416
ENGINEER, MILITARY.
1st. A Staff, including
12 General Officers,
400 Officers of the Staff (24th September, 1831), and Can-didates for the Engineers,
9 Professors in the Regimental Schools,
500 Gardes du Genie,
6 Ouvriers d’E'tat.
3 Regiments of Sappers,
1 Company of Workmen,
1 Company of Veterans (19th November, 1831).
Staff .—The 12 General Officers are—1 Lieutenant-General , President of theCommittee of Fortifications; 3 Lieutenant-Generals , members of the Committee;8 Major-Generals , members of the Committee.
The 400 Staff Officers are composed of (24th September, 1831) 25 Colonels,25 Lieutenant-Colonels, 72 Majors, 140 First Captains, 138 Second Captains andLieutenants; Total, 400. These are selected exclusively from among those whohave passed through the School of Application.
Every year, the Minister of War (according to the vacancies to be filled up inthe Corps ) determines what number of pupils from the Polytechnic School oughtto be admitted to the School of Application with the rank of Sub-Lieutenant.
After two years of study these Sub-Lieutenants of Engineers undergo finalexamination. Those who give proof of sufficient knowledge in the necessaryacquirements are gazetted in the Corps , according to their rank of merit determinedby the examination; they are then appointed to the Regiments of Engineers (orSappers and Miners ) to perform the duties of Second Lieutenants. By this meanstwo-thirds of the vacancies which occur in these regiments are filled up by them.
Such Engineer pupils as, not having been deemed worthy of appointment to theCorps of Engineers after two years of study at the School of Probation, have passed athird year there, take rank with those who leave the same year as they do, and aregazetted according to the degree of merit ascertained by the examination, and theyhave no right to the rank of Lieutenant before these same pupils. Those who, aftertheir second decisive examination, are found unfit for admission to the Corps of Engineers , are sent away from the school.
Officers of Engineers, besides those admitted to the Corps according to the fore-going qualifications, are liable to be received directly at the School of Probation, untilthe age of thirty years, after having undergone an examination, the programme ofwhich is determined by the Minister of War.
The Examiner of the Engineer pupils is appointed on the recommendation of theMinister of War.
The Professors in the regimental schools of Engineers are appointed by theMinister of War, proposed by an Inspector-General of Engineers , after havingundergone an examination before a Commission presided over by that Inspector.
The Gardes du Genie,* 500 in number, are divided into 3 classes, viz. 120 of thefirst class, 180 of the second class, 200 of the third class; total 500.
The Minister of War determines the number of these Gardes, from selections madeexclusively by the Inspector-Generals of Engineers. They are taken as follows:those of the third class from among non-commissioned officers of the Sappers andMiners who have served at least six years; those of the second class from among theGardes of the third class, having had at least three years of service in their class;and those of the first class are chosen from the Gardes of the second class who havebeen two years in the service in their own class.
‘ Les Ouvriers d’Etat/ composed of a Governor, a Sub-Governor , and four work-
corresponding to the Clerks and Foremen of Works in our Service.— Ed.