Regimental officer

“ Unlike the regimental commander, the sergeant-major was always mounted, and it is recorded that one officer newly appointed to the post incurred the ridicule of the army by dismounting to speak to the king. “Some veteran officers,” wrote a contemporary, “are inclined to think that the regimental commander should be mounted as well as the sergeant-major.” The regiment was as a rule formed for parade and battle either in line 10 deep or in “battalion” (i.e. mass) , Swiss fashion. ”

“ The regimental system, being the basis of military advancement, then, as it is now, it is obvious that unless some such means were adopted to accelerate the promotion of an Officer, who belonged to a corps where men were unwilling to leave the service, no efforts on his part could secure his rise. Nor can it be forgotten that promotion stagnates in proportion as Officers generally are attached to their profession and to their corps,—that is, in not the least distinguished regiments of the army ”

“ The officers are on one Regimental List for promotion, and so serve continuously in the Regiment. They thereby acquire a camaraderie, professional feeling, and personal intimacy with each other and with their men, of the greatest value in war. In foreign armies, with short service of two years, it is hardly too much to say that the Regimental Officers really constitute the permanent army, through which there flows continuously a stream of recruits, receiving a professional impress from their officers. ”

“ If the non-commissioned officers of a regiment are permitted to express their approbation of the conduct of the Adjutant, why may they not exercise the same right with respect to their commanding officer? ”

“ His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief having witnessed the glorious services of Her Majesty’s THIRTY-FIRST and fiftieth regiments, I have only to report upon Her Majesty’s fifty-third, a young regiment, but veterans in daring gallantry and regularity.
“To Captain Lugard (THIRTY-FIRST regiment) the Assistant-Adjutant-General of this force, I am deeply indebted, and the service still more so; a more cool, intrepid, and trustworthy officer cannot be brought forward. ”

“ Seventy-first Regiment!
“Officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, it affords me the greatest satisfaction, at the request of your commanding officer, Colonel Reynell, to have the honor of presenting these colours to you.
“There are many who could perform the office with a better grace, but there is no one, believe me, who is more sensible of the merit of the corps, or who is more anxious for its honor and welfare. ”

“ The British public loves to read of its Guards’ regiment and to watch them in their brilliant uniforms at review. When a cadet comes out of Sandhurst he names the regiment which he wishes to join, instead of being ordered to a certain regiment, as in West Point. It rests with the regimental commander whether or not he is accepted. Frequently the young man of wealth or family serves in the Guards or another crack regiment for a while and resigns, usually to enjoy the semi-leisurely life which is the fortune of his inheritance. ”

“ To be raised at once from a position so subordinate and anomalous, so unrecognised and so fraught with useless peril as that of a gentleman volunteer, from the ranks as it were of that army whose dreadful sufferings he shared and whose many dangers he risked—to be raised to the rank of an officer in a regiment so distinguished as the Royal Fusiliers, and to be at once, temporarily though it were, placed on the general's staff, and beyond the reach of Cosmo's coldness, pique, and hauteur, was indeed to be independent, and to taste of happiness supreme! ”

“ If the officers of a regiment are as zealous, thoughtful and resourceful as they ought to be the men are as well taken care of as they would be at home. I have in mind as a model officer a young first lieutenant, a Yale man, in command of a company of negro stevedores, at one of the great ports which we are using in France. ”

“ The regiment having entered upon active warfare, the Commanding Officer issued the following order:—'As the Twelfth regiment, from having the honour to be the eldest King's regiment with the army, is more liable to be called on for immediate service than other corps, the Commanding Officer expects the Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Private Men, will be ready, night or day, to turn out at the shortest notice, and to parade under arms without noise or confusion. ”

“ And to insure our having really effective corps of infantry, they ought to have 1 colonel, 1 lieut.-colonel, 2 majors, 10 captains, 10 lieutenants, 10 ensigns, 30 sergeants, 40 corporals, 20 buglers, 760 privates. Both cavalry and infantry should, of course, have the usual number of regimental staff officers and sergeants, including a school-master, sergeant, and a trumpet and bugle major. ”

“ I shall always look back with pleasure to that long period in which I had the good fortune to be your commanding officer, and during which time I received from the officers the most cordial and zealous assistance in support of discipline: from the non-commissioned officers proofs of the most disinterested regard for His Majesty’s service and the welfare of their regiment, and I witnessed on the part of the privates and the corps at large a fidelity to their colours in South America, as remarkable under such trying circumstances as their valour has at all times been conspicuous in the field. ”

“ The officers of the Ninety-Eighth who belonged to the garrison staff were also required to perform their regimental duty. The painstaking and laborious chief thus notes in his journal the progress of the regiment in the midsummer of 1845: "Parade as usual morning and evening; men improving, but still in great want of individual correctness in carriage, facings, motions of the firelock, etc.; but they move in line and open column very fairly, and I confidently expect before the end of the year to have them more perfect than any battalion in this part of the world." ”

“ From this candid acknowledgment of the dangers to which officers are exposed on joining their corps for a first time, some may think it totally impossible for a youth to escape the wiles of the enemies of virtue. But I request all those to bear this in remembrance, that the moment an officer joins his regiment, he is from that time surrounded with men of high character and honour, who are ever ready to throw a protecting shield round the head of a junior brother, against which the shafts of vice, from whatever quarter they may be directed, usually prove pointless. ”

