Chapter 11 of 24 · 3836 words · ~19 min read

Part 11

It is not my intention here, nor in any other part of this work, to be unnecessarily minute in bringing matters before the readers; or at present to enter fully into the various details of the duties of staff officers; and I may, therefore, only now observe, and I shall not hesitate in doing so to take advantage of the suggestions, or hints, of any military writer, when it may suit my purpose, that the duties or functions of the staff, which have hitherto, with us, been only determined by what was considered custom, or by some obsolete modes of practice, which, after much trouble, may, perhaps, be found scattered through numerous orders and regulations, which from time to time, have been issued by various commanders, or in books which have no claim whatever to be considered official; and so completely is this the case, that the practice of modern warfare makes it desirable, and even indispensable, that where any authority may be attached to them, they ought to be annulled or suppressed, and a new system, constructed on a wise, and, if it can be done, on a limited scale, soon promulgated, as the established regulations of the army, which would render it scarcely possible, that mistakes, as to staff duties, could hereafter happen when brought into practice; for, in the field, the slightest misunderstanding, or disputing about points, perhaps in themselves trivial, might destroy that unity and rapidity of acting, which is so essential towards ensuring success in war.

The officer employed as chief of the staff should possess first-rate talents, much military information or experience; great activity, and perseverance. There are very few officers capable of filling this important and responsible appointment; for it demands a complete knowledge of the profession of a soldier. He should be well acquainted with the country about to become the seat of war; with its history, and with the wars which may have been there carried on, either in ancient or modern times; so that the general in command of the army could consult and arrange with him, if he thought proper, as to the best mode of directing his operations, and his suggestions might in many respects be of the most essential service. He should be looked up to by both the generals and the army, as not only intrusted with the plans or views of the Commander-in-Chief, but as also of being fully aware how they were to be executed; so that all the details of service would properly come from him; and thus freed from much care and trouble, the General-in-chief would more particularly be able to devote his attention to the grand objects of the enterprise in view. But the duties of chief of the staff and those of the several departments under him, being, as far as practicable, clearly defined by regulations; with what little difficulty or danger from the effects of ignorance or inexperience an army handled by officers so taught, and always kept in readiness when called for, could be brought into the field in an efficient state for service; whereas by the way in which we now try to get through matters, a Commander-in-Chief in any future war would have to wade through all the difficulties encountered, and by so much perseverance overcome by his Grace the Duke of Wellington.

I must now observe, and in as few words as possible, that issuing of orders and regulations, and upon all occasions seeing that they were obeyed; keeping an historical journal of the events of a campaign; making out returns for head-quarters, and calling for all those usually required from divisions, brigades, and regiments, and the ordinary correspondence appertaining to such subjects; arrangements for the maintenance of the discipline of the army; furnishing of officers and troops for guards and out-posts; issuing necessary instructions for a well-regulated and mounted police force, whose commander, captains, and subalterns, being well-taught their duties, and competent to perform them, should be entrusted with even more power than was allowed to provost-marshals;--these, with some other points of service, ought to come under the Adjutant-General and his assistants. But all this, it may be said, is already the common routine of business, and should be known to staff-officers; yet every one of them, I am certain, who has had experience in the field, must have felt the want of an efficient police, and of a better system for their guidance.

No division of the army should ever be without a strong detachment of police, either temporarily or permanently attached to it; and thus crimes would either be prevented through their vigilance, or those guilty of them immediately punished; the resources of a country would then neither be lawlessly seized and frittered away by marauders, nor would the inhabitants fail to bring supplies to the regularly established markets of the army, where they would be sure to find protection from the police. But all sutlers and persons permitted permanently to supply articles in camp or cantonments ought to have licenses from the head of the police, without which they should not be allowed to do so.

