Friedrich Engels  
A Review of English Volunteer Riflemen  

Allgemeine Militär-Zeitung.  
Nr. 36, 8 September 1860  

A Review  
of English Volunteer Riflemen.  

(Correspondence from Manchester.)

Like Germany, England is arming for defence against Bonapartist aggressive designs; the English Volunteer Riflemen 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 precise about the present state and the fitness for war of the new English volunteer army, for this army, by its whole origin and fundamental idea, is an enemy of Bonapartism, an ally of Germany.

With the exception of a few battalions, this volunteer army dates from the latter half of last year; the great majority have not yet been a year clothed and drilled. At present its strength on paper amounts to 120,000 men; but if we may judge the whole from the conditions obtaining in individual districts, barely 80,000 men can be counted as really trained; 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 (for the artillery 50–80) come together in one 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 second lieutenant), whom the lord-lieutenant generally appoints to the respective ranks, though a number of them have been rejected. Several companies may form themselves into a battalion, in which case the lord-lieutenant, mostly in accordance with the wishes of the officers’ corps or according to the seniority of the captains, appoints the major and the lieutenant-colonel (in England the actual battalion commander). 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 the ranks of the volunteers and need not pass any examinations. The adjutant alone must be a former line or militia officer, and he alone receives regular pay.*) The volunteers clothe themselves, but on request the government supplies a rifle and ordinary bayonet on loan. Each corps chooses the colour, cut, etc., of the uniform and the leather equipment, subject to approval by the government, i.e., the lord-lieutenant of the county. The corps are likewise generally responsible for providing their own drill grounds and rifle 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 holds a middle course between the French and the English; headgear is predominantly the French kepi, the French or English officer’s cap. The artillery is uniformed in regulation dark blue, and to the detriment of its appearance has adopted the impractical busby of the English horse artillery. The few mounted rifles conform in their uniform to the English cavalry; they are, besides, a pure luxury article.

When the agitation for the formation of these rifle corps began and the first companies were formed, the affair had a very strong flavour of the national guard or civic militia; there was a great deal of playing at soldiers, the clique system in the election of officers, the comical bearing and the helplessness in drill of the new officers, afforded much amusement. As is understandable, the elections by no means always fell on the most capable, nor even on those who had the greatest love for the thing. In the first six months of their existence almost all companies and battalions made the impression of our blessed civic militia of the year 1848.

This was the material handed over to the non-commissioned officer instructors, to be turned into serviceable field troops. They usually drilled in the evening, from 7 to 9 o’clock, by sections, in enclosed spaces and by lamplight, two or three times a week, and where possible a short practice march and company drill were held on Saturday afternoon. The instructors were non-commissioned officers of the line, the militia or the half-pay men (pensioners). Custom and law forbade the use of Sunday. The drillmasters also had to do everything for the training of the officers.

Nevertheless, the English non-commissioned officer is, in his own way, quite excellent. In the English army there is less cursing and swearing on duty, and a far calmer tone prevails than in any other, but for that very reason punishment is all the more certain. The non-commissioned officer imitates the officer, and acquires a tone far superior to that prevailing among our German non-commissioned officers. He does not serve for the sake of future civil employment; he has voluntarily engaged for 12 years, and promotion to sergeant-major alone already puts him, at each new step, considerably better off than before; in each battalion one or two officers’ posts (adjutant and paymaster) are mostly recruited from old non-commissioned officers; in war the non-commissioned officer may, by distinction in the face of the enemy, gain the golden star on his collar. The drillmasters drawn from these non-commissioned officers have really, on the whole, accomplished with the volunteer riflemen what was possible in the time allotted, and have not only thoroughly drilled the companies but also roughly trained the officers.

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 if he takes pleasure in his profession, he knows his drill, like the Austrian, quite excellently. Among the adjutants who have transferred to the volunteer battalions there are men who could not possibly be better as instructors; and the results they have achieved with their battalions in a very short time are indeed surprising. However, up to now very few of the volunteers have combined into battalions, and therefore the companies existing singly lag considerably behind the battalions.

