Temporary increase

Unlike North-Eastern Russia , where, due to the specifics of historical development, autocratic tendencies were strong, which found expression in the centralization of power in the hands of princes and then tsars and emperors, the only legitimate form of military service was sovereign service (any other was interpreted as robbery and was outlawed), according to which, in places authorized by the prince (or tsar), the voivode was engaged in staffing the Zemstvo troops , in southern European lands (especially on the Apennine peninsula ) and Anglo the traditions of local self-government were strong in the Axon countries , up to the independent exercise by local communities of military functions within the framework of the exercise of their right to self-defense, granted by the Magna Carta (among other things, which forbade the king to attract foreign mercenaries and significantly expanded the rights of local communities), which made it practically impossible (to the stage of historical development) unification of organizational structures of military units, and gave rise to problems of preservation of ranks and dolzhnos her command staff during the transition from one individual departments and units in the other.

The organization of military units on a guiding principle (as well as other corporate entities , which was reflected, inter alia, in some English and French-speaking military terms, for example, in the name of an independent tactical unit - the English company , French compagnie ; and the rank of ordinary soldier - English. private ), as a professional association of people pursuing commercial gain , gave rise to a completely different way of building a military career in comparison with countries where sovereign power was strong - Russia , China and not by others, where paramount importance was not the professional competence of a military leader, but his personal loyalty to a sovereign, whose service was usually unlimited, less long-term, and was either even life-long ( Golden Horde , Russian Empire until February 25, 1730, China in the era of the Ming dynasty , and other dynasties), or wore shape duties , which occupied a certain departure period of several years to several decades, depending on the historical period (Russian empire with 25 pounds lie of 1730 until February 18, 1762), on the contrary, for the European military tradition, the key factor was the individual’s qualified performance of his functional duties (which made certain officers more or less in demand on the military services market), and his current belonging belonged to the background for objective reasons (since, firstly, the duration of the hiring was determined by the current demand of the employing party for military services, which usually did not exceed one season - until the hired person fulfilled his of the terms and conditions stipulated by the contract of employment, secondly, employers could not afford a lifetime employment of officers, which was impractical for purely practical reasons, and thirdly, the military itself was interested in finding jobs for more financially secure employers who could offer them higher salaries, according to which, employers of military professionals often changed and could alternate).

In Russia, this with local specifics and terminology was common in Western Russian lands, for example, in the Novgorod Republic and among its political and trade allies - the Pskov Republic and other lands where the traditions of local self-government were strong.

The above trends were all the stronger in specific countries and regions, the more developed were market relations , the weaker the central government there (or none at all, giving way to local authorities with varying degrees of sovereignty ), the greater the degree of fragmentation of administrative territorial entities , the more colorful was their structure ( principalities , duchies , counties , electors , bishoprics , archbishoprics , republics , free cities , merchant guilds and others with infringements acting as independent subjects of international trade relations and subjects of the use of military force ), and the more intense and intense the interaction between them in the political, economic and military spheres (successive temporary alliances , alliances , confederations , then warring, then uniting each other, then again warring and again uniting). This variety of forms of military organization and the use of military force in the West was one of the prerequisites for the emergence of such a phenomenon as "brevet."

Such appointments were a massive occurrence in the US Army in the 19th century. Temporarily appointed officers received the appropriate insignia, but did not receive a salary increase. During the civil war, virtually all senior officers received some form of temporary increase, mainly in the last days of the war. Since at that time there was no unified certification procedure for officers, and each type of armed forces , military branch or service, moreover, each military unit and unit was an independent subject of military administration, independently carrying out mobilization (recruits) and recruiting -komplektatsionnye (volunteers) event itself conducting certification or re-certification of the command staff (English military commission [ing].) - There was nothing unusual for the military that s have several different titles at a time, for example, be a temporary Major General of Volunteers, a brigadier general of volunteers, temporary lieutenant-colonel of the regular army and the captain of the regular army (an example of the federal general Ranaldo Mackenzie).

In the early stages of the development of American statehood, the European practice of the late Middle Ages was widespread in the USA - the beginning of the New Age , when city or rural communities, city authorities, merchant guilds, and other independent subjects of public law relations, hired officers (captains and Grand captains) who were authorized (like any contractor in public or private law relations) to recruit soldiers (from the word “ soldi ”, which is characteristic of the German-Italian military oh tradition) and choose your own helpers (lieutenants and sub-lieutenants). For these purposes, the necessary amount of money was allocated to him one-time or in part (accordingly, the contract was concluded either in writing or in the form of an oral agreement) and the specific task was set (for example, conducting one or a series of punitive raids on local Indian settlements, searching and eliminating the robber gangs, etc.). Long-term hiring without a deadline was applied in cases where there is a constant threat that is difficult from the point of view of opportunities for its complete elimination. On a long-term basis, military specialists were hired to organize a garrison and guard service, transport and logistics (ensuring the safety of freight and passenger transportation).

As a rule, the officer began the service precisely with temporary promotions, which, among other things, played the function of a filter - for dropping out all kinds of unreliable persons until they were awarded full ranks. For example, during the Mexican War, General George Pickett received temporary increases to the rank of captain, and only after the war did he receive a real increase to the rank of lieutenant. General Thomas Jackson received a temporary promotion to major for the same war. Typically, a West Point Academy graduate would receive the provisional rank of second lieutenant and then wait until the appropriate place in the regular army was vacated.

