Etat

- Major, Fr. Staff. Etat major in the French service, is a more comprehensive term than staff appears to be in our acceptation of the word. As we have in some degree adopted the term, it cannot be superfluous to give a short account of its origin, . Among the French, according to the Author of the Recueil Alphabet i que de to us les termes propres à l’art de la guerre, état-major signifies a specific number of officers who are distinguished from others belonging to the same corps. It did not follow that every regiment was to have its staff, as the king had the power of appointing or suppre ing staff officers at pleasure. The état-major général de l’infanterie , or the general staff of the infantry, was created under Francis I. in 1525. That of the light cavalry under Charles IX. in 1565. That of the dragoons under Louis XIV. in 1669. The état-major of an infantry regiment, was composed of the colonel, the major, the aid-major, quarter-master, the chaplain, the provost-marshal, the surgeon, and the attendant commi ary, who was called le commi aire à la conduite . To these were added the lieutenant of the provostship, the person who kept the regimental register, or the greffier, the drum-major, six archers, and the executioner. By this establishment it is presupposed, that a provostship, was allowed in the regiment, which was not a general regulation, but depended upon the king’s pleasure. The état-major , or staff of an old French regiment of cavalry , according to the Ordonnance , or military regulation which was i ued on the 4th of November in 1651, consisted of the mestre de camp , or colonel of the horse, the major and the aid-major. It is therein particularly stated, that the état-major of a cavalry regiment shall not have a provostship, a chaplain, a surgeon, nor any other subordinate officer under that denomination. Every fortified town or place had likewise its appropriate état-major, consisting of a certain number of officers who were subject to specific and distinct regulations. By an order dated the 1st of August, 1733, the officers belonging to the état major of a garrison town, or citadel, were strictly forbidden to absent themselves more than four days from their places of residence, without especial leave from the king, nor for four days, unle they obtained permi ion from the governor or commandant of the town or citadel. See Amer. Mil. Lib. Art. Staff.