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From: optilink!cramer@uunet.UU.NET (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Army customs...saluting
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.014600.17772@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 14 Mar 91 01:46:00 GMT
References: <1991Mar4.212815.9865@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar8.023526.10578@cbnews.att.com>
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From: optilink!cramer@uunet.UU.NET (Clayton Cramer)

In article <1991Mar8.023526.10578@cbnews.att.com>, cash@convex.com (Peter Cash) writes:
> In article <1991Mar6.042927.25702@cbnews.att.com> bcstec!shuksan!major@uunet.UU.NET (Mike Schmitt) writes:
> >...
> That's a nice story, and may be true for the English "leftenant". However,
> the American "lieutenant" comes from the French, and means "someone who
> acts instead (or in the place of) another" (lieu = instead of; tenant = one
> who holds). 
> 
> Who does the lieutenant act for? Why, the capitain, I guess :*)

There's a bit of a story to this, of course.

Before the rise of the modern European army, the captain (for a company)
or colonel (for a regiment) acquired that rank by having the 
financial resources to uniform and equip his men.  This tradition
persisted in the U.S. right up to the Civil War for militias
and volunteer regiments.  (Our Regular Army, tiny though it was,
was one of the first armies in the world where promotion through
the ranks was largely based on merit, not on political connection --
though you still needed to be from the right family to get into
the officer ranks at the beginning of the Republic.  The British
Army started to replace family with merit as a basis for promotion
because of the disasters in the Crimean War).

When Louis XIV professionalized the French Army, making it one
of the first modern national armies, he was in a difficult
situation.  He couldn't offend all the minor nobility who were
captains and colonels, but were insufficiently competent to
command in battle.  Instead, he inserted "lieutenants" and
"lieutenant colonels" into the companies and regiments, and
allowed the captains and colonels to wear their nice uniforms,
ride their beautiful horses, and continue to pay some bills,
while still having a professional officer corps.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
Fabian socialism crossed with wealth gives the current system: Fabian fascism.
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