Frederick Engels

Camp

Written about February 18, 1858.

From the English.

["The New American Cyclopædia", Volume IV]

Camp—a resting-place for troops for a night or for a longer period, either in tents or in bivouac, or under any shelter quickly constructed. Troops are billeted when they are distributed among various villages, or when they are accommodated in huts after the end of a campaign. Barracks are permanent military quarters. Tents were considered unhealthy by Napoleon; he preferred the soldier to lie in bivouac, sleeping with his feet to the fire, protected from the wind by light screens and bowers. Major Sibley of the American army has introduced a tent which can accommodate 20 cavalry soldiers with their accoutrements, all sleeping with their feet towards a fire in its centre. Bivouac tents have been introduced in the French army since 1837. They consist of a cotton fabric impregnated with caoutchouc, and are thus made waterproof. Each man carries a portion of this material, and the different pieces are quickly joined together by hasps. In choosing a camp, it is essential that there be good water at a reasonable distance; the proximity of woods also plays an important part, as they afford firewood and shelter. Good roads, canals, or navigable rivers are important for supplying the troops with the necessities of life if they live in camp for a long period. The vicinity of marshes or stagnant water should be avoided. If a ground is to be suitable for defence, it must allow troop movements. As far as possible, cavalry and infantry should be placed in a single line, the former on the wings, the latter in the centre. Sheds or huts should, as far as the nature of the ground permits, be built in rows running at right angles to the front, and extending from one end of the camp to the other. No universal rules, however, can be laid down for the laying out of a camp, but the commander must decide according to circumstances whether to divide his army into one or two lines, and as to the respective positions of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. The camp guards are: 1. the camp guard, which serves to maintain good order and discipline, to prevent desertions, and to give the alarm; 2. infantry and cavalry detachments, detailed as pickets, stationed in front and on the flanks to intercept the enemy’s reconnoitring parties and to report an enemy approach in time; and 3. grand guards or outposts, which are large detachments posted in surrounding villages, in farmhouses, or small field entrenchments, from which they can observe the enemy’s movements. They should not be so far from the camp as to be without support in case of an attack. Immediately on arrival at the ground, the number of men to be furnished for guards and pickets is fixed in detail, the posts to be occupied by them are designated, the places for the distribution of provisions are named, and in general all arrangements for the internal and external police and camp duties are made.

One of the oldest camps mentioned in history is that of the Israelites at their exodus from Egypt. It formed a large quadrangle, divided out among the various tribes, with the camp of the Levites and the tabernacle in the centre, and it had a main gate or entrance with an adjacent open place, which was at once forum and market-place. But the arrangement, dimensions, and entrenchments of the regular military camps of the Hebrews or their enemies can scarcely be made out.

The camp of the Greeks before Troy was close to the sea-shore, to protect their ships, which were drawn up on land; it was divided into separate quarters for the different tribes, and fortified, with ramparts facing the city and the sea, and with an outer high earth mound, strengthened by wooden towers against the sorties of the besieged. The bravest of their leaders, such as Achilles and Ajax, were posted at the extreme ends. The Spartan camp was round, and not without precautions, such as guards and mounted posts.

The Roman camp varied according to the season, the length of time for which it was to be occupied, the number of legions, as well as the nature of the ground and other circumstances. A historian of the time of the empire, Josephus Flavius, mentions camps of every shape, round, oblong, etc., but the predominant form of the Roman camp was quadrangular. Its site was determined by augurs and laid out according to the four cardinal points, with the front facing sunrise; it was measured out with a gnomon; a square of 700 feet on each side was considered sufficient for 20,000 men. It was divided into an upper and a lower part, separated by a large open space and two main lines (decumana and cardo) running from east to west and from north to south, as well as by a number of streets. It had four gates, the main ones being the Decuman and the Praetorian, which no soldier was allowed to pass without permission on pain of death, and was surrounded by a defence consisting of a ditch and an earthen rampart, separated by an interval of 200 feet from the inner camp. All these entrenchments were made by the soldiers themselves, who handled the pick-axe and the spade as dexterously as the sword or the lance; they levelled the ground, erected the palisades, which they placed around the entrenchments in a sort of fence of irregular spikes. In the centre of the upper division was the general’s pavilion (Praetorium), forming a square of 200 feet on each side; around it were the auguraculum, the quaestorium or quarters of the army paymaster, the forum, serving as a sort of market and as a meeting-place, as well as the tents of the legati, those of the tribunes opposite their respective legions, and those of the commanders of the foreign auxiliaries. In the lower division were the tents of the subaltern officers and of the legions, of the Roman cavalry, the triarii, the principes, the hastati, etc.; and on the flanks, carefully separated from one another, the companies of foreign cavalry and infantry. The tents were covered with skins, each accommodating 10 soldiers and their decanus, the centurions and standard-bearers at the head of their companies. Between the two divisions, in the space called principia, was the general’s tribunal for the administration of justice and for harangues, the altar, the sacred images of the gods, and the no less sacred military emblems. In exceptional cases the camp was surrounded by a stone wall, and sometimes even the soldiers’ quarters were of the same material. The whole camp presented the appearance of a town; it was the only fortress which the Romans built. Among the most lasting monuments of the Roman occupation of Britain is the whole or partial retention of the Latin castra (camp), in the names of a great number of places first occupied by them as military posts, such as Doncaster, Leicester, Worcester, Chester, Winchester, etc.

The camps of the non-Roman nations of antiquity were often surrounded by a fortification of waggons and carts, as for instance that of the Cimbri in their last battle against the Romans (101 B.C.E.), which, after their defeat, was so fiercely defended by their women.

An Entrenched Camp

is a camp surrounded by defensive works, which also serves as a fortress and is intended for longer use.