The French Light Infantry

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In The Volunteer Journal the words “By the Author of ‘A German Account of the Newton Review’ “ were added to the headings of sections II and III published in Nos. 5 and 7 for 1860. In 1861 the article was included with some changes in the collection of Engels’ works Essays Addressed to Volunteers. In this volume the changes are mentioned in footnotes. The sections, merely numbered in Roman figures in The Volunteer Journal, were called chapters in the Essays.

The editors and many readers of the journal valued the essay highly. In September 1860, after the publication of the first section, Isaac Hall wrote to Engels: “My dear Engels, I have never had an opportunity of thanking you for your very good and very instructive article on French Light Infantry. It is highly appreciated by the proprietors and has been most favourably spoken of by many people. As we are all here this week will you kindly send the next contribution to Mr. Nodal at Jackson 62 Corporation Street. Won’t you come and have a look at us. Yours faithfully (in haste). Isaac Hall.” p. 417

If ever our volunteers should have to exchange bullets with an enemy, that enemy will be,—everybody knows it,—French infantry; and the finest type, the beau idéal of a French foot-soldier, is the light infantry soldier, especially the chasseur.

The French chasseur is not only the model for his own army; the French give the law, to a certain degree, to all European armies in matters regarding light infantry service; thus the chasseur becomes, in a certain sense, a model for all European light infantry.

In both these qualities, as a possible opponent, and as, hitherto, the most perfect specimen of a light infantry soldier, the French chasseur is a subject of high interest to the British volunteer. The sooner our volunteer gets acquainted with him the better.

Chapter I

Up to 1838 there was not a rifle in use in the French army. The old rifle, with its close-fitting bullet, which had to be hammered down, and made loading a difficult and slow operation, was no weapon for the French. When Napoleon once examined the firelocks of a German battalion of rifles, he exclaimed: — “Surely this is the most unfortunate arm to give into the hands of a soldier.” The old rifle was, certainly, unfit for the great mass of the infantry. In Germany and Switzerland, a few chosen battalions were always armed with it, but they were exclusively used as sharpshooters, to pick off officers, to fire on sappers constructing a bridge, &c; and great care was taken to form these corps from the sons of gamekeepers, or other young men who had been trained to the use of the rifle long before they entered the army. The chamois-hunters of the Alps, the keepers of the great deer forests of Northern Germany, formed excellent material for these battalions, and they, too, were the model for the rifles of the English line.

What the French formerly used to call light infantry, were men equipped and drilled exactly the same as the regiments of the line; consequently, in 1854, a decree of Louis Napoleon deprived these 25 regiments of the name of light infantry, and embodied them in the line, where they now number from the 76th to the 100th regiment.

There was, indeed, in every battalion of infantry a company of voltigeurs, formed of the best and most intelligent soldiers of small stature; the élite of the taller men being formed into the company of grenadiers. They are the first to extend when skirmishers are required, but in every other respect they are armed and drilled like the remainder of the battalion.

After the conquest of Algiers, in 1830, the French found themselves face to face with an enemy armed with the long musket, common to most Eastern nations. The smooth-bore muskets of the French were inferior to them in range. The French columns, on the march, were surrounded on every side by mounted Bedouins in the plains, by Kabyle skirmishers in the mountains; the bullets of these enemies told on the columns, while they themselves were out of effective range of the French fire. Skirmishers, in the plains, could not move far from their columns, for fear of being surprised and cut up by the rapid Arab horsemen.

When the English army got into Afghanistan, it made acquaintance with these same long muskets. The Afghan shots, though from matchlocks only, did fearful execution in the English ranks, both in the camp at Kabul and during the retreat through the hills, at distances utterly unattainable to poor old Brown Bess.

The lesson was a severe one ; protracted conflicts with the tribes on the north-western frontier of British India might be expected; yet nothing was done to arm the English soldiers sent to that frontier with a weapon able to cope at long range with the Eastern matchlock.

