A military dictionary

by William Duane

Lines of march, are bodies of armed men marching on given points to arrive at any straight alignement on which they are to form. The general direction of such alignement is always determined before the troops enter it, and the point in that line at which their head is to arrive, must next be ascertained. See Am. Mil. Lib.

The line is said to be well dressed, when no part is out of the straight alignement. That this may be effected, at the word dress, which is given by the commander, it is immediately to commence from the centre of each battalion, the men looking to their own colors, and the correcting officers lining them upon the colors of their next adjoining battalion.

Line-firings, are executed separately and independently by each battalion.

Inversion of the line, in formation. This is a manœuvre which ought only to be resorted to on the most urgent occasions, as it is prudent to avoid the inversion of all bodies in line. The inversion is effected by facing a battalion or line to the right about, instead of changing its position by a counter march; sometimes, indeed, it may be necessary to form to a flank with its rear in front. The column with its line in front may arrive on the left of its ground, and be obliged immediately to form up and support that point, so that the right of the line will become the left. Part of a second line may double round on the extremity of a first line, thereby to outflank an enemy. These, and various other movements, may be found necessary, and they can only be practised with safety and expedition by the inversion of the line.

Lines advancing to engage an enemy. Lignes marchant à l’ennemi, Fr. According to Marshal Puységur, all lines should take the centre for the regulating point of movement, and not the right, as others have maintained. He grounds his opinion upon a known fact, that the more extended a line is, the more difficult it must prove to march by the right. By making the centre the directing portion of the line, more than half the difficulty is removed. To which it may be added, that the centre is more easily discernible from the right and left, than the right is within the just observation of the left, or the left within that of the right.

When the line advances it must uniformly preserve a convexity from the centre, so that when it halts, the right and left may have to dress up; but this convexity must be scarcely perceptible. Were the line to be concave on approaching the enemy, a necessity would occur of throwing the wings back, perhaps even of putting several corps to the right about, during which operation the whole army might be endangered.

When lines are marching forward they must be occasionally halted: in which cases the centre halts first, and when the line is ordered to advance again, the centre steps off though in an almost imperceptible manner, before the right and left.

Each commanding officer must place himself in the centre of that proportion of the line which he has under his immediate orders, unless he should be otherwise directed. The centre is always the most convenient point, from whence every thing that passes on the right and left may be observed. When the line advances in charging order, he must march at the head of his battalion or squadron, taking care, that he is followed by his troops with an equal cadenced step, and regulating his own movement by that of the divisions which are formed on his right and left. The greater the extent of line proves, which is composed of several battalions and squadrons that advance forward with the same front, the more difficult will be the movement of the several bodies; but as we have already observed, a great part of this difficulty is overcome when the centre is made the directing body. The right and left must be invariably governed by it.

Retiring Line, are bodies of armed men that have advanced against an opposing enemy in order of battle, withdrawing themselves with regularity from the immediate scene of action. On this occasion it is of the greatest importance, that the line should be correctly dressed before it faces to the right about; and the battalions will prepare for the retreat in the manner prescribed for the single one by receiving the caution, that the line will retire.

To form the Line, in land tactics, is to arrange the troops in order of battle, or battle array.