On 11 August the volunteers of Lancashire and Cheshire organised a review at Newton, halfway between Manchester and Liverpool; the lieutenant-general commanding the district, Sir George Wetherall, took supreme command. It was the volunteers of the factory districts round Manchester who mustered here; for from Liverpool, as from the adjacent agricultural districts of Cheshire, only few had come. Judging by our German recruiting experience, we must regard these corps, in physical respects, as being below the average; yet it must not be forgotten that the working class forms by far the minority among the volunteers.

The ground of Newton racecourse, spongy enough in itself, had been much softened by the continuous rain, was very uneven and clayey; on one side runs a brook, near which there is dense brushwood here and there. As a parade ground for young volunteers the spot was just right; they mostly stood up to the ankles in water and mud, and the officers’ horses often sank into the clay up to the fetlock.

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

After the general had been 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. It accordingly passed through the gap formed by the two centre companies of the battalion in front of it by wheeling right and left, and then wheeled into column left, whereupon four companies deployed as skirmishers along the brook and the remaining four formed the supports. With the wet ground and brushwood, proper use of ground 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, a quarter circle, whereupon the remaining companies marched into the new alignment. The two flank battalions formed column at quarter-distance (the closest column the English know), likewise marched into alignment and deployed. One can imagine how much time this clumsy manoeuvre consumed. Simultaneously the right-flank battalion of the second or column line advanced straight forward until it had arrived behind the new right flank of the first line; the other battalions followed by right-about (in double files) to the spot where the right-flank battalion had stood; on arriving here, each battalion formed front and followed the preceding battalions. As soon as the last battalion column had in this way arrived in the new alignment, each battalion individually wheeled left, thereby restoring the front of the column line.

Now the third brigade advanced from the centre of this column line;

*) To the government grant of £180 for pay most battalions add a considerable sum; I know adjutants, former line lieutenants, who draw £300 or 2,000 thalers and more.

Having arrived two hundred paces behind the first deployed line, the three battalion columns open out to deploying distance and deploy in their turn. Since the skirmishing chain has meanwhile gained considerable ground, both deployed lines advance a few hundred paces, after which the first line is relieved by the second. This is effected by both lines turning right-about 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 the two lines thus passing through one another, upon which they face front and wheel back again. This is one of those parade-ground manoeuvres which, where they are practicable, are superfluous, and where they are necessary, are unfortunately not practicable. Thereupon the four brigades were again drawn together into a large column in a similar manner, in keeping with line tactics, and the troops defiled in company front (25–35 files) and in open column before the general.

We will not lose another word about this species of elementary tactics, which will certainly appear antiquated enough to our readers; one sees from the very outset that such a regulation, whatever value or lack of value it may have for a line troop with a twelve-year term of service, is for volunteers who drill only in their spare hours unquestionably the most unsuitable thing in the world. What alone interests us here is the manner in which the volunteers executed these movements; and on this point we are bound to say that, although there were hitches here and there, on the whole all the evolutions were carried out calmly and without confusion. The most defective were the wheeling in columns and the deploying, the latter proceeding for the most part very slowly; in both movements the lack of thorough training and assurance of the officers made itself felt. On the other hand, the frontal march of the deployed lines, this chief manoeuvre of English tactics, was quite beyond all expectation good; this is a movement for which the English have on the whole an exceptional aptitude, and which they seem to learn remarkably easily. The defiling also went off, to our great amusement under a tremendous downpour, on the whole quite well, although various naive breaches against the rather complicated English military etiquette occurred in the process. Only, through the fault of the officers, there was once again no question of distances.

Apart from a manoeuvre with an opposing force organised in London by a few sanguine volunteer commanders, which went on in a fairly wild fashion, this was the first time that larger masses of volunteers carried out evolutions aimed at something other than mere parade marching. When one considers that the great mass of the troops present consisted of corps which comprise only one, two, or at most three companies, which stand in no kind of battalion formation, have no regular officers, have been drilled solely by non-commissioned officers from the line, and have only been drawn together into battalions on isolated occasions, one will admit that what was possible has been achieved, and that the English volunteers no longer stand on the level of civic guards. It goes without saying, moreover, that those corps that form complete battalions and are under regular adjutants (for these are now in point of fact the battalion commanders) also manoeuvred at the review far better than the rest.