Not so the French. No sooner was the defect found out than steps were taken to remedy it. The Duke of Orleans, the son of Louis Philippe, on his matrimonial tour through Germany in 1836, took occasion to study the organisation of the two battalions of rifles of the Prussian guard. He saw at once that here was a starting point, issuing from which he might succeed in forming the very class of troops required for Algeria. He occupied himself at once with the subject. The old French prejudice against the rifle placed many obstacles in his way. Fortunately, the inventions of Delvigne and Poncharra, in his own country, came to his help; they had produced a rifle which could be loaded almost as quickly and easily as the smooth-bore musket, while it exceeded the latter by far, both in range and precision. In 1838, the Duke obtained permission to form a company according to his own ideas; in the same year this company was increased to a full battalion; in 1840 it was sent to Algeria to prove what it could do in actual war; and it stood the test so well, that in the same year nine more battalions of chasseurs were formed. Finally, in 1853, ten other battalions were organised, so that the whole chasseur force of the French army now consists of twenty battalions.

The peculiar military qualities of the Bedouins and Kabyles, who undoubtedly were models of light horsemen and of infantry skirmishers, very soon induced the French to try the enlistment of natives, and to conquer Algeria by setting Arab to fight Arab. This idea gave origin, among others, to the corps of the Zouaves. They were formed principally of natives, as early as 1830, and remained a chiefly Arab corps up to 1839, when they deserted in masses into the camp of Abd-el-Kader, who had just raised the standard of holy war.

There remained, then, merely the cadres and the twelve French soldiers of each company, besides the two exclusively French companies attached to each battalion. The vacancies had to be filled up by Frenchmen, and since that date the Zouaves have remained an exclusively French corps, destined to take permanent garrison in Africa. But the original stock of old French Zouaves had adopted so much of the native character that the whole corps has ever since remained, in its entire spirit and habits, a specially Algerian corps, endowed with a nationality of its own, and quite distinct from the remainder of the French army. They are recruited mostly from substitutes, and thus they are most of them professional soldiers for life. They, too, essentially belong to the light infantry of the army, and have, therefore, been long since provided with rifles. There are now three regiments or nine battalions of them in Africa, and one regiment (two battalions) of Zouaves of the Guard.

Since 1841, new attempts were made to enlist native Algerians for the local army. Three battalions were formed, but they remained weak and incomplete till 1852, when more encouragement was given to native enlistment; and this succeeded so far that, in 1855, three regiments, or nine battalions, could be formed. These are the Turcos or Tirailleurs indigènes, of whom we have heard so much during the Crimean and Italian wars.

Thus, not counting the foreign legion (now disbanded, but to all appearances re-forming) and the three penal battalions, the French army contains 38 battalions, especially formed and trained for light service. Of these, the chasseurs, the Zouaves, and the Turcos, each have their distinguishing characteristics. Troops like the last two classes have too strongly marked a local character ever to exercise a great influence upon the mass of the French army; still, their furious onslaught—during which they still, as has been proved in Italy, remain perfectly in hand, and even anticipate by their own military tact the orders of their chief—will always remain a brilliant example to the remainder of the troops. It is also a fact that the French, in their practice of the detail of skirmishing, and their mode of taking advantage of ground, have adopted a great deal from the Arabs. But that class of light infantry which has remained essentially French, and has thereby become, as we said before, a model to the army, are the chasseurs.

Chapter II

The very first page of the French Drill Regulations of 1831, proves what little men the French army is composed of.

Slow time, each step 65 centimètres (25 inches), and 76 paces in a minute. Quick time, same length of step, and 100 paces in a minute. Charging time (pas de charge), same length of step, and 130 paces in a minute.

The step of 25 inches is undoubtedly the shortest, and the celerity of 100 paces in a minute the most sluggish adopted in any army for field-movements. While the French battalion moves over 208 feet of ground in a minute, an English, Prussian, or Austrian battalion would move over 270 feet, or thirty per cent. more. Our long step of 30 inches would be too much for the short legs of Frenchmen. The same at a charge: the French advance, in a minute, 271 feet, or as much as the English at simple quick time, while the English, at their double of 36 inches, and 150 per minute, would get over 450 feet, or sixty per cent. more. This fact alone shows that the standard size of the men cannot be reduced beyond a certain limit without affecting the efficiency and mobility of an army.