The first temporary enhancements were introduced during the American Revolutionary War. This was due to the fact that it was not always possible to find places for foreign volunteer officers, mainly the French. The first temporarily promoted officer was Jacques Antoine de Franchessin on July 20, 1776. He was awarded the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army . Until the end of the war, another 35 foreign officers received temporary increases. By 1784, these ranks were awarded to another 50 officers.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the US Army had to guard a large number of border forts, but the number of officers was limited by a decree of Congress, so the problem arose of the lack of officers for garrison service. In this situation, the shortage had to be filled by temporary officers.

Civil War

Historian Blair Howard wrote: “Temporary raises have created a great deal of confusion among federal officers. By the end of the war, approximately 1,700 officers held temporary ranks of brigadier generals and major generals. This made it difficult to distinguish ranks. For a long time after the war, the army could not figure out how to contact the officers or what rank should be reflected on their uniform. For example, although George Custer was just a lieutenant colonel of the regular army at the time of his death under Little Big Horn, he had the temporary rank of major general in both the regular and volunteer army ^[1] . "

In the British Empire, the existence of a system of temporary (but actually alternative) military ranks, coexisting with the conventional army and navy, was due to the existence of several dozen private companies, each of which had its own corporate armed forces - its own army and navy . The presence of many companies with their private armies was dictated by the British way of administering the imperial provinces , which suggested the existence of a private intermediary (company) between the royal court and the provinces, authorized or licensed in the prescribed manner, which gave him the broadest powers, including in terms of organizing his own regular or irregular military or paramilitary (military police) organizations and structures, depending on the specific circumstances requiring Sennoy intervention and other forms of use of force.

The most powerful in this regard was the British East India Company (OIC), whose current military potential , in quantitative terms of manpower and military watercraft, amounted to about forty thousand Europeans - military officers and sergeant-senior officers of the ground forces and more than two hundred thousand indigenous military personnel and non-commissioned officers ^[2] (which was not a record, the Dutch East India Company at one time sent more than a million soldiers, sailors and other employees to India, not including to the same slaves and natives), ^[3] as well as over a hundred ships and vessels with a total tonnage of approx. 90 thousand tons and seven thousand sailors, ^[4] made it possible to conduct completely autonomous military operations at once in several land and sea theaters of military operations without involving imperial troops. Since the companies provided their employees with higher salaries and a number of other preferences, the young officers of the royal army and navy, despite the difficulties associated with the re-certification if the royal units were returned to service or on board the royal ships, tried to switch to the company service as soon as possible . Since the number of potential candidates exceeded the needs of companies for team personnel, the employees of the companies responsible for the recruitment had the opportunity to choose the most professionally qualified candidates. In addition, the structure of the companies had their own military educational institutions, where cadets were trained in training programs, generally standardized for general arms, but with a focus on training for service in specific regions of the world (usually the Indian subcontinent and the Asia-Pacific region ), where armed support of commercial interests of employing companies was required. The Royal Army Command and Admiralty, for its part, made efforts to reduce or limit the outflow of qualified command personnel - one of these regulators was the barrier associated with the lack of a unified (uniform for all armed forces) rank system and certification / re-certification procedures. Another compromise option was the introduction in 1837 of a system of “local ranks,” that is, those ranks that operated only in that particular region of the world where a particular British military association was stationed — this innovation was primarily intended for the Indian possessions of the British crowns ^[5] .

The assignment of temporary ranks, among other things, was also beneficial for the management of the companies, as they were called upon to reduce the burden on the corporate budget by reducing the tariff grid by one or several steps for employees who, if they are certified according to their rank without the prefix “temporary ”, Would receive even greater salaries. Considering the number of military men employed by companies, in sum this gave a very substantial savings. Promotion and the standard term for awarding the next military rank in the company was much longer in time than in the royal troops - for example, from the moment of certification in the primary officer rank to the attainment of the rank of DEC major, twenty-five years passed, while a similar rank in the royal troops took from twelve to seventeen years, depending on the personal qualities of a particular candidate and the conditions of service (accelerated assignment of ranks in the army and navy in comparison with the service th in peacetime). Accordingly, the organizational and staffing structure of units and formations varied, the head of the standard royal army regiment was Lieutenant Colonel, while the OIC regiment was commanded by the colonel ^[5] .

It was generally not typical for companies to “scatter” their ranks, for example, in 1826 , eighteen generals from the royal troops served in India and only three from the OIC, whose Indian armies (Bengal and Bombay, respectively) consisted of 291 thousand personnel (despite the fact that all three were re-certified in the general rank, having switched to serve in the company already being generals of the royal troops). ^[five]

In France, there is a temporary appointment system, vaguely reminiscent of the American "brevet promotion". For example, Charles de Gaulle was appointed interim brigadier general (général de brigade à titre provisoire) on June 1, 1940, when he commanded a tank division (since France was already partially occupied by German troops by that time and the normal certification procedure was a bureaucratic procedure as a rule, not more often than once or twice a year, and requiring time and distraction of certified and certified from their main functional duties - it was de facto impossible for him).

• Brevet Rank In The Civil War
• Список временно повышенных генералов США во время Гражданской Войны.