OCCASIONAL PAPERS, UNITED STATES ARMY. IMPRESSIONS of A COMPANY By LE CAPITAINE BREVETÉ DU GÉNIE POTEZ Translated from Revue du Genie REVISED EDITION WASHINGTON BARRACKS, D. C., PREFACE. The object of the present essay is not a general study comprising all the details of command, instruction and administration in an Engineer company. We desire merely to convey to our young comrades, who may be called upon to exercise the important functions of company commander, certain observations that our personal experience has suggested, and that may be of use to them in the exercise of their command. We have been obliged to enter into a few considerations of a rather general character. At the present time, the regiments of Engineers are passing through a true period of transition. Although instruction in the "Schools" has been a thing of the past for several years, yet the instruction by company is not universally practiced. The result is that our company commanders do not always enjoy the initiative that they should have, and that some of our methods of instruction, although conforming to the regulations, may still be regarded as experimental. Thus we have been induced to discuss the conditions under which the command of an Engineer company should be exercised, as well as such modifications in the present methods of instruction should be rationally introduced. We have deliberately left out everything that relates to the general organization of the arm. Taking the troops as they are, we have striven merely to discover the best methods to be employed with a view to their preparation for war. |