Noncommissioned officer (Mil.), a subordinate officer not appointed by a commission from the chief executive or supreme authority of the State; but by the Secretary of War or by the commanding officer of the regiment.
... orders. He was given full discretion to employ his forces as he saw fit. He turned loose the soldiers under him with general instructions to act as their own good sense dictated, and it is to the eternal credit of the noncommissioned officers and the privates that every report sent to the war department and all the descriptions in the press reports indicated that the army had saved ... — Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror • Richard Linthicum
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