United States
From 4 May 1861, each company of cavalry was authorised a Company Quartermaster Sergeant. The Company Quartermaster Sergeant was responsible for the company wagon and all the property it contained, including the tents, the company mess gear, the company desk, the company library, the ordnance, the subsistence provisions, and the company tools. He was further charged with overseeing the camp set-up of the tents and picket lines. He inspected the company horses and mules, and reported any problems to the Veterinary Surgeon of the regiment. He was also responsible for acquiring fuel, forage for the horses, and straw for bedding for the company. These were normally drawn from the supplies of the Regimental Quartermaster, along with replacements for uniforms and equipment. When they were not available from stores, the Company Quartermaster Sergeant was responsible for forage parties to acquire them. The Company Quartermaster Sergeant was required to sign for the uniforms and equipment that were in his custody and before disbursing these items to a soldier, he required a signature of receipt, countersigned by an officer.
The rank of Company Quartermaster Sergeant was not a command position, although he was required to know the drills, and the duties and responsibilities of the line NCOs. He was the second most senior NCO in the company after the First Sergeant. During combat, his place was safeguarding the company wagon and its supplies. He was generally required to fight only in defence of the company property. In an extreme emergency, he could be used to replace a fallen line NCO, but this was extremely rare. The wagons were driven by Teamsters, who were usually members of the company. Additionally, each cavalry company was authorized a Wagoner with the rank of Corporal.
The Company Quartermaster Sergeant wore three chevrons with a single straight tie in worsted. Although worn by volunteer cavalry from 1862, this rank badge was not incorporated into United States military regulations until 1866.
A Battery Quartermaster Sergeant was also authorised for every artillery battery from 4 May 1861. They began to adopt the same unofficial chevrons as the cavalry from May 1863.
Read more about this topic: Company Quartermaster Sergeant
Famous quotes related to united states:
“We can beat all Europe with United States soldiers. Give me a thousand Tennesseans, and I’ll whip any other thousand men on the globe!”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Falling in love with a United States Senator is a splendid ordeal. One is nestled snugly into the bosom of power but also placed squarely in the hazardous path of exposure.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)
“The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control—’indoctrination’ we might say—exercised through the mass media.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
—Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)
“Some time ago a publisher told me that there are four kinds of books that seldom, if ever, lose money in the United States—first, murder stories; secondly, novels in which the heroine is forcibly overcome by the hero; thirdly, volumes on spiritualism, occultism and other such claptrap, and fourthly, books on Lincoln.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)