Written at the beginning of May 1861.

[From The Volunteer Journal, for Lancashire and Cheshire, No. 36, May 11, 1861]

The Duke of Cambridge said in his speech at the dinner of the London Rifle Brigade that he would be very glad to see the Volunteers at Aldershot. The only difficulty, in his opinion, seemed to be how to get them there. We take the liberty of making a few suggestions as to how this difficulty might be overcome.

There can be no question, undoubtedly, of sending whole Volunteer corps to Aldershot or any other camp. The nature of their composition precludes any possibility of doing so. There is not a company, let alone a battalion, the majority of whose members could spare even fourteen days at the same time for such a purpose.

But if we cannot get the Volunteers to Aldershot as entire corps, could they not go there individually and still learn a great deal? We think they could, if the matter were so arranged that the Volunteers receive every facility to avail themselves of this opportunity.

We believe that the great majority of Volunteers are composed of men who can from time to time be released from their everyday business for fourteen days in the year. A whole number take a regular holiday of that duration or even longer. Among these there is certainly a considerable number who would have nothing against, but on the contrary would be glad to spend some time and money at Aldershot, if they were taken in there. Thus there would be no difficulty whatever in having between May and the end of September a varying number of Volunteers at Aldershot, which during that time, however, at least approximates the strength of a battalion. If, then, we can get this variable number into camp, how can use be made of it?

We propose that a set of barracks or tents for about 600 Volunteers be erected, and the command of this Volunteer camp be given to a captain, or better still a major of the line, assisted by an adjutant and a sergeant-major. The camp should be opened some time in May, as soon as a sufficient number of Volunteers have entered their names; when the camp is full, further applicants are to be admitted as far as there is room for them; all these Volunteers are to be formed into a battalion; a blouse of prescribed cut and colour should be worn over the outer clothing, to give the whole the appearance of a uniform. As there will certainly be too many officers, the only possibility will be to make officers temporarily do duty as sergeants and privates. Far from regarding this as a disadvantage, we even consider it an advantage. No Volunteer officer is so secure in his own personal drill that such a short descent into the ranks would be useless to him; let him call to mind that every line officer, year after year, has to shoulder the rifle for a certain time. The distribution of the temporary officers’ posts in the battalion could easily be arranged: the senior captains present could begin, and afterwards others might take up their posts in rotation. The commanding major might perhaps be invested with certain powers to fill these posts, in order to arouse a lively emulation among the officers present. These, however, are details whose settlement would cause little trouble once the idea had been seriously taken into consideration.

Such a battalion, with its fluctuating composition, would never attain a very high degree of efficiency, and both the commanding major and his assistants would have no easy office. It would, however, fulfil one purpose; namely, that in the Volunteer army generally, and among the officers and sergeants in particular, a nucleus of men would be developed who at all events have really been soldiers, if only for fourteen days. That may seem a miserably short period, but we do not doubt that everyone on leaving Aldershot would feel essentially different from what he did on his arrival. There is an immense difference between a drill once or twice a week, after the whole day has been spent in business and other matters, and a drill, even if only for fourteen days, morning, noon, and evening in a camp. During these fourteen days, every Volunteer present will have no other occupation than his military training; he will be confirmed in his drill to a degree that no amount of Volunteer drill, as at present practised, can ever attain, and moreover he will see a good deal more of soldiering than he could ever expect to see in his own corps, unless it went into camp for that purpose. Every Volunteer who leaves Aldershot will be convinced that he has learned at least as much in these fourteen days as during his whole previous Volunteer service. In due time there will then hardly be a Volunteer company in which one or more members have not been to Aldershot; and everyone will see to what extent such an infiltration of better-trained elements will improve the steadiness and also the military bearing of the various corps.

We have assumed that the training course for each Volunteer is to last fourteen days, simply because almost everyone is likely to find it possible to spare that short time. But nothing should prevent those Volunteers who can afford it from being allowed to remain a whole month in camp.

Of course, the Volunteers would have to provide for themselves in camp. The Government would have to supply tents and camp utensils, and could perhaps make arrangements for the issue of rations of provisions, to be paid for by the men. In this way, without causing any noteworthy expense to the country, the matter would be cheap for the Volunteers, and everything would correspond more to a regular camp life.

We do not doubt that, once the experiment had been tried, the Volunteers would immediately and gladly fall in with it; the battalion would always be kept at full strength, and perhaps the necessity for similar battalions in other camps, or at Aldershot, would soon arise. If the surplus of officers were very considerable, a special “officers’ battalion” with a somewhat longer period of training could be formed in one of the camps, and we believe such a battalion would serve its purpose for at least one season.

There is, however, yet another way of making the camps and the line troops generally useful to Volunteer officers, namely, by attaching such officers for a certain time to battalions of the regular army.

This can be done without the officers being removed too far from their place of residence. During this time (say a month), the Volunteer officers would have to do duty as if they were actually in the regiment. Doubtless ways and means could be found of allowing at least one Volunteer officer to be attached to such a battalion, without in any way interfering with the duties and position of the line officers, who have always shown the best possible disposition towards the Volunteers. Should this proposal be taken up, we would consider it advisable to attach to the line troops only such Volunteer officers as have shown, in one way or another, that they are capable of profiting by it. The Volunteer officer is not to learn the rudiments with the line troops, but to consolidate and perfect his knowledge; he is to learn things which he cannot learn in his own corps.

Our two proposals—the formation of variable battalions in the camps and the permission for qualified Volunteer officers to do duty for a month in the line—have mainly the training of officers in view. We repeat again and again that the officers are the weak side of the Volunteer army; we add that it must now be evident to all that the present system of Volunteer training cannot render the officers as a body efficient, and that therefore new means of instruction must be found, if the force is not only not to retrograde, but to improve.

We put forward these suggestions only for the purpose of directing attention to this question. We have no intention of laying before the public a fixed plan, worked out in all its details, taking every eventuality into account, and ripe to be put into practice immediately. That would be the affair of others, if the matter were seriously taken into consideration. But we would like to say that the whole Volunteer movement was an experiment, and if people are not prepared to go on experimenting a little further, in order to find out the proper way of improving the new army that has resulted from this experiment, the movement must eventually come to a standstill.

F.E.