As more irregularities are generally committed by soldiers when absent from their corps, either upon duty or otherwise, than at other times; patroles of the police ought therefore to be constantly moving upon the roads in all directions, and should particularly have their eyes upon all guards, and people allowed for the service of the commissariat, either when foraging in collecting supplies of any kind, or in bringing them from the depots in the rear; and this useful corps should also extend their observations, even as far to the rear as the hospital stations more immediately belonging to the army in the field. These various, important, and indispensable duties if properly performed, and their due performance being shown by simple returns or reports, would require a considerable police force; but as I would expect them to be armed and equipped in all respects as dragoons, they could, upon any emergency, be called upon to act as such, and they must, therefore, in no way be looked upon as taken away from the fighting part of the army; by the regulations they would enforce, and by their preventing all straggling of soldiers or followers of the camp in search of plunder or liquor, the army would be rendered considerably more efficient through their exertions. Therefore, to the establishing of such a corps, which ought to be composed of well-conducted and well-paid men, I beg particularly to request attention.

There is a point too much overlooked, or, at least, but little understood in our army, viz. that of employing spies in order to obtain intelligence; and, as I should expect, that the head of the police is a man of ability and penetration, I would recommend that he should be entrusted with the management of this necessary point of service. If it is properly conducted, most useful information may be procured; especially if sufficient means for this purpose are placed at the disposal of a commander of the forces. There are various classes of spies, but I am anxious to be as brief as possible in alluding to them.

1st. Men considered of importance and in high situations, who, through avarice or meanness, yield to corruption. It belongs, however, to the Government of a country to employ such spies, and it is believed that Russia especially has, at this moment, many of them engaged in various countries, and in various ways.

2nd. Men supposed to be respectable in character, priests and intriguing women (I here adopt the words of a French writer), to be almost always found in countries in which war may be carried on; who, through a good use of part of the money, which it may be contrived to remit to them, can procure sometimes valuable information; but the best of such spies are usually found amongst those mentioned, and who are the least liable to raise suspicion.

3rd. Individuals admitted in various ways into the enemy's army--such as servants to general and other officers, sellers of spirits, provisions, and many trifling articles required by soldiers; and some men may through them be induced to desert at particular moments, especially when any important movements are about to take place. Such people can repeat the conversations they may have listened to; they can say pretty correctly where the enemy is in force; what direction he is moving in, as well as what places are occupied by his detachments; but this is generally all that can be looked for from them, their communications being frequently too confused and uncertain to be much relied upon. But some men, for money, as I know from experience, can be found (indeed they offer themselves) who would perform acts that would scarcely be believed, were I to state them.

4th. Intelligent peasants of the country, of whom there are always plenty to be found; but a good many of them should be sent out at one time, under the pretence of selling various articles in the enemy's camp, or cantonments; also to the detachments on his flanks, and lines of communication and operation. Such men should not, however, be employed at any great distance from their homes, as they soon become ignorant of the country and roads.

5th. Good information can often be obtained from prisoners of war of all ranks, if prudently and judiciously questioned by an officer, such as I suppose the head of the police would be; and correct intelligence was even sometimes, to my knowledge, pumped out of our single-minded officers at the out-posts, by the French, during the Peninsular war.

6th. The best and most useful of all spies, are those, who, though known as such, are employed and paid by both parties, according to the value of the information they are able to obtain. It is at the same time prudent, that they should be closely watched by the police, without their being aware of it, whilst they remain with our army; and it is not difficult to deceive them, and thereby make them convey false intelligence to the enemy. It would, however, be very imprudent at any time, to place too much reliance upon the reports of even the best spies. It is, however, an established principle, that every possible information should be extracted from spies, without unguardedly opening the mind to them, which too much zeal or anxiety might sometimes lead us into; and it is always wise to employ for the same object, men unknown to each other, so that they cannot concert between them to deceive. Only one spy should be spoken to at a time, and that in the most secret manner. Little should be said to them; but they ought by every means to be induced to talk much. They should also be led astray by seeming to attach much importance to objects which are little cared about; at the same time it requires much attention, to find out whether one is dealing with double spies or not, for without this knowledge, we must be taking unnecessary trouble, and often acting in the dark. Now, no commander of the forces, nor chief of the staff, could possibly be supposed to enter personally into such transactions, nor could they possibly find time to devote to such minute investigations; but the head of the police, whose duty it would be to make them, in the prudent manner I have suggested, could communicate the result of his perseverance in these respects to either, as he might be directed.

