REGULATIONS

FOR THE

ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES.

ARTICLE I.

MILITARY DISCIPLINE.

1. All persons in the military service are required to obey strictly and to execute promptly the lawful orders of their superiors.

2. Military authority will be exercised with firmness, kindness, and justice. Punishments must conform to law and follow offenses as promptly as circumstances will permit.

3. Superiors are forbidden to injure those under their authority by tyrannical or capricious conduct or by abusive language.

4. Courtesy among military men is indispensable to discipline; respect to superiors will not be confined to obedience on duty, but will be extended on all occasions.

5. Deliberations or discussions among military men conveying praise or censure, or any mark of approbation, toward others in the military service, and all publications relating to private or personal transactions between officers, are prohibited. Efforts to influence legislation affecting the Army, or to procure personal favor or consideration, should never be made except through regular military channels; the adoption of any other method by any officer or enlisted man will be noted in the military record of those concerned.

ARTICLE II.

PRECEDENCE OF REGIMENTS AND CORPS.

6. On all occasions of ceremony, troops are arranged from right to left in line, and from head to rear in column, in the following order: First, infantry; second, field artillery; third, cavalry. Artillery serving as infantry is posted as infantry; dismounted cavalry and marines are on the left of the infantry; engineer troops and detachments of the Signal Corps are on the right of the command to which they are attached; detachments of the Hospital Corps are assigned to place according to the nature of the service. When cavalry and field artillery, or field artillery and infantry, are reviewed together without other troops, the artillery is posted on the left. In the same arm, regulars, volunteers, and militia are posted in line from right to left, or in column from head to rear, in the order named. In reviews of large bodies of troops the different arms and classes are posted at the discretion of the commanding general, due regard being paid to their position in camp. On all other occasions troops of all classes are posted at the discretion of the general or senior commander.

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ARTICLE III.

RANK AND PRECEDENCE OF OFFICERS AND NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

7. Military rank is that character or quality bestowed on military persons which marks their station, and confers eligibility to exercise command or authority in the military service within the limits prescribed by law. It is divided into degrees or grades, which mark the relative positions and powers of the different classes of persons possessing it.

8. Rank is generally held by virtue of office in an arm of the service, corps, or department, but may be conferred independently of office, as in the case of retired officers and of those holding it by brevet.

9. The following are the grades of rank of officers and noncommissioned officers:

1. Lieutenant-general.

2. Major-general.

3. Brigadier-general.

4. Colonel.

5. Lieutenant-colonel.

6. Major.

7. Captain.

8. First lieutenant.

9. Second lieutenant.

10. Veterinarian, cavalry and field artillery.

11. Cadet.

12. (a) Sergeant-major, regimental; sergeant-major, senior grade, Coast Artillery Corps; (b) master electrician, Coast Artillery Corps; master signal electrician; (c) engineer, Coast Artillery Corps; (d) electrician sergeant, first class, Coast Artillery Corps.

13. Ordnance sergeant; post commissary-sergeant; post quartermaster-sergeant; sergeant, first class, Hospital Corps; first-class signal sergeant; electrician sergeant, second class, Coast Artillery Corps; master gunner, Coast Artillery Corps.

14. Quartermaster-sergeant

musician.

and

commissary-sergeant, regimental; chief

15. Sergeant-major, squadron and battalion; sergeant-major, junior grade, Coast Artillery Corps; color sergeant; chief trumpeter; principal musician; battalion quartermaster-sergeant, engineers and field artillery.

16. First sergeant; drum major.

17. Sergeant; quartermaster-sergeant, company; stable sergeant.

18. (a) Corporal; (b) fireman, Coast Artillery Corps.

In each grade and subgrade, date of commission, appointment, or warrant determines the order of precedence.

10. Officers of the Regular Army, Marine Corps, and volunteers when commissioned or mustered into the service of the United States, being upon equal footing, take precedence in each grade by date of commission or appointment. Militia officers, when employed with the regular or volunteer forces of the United States, take rank next after all officers of like grade in those forces.

11. Between officers of the same grade and date of appointment or commission, other than through promotion by seniority, relative rank is determined by length of service, continuous or otherwise, as a commissioned officer of the United States, either in the Regular Army or, since April 19, 1861, in the volunteer forces. When periods of service are equal, precedence will, except when fixed by order of merit on examination, be determined, first, by rank in service when appointed; second, by former rank in the Army or Marine Corps;, third, by lot.

12. The relative rank between officers of the Army and Navy is as follows, lineal rank only being considered: General with admiral.

Lieutenant-general with vice-admiral.
Major-general with rear-admiral.
Brigadier-general with commodore.1
Colonel with captain.

Lieutenant-colonel with commander.

Major with lieutenant-commander.
Captain with lieutenant.

First lieutenant with lieutenant (junior
grade).

Second lieutenant with ensign.

ARTICLE IV.

COMMAND.

13. Command is exercised by virtue of office and the special assignment of officers holding military rank who are eligible by law to exercise command. Without orders from competent authority an officer can not put himself on duty by virtue of his commission alone, except as contemplated in the twentyfourth and one hundred and twenty-second articles of war.

14. The following are the commands appropriate to each grade:

1. For a captain, a company.

2. For a major, a battalion.
3. For a colonel, a regiment.

4. For a brigadier-general, a brigade.

5. For a major-general, a division.

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15. The designation company," as used in these regulations, applies to troops of cavalry, batteries of field artillery, and to companies and bands of all arms and corps. The designation "battalion" applies in like manner to squadrons of cavalry.

16. The functions assigned to any officer in these regulations by title of office devolve upon the officer acting in his place, except when otherwise specified. An officer in temporary command shall not, except in urgent cases, alter or annul the standing orders of the permanent commander without authority from the next higher commander.

17. An officer who succeeds to any command or duty stands in regard to his duties in the same situation as his predecessor. The officer relieved will turn over to his successor all orders in force at the time and all the public property and funds pertaining to his command or duty.

18. An officer of engineers not on duty with engineer troops, or of ordnance, or of the Adjutant-General's, Inspector-General's, Judge-Advocate-General's, Quartermaster's, or Subsistence Department, or Signal Corps, or of the line, detailed to fill a vacancy in these staff departments or corps, though eligible to command, according to his rank, shall not assume command of troops unless put on duty under orders which specially so direct, by authority of the President.

19. An officer of the Pay or Medical Department can not exercise command, except in his own department; but any staff officer, by virtue of his commission, may command all enlisted men like other commissioned officers.

20. When an officer is charged with directing an expedition or making a reconnaissance, without having command of the escort, the commander of the escort will consult him touching all arrangements necessary to secure the success of the operation.

1 The grade of commodore ceased to exist as a grade of rank on the active list in the Navy of the United States on March 3, 1899. By section 7 of the act of March 3, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 971), the nine junior rear-admirals are authorized to receive the pay and allowances of brigadier-generals in the Army.