"I will be with the company.
"Move out at once."
The weather is fine and the roads are good and free from dust. It is August and nearly all the crops are harvested. Bushes and weeds form a considerable growth along the fences bordering the road.
Sergeant, give your orders.
Sergeant Adams: 1st squad, 1. Right, 2. FACE, 1. Forward, 2. MARCH. Corporal Baker, take Carter (Baker's rear rank man) and go ahead of the squad about 200 yards. Move out rapidly until you get your distance and then keep us in sight.
I would then have the two leading men of the rest of the squad follow on opposite sides of the road, as close to the fence as possible for good walking. This would put the squad in two columns of files of three men each, leaving the main roadway clear and making the squad as inconspicuous as possible, without interfering with ease of marching or separating the men. [[Par. 1028 (c)].] What sort of crops are in the fields on either side of the road?
Captain: The field on the right (south) is meadow land; that on the left, as far as the railroad, is cut hay; beyond the railroad there is more meadow land.
Sergeant Adams: I would have told Corporal Baker to wait at the cross roads by the Baker house for orders and—
Captain: If you were actually on the ground you probably could not see the cross roads from Oxford. In solving map problems like these do not take advantage of seeing on the map all the country that you are supposed to go over, and then give orders about doing things at places concerning which you would not probably have any knowledge if actually on the ground without the map.
Besides, in this particular case, it was a mistake to have your point wait at the cross roads. If there was any danger of their taking the wrong road it would be a different matter, but here your mission requires you to push ahead. ([Par. 1029].) The major is trying to get south of the trestle towards Salem before the cavalry can arrive and destroy it.