volunteer or regular, were formed to supply the losses in the war; and thus our regiments rarely mustered many more than half the numbers prescribed in the organic law. They were, therefore, arranged and manoeuvred as single battalions, in order that they might face in the field those of Britain, whose recruits, instead of being formed in new corps, were pressed forward to join the old. Our battalion was, therefore, too small at first, and the want of a systematic organization of reserves had increased the defect.

At the close of the war, the error had become apparent; and hence, on the adoption of the first peace establishment, the battalion was increased so far as to contain double the number of companies it had consisted of during the continuance of hostilities; but as a peace establishment, it was made to constitute a regiment, although its staff and fieldofficers were properly of a number sufficient to command two battalions.

We think, that by these examples, (and many others might be cited,) we have established that we were right in our use of the word battalion, and did no wrong to the gentleman who furnished the military details of Mr. Poinsett's bill, in ascribing to him an error. A battalion is the unit of the force of an army of infantry, and should, on the footing of actual service, contain the largest number of combatants that can be manoeuvred in line in the habitual order of formation. The latter, we consider, ought to be three in depth, not because it is necessary in action, but because an organization on the footing of two in depth would soon become too feeble by the casualties of service to face the battalions of any enemy to which we might be opposed. In fact, it can rarely happen that two thirds of the force prescribed by law can be with its colors.

In the use of the term plutoon, although we are obliged to confess that we have sinned against the high authority of the work before us, where it is employed as synonymous with what European writers, and particularly the French regulations of 1791, style a section, we have a right to maintain, on the latter authority, that we were not wrong in employing it as we did. A platoon, as we used the term, is an aliquot part of the strength of a battalion. It has been sometimes a tenth, sometimes as large as a sixth, but is generally an eighth the latter proportion being much better suited to all the manoeuvres than either of the others; and, in fact,

throughout the whole of the work before us, we see no trace of any other division of the battalion when engaged in manoeuvres, than into eight equal parts. They are indeed called companies, but with the actual company even of our service, they can rarely or never, from the necessity of their being of equal strength, be identical. In the British and French services, the platoon and the company, are also, on taking the field, nearly identical; but in the economic service of Prussia under Frederic, and at the present day, a platoon, although as strong as in either of the others, was about the half of a company.

Of all military terms, that of regiment is the most vague. In the Prussian and old French services, and in our own, up to the close of the war of 1812, it was composed of two battalions, such as we have described them. By our existing laws, and in the peace establishment of Great Britain, each regiment contains no more than one battalion. When France, in 1793, was attacked by the first coalition, she could muster no disciplined force adequate to the emergency. Immense numbers of volunteers, however, flew to the frontier, and by their undisciplined valor rather increased the losses than served to defend their country. On this occasion, Carnot, who then presided in the department of war, adopted the bold resolution of re-organizing the army in the very face of the invaders. The troops were withdrawn from active. operations, and placed under the protection of fortresses. The ancient regiments were dissolved, and each of their battalions was made the nucleus of a new body, to which he gave the name of a demibrigade. These new bodies were composed each of three battalions; but the latter retained their old organization of nine companies. Under Napoleon, the name of regiment was restored to these bodies, and he added to each a fourth battalion. The latter never took the field, but, stationed in garrison, was made up of conscripts, who were there prepared to take their place in one of the three I active battalions.

In the British service, not only may the ranks of their battalions be filled up from the minimum of the peace to the full war establishment, but each regiment is so organized that a second battalion can be forthwith arrayed. This advantage is obtained by their system of half pay, which places at the disposal of the government a number of officers equal to those in the peace service. Thus at the close of

the wars of the French revolution, a triple mode of reduction was adopted: all regiments beyond a certain number were abolished; the second battalions of all regiments were disbanded and their officers placed on half pay; and the first or remaining battalions had the numbers of their combatants reduced from the maximum force which could be manoeuvred in order of three in depth, to the minimum of adequate front in the order of two in depth.

The organization of the French army in 1815 is probably one of the best models of the peace establishment of a regular army, intended to be expanded into a form fit for active service by voluntary enlistments. The term regiment was, as at the beginning of the revolution, dropped, but the essential meaning of the term was preserved under the name of legion. To have retained the ancient numbers of the regiments, associated as they were with glorious recollections from the field of Montenotte to that of Ligny, would have been a continual source of annoyance to the Bourbon princes, and new numbers applied to old corps would have been a subject of ridicule. The legions were in consequence named from the departments, and the troops which had composed the regiments of Napoleon were directed to repair to the places of their birth to be arranged in the newly constituted bodies. The esprit de corps, which had led them in 1814 to resume their ancient cockade, and rally around the discarded eagles, was thus broken up. But this plan, calculated for an immediate object, was not long persisted in. When the Duke of Angouleme led an army across the Pyrenees, the name of regiment was restored, in order that any new laurels which each should acquire might be perpetuated upon their colors and appointments.

