Word Finder - corps

definition

A battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions.

definition

An organized group of people united by a common purpose.

example

White House press corps

Our corps was stationed on a hillside.

In 1902 the special corps in Eritrea numbered about 4700 of all ranks, including nearly 4000 natives.

He commanded the corps in the battles of Alma and Inkerman.

The battle of Alexandria, fought on the 21st of March of that year, between the French army under General Menou and the British expeditionary corps under Sir Ralph Abercromby, took place near the ruins of Nicopolis, on the narrow spit of land between the sea and Lake Aboukir, along which the British of troops had advanced towards Alexandria after the actions of Aboukir on the 8th and Mandora on the 13th.

In 1813 he became a member of the Corps Legislatif.

He attended King Edward's coronation in 1902, and accompanied the British army in person in the Chinese campaign of Igoe in command of the Bikanir Camel Corps, which also did good service in Somaliland in 1904.

The hardships of their lot, and, above all, the system by which the strongest of their sons were carried off as recruits for the corps of janissaries, frequently drove them to brigandage, and occasionally to open revolt.

The grand master of ordnance is co-equal with the minister of war, and his department is classed separately in the budget; the artillery establishments, parts of the infantry and of the technical corps, and even hospitals are placed under his direct orders.

Other non-combatant troops, such as military train, medical corps, &c., are undergoing reorganization.

In 1843 the corps d'armee of Constantinople, Rumelia, Anatolia and Arabia were formed, and a military council was appointed.

Bernadotte's corps in Hanover was almost in the position of a beleaguered garrison, and the marshal could only obtain his transport by giving out that he was ordered to withdraw to France.

Napoleon now hastened to rejoin the group of corps he had left under Bernadotte in observation towards the Russians, for the latter were nearer at hand than even Mack had assumed.

On the French side, Lannes' men were working their hardest, under Napoleon's personal supervision, to make a practicable road up to the Landgrafenberg, and all night long the remaining corps struggled through darkness towards the rendezvous.

During the night the Prussians continued their retreat, the bulk of the main body to Summerda, Hohenlohe's corps towards Nordhausen.

The cavalry, moving well in advance, dispersed the Prussian depots and captured their horses, as far as the line of the Vistula, where at last they encountered organized resistance from the outposts of Lestocq's little corps of 15,000 men - all that was left of Frederick the Great's army.

Jerome's corps was composed of the Bavarians, Wiirttembergers and Badensers.

Yielding to the inevitable, but not forgetting to announce a brilliant victory in a bulletin, he sent his troops into winter quarters along the Passarge and down the Baltic, enjoining on his corps commanders most strictly to do nothing to disturb their adversary.

Bennigsen, now commanding the whole Russian army which with Lestocq's Prussians amounted to 100,000, also moved into winter quarters in the triangle Deutsch-Eylau-Osterode-Allenstein, and had every intention of remaining there, for a fresh army was already gathering in Russia, the 1st corps of which had reached Nur about 50 m.

His orders were at once issued and complied with with such celerity that by the 31st he stood prepared to advance with the corps of Soult, Ney, Davout and Augereau, the Guard and the reserve cavalry (80,000 men on a front of 60 m.) from Myszienec through Wollenberg to Gilgenberg; whilst Lannes on his right towards Ostrolenka and Lefebvre (X.) at Thorn covered his outer flanks.

Soult and Murat attacked his rearguard on the 3rd, and learning from his Cossacks that the French corps were being directed so as to swing round and enclose him, he withdrew by a night march and ultimately succeeded in getting his whole army, with the exception of von Lestocq's Prussians, together in the strong position along the Alle, the centre of which is marked by Preussisch-Eylau.

The opportunity for this concentration he owed to the time gained for him by his rearguard at Joukendorf, for this had stood just long enough to induce the French columns to swing in to surround him, and the next day was thus lost to the emperor as his corps had to extend again to their manoeuvring intervals.

But here too the weather and the state of the roads operated adversely, for Ney came up too late, while Davout, in the full tide of his victorious advance, was checked by the arrival of Lestocq, whose corps Ney had failed to intercept, Campaign Of 1807 In Poland And Prussia Scale.

Augereau himself was severely wounded, and the remnant of his corps was subsequently distributed amongst the other corps.

Lannes's reserve corps (cavalry), to whom Latour Maubourg reported, lay at Domnau some ro m.

Much had been done to create an efficient staff, but though the idea of the army corps command was now no new thing, the senior generals entrusted with these commands were far from having acquired the independence and initiative of their French opponents.

By these means Davout's, Oudinot's and Lefebvre's commands were augmented, whilst in February and March new corps were formed and rapidly pushed towards the front.

On the 9th of April their main body of six corps crossed the Inn between Braunau and Passau, and simultaneously two additional corps moved from Pilsen in Bohemia on Regensburg.

