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horseback could use weapons in a manner that MILITARY POLICE
made him a serious menace to disciplined foot
troops.

It seems stirrups appeared in Europe around
AD 550. Although authorities are wary of
giving the date it was “invented,” they seem
to agree that it started as a simple loop fixed
to the end of the saddle skirt.

Even the most confirmed pedestrian will
understand, however, that without stirrups the It may be that Military Police were created to perform the
same function for which Marines were first used to protect
man on horseback can be considered nothing the Officers from their men.
more than a nuisance in battle. With both
hands free to handle a weapon, he becomes According to C. C. Soden, recruiting
something to contend with. methods reached intolerable extremes in
1740 to replace heavy casualties in Flanders.

The “pressed men” took advantage of any
ENGINEERS
opportunity to express their aversion to
military life by knocking off an Officer.
The engineer was at one time considered a Trustworthy soldiers were selected to
civilian and was responsible for fortifications, protect Officers’ quarters and to guard them
field works and planning. The word is derived against ambush on the way to work.
from the Latin and meant “ingenious”, thus
indicating the cleverness of the individual.
A century later when the original need had
disappeared, the “Watch Guards” were
MEDICAL CORPS reorganized and assigned a true “military

police” role. The office of “Provost” was
Up until the sixteenth-century German then created to control them.
mercenaries, no doctors accompanied
Military Units. During the wars of the Middle
Ages the sick and wounded were left to make QUARTER MASTER AND
LOGISTICIAN
out as best they could. If they got any
attention it was from private citizens who The office of Quartermaster goes back to
took pity on them, or from monks who, in the sixteenth-century . His original job was
those days, were the only people who knew to find quarters and rations for the men. In
anything about medicine or surgery.
connection with the first duty, the “quarter
master” of necessity had the function of
A surgeon was assigned to each company. reconnaissance.
When the practice of surgery passed from the
hands of the monks to those of the barbers, the The word “Logistics” is derived from the
change was recollected in the seventeenth – Greek adjective “Logistikos”, meaning
century military organisation of the Prussians: “skilled in caculating”. The first use of the
Feldschere (field barbers) were attached for word is attributed to the “Logista” or
surgical duties.
military administrative officials.