THE FORM OF THE FIELD ORDER
“To enable the will of the commander to be quickly understood, to secure prompt cooperation among his subordinates, and for ready reference, field orders are required to follow a general form. This form divides an order into sections or parts and assigns to each a particular class of information.
The parts of the field order are:
The Heading.
The Distribution of Troops (in certain orders).
The Body.
The Ending.”[9]
The only difference between the divisions of the field message and the field order, then, is that the latter contains in certain orders The Distribution of Troops.
The Heading.—The heading contains:
The Title or Name of Issuing Officer’s Command.
The Place.
The Date.
The Hour of Issue.
The Number of the Order.
The Reference to Map Used.
The Title or Name corresponds to the Name of Sending Detachment in the field message. But a title is the name applied to the temporary duty of a command, such as, “Advance Guard, Det. 21st Div.,” whereas the name itself might be “162d Inf., Det. 21st Div.” The Place does not need to be given so specifically as in the field message, because the command issuing a field order takes up much more space than a reconnaissance party. The Date and Hour of Issue are written as in the field message. Field Orders are numbered in sequence usually annually. The Reference to Map Used is placed immediately below the number. The Heading of a field order would appear thus:
Field Orders: Det. 21st Div., 12th Corps,
No. 22 Leavenworth, Kansas,
(Geological Survey Sheet)