“A small body of brave and expert men, skillfully handled and favored by the ground, easily may render difficult the advance of a large army.”—Frederic the Great.
At the river Metaurus, the Roman Consul Livius gave a fine example of the duties of a Column of Manoeuvre which are slowly and securely to retreat before an advancing enemy and never to be induced into a pitched battle until the arrival of the kindred main body.
Frederic the Great made great use of Columns of Manoeuvre. In the Seven Years War he constantly maintained such a column against the armies of each State with whom Prussia was at war; while himself and his brother Henry operated as Columns of Attack.
In the Revolutionary War, Washington maintained a Column of Manoeuvre against the British in Rhode Island, another against the British in the south and a third against the hostile Indian tribes of the southwest.
Napoleon constantly used Columns of Manoeuvre in all his campaigns; notably at Montenotte, Castiglione, Arcole, Rivoli, Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, in 1812, 1813, 1814 and at Ligny and Waterloo in 1815.