With such short legs, short steps, and slow marching time, no light infantry could be formed. When the chasseurs were first organised, care was taken from the very beginning to select the best infantry material in the country; they were all well-built, broad-shouldered, active men, from 5ft. 4in. to 5ft. 8in. in height, and mostly chosen from the mountainous parts of the country. By the regulations for chasseur drill and evolutions (published in 1845), the length of the step for the quick march was retained, but the time increased to 110 in a minute; the double (pas gymnastique) was regulated at 33 inches (83 centimètres) each step, and 165 in a minute; but for deployments, formation of square, or other urgent occasions, its time is to be increased to 180 in a minute. Even at this latter pace, the chasseur would cover but 45 feet more ground in a minute than the English soldier at his double. But it is less by extraordinary rapidity of motion that extraordinary results are attained, than by the length of time for which the chasseurs can continue this accelerated motion; besides, in cases of great urgency, rallying, &c, they are ordered to run as fast as they can.

The double is the principal thing practised in the chasseur battalions. The men are first taught to mark the time at 165 and 180 per minute, during .which they shout One! Two! or Right! Left! which is supposed to regulate the action of the lungs, and to prevent inflammations. They are then made to march forward at the same rate, and the distance is gradually increased until they can go over a French league of 4,000 metres (two miles and a half) in twenty-seven minutes. If some of the recruits are found too weak in wind and limb for such exercise, they are sent back to the infantry of the line. The next step is the practice of leaping and running, in which latter pace the greatest possible rapidity has to be obtained for short distances; both the pas gymnastique and the running being practised first on the level drill-ground, or on the road, and afterwards across country, with jumping over rails and ditches. After such preparation only are the men entrusted with their arms, and now the whole course of double, running, and leaping is again gone through with rifle in hand, and in heavy marching order, the knapsack and pouch weighted to the same extent as in the field; and thus they are made to continue for a full hour at the pas gymnastique, during which time they have to cover at least five miles of ground. A foreign officer in plain clothes once attempted to keep pace with such a battalion of chasseurs in heavy marching order; but, untrained as he was, he could scarcely keep up for one hour; the chasseurs marched on, alternately at quick time and at the pas gymnastique, and went that day over twenty-two miles of country. The whole of the field movements and evolutions have to be gone through at the double; advance in line, forming column and square, wheeling, deployments, and everything, so that the men keep in their places as steadily at this pace as at the ordinary quick time. The time for all evolutions is 165 in a minute, only in deployments and wheelings it is accelerated to 180.

The following is the opinion of a’ Prussian field officer of the chasseurs: —

“On the Champ-de-Mars, I saw a few companies of chasseurs manoeuvring at the side of a regiment of the line. What a contrast, from their mobility, from the whole style of their movements, to that regiment! At the first glance you see that they are a picked body, chosen from the best men of the wood and mountain districts; they are all well-knit, compact, strong, and yet so wonderfully nimble. As they flit about with astonishing rapidity, you recognise their enterprising spirit, their daring pluck, their quick intellect, their indefatigable endurance, though, certainly, you also recognise their immense conceit and French vanity. And wherever you see them, in Strasbourg, in Paris, or in any other garrison, they always make the same impression, they look as if cast in the same mould. At their head I saw none but young officers; a few only of the captains appeared thirty-five; most of them less, and even the field-officers not older. Their rapid mobility shows neither constraint nor effort; constant exercise appears to have made it their second nature, with such ease and freedom do these battalions go through their movements. Their blood has a more tranquil flow, their breath is less disturbed than with others. Single orderlies in a street would pass, in a short time, all persons walking before them; and at the same quick pace, whole battalions, at the merry sound of the bugle, defile through the streets. Whenever you see them, on the drill-ground, on the march out or home, never did they appear tired to me. Ambition, in this matter, may go hand in hand with habit.