The men, on the whole, were good to look at. Some individual companies were, to be sure, of French smallness, while others, on the contrary, surpassed 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 most of them produces an unpleasantly un-warlike impression, which would, however, already disappear after eight days’ service in camp. The uniforms, here and there overloaded, produced on the whole a 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 the target exercises. In both they will show themselves far more adaptable than the English line, so that by the summer of the 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. Up to now it has been shown that one may reckon on the zeal of the mass to such an extent that every man receives sufficient training for the purpose. But with the officers this does not suffice. As we see, even for the simple evolutions in the battalion, wheeling in column, deploying, keeping distances (which is, after all, so important in English line tactics), the training of the officers is far from adequate. How will it go, above all, with field service and skirmishing, where judgment of ground is everything, where far more difficult things occur? How can one entrust the outpost service to such men? The Government has obliged every volunteer officer to attend the School of Musketry at Hythe for at least three weeks. This is all very well, but thereby he learns neither to lead patrols nor to command pickets. And yet the volunteers are to be used, in the first instance, for light service — that is to say, for the service for which they need the most skilful and most reliable officers!

Here, however, the State must intervene if anything is to come of the matter. The companies that still exist singly, or in twos and threes, on their own account, should be compelled to combine into battalions and to take regular adjutants; these adjutants should regularly deliver lectures to all the officers on elementary tactics, field service, and interior economy of the battalion; besides 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 learned at least what is most necessary. Such an examination of the officers, and then a medical inspection of the men to remove those unfit for service, of whom a number have crept in, together with an annual revision of the lists to strike off the men who do not come to drill, who merely play at soldiers and learn nothing — then, to be sure, the 120,000 men who now stand on paper would soon be very considerably reduced, but we should have a body of troops that would be 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 it should not clothe all the volunteers in the so practical brick-red of the line.

company movements. To drill on Sunday was forbidden by both law and 
custom. The instructors were sergeants and corporals of the line, the militia 
or pensioners; and they, too, had to form the officers into shape. But the 
English non-commissioned officer is an excellent man in his way. There is, 
on duty, less swearing and coarse language in the English army than in any 
other; on the other hand, punishment is so much the more certain to be 
applied. The non-commissioned imitates the commissioned officer, and has 
thus adopted manners far superior to those of our German sergeants. Then 
he does not serve because of the prospect of some pettifogging office in the 
civil service being held out to him, as is the case with us; he has engaged 
himself voluntarily for twelve years, and promotion, up to the rank of ser-
geant-major even, offers him considerable fresh advantages at every step; 

505 

Friedrich Engels 

in every battalion one or two commissions (adjutant and paymaster) are 
mostly reserved to old non-commissioned officers; and, on active service, 
every sergeant may attach the golden star to his collar by distinguishing 
himself before the enemy. The drill-sergeants belonging to this class of men 
have, indeed, upon the whole, made the volunteers what it was possible to 
make them in so short a time; they have not only made them steady in 
company movements, but also licked the officers into shape. 

In the mean time, the single companies, at least in the large towns, formed 
themselves into battalions and received adjutants from the regular troops. 
Similar to the Austrian, the English subaltern is far less theoretically educat- 
ed than the North German; but same as the Austrian, if he likes his profes- 
sion, he knows his duty exceedingly well. Among the adjutants who have 
passed over from the line to the volunteers, there are men who, as instructors, 
could not be better; and the results which they have obtained in a very short 
time in their battalions are surprising indeed. Up to the present time, how- 
ever, only a minority of the volunteers have been formed into permanent 
battalions, and as a matter of course, these are considerably superior to the 
mass of companies not so formed. 

The volunteers of Lancashire and Cheshire had organised a Review at 
Newton, half way between Manchester and Liverpool, for the 11th of 
August, the commanding General of the district, Sir George Wetherall, taking 
the command. The volunteers who met here, were the contingents of the 
manufacturing districts around Manchester; there were not very many 
present either from Liverpool or from the neighbouring agricultural districts 
of Cheshire. To judge from our own German recruiting experience these 
corps must have been physically below the average; but it is not to be forgot- 
ten that by far the minority of the volunteers belong to the working classes. 

