unteer brigade that crossed the border into Upper Canada in 1814 numbered 413. The strength of the divisions fluctuated just as much. In 1812 the New York quota for militiamen was 13,500, which the state organized into two divisions of four brigades each. At the same time, with a quota of 2,500 men, Tennessee organized a division of two infantry regiments plus a nondivisional cavalry regiment.[1]
General Scott
While assembling brigades and divisions in 1813, the question arose as to whether or not Regular Army and militia units should be "brigaded" together. Because the drill and discipline of the regulars differed greatly from that of the militia, each state prescribing its own drill, the general practice was to brigade each category of troops separately. Although Regular, militia, and volunteer brigades served at times in commands that equaled the size of a division, such organizations were frequently called "armies."[2]
Raising and maintaining troops during the War of 1812 proved to be difficult because of the opposition to the war. As a result, when divisions and brigades took to the field for the various campaigns, they were temporary organizations. Most of the units assigned to them had little training and were poorly equipped, creating largely ineffective fighting forces. One exception was Scott's Regular Army brigade. In the spring of 1814, after establishing a camp near Buffalo, New York, he used French drill regulations to train his men. When the brigade later fought at Chippewa as a well-disciplined force, it prompted the British commander to exclaim, "Those are Regulars, by God!"[3]
During the War of 1812, as in the Revolution, Army leaders discussed the organization of brigades and divisions, and their comments sometimes disagreed with the contemporary practice or with the laws then in effect. The Register of the Army published in 1813 stated that a brigade would consist of two regiments and a division of two brigades with but a single staff officer, the brigade major, in each. The laws in force, however, authorized a brigade staff of an inspector, subinspector, quartermaster, wagon master, and chaplain. When a brigadier general commanded a brigade, his brigade major and aides were
- ↑ Marvin A, Kreidberg and Merton G. Henry, History of Military Mobilization in the United States Army, 1775–1945 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1955), pp. 4446, hereafter cited as Mobilization; Benson J. Lossing, The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1869), pp. 366, 742; American State Papers, Military Affairs, 7 vols, (Washington, D.C.: Gales and Seaton, 1834), 1:618; Charles W. Elliott, Winfield Scott: The Soldier and the Man (New York: Macmillan Co., 1937), p. 151.
- ↑ American State Papers, Military Affairs, 1:495.
- ↑ Elliott, Winfield Scott, pp. 146–47, 162.