“ I know."
"But perhaps you don't know that there is a great deal of difference between the Guard regiments and those of the Line. Our regiment belongs to the Guard."
"Well?"
"An officer in a Line regiment can live on his pay. ”

“ All ranks are animated with the most intense bravery and devotion, which has been demonstrated on many fields, and won for the regiment many distinctions. The Great War on the Continent has added greatly to the reputation of the regiment. ”

“ When a regiment arrives at its ground for the night it is formed in columns of companies at full, half, or quarter distance, according to the space which circumstances will permit it to occupy. The officer commanding each company then receives his orders ”

“ In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. ”

“ I was glad I had just woken in time, [Pg 88] for an officer does not look at his best chasing after a regiment by himself down a road because he has been asleep.
I joined up the group of officers who were sitting by the mess van making a hasty tea and stuffing their haversacks with biscuits.
"I should advise you to take some food," said the Adjutant to me, "this may be your last chance. We are going to march five miles, load up on motor-buses, and the transport is to be left behind." ”

“ When a regiment is on a march, the commandant will order a sergeant and fix men into the rear, to bring up all stragglers; and the sergeant on his arrival in camp or quarters, must make his report to him.
In a word, the commanding officer of a regiment must preserve the strictest discipline and order in his corps, obliging every officer to a strict performance of his duty, without relaxing in the smallest point; punishing impartially the faults that are committed, without distinction of rank or service. ”

“ In taking leave of Lieut.-Colonel Burne, the officers, and men of His Majesty’s Thirty-sixth regiment, the Commander-in-Chief cannot refrain from expressing his sincere regret at losing from under his command a corps so eminently distinguished for important services in the field, and for discipline, order, and regularity, in every situation. Of a regiment whose merits are so well known, it is unnecessary to say much: their gallant exertions will receive their best reward in the applause and gratitude of their country. ”

“ In the school of regimental duty he obtained that correct knowledge of his profession so essential to the proper direction of the gallant spirit of the soldier, and he was enabled to establish a characteristic order and regularity of conduct, because the troops found in their leader a striking example of the discipline which he enforced on others. ”

“ Under these circumstances, may I be permitted to hope that you will do me the favour to lay at His Majesty’s feet my humble petition that the Eighty-seventh regiment may be appointed a light infantry corps, which, as being a mark of His Majesty’s approbation, would be most gratifying to those brave men, who have so freely bled, and would lay down their lives, to manifest their devoted attachment to their gracious and beloved Sovereign. ”

“ In the 16th century an officer was a lieutenant of, not in, a particular regiment, and the higher officers were general, lieutenant-general and major-general of a particular army. When their army was disbanded they had no command and possessed therefore no rank—except of course when, as was usually the case, they were colonels of permanent regiments or governors of fortresses. ”

“ It reflects the highest honour on the Commanding Officer, whose great military knowledge, joined to indefatigable exertions, has brought the regiment to that degree of perfection which, while it pleases and astonishes, teaches the very useful, though long doubted lesson, that men can be disciplined, and horses trained in this country equally as well as in Europe. ”

“ When a regiment is once organized in a State, and mustered into the service of the United States, the officers and men become subject to the same laws of discipline and government as the regular troops. ”

“ Every old regiment had many brave and well-qualified non-commissioned officers who could not be promoted because only two officers were allowed each company, and, besides, we were placed in line to do the duty of a regiment, when we were no larger than a company of heavy artillery. ”

“ Early in the year 1767 a system of honorary distinctions for long-continued good behaviour was introduced into this regiment, which was found to stimulate the indifferent to good conduct, and those already worthy, to perseverance in well-doing, and it produced such a body of non-commissioned officers as few corps could boast of. ”

“ But in the English army regimental feeling is very strong; father and son follow on in the same regiment, and now that they are naming them for the counties from which [29] they are recruited, they are becoming very close corporations indeed. At mess the traditions of the regiment come into play, and you can learn then of the actions in which it has been engaged from the engravings and paintings around the walls, and from the silver plate on the table and the flags stacked in the corner. ”

“ The regiment is up yonder—the finest regiment God ever made. They are wallowing in the wet, sticky mud of the trenches they have dug themselves into, what is left of them. They are watching and waiting, always watching and waiting for the enemy to attack. ”

“ Each regiment has taken to its colours a dozen or two dozen comrade regiments bearing its ancient name, and carrying on, unseen, its proud prestige. To-day the soldier belongs to no particular calling. From the clerk to the dock-labourer—all have become soldiers pro bono publico and pro patria. Every day, in some part of the far-flung battle line, deeds are being performed that we would have proudly recorded in those earlier chapters; day by day, death has been met by amateur soldiers with the unbroken steadiness of veteran troops. ”

“ A good officer, backed by adequate supplies of food and with funds for the regular payment of his troops, will change a regiment even of ill-developed louts and hooligans into a fairly smart and well-disciplined corps. ”

“ His opinion was that every officer on first entering the service should be employed one or two years with a European regiment until he had learnt his duty, and, by making himself in some degree acquainted with the character of the natives, had become qualified to command and to act with sepoys. ”

“ I do not say this, I think, unadvisedly, nor from a mistaken sense of the quality of the rank and file of the regiment, but rather from the character of the commanding officers of the regiment while under Barlow and Miles. Each of them officers whose equal it was hard to find. They were men of dauntless courage and rare military judgment, who Led their men into battle, and under them if a soldier wanted to slink, as a rule, he deemed it safer to face the enemy than to let either one of them suspect he was slinking. ”