“If quickness of motion and steadiness of aim appear to be irreconcilable, the chasseurs seem to have overcome this apparent incompatibility. I have not myself seen them practising at the target; but, according to the judgment of experienced officers, their performances in this line, are not to be thought little of. If their steadiness of aim is at all disturbed, it certainly must be so in a degree very little affecting their efficiency on the field of battle. In Africa, where many an engagement was preceded by similar marches at the double, they have always known how to hit their opponents; and this proves that the special system of training to which they are subjected, tends to properly develop the powers of the body, and does not destroy steadiness of aim. With troops not so trained, this would, of course, be very different.

“The great advantages of this system of training are evident. Many are the cases in war in which it may be of decisive importance that your infantry should be capable of quicker locomotion than it is at present; for instance, in preceding the The enemy in the occupation of an important position; in rapidly attaining a commanding point; in supporting a body attended by superior forces; or in surprising the enemy by making a detachment suddenly appear in a direction quite unexpected by him.”

The Algerian war had made evident to the French military authorities the immense superiority of an infantry trained in this long-continued running. Since 1853, the question was debated whether this system should not be applied to the whole army. General de Lourmel (killed before Sebastopol, 5th November, 1854) had specially drawn the attention of Louis Napoleon to it. Soon after the Crimean war, the pas gymnastique was introduced in all French infantry regiments. The time, indeed, is slower, and probably the step, too, shorter, than with the chasseurs; besides, the long-continued runs of the chasseurs are much reduced in the line. This was a necessity; the unequal bodily strength and size of the line made the capabilities of the weaker and smaller men the standard of the performance of the whole. But, still, the old sluggish rate of marching can now be overcome at an emergency; a mile or so may now and then be trotted, and, especially, the aptitude of the men to go through their evolutions at the double, admits of that charge, at a run, for some six or eight hundred yards, which carried the French, last year, in a few instants, over those very distances at which the excellent Austrian rifles were most dangerous. The pas gymnastique has done a great deal towards the winning of Palestro, Magenta, and Solferino.

The run itself gives a vigorous moral impulse to the men; a battalion charging might hesitate when marching at quick time, but the same battalion, trained so as not to arrive out of breath, will, in most cases, go on fearlessly, will arrive comparatively unscathed, and will certainly make a far greater moral impression on a standing enemy, if it charges at a run.

The extreme perfection of the chasseurs in running may pass for a special arm like theirs, but it would be both impracticable and useless to the mass of the infantry of the line. Nevertheless, the English line, with its better material of men, might easily be made to far surpass the French line in this respect; and, like every healthy exercise, this would have a capital effect on the men, bodily and morally. An infantry which cannot alternately run a mile and walk a mile for a couple of hours, will soon be considered slow. As to the volunteers, the great difference of age and bodily strength existing in their ranks, would make it difficult to obtain even this result, but there can be no doubt that gradual training for the double, at distances from half a mile to a mile, would hurt nobody’s health, and improve wonderfully their efficiency for the field.

Chapter III

Nothing is neglected in France to develop the physical, mental, and moral powers of every individual recruit, and especially of every chasseur, in such a manner as to form him into as perfect a soldier as possible. Everything is attended to that can make him strong, active, and nimble, that can give him a rapid glance for advantages of ground, or quickness of decision in difficult situations; everything that will heighten his confidence in himself, his comrades, his arms. Drill, therefore, is but a small portion of a soldier’s duties in France; and to our notions, a French battalion on the drill-ground marches, wheels, and does the manual in a shockingly loose manner. But this appears to be a consequence of the national character, and has not, so far, been attended with any bad results. English or German troops seem, themselves, to prefer a stricter system of drill; they obey the command more instantaneously, and, after a certain amount of drilling, will always exhibit more precision in all their movements than the French will ever attain. For the remainder, the system of tactical movements for the drill-ground is nearly the same in France as in England, though it is vastly different on a field of battle.

One of the chief occupations of the French soldier is gymnastic exercise. There is a central military gymnasium in Paris, which forms the teachers for the whole army. There are fifteen to twenty officers from different regiments, and besides, one sergeant from every regiment of the line or battalion of chasseurs, who remain for six months, and are then relieved by others. The course of exercises gone through is not very different from what is practised in other countries; there appears to be only one original exercise, the escalading of walls, either by putting hands and feet in holes produced by cannon-balls, or by a pole leaned against the wall, or else by means of a rope with a hook thrown over it. This kind of exercise is undoubtedly of practical value, and will contribute a great deal to make the men rely on the use of their hands and feet. The bayonet exercise is also taught in this school; but it is confined to the practising of the various points and guards; the men are never made to actually defend themselves one against the other or against cavalry.

