DOKŁADNOŚĆ LICZENIA W NOWOŻYTNEJ ARMII NA PRZYKŁADZIE REGIMENTU PIESZEGO GWARDII KORONNEJ W DRUGIEJ POŁOWIE XVIII W.
COUNTING ACCURACY IN THE EARLY MODERN ARMY. THE EXAMPLE OF THE CROWN GUARD INFANTRY REGIMENT IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses two censuses of soldiers from the Crown Guard Infantry Regiment during the latter half of the eighteenth century. It focuses on the soldiers' height, age, and length of service, and examines how these factors influenced their roles and the likelihood of being removed from the regiment. A comparison of both sources and a quantitative analysis of the data reveals that the command of the regiment did not place significant importance on accurately recording soldiers' ages and lengths of service. Additionally, there are indications that the information about the body height was often rounded off. Although such factors were mentioned as important for the service of soldiers in the regiment, since some of them were removed from it due to being too short or too old, at the same time, it was necessary to refer to them in a way that allowed for a certain degree of arbitrariness. Thus, although the regiment formally sought to maintain a minimum height of 70 inches among grenadiers, and line soldiers who were 69 inches or shorter were often removed from it, this was not always done, and it is also possible that the measurements used as the basis for dismissal from the regiment were frequently inaccurately recorded. The poor quality of the quantitative data recorded in the soldier registers is consistent with the results of many other studies, indicating that the historical population was not very familiar with numbers and had a widespread tendency to round off ages and give approximate values. At the same time, however, such inaccuracies do not necessarily indicate a complete disregard for numbers, but rather point to a different perception of recording them accurately.

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