Spies should be well paid, especially when it is ascertained that they have acted faithfully; and Frederick the Great of Prussia, who has always been considered good authority, says in his military instructions to his generals, (a work which should be carefully read by all officers,) "a man, who, in your service, runs the risk of a halter, deserves to be well rewarded."

I beg to apologise for here intruding what may be looked upon as a digression; but mentioning information to be obtained from deserters, has brought to my recollection the extraordinary circumstance--at least I consider it as such--that it should have fallen to my lot, to have had the lieutenant of my company desert to the enemy; the only instance of the kind I ever heard of in the British army. It occurred just before our advancing in pursuit of the French, from what were considered the lines of Torres Vedras. I do not know in what part of Ireland Mr. B---- first saw the light, but he had been sent in early life to Salamanca, to be brought up for the Roman Catholic priesthood. It was, however, I suppose, found that he was unfit for that calling; at least, I understood that he had never been ordained; and having married, some person had most unwarrantably taken it upon himself to recommend him for an ensigncy in the army, for which he was still more unfit than to be a priest, for he was both vulgar in looks and manners; but as he spoke Spanish, and some Portuguese, and announcing himself wherever he went as a good Catholic, he got on, though very ignorant and illiterate, famously, both with the priests and people of Portugal. But he had, on one occasion, very nearly, in that country, come to an untimely end; for having been sent off, in order to get him away from the regiment, with part of the 3rd division's "advanced guard of infamy"--that is to say--the soldiers' wives, whom it was found necessary to send to the rear, in consequence of the depredations they daily committed; these Amazons, headed by a well known character, rose upon him with the most diabolical intentions, as some may remember, for the circumstance was much laughed at at the time, and he only escaped from their clutches, by jumping out of a window, at the risk of breaking his neck.

As soon as he disappeared, and that it was conjectured he had gone over to the enemy, as captain of his company, I was called upon to report upon the circumstances which could have led to so extraordinary an event; and I was at the same time given to understand, that Lord Wellington was uneasy lest he might have conveyed to the French some useful intelligence; but I conclude that an explanatory letter which I addressed to the officers commanding the regiment, set his Lordship's mind at ease; for I unhesitatingly declared him to be totally unfit to make any observations of consequence, as to the positions or state of the army, or upon the country in rear of the lines; and in this opinion, as we were afterwards able to ascertain, I proved to be quite correct, for Marshal Massena finding him useless, he was altogether neglected, and having been left by the French, in their retreat, asleep in a hut, he fell into the hands of some of our light troops. It was intended that he was to have been tried for deserting to the enemy, and I was in consequence ordered to appear as the principal witness against him; but upon his being brought before the General Court-Martial by the Provost Marshal, it was at once ascertained, that he had become deranged during his confinement. Upon this circumstance being made known to Lord Wellington, he, I understood, ordered him to be sent home, and I heard some time afterwards, that the unfortunate man died in a lunatic asylum in Ireland. This was a melancholy instance of the consequences of improper recommendations of persons for commissions in the army, which I regret to say, was but too common in those days; and my chief object in giving the story at all, is, that it may cause some gentlemen in future, to consider what they are about, before they take upon themselves the responsibility of introducing such men as Mr. B. into her Majesty's army.

In the French armies, according to the system they pursue, an officer possessing in many respects power not inferior to what I am so desirous that our officers of military police should be intrusted, takes up his station generally with or near the head-quarters of the army, or close to what is to be the line of march of the following day, and, if possible, within a reasonable distance of where he intends the markets to be held, should the army be stationary even for a few days only, and this enables him either personally to superintend what is going on, or else to send his subordinates to do so. He or some of his people patrole the neighbourhood of the camps, in order to protect all who are coming to the markets with supplies, and, on the spot, he punishes any one guilty of infringing the orders of the army.--Upon the line of march he distributes his police in such a manner as to insure good order amongst the soldiers, bat-men, carters, those attached to the commissariat, sutlers, and even amongst the people bringing supplies to the markets.

