Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/52

8 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, ambulance-cart to be laid on a good bed in ^^ hospital, and brought under medical care, he througliout owed his fate to the same sort of measures as those which for years had been bringing French regiments to Africa, whilst also maintaining them there in spite of many adverse conditions ; and perhaps one may say almost generally that, although the demands of this campaign in the East gave, of course, a new scope and direction to the energy of the French War Department, they engaged it for the most part in tasks which long practice had rendered familiar. The French War Department was, of course, a Department of State ; but, its chief being always a general, if not indeed a marshal of France, the spirit in which other generals received his orders was scarce other than that of battal- ions obeying the word of command ; and recip- rocally, there was a military element in the sense of duty, and the wholesome ambition which impelled him to do all he could towards becoming, like Carnot, the ' organiser of victory.' If the chief was always a soldier, so likewise (as regards the final process) it was always by the hands of soldiers — though organised in sepa- rate bodies — that the Department ministered to troops. To execute works of all kinds, to main- tain due order in camp, to find means of trans- port, to bring up ammunition, to provide for the soldier food, shelter, and clothing, to secure him medical care, and, in short, to supply every want of a French army when in the field, there were