The soil of Newton race-course, of itself spongy enough, had been con- 
siderably softened by the continuous rains; it was very uneven and very 
sticky. On one side of it there is a small brook, with here and there some 
thick gorse on its banks. The ground was just right for a parade of young 
volunteers; they most of them stood ankle deep in water and mud, and the 
officers' horses often sank into the clay until above the fetlock-joint. 

The 57 corps which had sent in their adhesion, were divided into four 
brigades—the first of four, the remainder of three battalions each; every 
battalion of eight companies. Lieutenant-Colonels of the line commanded 
the brigades; officers of volunteers were appointed to the battalions. The 
first brigade had three battalions deployed, the fourth in column behind the 
centre. The three remaining brigades stood in second line, nine battalions 
in contiguous columns of companies at quarter distance, right in front. 

After saluting the general, a change of front to the left was to be effected, 

506 

10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

35 

40 

A Review of English Volunteer Riflemen 

under shelter of the battalion which stood in column behind the first line. 
To effect this, the two centre companies of the battalion deployed in front 
of it, wheeled outwards, upon which the column passed through the opening 
thus formed, and then extended along the watercourse,—four companies 
skirmishing, and four forming the supports. The ground and the gorse were 
both so wet, that the men could not be expected to take a correct advantage 
of the ground; besides, most battalions of volunteers are still occupied with 
the ABC only of skirmishing and outpost duty, so that it would not be fair 
to measure them by too high a standard in this respect. In the mean time, 

10 the deployed line effected its change of front around its own centre as a pivot; 

15 

the two centre companies of the middle battalion wheeled a quarter of a 
circle,—the one forwards, the other backwards—after which the remaining 
companies took up the new alignment. The two battalions on the wings of 
the first line formed columns at quarter distance, marched into the alignment, 
and deployed again. It may be imagined what a time was occupied by this 
complicated and rather clumsy manoeuvre. At the same time, the right battal- 
ion of the line of columns advanced straight on until halted behind the new 
right wing of the first line; the remaining battalions faced to the right and 
followed in double files (fours right), each battalion turning to the front, and 

20 following the right battalion as soon as arrived on the spot originally occupied 

25 

30 

35 

40 

by this right battalion. When the last column had thus arrived upon the new 
alignment, each column independently wheeled to the left, and thus restored 
the front of the line of columns. 

The third brigade now advanced from the centre of this line of columns; 
arrived about two hundred paces behind the first or deployed line, the three 
battalions opened out to deploying distance and deployed in their turn. The 
chain of skirmishers, in the mean time, having gained considerable ground, 
both deployed lines advanced a couple of hundred paces, upon which the 
first line was relieved by the second. This is effected by the first line forming 
fours right, and the head of each company disengaging and wheeling to the 
right; files in the second line give way, thus affording room for the first line 
to pass through; after which, companies form front and wheel into line. This 
is one of those drill-ground movements which are superfluous wherever they 
are practicable, and which are not practicable where they would be neces- 
sary. After this, the four brigades were drawn together again into a mass of 
columns, and the troops marched past the general in open column of com- 
panies (25 to 35 files front). 

We shall not attempt to criticize this system of evolutions which, no doubt, 
will appear rather old-fashioned to our readers. It is evident that, whatever 
may be its value in an army of the line with twelve years’ service, it is 
certainly less adapted than any other for volunteers who can afford a few 

507 

Friedrich Engels 

spare hours per week only for their drill. What interests us most on this 
occasion, is the manner in which these movements were performed by the 
volunteers; and here we must say that, although there was a slight hitch here 
and there, upon the whole, these evolutions were gone through steadily and 
without confusion. The most defective parts were, the wheeling in column 
and the deployments, which latter were done very slowly; in both evolutions, 
it was visible that the officers were not sufficiently formed and not yet at 
home in their duty. But on the other hand, the advance in line, this chief and 
cardinal movement of British tactics, was good beyond all expectation; the 
English appear, indeed, to have quite an exceptional talent for this move- 
ment, and to learn it uncommonly quick. The marching-past also came off, 
upon the whole, very well,—and what was most amusing, it came off under 
a drenching shower of rain. There were a few mistakes against British 
military etiquette, and besides, by the fault of the officers, distances were 
very badly kept. 

