Friedrich Engels

A Review of English Volunteer Riflemen

Written around 24 August 1860.

["Allgemeine Militär-Zeitung" Nr. 36 vom 8. September 1860]

Like Germany, England is arming itself to ward off Bonapartist aggressive designs; the English Volunteer Riflemen <freiwillige Jäger> sprang from the same cause as the doubling of the number of Prussian line battalions. It will therefore be of interest to the German military public to learn something more exact about the present state and the military efficiency of the new English Volunteer Army, for this army is, by its whole origin and basic idea, an enemy of Bonapartism, an ally of Germany.

With the exception of a few battalions, this Volunteer Army dates from the second half of last year; the great mass have not yet been clothed and drilled for a full year. At present its strength on paper amounts to 120,000 men; but if we may judge the whole by the conditions obtaining in particular districts, scarcely 80,000 really trained men are to be counted upon; the rest have no interest in the matter and would best be struck off the lists.

The organisation is very simple. Where 60–100 volunteers (with artillery 50–80) come together in a locality, they may, with the approval of the Lord Lieutenant of the county, form a company. They elect officer candidates (1 captain, 1 lieutenant, 1 ensign or sub-lieutenant), whom the Lord Lieutenant generally appoints to the respective ranks; but a number of them have also been rejected.

Several companies may combine into a battalion, whereupon the Lord Lieutenant, mostly in accordance with the wishes of the corps of officers or by seniority of the captains, appoints the major and the lieutenant-colonel (in England the actual commander of the battalion). In this way corps of from one to eight companies exist, numbered in each county according to the order of their formation; but only a full battalion of 8 companies receives a lieutenant-colonel. The officers may all be appointed from among the volunteers and are not required to take any examinations. The adjutant alone must be a former line or militia officer, and he alone receives permanent pay.
(1)

The volunteers clothe themselves, but the government on request supplies rifle and ordinary bayonet on loan. Each corps itself chooses the colour, cut, etc., of the uniform and leather equipment, subject to approval by the government, i.e., the Lord Lieutenant of the county. The corps on the whole also have to provide for themselves drill-grounds and ranges, ammunition, instructors, and bands.

The uniforms of the various infantry or rifle corps are mostly dark green, light or dark grey, or grey-brown; the cut is mid-way between French and English; the headgear is predominantly the French képi, the French or English officer’s cap. The artillery is regulation dark blue and, for the sake of appearance, has adopted the unsuitable busby of the English horse artillery. The few mounted riflemen model their uniform on the English cavalry; they are, moreover, a pure article of luxury.

When the agitation for the formation of these rifle corps began and the first companies were formed, the matter had a very strong smack of national guard or civic militia; there was a great deal of playing at soldiers about it; the clique system in the election of officers, the comic bearing, and the helplessness in the discharge of their duties of the new officers were highly amusing. As was to be expected, the elections by no means always fell upon the most capable, nor even upon those who had the greatest enthusiasm for the cause. In the first six months of their existence, almost all the companies and battalions gave the impression of our late civic militia of 1848.

This was the material handed over to the non-commissioned officer instructors in order to make serviceable field troops out of it. Drill was usually done in the evenings, from 7 to 9 o’clock, by squads, in closed rooms and by lamplight, two or three times a week, and, where possible, a short training march was made on Saturday afternoon and company drill held. The instructors were non-commissioned officers of the line, the militia, or the half-invalids (Pensioners). Custom and law forbade the use of Sunday. The drill-masters also had to do everything for the training of the officers. Meanwhile, the English non-commissioned officer is in his way quite excellent. In the English army there is less cursing and swearing on duty, and people speak far more calmly than in any other, but on that account also punish all the more reliably. The non-commissioned officer imitates the officer and acquires a tone which is far superior to that prevailing among our German non-commissioned officers. In doing this he does not serve for the sake of later civil provision; he has voluntarily engaged for twelve years, and promotion up to sergeant-major already puts him, at each new step, considerably better off than before; in every battalion one or two commissioned posts (adjutant and paymaster) are mostly recruited from old non-commissioned officers; in war the non-commissioned officer can, by distinction before the enemy, win the golden star on his collar. The drill-masters drawn from these non-commissioned officers have, on the whole and by and large, really achieved what was possible in the allotted time with the volunteer riflemen, and have not only thoroughly drilled the companies but also trained the officers tolerably.

