By Friedrich Engels

Written on December 21, 1854.

From the English.

[New-York Daily Tribune, No. 4281, January 8, 1855, leading article]

It is remarkable that the English press, which for the last six months has occupied itself with nothing but the position of Austria, has not once given us any reliable information as to the actual military strength which Austria can throw into the balance the moment it suits her to decide on the line of her policy. The London daily newspapers are divided in opinion as to whether an alliance with Austria or an open breach with her is to be preferred. But these journals, which represent the public opinion of a nation priding itself on being the most practical nation in the world, have never once condescended to penetrate into those details and statistical data which, not only in trade and political economy, but also in national policy, form the basis of every reasonably undertaken measure. The British press seems truly to be directed by gentlemen who are as ignorant in their sphere as those British officers who already believe they are doing their whole duty when they buy an officer’s commission. One newspaper says that the alliance with Austria must be concluded at all risks and under all circumstances, because Austria represents a gigantic military power. Another declares that an alliance with Austria is completely useless, since she needs all her strength to keep Hungary, Poland and Italy in check. But what the actual military strength of Austria looks like has never troubled either the one or the other.

The Austrian army, which until then had been organized on a clumsy and antiquated system, was completely reorganized in 1849. The defeats in Hungary contributed as much to this as the victories in Italy. The administration was freed from old traditional hindrances. The army of this country, in whose capital a revolution and in whose provinces a civil war had just been suppressed, was placed on a regular war footing. The division of the army into permanent brigades, divisions and army corps, as existed under Napoleon and at present exists in the Russian active army, was introduced with success. The 77 infantry regiments, besides the riflemen, and 40 cavalry regiments, which during the Italian and Hungarian campaigns had been so split up that not only battalions of the same regiment but also companies of the same battalion were at one and the same time stationed partly in Hungary and partly in Italy, were now reunited and formed in such a way that a similar disorder was prevented and the regular course of the regimental administration secured. According to this new plan, the Austrian army is divided into four armies, composed of twelve corps d’armée (army corps) and two cavalry corps. Each army possesses not only all three arms of the service but also a completely independent administrative staff and the material to ensure its immediate readiness for action. The first army — the 1st, 2nd and 9th army corps — is usually stationed in the German provinces of the Empire; the second army — the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th army corps, and the 2nd cavalry corps — and the third army — the 10th, 11th and 12th army corps, and the 1st cavalry corps — are usually stationed in the Hungarian and Slavonic provinces; while the fourth army, consisting only of the 4th army corps, is stationed in Italy.

Each army corps consists of two to three infantry divisions, one or two cavalry brigades, four reserve batteries of artillery, and the necessary detachments of pontoniers, the train commissariat and the medical personnel. A cavalry corps consists of two divisions, equal to four brigades or eight cavalry regiments, with a corresponding number of light batteries. An infantry division consists of two brigades of five battalions each, with one battery of foot artillery and two to four cavalry squadrons.

The whole army thus consists, as we have set forth above, of seventy-seven infantry regiments, besides the riflemen, forty cavalry regiments and fourteen regiments of field artillery, besides the fortress artillery, the engineers, the sappers, etc. The infantry consists of sixty-two line regiments, fourteen regiments and one battalion of border infantry, as well as one regiment and twenty-five battalions of riflemen. A line regiment is composed of five active and one depot battalion, or of twenty-eight active and four depot companies. The active company is 220 men strong, the depot company 130. A line regiment, with its five active battalions, must therefore number 5,964 men; this gives for 62 regiments, including the depot, 369,800 men. The border infantry, which numbers fourteen regiments, has two active battalions and one reserve battalion per regiment, equal to twelve active and four reserve companies. The active company numbers 242 men, including 22 riflemen. A border regiment accordingly counts 3,850 men, and the fourteen regiments together count 55,200 men. The strength of the riflemen or Jäger consists of one regiment of seven battalions, equal to 32 companies including the reserve, and 25 battalions, equal to 125 companies including the reserve; as each company is 202 strong, the riflemen number altogether 32,500 men. The total strength consequently amounts to 470,000 men.

The Austrian cavalry consists of 16 regiments of heavy cavalry (8 cuirassier and 8 dragoon regiments) and of 24 regiments of light cavalry (12 hussar and 12 uhlan regiments). In the cavalry the various nationalities of which Austria is composed are employed, in a very suitable way, according to their specific capabilities. The cuirassiers and dragoons are almost exclusively Germans and Bohemians; the hussars are all Hungarians and the uhlans all Poles. In the infantry a similar subdivision could hardly be maintained with any advantage. In general, the Germans and the Hungarians form the elite battalions of grenadiers, while the Tyrolese (Germans and Italians) and the Styrians are mostly riflemen; the great majority of the border infantry are composed of Croats and Serbs, both of whom are equally suited to the tasks of light infantry.

The heavy cavalry counts six active squadrons and one depot squadron per regiment — the squadron at 194 men. The light cavalry has eight active and one depot squadron per regiment, at 227 men per squadron. The total strength of the active cavalry amounts to 62,500 men without the depot, and 67,000 men with the depot.

The artillery consists of 12 field regiments, one coast regiment and one rocket regiment. The Austrians have no horse artillery. In their so-called cavalry artillery the gun crews are transported on the vehicles. Each field regiment has four cavalry batteries (six-pounders) and seven batteries of foot artillery (four six-pounder and three twelve-pounder), besides the reserve companies. Each battery has eight guns. The coast regiment has no permanent batteries, but is divided only into battalions and companies and is used as garrison for the coast fortifications. The rocket regiment has 18 batteries of eight tubes each. The entire Austrian artillery accordingly has at its disposal 1,056 guns and 144 rocket tubes. The artillery has, moreover, eight battalions of garrison artillery with about 10,400 men, and technical detachments of 4,500 men. The engineer troops number about 16,700 men.

Besides these active troops and the reserve and garrison troops, Austria possesses special corps formed for particular services, which, although they are not available as active combatants, yet prevent a reduction of the active strength through detachments of soldiers which very often reduce battalions to companies and cavalry regiments to squadrons. There are three medical battalions, train troops, and for each army corps a detachment of cavalry for orderly service. This latter institution has now also been introduced in the English army with the formation of the mounted staff corps. The entire Austrian army comprises altogether about 476,000 men of active troops and 1,140 guns; with the reserve, technical troops, staff, garrison and police troops (gendarmes) it is about 620,000 strong.

The Austrian soldier serves eight years and remains a further two years in the reserve. By this arrangement a reserve is always available which, in case of war, can be called up with a strength of about 120,000 men. In the Military Frontier every Grenzer must serve from his 20th to his 50th year. In this way the active strength of the border infantry can be increased from 55,000 men to as many as 150,000 or 200,000 men. In 1849 at least 150,000 of them were under arms. But at that time the Military Frontier was so denuded of troops that all the work in agriculture had to be done by the women.

From these data, for the accuracy of which we can vouch, it follows that Austria, by virtue of her military organization, is able to take the field at once with a force of 600,000 men, of whom at least 300,000 can be concentrated at any given point; at the same time a reserve of about 200,000 old soldiers can be called up, without any special levy and without particular detriment to the productive powers of the country.

The Russian army is so organized that it is able to fill its ranks with a far greater number of men. The population of Russia amounts to 60,000,000, that of Austria to 40,000,000; we have seen, however, that Austria, by merely calling up the reserve, can increase her army to more than 800,000 men, whereas Russia, in order to reach the same number, was compelled not only to call up her reserve, but also to recruit new troops to a strength equivalent to a regular levy of four annual contingents.