Besides a sham fight organized in London, by some over-sanguine com- 
manders of volunteers, and gone through rather wildly, this was the first time 
that a larger body of volunteers performed evolutions, which had something 
more in view than eventual marching-past. If we consider that the great mass 

of the troops present at Newton consisted of corps which, counting one, two, 

or at the outside three companies, are not formed into permanent battalions, 
have no officers from the regulars, have been drilled by drill-sergeants alone, 
and have only now and then been brigaded together in a battalion, we shall 
have to allow that the volunteers have done everything that was possible, 
and that they are no longer on the same level with our civic guards. As a 
matter of course, the corps which form permanent battalions, and are direct- 
ed by adjutants from the line (for the adjutants, so far, are the virtual com- 
manders of battalions,) were also those which went most steadily through 
their evolutions at the review. 

The men upon the whole looked well. There were, indeed, some companies 
as puny as Frenchmen, but others surpassed in stature the average of the 
present British line. Mostly, however, they were very unequal in size and 
breadth of chest. The pallor peculiar to the inhabitants of towns gave to most 
of them a rather unpleasantly unwarlike look, but eight days’ encampment 
would soon get the better of that. The uniforms, some of them a little over- 
ornamental, made a very good effect in the mass. 

The first year's drill has taught the volunteers so much of the elementary 
movements, that they may now enter upon skirmishing and rifle practice. 
They will be far more handy at both these kinds of work than the English 
line, so that by Summer 1861 they would form a very useful army, if only 
their officers knew more about their business. 

508 

5 

10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

35 

40 

10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

35 

40 

A Review of English Volunteer Riflemen 

This is the weak point of the whole formation. Officers cannot be manufac- 
tured in the same time and with the same means as privates. Up to now it 
has been proved that the willingness and the zeal of the mass may be relied 
upon, as far as is required for making every man a soldier as far as necessary. 

But this is not sufficient for the officers. As we have seen, even for simple 
battalion movements, wheeling in column, deployments, keeping distance 
(so important in the English system of evolutions, where open columns are 
very often employed), the officers are not by far sufficiently formed. What 
is to become of them on outpost and skirmishing duty, where judgment of 
ground is everything, and where so many other difficult matters are to be 
taken into consideration? How can such men be entrusted with the duty of 
taking care of the safety of an army on the march? Government has made 
it binding upon every officer of volunteers to go to Hythe for three weeks, 
at least. So far, so good; but that will neither teach him to conduct a patrol, 
nor to command a picket. And yet, the volunteers are chiefly to be used for 
light infantry service—for that very kind of duty which requires the cleverest 
and most reliable of officers. 

If the whole movement is to lead to something, this is the point where 
government will have to step in. All companies which are still existing,—

singly, or by twos and threes,—ought to be compelled to combine together 
in permanent battalions, to engage adjutants from the regulars. These ad- 
jutants should be bound to give to all the officers of their respective battal- 
ions a regular course of instruction in elementary tactics, light infantry 
service in all its branches, and the regulations affecting the internal routine 
of service in a battalion. The officers should be bound, besides attending 
Hythe, to do duty, for at least three weeks, with a regiment of the line or 
militia in some encampment; and, finally, they should, after a certain time, 
be all made to pass an examination, proving that they have learnt at least 
the most indispensable part of their business. Such a course of instruction 
and examination of the officers; further, a medical examination of the men, 
in order to weed out those who are physically unfit for field-service (and 
there are not a few); and an annual revision of the company-lists, for the 
removal of those men who do not attend drill, who only play at soldiers and 
will not learn their duty—if this was done, the 120,000 men now existing on 
paper would be considerably reduced, but you would have an army worth 
three times the one which now counts 120,000 men on paper. 

Instead of that, it is reported that the military authorities are busy dis- 
cussing the important question, whether it would not be desirable to clothe, 
at the first opportunity, all rifle volunteers in the so very desirable brick 
colour of the line. 

509