Every garrison, in France, has the necessary conveniences for gymnastic exercise. There is, first of all, a piece of ground set apart for the more common gymnastics, with all the necessary appliances; to this the whole of the soldiers are marched in turns, and have to go through a regular course of instruction as part of their duty. The introduction of this kind of exercise is not yet very old, and is entirely imitated from the chasseurs, who were the first to be put to gymnastics; after the system had answered so well with them, it was extended to the whole army.

There is, besides, in every barracks a fencing-room and a dancing-room. In the first, fencing with the small-sword and broad-sword is taught; in the other, dancing and wrestling which the French call “la boxe. “ Every soldier may choose which of these exercises he will be taught, but one of them he must learn. Dancing and the small-sword are generally preferred. Single-stick is also taught now and then.

All these exercises, as well as gymnastics, properly so called, are not taught because they are considered necessary in themselves; they are practised because they develop the bodily strength and agility of the soldier generally, and give him greater selfconfidence. The fencing and dancing-rooms, so far from being the scenes where tedious duty is performed, are, on the contrary, an attraction, tending to keep the soldier in the barracks even in his leisure hours; he will go there for amusement; if, in the ranks, he was but a machine, here, sword in hand, he is an independent man, trying his individual skill against his comrades; and whatever confidence in his own quickness and agility he gains here, it is so much gain for outpost and skirmishing duty, where he is, also, more or less reduced to his own resources.

The new system of skirmishing adopted by the chasseurs has not only been adopted in the whole French army since, but it has also served as a model for many European armies, among others, for the improved practice adopted in the British army during and after the Crimean war. We shall, therefore, notice but a few of the principal traits, especially as in an engagement the French very often act quite differently, partly in accordance with general orders (as in 1859, in Italy), partly because every latitude is left to officers to act entirely according to circumstances, and partly because all drill regulations must undergo considerable alterations in battle.

The skirmishers act in groups of four, each group deploying into one single line, with five paces interval from man to man. The interval between the groups is at least five paces (forming a continuous line, with one man at every five paces), and at most forty paces from group to group. The non-commissioned officers take up a position ten paces behind their sections; the officers, each attended by a guard of four men and a bugler, twenty or thirty paces to the rear. If only part of a company is extended, the captain takes his station half-way between the skirmishers and the support. Taking advantage of cover is the principal thing to be attended to; the dressing of the line as well as the exactness of the intervals are sacrificed to it. The whole line of skirmishers is directed by the bugle alone, the signals numbering twenty-two; besides which, each chasseur battalion, and every company in it, has a distinctive signal of its own, which is made to precede the signal of command.

The officers carry a whistle, which they are, however, to use in extreme cases only; it gives five signals—Caution! Advance! Halt! Retire! Rally!—and is the original of the whistle which some volunteers have adopted as part and parcel of every man’s accoutrements, thus depriving their officers of the use of the whistle when it might be necessary. The skirmishers rally by groups of four, if attacked by skirmishing cavalry; by sections and sub-divisions, in irregular compact masses; on the support, where they form a kind of company square; or on the battalion, in case the latter is to act in line or to form square. These various forms of rallying are practised very much, and the French excel in them; and their variety does not create any confusion, as the men are instructed to get rallied any way they can in case of imminent danger, and then to profit of favourable movements to join the larger body to which the signal had called them. The squares are sometimes two, sometimes four deep.

Compared to the old-fashioned system, as adopted in almost all armies before the chasseurs were organised, this new method had an immense superiority. But it is not to be forgotten that it is, after all, nothing but a set of drill-ground regulations. There is no room in it, as far as it goes, for the intelligence of the individual soldier; and if it was practised on a level plain, it would be compatible with as great pedantry as might satisfv the stiffest martinet. The lines are formed with regular intervals,—they advance, retire, change front and direction same as any battalion in line, and the men are moved by the bugle as so many puppets by a wire. The real practice ground for skirmishers is before the enemy, and hère the French had a splendid school for their light infantry in the fearfully broken ground of Algeria, defended by the Kabyles, the bravest, most tenacious, and most wary skirmishers the world ever saw. Here it was that the French developed to the highest degree that instinct for extended fighting and taking advantage of cover which they have shown in every war since 1792; and here the Zouaves especially turned to the best account the lessons given to them by the natives, and served as models to the whole army.

