The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-08-14
PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE.
PROGRAMME MAPPED OUT FOR TIE
REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY.
Ali Under Pretext of the Maintenance Of
social order.

social order.
Especial Correspondence OF the N. o. Democrat
NEW YORK, August ., 1877.
| In recent letter. which the NAV worms OF
| journalism will undoubtedly denounce as
sensational declared that a tremendous
| effort would next winter be made by the com
| bined capitalist forces and influences OF the
| country to secure an immediate increase OF
the regular army, "for the better mainte-
| nance Of social order and the more perfect
security of person and property aSthe af-
frighted
| BANKERS AND BONDHOLDERS
phrase IT, This increase Is to be considerable
enough to practically revolutionize our mil-
tary system. IF the design was merely to
augment to say "a war footing" the force
already organized; involving perhaps the en-
listment Of 5000 new men and thereby an aug
mentation of the army to say $4,000 men, we
might look upon the movement rs temporary,
the net result of scare or something OF thaS
sort, and there would be nothing startling in
the promises.
| But the programme now under advisement
and which will be developed very soon after
Congress is organized, contemplates no such
HALFWAY MEASURES.
I am enabled by curious freak of journals
tic fortune, to give you what you will ulti-
mately discover to be an accurate outline Of
the plan of reorganization which has been
resolved upon.
You know our regular army at present con-
sists Of ten regiments Of cavalry, five Of artil-
lery and twenty-five of infantry, besides
engineers and the various staff corps. There
Is no intention of augmenting these last
named arms OF the service, for that they are
already "cadrezed' on basis adequate to
an army embracing two complete corps, or
$4,000 men, in round numbers.
The same is true Of the general staff, the
general field and the non-combatant depart
ments. The increase therefore, Is to be
wrought upon the strict
LINE OF THE SERVICE.
As ut present organized, each regiment Of
cavalry consists of twelve troops or six
squadrons which are, by an arrangement pc
cuiar to our service arranged In three bat
talions of four troops each, commanded by q
major. The normal "peace footing" of our
cavalry is sixty men to the troop, 240 to the
'battalon" and 720 to the regiment while
the maximum is 1893 to the troop, 412 to the
"battalion" and 1886 to the regiment. The
proposed plan of reorganization does not con-
, template the formation ofany new regiments,
= so that the number of full colonelcies will re-
main, as at present. ten. But the battalions
are to be given @
: DISTINCTIVE ORGANIZATION,
as in the British army, raised to eight troops
each instead of four, and commanded by a
lieutenant colonel instead Of q major. The
present plan of designating the troops Of the
regiment by the letters of the alphabet from A
to l. Is to be abandoned and the troop designa-
, tions are to be by battalion from to Fl :
Thus, instead of saying, as at present,
'Troop A, b, etc, Sixth Cavalry" the new
designation will be, "Troop A, B, etc, First,
, Second or Third Battalion, Sixth Regiment
Y Each Of these new battalions of eight troops
will be O unit of service, and the regimental
organization will, in consequence, lapse into
unit of administration. Full coonelcies
: will become, as In the British army, honorary
commissions to be held by general officers
and the lieutenant colonelcies Of the bat
talions will become the executive rank Of the
: commands.
r THE NUMBER OF MAJORS.
t will probably be left as it is now, the increase
of officers being that each regiment will have
three lieutenant colonels as against one in the
existing system; twenty-four captains as
+ against twelve, and forty-eight lieutenants as
9 against twenty-four. The increase of ranl
and file will be- Of course, just double th'
present force numerically speaking, but thu
substantial result will be to substitute thirty
units Of service having all the practical prop
p. critics of regiments for the ten which now ex
), list. The experience Of the British service Ii
:, that for all the uses Of peace establishment
+ that is to say, police duty at home, in Indit
., and the Colonies, eight troops form the mos
/ available and every way the "handiest' uni
= of service. That the same rules would apply
to our service cannot be questioned, for th
business of our thirty battalions under tn
new regime would be almost exclusively {
repressive or
/, POLICE DUTY,
4 not at all dissimlar to that performed by tn
:. British cavalry in India. The regiment o
J. twelve troops is too large for unit OF servic
.5 and too small for subdivision. SO far as
!; know ours is the only civilized army in whicl
- the cavalry unit of service contains more thai
n eight captaincies
The reorganization of the artillery is to b
( In substantially similar direction, though
'; of coast defense, two new regiments may b
IL organized, to be mustered specifically as
n GARRISON ARTILLERY
j. The five regiments already in the servic
n will retain their present organization o
= twelve batteries each, but the complement 0
each battery will be increased, and it's arma
ment raised from the six-gun to the eight
gun formation, the additional guns to b
1 Gatlings This is one plan. Another plan i
y to reorganize the artillery completely, b.
:, making two of the existing regiments hors
T, or flying artillery, arming them with Cat
lings and mounting the cannoneers; retain
:, ing the other three regiments in their presen
form of field artillery, and then recruiting tw
or more new regimental organizations 70