Men belonging to the cavalry may, in assaults, be employed in carry ing fascines and other materials to fill ditches and make passages The general officers of cavalry are more particularly employed in the service of posts and detachments placed in observation to protect the siege. They and the field officers of this arm are employed in the command of escorts to convoys, of whatever arms the escorts may be composed. When these duties are not sufficient to employ them, they take their share of the duty of the trenches. The officers of engineers and artillery of the trenches make to the General of the trenches a return of all losses in their troops, and such other reports on the work as he requireș, in addition to the reports direct to their respective chiefs on the details of the service. At the end of each tour, the field officer of the trenches draws up a report for the twenty-four hours to the General of the trenches. The General of the trenches reports to the General commanding the siege. The commanders of the several corps in the trenches report, when relieved, to their respective headquarters the losses during the tour, and the conduct of the officers and men. However practicable the breach may appear, or however ruined the works in rear of it, the heads of columns must always be supplied with ladders to get over unexpected obstacles. The General commanding the siege designates picked companies to protect property and persons, and prevent pillage and violence, from the moment the place is carried. The officers exert themselves to restrain the men. The General designates the places requiring particular protection, such as churches, asylums, hospitals, colleges, schools, and magazines. The order for their protection should remind the soldiers, at the time, of the penalty of disobeying it. Whether the place be taken by assault or by capitulation, the provisions and military stores, and the public funds, are reserved for the use of the army. The commander of engineers will keep a journal of the siege, showing the operations of each day in detail, the force employed on the work, the kind and quantity of materials used in them, &c. He will also mark on a plan of the ground the daily progress of the works, and make the necessary drawings explanatory of their construction. The commander of the artillery will keep a daily journal of the opera tions under his direction, showing-the number and kind of pieces in battery, the force employed in serving them, the kind and quantity of ammunition expended, the number of rounds fired from each piece of ordnance, the effect of the fire, and all other particulars relative to his branch of the service. These journals and drawings will be sent, after the siege, with the report of the General, to the War Department. DEFENCE OF FORTIFIED PLACES. In war every commander of a fortified place shall always hold himself prepared with his plan of defence, as if at any time liable to attack. He arranges this plan according to the probable mode of attack; determines the posts of the troops in the several parts of the works, the reliefs, the reserves, and the details of service in all the corps. He draws up instructions for a case of attack, and exercises the garrison according to his plan of defence. In sea-coast works he provides the instructions for the different batteries on the approach of ships. In framing his plan he studies the works and the exterior within the radius of attack and investment, the strength of the garrison, the artillery, the munitions of war, subsistence and supplies of all kinds, and takes immediate measures to procure whatever is deficient of troops or supplies, either by requisition on the government or from the means put at his disposal. On the approach of an enemy he removes all houses and other objects, within or without the place, that cover the approaches, or interrupt the fire of the guns or the movements of the troops. He assures himself personally that all posterns, outlets, embrasures, &c., are in proper state of security. He shall be furnished by the Department of War with a plan of the works, showing all the details of the fortifications and of the exterior within the radius of attack; with a map of the environs within the radius of investment; with a map of the vicinity, including the neighboring works, roads, water-channels, coasts, &c.; with a memoir explaining the situation and defence of the place, and the relations and bearings of the several works on each other, and on the approaches by land and water; all which he carefully preserves, and communicates only to the council of defence. He consults his next in rank, and the senior officer of the engineers and of the artillery, either separately or as a council of defence. In the latter case he designates an officer to act as secretary to the council, and to record their proceedings and their joint or separate opinions which are to be kept secret during the siege. The members may record their opinions under their own signature. In all cases the commander decides on his own responsibility. The commander of the place, and the chiefs of engineers and of artil lery, shall keep journals of the defence, in which shall be entered, in order of date, without blank or interlineation, the orders given or received, the manner in which they are executed, their results, and every event and circumstance of importance in the progress of the defence. These journals and the proceedings of the council of defence shall be sent after he siege to the Department of War. There shall be kept in the office of the commandant of the place, to be sent after the siege to the Department of War, a map of the environs, a plan of the fortifications, and a special plan of the front of attack, on which the chief engineer will trace, in succession, the positions occupied, and the works executed by the enemy from the investment; and also the works of counter approach or defence, and the successive positions of the artillery and other troops of the garrison during the progress of the siege. The commander shall defend in succession the advanced works, the covered way and outworks, the body of the work, and the interior intrenchments. He will not be content with clearing away the foot of the breaches, and defending them by abattis, mines, and all the means used in sieges; but he shall begin in good time, behind the bastions or front of attack, the necessary intrenchments to resist assaults on the main work. He shall use his means of defence in such manner as always to have a reserve of fresh troops, chosen from his best soldiers, to resist assaults, retake the outworks, and especially to resist the assaults on the body of the place; and a reserve of provisions for the last period of the siege, and of ammunition for the last attacks. He must, in every case, compel the besieging force to approach by the slow and successive works of siege, and must sustain at least one assault on a practicable breach in the body of the place. When the commander thinks that the end of the defence has come he shall still consult the council of defence on the means that may remain to prolong the siege. But in all cases he alone will decide on the time, manner, and terms of the surrender. In the capitulation he shall not seek or accept better terms for himself than for the garrison, but shall share their fate, and exert his best endeavors for the care of the troops, and especially of the sick and wounded. No commander in the field shall withdraw troops or supplies from any fortified place, or exercise any authority over its commandant, unless it has been put subject to his orders by competent authority. |