Friedrich Engels

Written in mid-November 1861. From the English.

["The Volunteer Journal, for Lancashire and Cheshire", No. 64, November 22, 1861]

"Lieutenant A. B. dismissed in disgrace; Second Lieutenant C. D. struck off the rolls; Captain E. F. discharged from the service of the United States" – these are some samples from the latest military news we are receiving in masses from America.

The United States have had a very large volunteer army in the field for the last eight months; they have spared neither trouble nor expense to make this army efficient, and besides, this army had the advantage of being posted almost the whole time within sight of the advanced posts of an enemy who never dared to attack them in mass or pursue them after a defeat. These favourable circumstances ought, in a very great measure, to have compensated for the difficulties under which the volunteers of the United States were organized, for the meagre support afforded them by a very small regular army forming their nucleus, and for the lack of experienced adjutants and drill instructors. We must not forget that there were many men in America both fit and willing to assist in organizing the volunteers – partly German officers and soldiers who had undergone a regular training and had fought in the campaigns of 1848/49, partly English soldiers who had emigrated during the last ten years.

If, under these circumstances, a regular purge among the officers becomes necessary, there must be a weakness which lies not in the volunteer system itself, but in the system of appointing such men as volunteer officers who were, without exception, elected by the soldiers from their own ranks. Only after a campaign of eight months in the face of the enemy does the government of the United States dare to call upon the volunteer officers to qualify themselves in some measure for the duties they undertook to fulfil when they accepted the officer's post; and now – what a number of voluntary or enforced resignations, what a quantity of more or less dishonourable discharges is the consequence! There is no doubt that if the Potomac army of the United States were to confront a fighting force consolidated and held together by a due proportion of professional soldiers, it would, despite its size and the undoubted personal bravery of its soldiers, have been driven from the field long ago.

These facts may serve as a good lesson to the English volunteers. Some of our readers will remember that from the first appearance of the "Volunteer Journal" we maintained that the officers are the weak side of the volunteer system, and insisted on an examination to which the officers should be called after a certain time, to show that they are at least well on the way to being equal to the fulfilment of the duties they have undertaken. The majority of the gentlemen who had undertaken to command and instruct soldiers in a field in which they themselves at the time were as completely ignorant as the soldiers – most of these gentlemen looked down on the idea. That was the time when all support and intervention on the part of the government were also despised. But since then the demands on the purses of these same gentlemen have become strong enough to induce them to ask for financial support from the government, and as is usual with governments, it implies at the same time a call upon the government to intervene. Moreover, a two years' experience has revealed pretty clearly the defects of the present system of supplying the volunteer corps with officers, and we are now informed by a commanding London officer, and to all appearances officially, that shortly the volunteer officers will be called upon to prove their fitness for a command before an examining board.

We sincerely hope that this may be the case. The fact is that the English volunteer officers likewise require a purge within certain limits. Look at a line regiment at drill and compare it with a volunteer battalion! What the volunteers take an hour and a half to do, the line troops get done in less than half an hour. We have seen part of the square formation at some of the best volunteer regiments in the country, and we must say with regret that it would have to be a miserable cavalry that would not have destroyed those squares every time before their flanks were ready to fire. This was not the fault of the soldiers. They appeared to know their duty as well as could be expected, and to execute their task sometimes even as mechanically as one sees in a line regiment. But the soldiers had to wait for the company officers, who seemed to be irresolute about the command to be given and also about the moment at which it was to be given. Thus irresolution and sometimes confusion were produced in a formation which requires, above all, rapidity in command and execution, which can only be acquired by long practice. If this occurs after now two years' practice, is that not proof enough that there are a number of volunteer officers holding responsible positions to which they are not equal?

Again, the battalion commanders have lately been highly praised by a very competent authority. It was said that they appear fully equal to their task, while the company officers were not always so. We are by no means inclined, as will have been noticed above, to doubt the latter statement, but we must say that the high authority mentioned, if it had seen the lieutenant-colonels and majors not at a great review, but at simple battalion drill, would probably have expressed a somewhat different opinion. At a great review no staff officer commanding a battalion will try, if he is not fully equal to his task, to act on his own responsibility. He has his adjutant as a prompter, who knows what is to be done. The adjutant accordingly prompts him, and the staff officer gets through his business well, while the poor captain has to blunder through his task without any prompter at all. But just look at the same staff officer at battalion drill! There he is not watched by the keen eyes of a general; there he holds supreme command; and there the adjutant must often enough take the place assigned to him in the Queen's regulations, and must keep his advice to himself until he is asked for it or until the confusion is complete. That is the place where the volunteer staff officer is seen in his true light. He is there to train his soldiers in battalion drill, but since he is not perfect in this science himself, he profits by the existence of the soldiers to train himself in it. As the ancients said: docendo discimus [we learn by teaching]. But if the teacher is not on firm ground in the matter he has to teach, errors and confusion easily arise, and that happens unfortunately often enough. This will contribute neither to acquiring proficiency in the drill of a volunteer battalion, nor to increasing confidence in its commander, when the soldiers find out that battalion drill means nothing more to them than giving their commanding staff officer an opportunity to learn the drill himself first of all. In the process they are often pushed hither and thither without purpose, and the soldiers are expected to correct by their superior knowledge the mistakes of the superior officer.

We do not wish to assert that the commanding volunteer officers have not taken pains to acquire military knowledge, but we say with full conviction that, while it is not so easy for civilians to become company officers as it is for privates, it is far more difficult for them to become staff officers. We must, on the mere experience of battalion drill, conclude that only professional soldiers are capable of commanding battalions. And when we consider that drill is only one part of the duties of a staff officer, that the commander of a battalion, who may be detached for independent tasks where he has to act on his own responsibility, requires a knowledge of higher tactics, we must say that we should greatly regret to see the lives of 600 or 1,000 men entrusted to the leadership of such civilians as now form the great majority of battalion commanders.

If the English volunteers ever faced an enemy, it certainly would not be under the favourable circumstances which now allow the American government to purge the ranks of its volunteer officers of the most incapable persons. If the English volunteers are called out, it will not be to fight against a volunteer army like themselves, but against the most highly disciplined and most active army in Europe. The very first encounters will be decisive; and if irresolution or confusion arises, whether through false commands of the colonels or through the uncertainty of the captains, it will certainly be exploited immediately. There will be no time for purging once you are face to face with the enemy; and therefore we hope that it will be done while there is still time.

F. E.