TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotesthemselves have been placed at the end of the book.
This volume covers the period up to 1713 when the Julian calendarwas still in use in England. The change to the Gregorian calendartook place in Europe beginning in 1582, though much later inProtestant regions, and not in Britain until 1752. This produced adifference of eleven days in contemporary documents and books usingthe Julian Old Style (OS) and those using the modern Gregorian NewStyle (NS) dates.
The author follows the convention of using the dates as recordedat the time of the event, so that events in England, Scotland andIreland are noted in the text and Sidenotes in Julian OS, andevents in (Catholic) Europe after 1582 are noted in NS. When aspecific day is noted for an event in Europe the correspondingSidenote will with few exceptions give both dates in the formatOS/NS.
Some minor changes are noted at the end of the book.
A
HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ARMY
A History of
The British Army
BY
The Hon. J. W. FORTESCUE
FIRST PART—TO THE CLOSE OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR
VOL. I
Quæ caret ora cruore nostro
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1899
All rights reserved
PREFACE
The civilian who attempts to write a military historyis of necessity guilty of an act of presumption; and Iam not blind to my own temerity in venturing tograpple with such a task as the History of the BritishArmy. But England has waited long for a soldier todo the work; and so far no sign has been given of thewillingness of any officer to undertake it beyond thepublication, a few years since, of Colonel Walton'sHistory of the British Standing Army from 1660 to1700. Nor is this altogether surprising, for the leisureof officers is limited, the subject is a large one, andthe number of those who have already toiled in thefield and left the fruit of their labour to others is sadlysmall. A civilian may therefore, I hope, be pardonedfor trying at any rate to make some beginning, howeverconscious of his own shortcomings and of the inevitabledisadvantage from which he suffers through inexperienceof military life in peace and, still more fatally, inwar. His efforts may at least stimulate some onebetter qualified than himself to treat the subject in amanner better befitting its dignity and its worth.
My design is to write the history of the Armydown to the year 1870, the two present volumes carrying[vi]...