Generally a chain of skirmishers is supposed to advance in something like a deployed line, crowding together, perhaps, on points offering good cover, and thinning where they have to pass open ground; occupying the enemy’s skirmishers in front, only now and then taking advantage of a hedge or so to put in a little flank fire, and, withal, not expected nor even attempting to do much besides occupying their opponents. Not so the Zouaves. With them, extended order means the independent action, subordinate to a common object, of small groups; the attempt at seizing advantages as soon as they offer; the chance of getting near the enemy’s masses, and disturbing them by a well-sustained fire; and, in small engagements, the possibility of deciding them without calling in the masses at all. With them, surprise and ambush are the very essence of skirmishing. They do not use cover merely to open fire from a comparatively sheltered position; they principally use it to creep, unseen, close up to the enemy’s skirmishers, jump up suddenly, and drive them away in disorder; they use it to get on the flanks of their opponents, and there to appear unexpectedly in a thick swarm, cutting off part of their line, or to form an ambush, into which they entice the hostile skirmishers, if following too quick upon their simulated retreat. In decisive actions, such artifices will be applicable in the many pauses occurring between the great efforts to bring on decision; but in petty warfare, in the war of detachments and outposts, in collecting information respecting the enemy, or securing the rest of their own army, such qualities are of the highest importance. What the Zouaves are one example will show. In outpost duty, in all armies, the rule is that, especially during the night, the sentries must not sit, nor much less lay down, and are to fire as soon as the enemy approaches, in order to alarm the pickets. Now read the Duke of Aumale’s description of a camp of Zouaves*: —

“At night, even the solitary Zouave placed on the brow of yonder hill, and overlooking the plain beyond, has been drawn in. You see no videttes; but wait till the officer goes his rounds, and you will find him speak to a Zouave who is lying flat on the ground, just behind the brow, and watchful of everything. You see yonder group of bushes; I should not be at all surprised if on examination you were to find there ensconced a few couples of Zouaves; in case a Bedouin should creep up into these bushes in order to espy what is going on in the camp, they will not fire, but despatch him quietly with the bayonet, in order not to shut the trap.”

What are soldiers who have learnt their outpost duty in peace garrisons only, and who cannot be trusted to keep awake except standing or walking, to men trained in a war of ruse and stratagem, against Bedouins and Kabyles? And with all these deviations from the prescribed system, the Zouaves have been surprised only once by their wary enemies.

England has, in the north-west frontier of India, a district very similar, in its military features, to Algeria. The climate is nearly the same, so is the nature of the ground, and so is the border population. Frequent forays and hostile encounters do occur there; and that district has formed some of the best men in the British service. But that these long and highly instructive encounters should not have had any lasting influence upon the mode in which all kinds of light service are carried on in the British army; that after twenty and more years of fighting with Afghans and Beloochees, that part of the service should have been found so defective that French examples had to be hurriedly imitated in order to bring the infantry, in this respect, into a state of efficiency; this is, certainly, strange.

The French chasseurs have introduced into the French army: —

1. The new system of dress and accoutrements; the tunic, the light shako, the waist belts, instead of the cross belts. 2. The rifle, and the science of its use; the modern school of musketry. 3. The prolonged application of the double, and its use in evolutions. 4. The bayonet exercise. 5. Gymnastics; and, 6. Together with the Zouaves, the modern system of skirmishing. And if we will be sincere, for how much of all this, so far as it exists in the British army, are we not indebted to the French?

There is still plenty of room for improvements. Why should not the British army come in for its share? Why should not the north-western frontier of India, even now, form the troops employed there into a corps capable of doing that for the English army which the chasseurs and Zouaves have done for the French?