As he acts under the orders of the principal officer of the "état-major," or the commander-in-chief, he and his subordinates have the power of inflicting summary punishment, according to the rules of the service; and they are, therefore, even accompanied by executioners, the very sight of whom is conducive to good behaviour on the part of the troops and followers of the army of every description. It is something of this kind, but superior in arrangement, and in the rank of those employed, that the British army so much wants, and what I am anxious to have established upon a most respectable footing; but in all arrangements for this purpose it should be kept in view how beneficial it would be to the public service that a proper provision should be made for the necessities of divisions of the army when acting separately or independently. The French plan seems more particularly adapted to the wants of the head-quarters only, and is therefore so far defective.

In my anxiety to have an intelligent and efficient police established in connexion with the adjutant-general's department, I have been obliged to say more upon the subject than I at first intended, and as everything relating to the discipline of an army comes under that branch of the staff, I must also take the liberty to observe (and in doing so I know that I am coincided with in the opinion I am about to express by many officers,) that our courts-martial which are, even in these quiet times, almost constantly sitting, have brought matters, as the natural consequence of such a plan, into an unprofitable state, and which cannot possibly from want of time, and for other obvious reasons, exist, on service in the field. The strange system now pursued seems as if intended to weaken the power and influence of commanding and other officers in the corps, and which they must possess, if discipline is to be maintained as it ought to be; and this state of things looks as if brought about to suit the notions of men who are always dragging military matters before the public, whilst they show the world that they are quite ignorant of them. All this can, however, scarcely have any other tendency than to prevent officers from duly performing their duties lest they should be hauled over the coals for so doing, and I greatly fear that this must before long seriously injure the discipline of the army, so much so that if even what I have ventured to propose for its good should not be thought worthy of consideration, events alone may compel the legislature to look to the consequences likely to be produced if the present system is adhered to, and the result may most likely be that our military chiefs will have to be intrusted with greater power than they ever before possessed, especially on service; when far too much of the time of officers was always occupied upon courts-martial of all kinds, which might have been employed in looking after their men, and have prevented the crimes from being committed which became the subject for investigation, and as a proof of this the books of general orders issued upon service, are almost filled with parts of their proceedings and the observations of Commanders of the Forces upon them.

It is by no means with the view of inducing any one to follow their example I now mention that, in the French armies, before the Revolution, courts-martial were only assembled for the trial of those guilty of very serious crimes; and in the field, even these were often summarily judged and punished, occasionally upon a simple verbal order. The National Constituent Assembly, however, without knowing what they were about, and from a sheer love of novelty, under the pretext of doing away with arbitrary military proceedings, rendered them, as now with us, most vexatiously frequent and complicated, by requiring courts-martial to be assembled for the investigation of even the most trivial offences, in order to award the most trifling punishments; and which commanding officers, as in our navy, could before have ordered upon their own authority and responsibility. The new laws which they made for this wise purpose had soon to undergo many and endless changes, all tending to occupy the time of officers and to make the proceedings of military tribunals more tedious and annoying; and they are now, after all that has been done, no better than our own, and they have attached to them a court of revision in which the matter, in case of appeal, is re-considered. But to make up for being thus hampered, the French état-major often found it necessary, under the delegated authority of their commander-in-chief, to act in a very arbitrary and summary manner in the field.

Other branches of the service, such as the Post-office, &c., come under the Adjutant-General and his department, but I have already been too minute upon this head; yet I do not see how I can be less so if I am at all to enter upon the Quarter-Master-General's department, and in doing so I must touch upon what is well known to many officers.

All military plans, sketches, &c. especially such as afford information like the following:--

Plan pointing out where are situated, the stone bridges, &c. &c., which exist upon the Ebro, from Reynosa to Tudela.