Meanwhile, at least in the larger towns, the individual companies formed themselves into battalions and received adjutants from the regular troops. The English subaltern officer, like the Austrian, has far less theoretical education than the North German; but when he has a liking for his profession he, like the Austrian, knows his duty quite excellently. Among the adjutants who have transferred to the volunteer battalions there are men who as instructors could not be better; and the results they have achieved with their battalions in a very short time are truly surprising. However, by far the smallest number of volunteers have as yet combined into battalions, and therefore the companies existing on their own lag considerably behind the battalions.

On 11 August, the volunteers of Lancashire and Cheshire had organised a review at Newton, half-way between Manchester and Liverpool; the commanding lieutenant-general of the district, Sir George Wetherall, took the supreme command. They were the volunteers of the factory districts around Manchester who gave themselves rendezvous here; for from Liverpool as well as from the adjoining agricultural districts of Cheshire only a few had come. Judging from our German recruiting experience, we must accordingly regard these corps as physically below the average; yet it must not be forgotten that the working class forms by far the minority among the volunteers.

The ground of the Newton racecourse, spongy in any case, had been considerably softened by the persistent rain, very uneven and clayey; on one side runs a brook, near which there is thick underbrush here and there. For a parade-ground for young volunteers the ground was just right; for the most part they stood up to the ankles in water and mud, and the officers’ horses often sank past the fetlock into the clay.

The 57 corps that had reported were divided into 4 brigades, the first with 4, the others with 3 battalions each, each battalion of 8 companies; lieutenant-colonels of the line commanded the brigades, volunteer officers the battalions. The first brigade had 3 battalions deployed, the fourth in column behind the centre. In the second line stood the 3 remaining brigades, 9 battalion columns, side by side. All columns with company front, quarter distance between companies, and right in front.

After the general was received by the troops, a change of front to the left was to be carried out; the battalion standing in column behind the first line was to deploy as skirmishers to cover this movement. Accordingly, it passed through the gap which the two centre companies of the battalion in front of it formed by wheeling right and left, and then wheeled left in column, whereupon 4 companies deployed as skirmishers along the brook and the remaining 4 formed the supports. Given the wet ground and the undergrowth, proper use of the terrain was of course out of the question; besides, most volunteer battalions are still occupied with the ABC of skirmishing and field service, so that it would not be fair to apply a strict standard here. Meanwhile, the deployed line wheeled on the centre of the middle battalion as pivot; the two centre companies of this battalion wheeled, one forward, the other backward, through a quarter circle, whereupon the remaining companies moved up into the new alignment. The two flank battalions formed column of quarter distance (the closest column the English know), also marched into the alignment, and deployed. One can imagine how much time this clumsy manoeuvre took. At the same time, the right flank battalion of the second or column line advanced straight forward until it had arrived behind the new right wing of the first line; the other battalions followed, making a right turn (in double files) to the spot where the right flank battalion had stood; having arrived here, each battalion fronted and followed the battalions that had preceded it. As soon as the last battalion column had in this way arrived in the new alignment, each battalion wheeled individually to the left, thereby restoring the front of the column line.

Now the third brigade advanced from the centre of this column line; having arrived two hundred paces behind the first deployed line, the three battalion columns open to deploying distance and deploy in their turn. As the skirmishing chain has meanwhile gained a good deal of ground, both deployed lines advance a few hundred paces, whereupon the first line is relieved by the second. This is done by the two lines forming right turn in double files, the head of each company in the first line wheeling right, the head of each company in the second line wheeling left, and thus both lines pass through each other, whereupon they front and wheel back into line. This is one of those parade-ground manoeuvres which, where they can be carried out, are superfluous, and where they are necessary, unfortunately, are impracticable. Thereupon the four brigades were again drawn together into one great column in a similar manner, in keeping with line tactics, and the troops defiled past the general in company front (25–35 files) and in open column.