Each legion, as constituted by the ordonnance of 1815, was composed of three battalions, one of chasseurs, and two of infantry of the line. Each battalion contained eight companies. In the infantry of the line, one of these consisted of grenadiers, and another of voltigeurs, and each company contained sixty combatants. The battalion of chasseurs was also composed of eight companies, but the force was only of thirtysix combatants. Such was inferred from experience to be the smallest numbers which would suffice to give steadiness to an army suddenly raised to the war establishment by the addition of raw recruits. In addition, the skeleton of a ninth company was attached to each battalion, consisting of officers

and non-commissioned officers. This organization, adopted at a time when the fortresses of France were occupied by the forces of nations allied to the new dynasty, but the subverters of the old, was intended in part to suppress any feeling of discontent, but more to keep alive a knowledge of tactics for some future occasion. It was therefore the lowest minimum of a force, which could have any prospect of being rendered efficient.

The Royal Guard, on the other hand, was so organized as to be capable of acting in the field, although still upon a peace establishment, of the maximum of which it therefore presents a model. Each regiment was, as in the troops of the line, composed of three battalions, each battalion of eight companies; but the force of the companies was raised to ninety men. Each company in the manoeuvres constituted a platoon, which, with the officers on its flanks, contained thirty-two files. We had the good fortune to see this splendid body, the first time it was ever united for parade in one corps d'armée; and the impressions which its admirable equipment, and the soldier-like air of the men, all of whom were veterans of the wars of Napoleon, produced, will not speedily be effaced. It was in fact a copy, on the basis of a peace establishinent, of that old guard which the emperor had formed out of the élite of the French army, and which had been imitated by Russia, Austria and Prussia. Its infantry, composed of eight regiments divided into twenty-four battalions, was arranged in four brigades and two divisions. Its cavalry, constituting two divisions, was made up of four brigades, eight regiments and forty-eight squadrons. Each brigade of infantry was followed by a battery of eight pieces of foot artillery, and each division of cavalry by a battery of horse artillery. The united numbers, exclusive of the general staff, amounted to twenty-five thousand men.

Let us now inquire in what manner the French guard would have been put on the war establishment. In the first place the companies would be raised to one hundred and twenty combatants throughout, and the skeleton company of each battalion completed. The grenadiers of the infantry would be organized in separate battalions, and the odd company of the chasseurs detailed as riflemen. A fourth battalion, forming a reserved force, would be added to each regiment; the squadrons of cavalry increased from one hundred and thirty-two to one hundred and sixty men, and a reserve squadron organised to

each regiment; the artillery force doubled in men, increased three-fold in carriages. The whole would then be about thirty-seven thousand five hundred men, the war footing of the guard of Napoleon. Of this rather less than thirty thousand men were ever in a condition to take the field. The troops of the line would be increased to a similar force, and thus make ten corps d'armée, constituting a force upon pay of four hundred and twelve thousand five hundred men, of which about three hundred and thirty thousand could be disposable for active operations. It is in this manner that we have seen the military force of France almost doubled within a few months, without losing any of its general character of military efficiency. Not a single officer or noncommissioned officer has been added, and the new recruits incorporated with the veteran soldiers in the same companies and battalions, have not exhibited any want of tactical instruction in their manoeuvres. France, however, has probably better means of filling up the ranks of her army than any other nation. The people manifest a fondness for the life of a soldier, and its pay is a sufficient inducement to draw the laboring classes from other pursuits. It does not appear that conscription has been necessary, and yet the force grew as if by magic, to the surprise and terror of the neighboring powers.

The kingdom of Prussia presents at this moment the most perfect military organization which has been witnessed since that of the early days of the Roman Republic. Every citizen is liable to his turn of military duty, and it may be said that there is in fact no regular force, in the ordinary acceptation of the term; the whole army is no more than a well-ordered and thoroughly disciplined militia. From the age of twenty to twenty-five every man annually appears, to draw his ballot for a period of service in the line of the army which may not exceed six weeks, but which may by lot be extended to eighteen months. A preliminary choice is tendered as to the corps or arm, but when the party awaits the draught, he is assigned to such corps as may be most in want of recruits. The regiments of the line on the minimum peace establishment are made up of those drawn for eighteen months, whose service is demanded both during summer and winter; although the duty is not continuous, being for one year at one time, and for six months more after the interval of a summer or winter as the case may be. The summer or maximum peace establishment is made up by those drawn for shorter periods, say