Irregular Quality Writing

What does it take to make someone as good as a British regular?

The answer, it transpires, depends on who you are.





If you're American, then it takes no more than seven months of training from a standing start. As covered in the invasion of Maine.


In the invasion of Maine, as described in the aforementioned post, American volunteer regiments raised in November 1861 are able to fight British regulars on even terms (or better) in June 1862, and even force them back at equal odds. Even the British guards have met their match in seven-month volunteer regiments, and the regular line infantry struggle to gain ground with a 5:1 advantage on seven-month volunteers.


If you're British, on the other hand, then it takes rather more.

 “The only way to do so was to tap the depots and their staffs, call up officers from half-pay and the reserve, and pensioners for non-commissioned officers, and then fill up the battalions with new recruits and volunteers from the Yeomanry and Militia.”

“And that has not been simple or economical, has it?” Stanley asked. 

“No, not at all; there are 23 infantry depots; even raising two new battalions from each depot, which provides a second battalion to the 26th through 59th and the 61st through 72nd regiments of foot, gives us 46; add those to the three remaining regular battalions, and we have 49,” Cornewall-Lewis said. “And the depots still have to provide replacements for the battalions overseas, of course." 

Stanley was quiet for a moment. 

“Forty-six new battalions in eight months – even with cadre from the depots, and veterans of one stripe or another, they are not the equivalent of the regulars, are they?” he asked. 

These new battalions have eight months, not seven, and they've had a leavening of reserve and half-pay officers (which should, in a realistic world, be at least the equal of all the USMA graduates TFSmith has doing everything that needs doing in the Union's armed forces even after such minor problems as military career lacuna of decades - and mild cases of insanity). In addition, they're using "pensioners" (i.e. experienced men who've spent one or two decades in the British Army and are now on military pension, which would usually begin at about age thirty or forty) for the NCOs, and the recruits are taken in large part from the Militia (who were a trained auxiliary force comparable in intent to the modern National Guard).
Despite every comparative advantage in officers, NCOs, pre-existing troop training and even an extra month of training time, they are "not the equivalent of the regulars".

One might assume the mistake made by the British was to use men with experience at their jobs, instead of just recruiting entirely new troops who could then become equivalent to the regulars in just seven months. But the more likely mistake the British have made is the same mistake they always make in Burnished Rows of Steel - not being American.