We shall not waste another word on this kind of elementary tactics, which will certainly appear old-fashioned enough to our readers; it is obvious from the outset that such regulations, whatever their value or lack of value for a line regiment with a twelve-year term of service, are, for Volunteers who drill only in their spare hours, in any case the most unsuitable in the world. What interests us here is solely the manner in which these movements were executed by the Volunteers; and on this point we must say that, although there was an occasional hitch here and there, on the whole all the evolutions were carried out calmly and without confusion. Most deficient was the wheeling in column and the deploying, the latter of which generally proceeded very slowly; in both movements the inadequate training and assurance of the officers made themselves felt. On the other hand, the advance in line of the deployed lines, this chief manoeuvre of English tactics, was entirely beyond all expectation; it is a movement for which the English have, after all, an exceptional aptitude

and which they seem to learn with remarkable ease. The marching past also went off, to our great amusement under a heavy downpour, on the whole quite well, although various naive infractions of the rather complicated English military etiquette occurred in the process. Only of distance, thanks to the officers, there was again no question.

Apart from a manoeuvre with an opposing force organised in London by a few sanguine volunteer commanders, which went on rather wildly, this was the first time that larger masses of Volunteers carried out evolutions aimed at something other than mere parade marching. If one considers that the great mass of the troops present consisted of corps numbering either only one, two, or at most three companies, which are in no kind of battalion formation, have no officers with regular army service, have been drilled only by non-commissioned officers who have seen service, and have been drawn together into battalions only on isolated occasions, one will admit that all that was possible was achieved, and that the English Volunteers no longer stand on the level of citizen militias. It goes without saying, moreover, that those corps which form entire battalions and have adjutants from the line (for these are now, in point of fact, the battalion commanders) also manoeuvred far better at the review than the rest.

The men, on the whole, made a good appearance. Individual companies, it is true, were of French smallness, while others, on the contrary, exceeded in stature the average of the present English line. For the most part, however, the men were of very mixed height and chest measurement. The urban pallor of the majority makes a disagreeably unmilitary impression, a pallor which would, however, disappear after eight days’ camp service. The uniforms, overloaded here and there, were, on the whole, of very good effect.

The first year has now brought the Volunteers so far in the ABC of drill that they can proceed to skirmishing and musketry practice. In both they will prove far more adept than the English line, so that by the summer of next year they would make a quite serviceable corps, if only the officers were better.

Here, however, lies the weak side of the whole formation. Officers cannot be trained in the same time and with the same means as common soldiers. So far it has been shown that the zeal of the mass can be counted on to the extent that every man becomes sufficiently trained for the purpose. But for the officers this is not enough. As we see,

even for the simple evolutions in battalion—wheeling in column, deploying, keeping distance (so important, after all, in English linear tactics)—the training of the officers is far from adequate. How is it to be in field service and skirmishing, where judgement of terrain is everything, where far more difficult things occur? How can such men be entrusted with outpost duty? The government has obligated every Volunteer officer to attend the School of Musketry at Hythe for at least three weeks. That is all very well, but it teaches him neither how to lead patrols nor how to command field guards. And yet the Volunteers are to be used, in the first instance, for light service—that is, for the service for which they need the most skilful and surest officers!

Here, however, the State must intervene if anything is to come of the matter. The companies that still exist on their own account, singly or in twos and threes, should be compelled to combine into battalions and to take on adjutants from the line; these adjutants should regularly deliver lectures to all the officers on elementary tactics, field service, and internal duties of the battalion; besides attending the School of Musketry, the officers should be obliged to do duty for at least three weeks in a camp with a line regiment; and after all this, they should be subjected to an examination in which they prove that they have at least learnt the most essential things. Such an examination of the officers, and then a medical inspection of the men to remove those unfit for service, of whom a crowd have crept in, as well as an annual revision of the muster-rolls to strike off the men who do not attend drill, who merely play at soldiers and learn nothing—then, to be sure, the 120,000 men who now exist on paper would soon be very considerably reduced; but we would have a body of troops worth three times as much as what now stands on paper.

Instead of this, it is said, the War Office is occupying itself with the important question whether, at the first opportunity, all the Volunteers should not be dressed in the so practical brick-red of the line.

Footnotes by Frederick Engels

(1) To the government grant of £180 for pay supplement, most battalions add a considerable sum; I know adjutants, lieutenants from the line, who draw £300 or 2,000 talers and more in pay.