must be sent forward, and the infantry put in carts, carriages, and chaises, or mounted behind the dragoons. ”

“ We lead the life of the camp even in time of peace, keeping up the organization of an army, and having meals in common; and as our country, owing to its ruggedness, is ill- suited for heavy-armed cavalry or infantry, our soldiers are archers, equipped with bows and arrows. ”

“ Upwards of 150 of the enemy killed and wounded, and 163 prisoners, among whom are the colonel of the regiment, three captains of infantry, two captains of cavalry, and one captain of artillery, with his two guns, six-pounders, afford the best proofs of the manner in which both services did their work: very few of the enemy’s cavalry escaped. ”

“ When will the Lord God permit us to return from our wanderings, and again to dwell upon our ancestral fields, and to serve in the cavalry that makes war on rabbits, or in the infantry that bears arms against birds; to know no other weapons than the scythe and the sickle, and no other gazettes than the household accounts! ”

“ Our troops had, therefore, to be put in proper position to sustain an attack, the immediate vicinity to be explored by scouts, pickets to be well thrown out on front and flanks, and a reserve to be properly placed—arrangements which require some time, especially in the dark and on densely wooded and uneven ground, not permitting anything to be discerned with certainty, even at a very short distance. ”

“ Everywhere beyond these lines of patrol wandered roaming war parties, attacking travellers on the trails, raiding exposed settlements, and occasionally venturing to try open battle with the small squads of armed men. ”

“ Only the men who participated in a particular raid were allowed to share in its spoil. The officer who commanded the expedition always controlled the distribution. It was seldom there was anything to divide except horses and their equipments. Those who had distinguished themselves in the fight were allowed the first choice as a reward for their gallantry, the shares of the others being divided by lot. ”

“ While we keep away from such places, we should get the enemy to approach them; while we face them, we should let the enemy have them on his rear.
17. If in the neighborhood of your camp there should be any hilly country, ponds surrounded by aquatic grass, hollow basins filled with reeds, or woods with thick undergrowth, they must be carefully routed out and searched; for these are places where men in ambush or insidious spies are likely to be lurking.
18. When the enemy is close at hand and remains quiet, he is relying on the natural strength of his position. ”

“ A force of anything between twenty-four and thirty-nine thousand men, combatant and non-combatant, with its wagons and sumpter horses, the considerable booty of its raid, its tents, its reserve of armour and of weapons, we cannot reckon, even upon a front of twelve deep, at less than a couple of miles in length, even under the best and strictest conditions of marshalling. ”

“ But, instead of human colonies, we encounter troops of horned cattle and of mares, wandering, self directed, over plains, to which the eye can discover no boundary or barrier, and which brings to one's recollection the days when the beasts shared with man the empire of the earth. ”

“ So earnest and enthusiastic had the people of the frontier become in their determination to reclaim the two captives, as well as administer justly-merited189 punishment, that people of all classes and callings were eager to abandon their professions and take up arms against the traditional enemy of the frontier. ”

“ In the same order as the cavalry and infantry, the heavy and the light armed troops, the advanced guard and the rear, are marshalled by the skill of their military leaders, so the domestic officers, who bear a rod as an ensign of authority, distribute and arrange the numerous train of slaves and attendants. ”

“ This: raidings from the Godworld: swift cavalry raidings, that took no towns as a rule, nor set up strongholds here on hell's border; yet did each time, no doubt, carry off captives. Set up no strongholds;—that is, until our own times; so what we have missed is the continuous effort ”

“ To hear the rattling cannons roar, and hilts on helmets ring, To see the soldiers swarm on heaps, where valiant hearts doth bring The cowardly crew into the case of careful captives’ band, Where ancients brave displayed be and won by force of hand? ”

“ The shipwrecked, wounded or sick of one of the belligerents who fall into the hands of the other, are prisoners of war. The captor must decide, according to circumstances, if it is best to keep them or send them to a port of his own country, to a neutral port, or even to a hostile port. ”

“ To recruit the army a levee en masse was decreed. 'The young men shall go to war; the married men shall forge arms and transport supplies; the wives shall make tents and clothes and serve in the hospitals; the children shall tear old linen into lint; the aged shall resort to the public places to excite the courage of the warriors and hatred against kings.' Nor were measures neglected against domestic enemies. ”

“ A general falling back toward his native land along his line of magazines and supplies may keep his troops together and in good order, and may effect a retreat with more safety than one compelled to subsist his army in cantonments, finding it necessary to occupy an extended position. ”

“ When the debarkation commenced, I took a regiment down the river to post it as a guard against surprise. At that time I had no staff officer who could be trusted with that duty. In the woods, at a short distance below the clearing, I found a depression, dry at the time, but which at high water became a slough or bayou. I placed the men in the hollow, gave them their instructions and ordered them to remain there until they were properly relieved. These troops, with the gunboats, were to protect our transports. ”

“ At their rear streamed the usual tail of camp followers, those people who lived wherever soldiers were found, following in the track of the army like vultures, to prey on the living, and to rob the dead. ”

“ It matters not of what elements the body is composed—be it naval, military or civilian—be there present, commodores, generals or governors—all yield the pas to some old hunter or scout, who follows the trail like a sleuth hound, and whose word is supreme law for the nonce. ”

“ The troops not needed for manning the parapets are held under cover in a central position as a reserve, to strengthen the force at any part of the parapet or to meet and drive out any body of the enemy penetrating the work. ”

“ At his command they send the fleet to all parts; they seize all the merchantmen they could meet with, and carry them into the harbour; they apply the nails, timber, and rigging, with which they were furnished to rig and refit their other vessels. They lay up in the public stores, all the corn that was found in the ships, and reserve the rest of their lading and convoy for the siege of the town, should such an event take place. ”

“ The victors behaved with great humanity to the vanquished; many of the fugitives, pursued by the cavalry, fled to the British lines for protection, which was readily granted. The infantry covered their retreat, and protected them from the sabres of the horsemen; once within their lines, they were safe from injury and insult; not a single man was bayoneted, plundered, or molested. It is pleasing to record such instances of humanity ”