Everything would be excellent if the duke of Auerstadt had been at Ingolstadt and the duke of Rivoli with the Wiirttembergers and Oudinot's corps at Augsburg,.

But with the Bohemian reinforcements he had still four corps in hand, and Napoleon, whose intelligence service in the difficult and intersected country had lamentably failed him, had weakened his army by detaching a portion of his force in pursuit of the beaten right wing, and against the archduke's communications.

Next, centring about Warsaw, a group of three corps (19,000 men) under the chief command of Napoleon's brother Jerome.

Then the main army under Napoleon in person (220,000 men; with 80,000 more under the viceroy of Italy on his right rear); and on the extreme left at Tilsit a flanking corps, comprising the Prussian auxiliary corps and other Germans (in all 40,000 strong).

Information about the Russians was very indifferent; it was only known that Prince Bagration with about 33,000 men lay grouped about Wolkowysk; Barclay de Tolly with 40,000 about Vilna; and on the Austrian frontier lay a small corps under Tormassov in process of formation, while far away on the Turkish frontiers hostilities with the sultan retained Tschitschagov with 50,000 more.

The French army was thus disposed almost in an equilateral triangle with sides of about 570 m., with 95,000 men at the apex at Moscow opposed to 120,000, 30,000 about Brest opposite ioo,000, and 17,000 about Drissa confronted by 40,000, whilst in the centre of the base at Smolensk lay Victor's corps, about 30,000.

Oudinot's and Victor's men were relatively fresh and may have totalled 20,000, whilst Ney can hardly have had more than 6000 of all corps fighting under him.

The allies, aware of the gradual strengthening of their enemy's forces but themselves as yet unable to put more than 200,000 in the field, had left a small corps of observation opposite Magdeburg and along the Elbe to give timely notice of an advance towards Berlin; and with the bulk of their forces had taken up a position about Dresden, whence they had determined to march down the course of the Elbe and roll up the French from right to left.

Finally he decided to group his corps round Gorlitz and Bautzen whence they could either meet the enemy advancing from Breslau or fall on his flank over the mountains if they attempted to force their way into Saxony by the valley of the Elbe.

Corps up the Elbe to Pirna and KOnigstein to cover the fortifications of Dresden itself.

The allies, however, continued to retreat, but unfortunately Vandamme, with his single corps and unsupported, issued out of the mountains on their flank, threw himself across their line of retreat near Kulm, and was completely overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers (29th).

The emperor when he became aware of the movement, sent the IVth Corps to Lindenau to keep the road open.

But on the 4th of February Blucher, chafing at this inaction, obtained the permission of his own sovereign to transfer his line of operations to the valley of the Marne; Pahlen's corps of Cossacks were assigned to him to cover his left and maintain communication with the Austrians.

Blucher himself on the night of the 7th was at Sezanne, on the exposed flank so as to be nearer to his sources of intelligence, and the rest of his army were distributed in four small corps at or near Epernay, Montmirail and Etoges; reinforcements also were on their way to join him and were then about Vitry.

Portugal remonstrated against Napoleon's demands, and a French corps (30,000) under General Junot was instantly despatched to Lisbon.

Marshal Moncey with a corps occupied Biscay and Navarre; Duhesme with a division entered Catalonia; and a little later Bessieres with another corps had been brought up. There were now about ioo,000 French soldiers in Spain, and Murat, grand duke of Berg, as "lieutenant for the emperor," entered Madrid.

Marshal Massena with 120,000, including the corps of Ney, Junot, Reynier and some of the Imperial Guard, was to operate from Salamanca against Portugal; but first Soult, appointed major-general of the army in Spain (equivalent to chief of the staff), was, with the corps of Victor, Mortier and Sebastiani (70,000), to reduce Andalusia.

On the 28th of October r8 r r, Hill, by a very skilful surprise, captured Arroyo de los Molinos (between Badajoz and Trujillo), almost annihilating a French corps under Gerard; and in December 181r the French were repulsed in their efforts to capture Tarifa near Cadiz.

During the French occupation (1800-1814), which began after the battle of Marengo, it was still more strongly fortified; the works were entirely destroyed by the Austrians in 1815, but were afterwards reconstructed, and Alessandria is still an important fortress and the headquarters of the second army corps.

Ultimately, however, the minister, strong in the support of Elizabeth, prevailed, and his faultless diplomacy, backed by the despatch of an auxiliary Russian corps of 30,000 men to the Rhine, greatly accelerated the peace negotiations which led to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 18, 1748).

The appointment, criticised at the time as withdrawing from the regular diplomatic corps one of its most coveted posts, proved a great success.

There are a military cantonment, the headquarters of the volunteer corps known as the Assam Valley Light Horse; a government high school, a training school for masters; and an aided school for girls.

It is an important centre for the control of the Bedouin Arabs, and has a garrison of about 1000 troops, including a special corps of mule-riders.