The English of military communications

by William Addleman Ganoe

In the following problems read over the matter several times. Put it in orderly arrangement in your mind before you speak. Then utter it in the most brief and unmistakable form.

Cautions.—(1) Only oral solutions will prove valuable in working these problems. The student should make only such notes as will enable him to carry the problem in his mind. Proper notes would include the organizations, their present situations, etc.—things which an actual commander would know as a matter of course.

(2) Once begun on the order, the student should pay no heed to a false start, but should continue to the end. It is better to remake the entire order, than to patch the faults. He should not permit himself to change a previous statement, begin a new sentence in the midst of an unfinished one, or hesitate unreasonably. He must take care not only to express the matter in proper form, but also to enunciate so distinctly that any one within hearing may understand him.

Intentional rhetorical errors will be found in the problems which follow. Watch for them.

PROBLEMS IN THE VERBAL FIELD ORDER

1.—You are Colonel Foote, halted with your regiment in Goldenville. You have previously sent out Lieutenant Lasker toward Gettysburg for information. He has just sent you a message. You have made up your mind from the facts in his message that you will march south at once and that you will march in the direction of Gettysburg. You desire the first battalion and the Machine Gun Company to be the Advance Guard for your regiment. The remainder of the regiment will follow the first battalion in order as follows: second battalion, third battalion, band, and ambulances. The field trains are not to move out but are to stay behind until they get orders from you. They are to remain at Texas. The message from Lieutenant Lasker stated that about a regiment of the enemy was throwing up intrenchments north of Penn College. The message also stated that about half of the regiment of the enemy consisted of recruits. You want the main body of your regiment to follow the tail of the Advance Guard so that there will be a distance of a half mile between the tail of the Advance Guard and the head of the main body. You want to notify your troops where the Regimental Headquarters will march so that the troops will know where to send messages. You decide to have the Headquarters march between the Advance Guard and the main body. The Advance Guard is to march at once and it is to proceed south by way of the Hamilton Farm and the Boyd School House. You assemble your majors, their staffs and your staff, and you issue verbally the decision which you have just made. You issue it in the shape of a verbal order.

2.—You are Major Black in command of the Advance Guard mentioned in the preceding problem. It is now your mission, of course, to form the advance guard and to tell your captains that you are going to do so, and that you are going to be reinforced by the machine gun company. You ought also to tell them just where your regiment is going to march. You want Companies C and D and the machine gun company to march in the order mentioned, and they are to follow Company B as soon as that company has got its distance. Company C will be the company which is to regulate the pace. Company A is to go out and act as a left flank guard. It is to move by way of the eastern branch of the Carlisle Road while it is on this duty. You ought also to let your captains know all the information about the enemy which has been given to you by your colonel. You want Company B to be the advance party; you want it to go ahead of the remainder of the battalion so that there will be four hundred yards distance between it and the main body. You want to attach Lieutenant Kay, the Battalion Adjutant, and his orderly, to Company B. You want to direct the march of the advance party so that it will know where it is to go. You decide that it shall go by the railroad to the Carlisle Road, and then by the Stock Farm, and on down to the Boyd School House. You are going to be right behind the advance on the march. You want the combat wagons to move out right away, and you want them to go by the cross-roads which is one-quarter of a mile west of Goldenville, and then south on the Carlisle Road, and finally, to join the tail of Company D where the railroad crosses the road.

3.—You are the Company Commander of Company A of the preceding problem. You call your officers and non-commissioned officers together and you give them a verbal order. You tell them that your company is to march as the flank guard of the battalion to which you belong, and you tell them that the enemy possibly has about a regiment in Gettysburg; at least, that is the belief of the Regimental Commander. Your regiment is on its way to Gettysburg. The First Battalion and the machine gun company is going as the advance guard. You want to let your command know that all of the battalion, except yourselves is leaving on the road to the west. You want Lieutenant Johnson, the Second Lieutenant of your company, and the Fourth Platoon, to act as the advance guard to the flank guard, which is the duty on which the company is acting. You want this platoon to march by the country road east of the knoll marked 651, and then you want it to march along the east branch of the Carlisle Road. The distance you decide upon for the advance guard to be in front of the main body is 500 yards.

4.—You are Major Simpson, and you are halted with your battalion at the cross-roads 621, near Goldenville. Your mission is, with your battalion, to act as outpost during the coming night for your regiment; you have the machine gun company attached to you. You are operating toward the south. You want company C and one of the platoons of the machine gun company to take station on the ridge north of the point where you are. This ridge has the figure 707 on it. It shall be the duty of this detachment to secure that sector between Goldenville and Five Forks, just a little off the map, about 1,500 yards west of the Carlisle Road. You want Company C to establish communication with Texas by signals on this hill, where they are to be located. If you are going to be attacked on that hill, instead of falling back, you want them to hold the ridge. You want a platoon of Company C to be sent over to Hamilton Farm to act as a picket there. You have received reports from Lieutenant Finley of your command that there are no detachments of the enemy or patrols which have come north of the Stock Farm at any time. You want to tell your captains that the remainder of the outpost is going into camp at Texas, and that the regiment itself is moving into camp just north of the Conewago. You want the rations and baggage of Company C to be sent up to the company, but you want the wagons to be returned immediately after they have been there, to Texas for the night.

5.—You are in command of Company C which was to go to Hill 707 in the preceding problem. You want to notify your company what you are going to do; in other words, you want to deliver to them verbally your field order. For this purpose you assemble your officers and non-commissioned officers and the lieutenant who is in charge of the machine gun. You state that the outguards will be posted as follows: Corporal Browning, with his squad as No. 1, is to be posted at the Five Forks 679, three-quarters of a mile west of where you are; Corporal Martin, with his squad as No. 3, is to be posted at the road-fork numbered 621, which is on the Carlisle Road; Corporal Denton, with Privates Noonan, Ogden, and Prince will go as No. 4. His post will be posted at the railroad crossing in Goldenville. You, as Company Commander, deliver the information about the enemy which has been received through your major. Corporal Calhoun, with Johnson, Kelly, and Latham are to go as No. 2, and they are to be posted at the cross-roads 648, which is 500 yards west of the point where you are located—Goldenville. You state that this company and that a platoon of machine guns is to take station on the ridge to the north of the road on which you are located, and is to go as support to the outpost. Lieutenant Haskins will take the 4th platoon and will proceed as a picket down to the Hamilton Farm. This farm is a mile and a quarter south of here on the Carlisle Road. Lieutenant Haskins is to get some sort of flag communication with Hill 707. He is also to send small patrols down as far south as Boyd’s School House. Corporal Roberts will go to the top of Hill 707; he will take four signalers with him. He will get in communication with Texas and keep in communication. He will do the same for each one of the outguards and he will also do the same for Lieutenant Haskins’ picket.