Non-commissioned Rank
Brigadier also existed as a non-commissioned cavalry rank. Thus, a brigadier in the Napoleonic cavalry was equivalent to a corporal in the British cavalry. This usage derives from the use of "brigade" to denote a squad or team of cavalrymen, similar to the occasional English civilian usage "work brigade".
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Famous quotes containing the word rank:
“If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men’s failings, and recollect that we, too, were very likely indolent and voluptuous, had we no motive for work, a mortal’s natural taste for pleasure, and the daily temptation of a large income. What could a great peer, with a great castle and park, and a great fortune, do but be splendid and idle?”
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)