A military dictionary

by William Duane

When the commanding officer gives the caution, (the battalion will advance) the front directing serjeant moves out 6 accurate and exact paces in ordinary time, halts; the two other guides who were behind him, move up on each side of him, and an officer from the rear, replaces in the front rank, the leading serjeant. The centre serjeant, in moving out marches and halts on his own observed points, and the two other serjeants dress and square themselves exactly by him. If the commanding officer is satisfied, that the centre serjeant has moved out in the true direction, he will intimate as much; if he thinks he has swerved to right or left, he will direct him to incline to that side, the smallest degree possible, in order thereby to change his direction, and to take new points on the ground, towards the opposite hand.

The line of direction being thus ascertained, at the word march, the whole battalion instantly step off, and without turning the head, eyes are glanced towards the colors in the front rank; the replacing officer betwixt the colors, preserves, during the movement, his exact distance of 6 paces from the advanced serjeant, and is the guide of the battalion. The centre advanced serjeant is answerable for the direction, and the equal cadence and length of step; to these objects he alone attends, while the other two, scrupulously conforming to his position, maintain their parallelism to the front of the battalion, and thereby present an object, to which it ought to move square: they are not to suffer any other considerations to distract their attention. They must notice and conform to the direction of the commander only, and if any small alteration in their position be ordered, the alteration must be gradually and cooly made.

These are the essential points, which the guiding serjeants must be rendered perfect in, and to which every commanding officer will pay the most minute attention. With respect to the officers in the ranks, they can only be observant of their own personal exactness of march, and must consider themselves, as forming part with the aggregate of the men, subject to the same principles of movement, and in no shape or sense independent of them. They may attend to dress their companies by looking along the front, or by calling to the individuals who compose it. By so doing they must not destroy the exact parallelism of the rank they stand in, nor derange the march: the care of correcting any errors in the front line, belongs to the officers in the rear.

Well-trained soldiers, indeed, know the remedy that is required, and will gradually apply it.

The colors, as far as their natural weight and casualties of the weather will admit, must be carried uniformly and upright, thereby to facilitate the moving and dressing of the line. But it frequently happens in windy weather, and in movements over rough ground, that very little dependence can be placed on the officer who carries them, for a true direction, or an equal and cadence step. On these occasions, and indeed on all others, the men must on no account turn their heads to the colors. They must, on the contrary, keep their shoulders square to the front, and depend principally on the light touch of the elbow, together with an occasional glance of the eye, and the accuracy of step, for their dressing. On the light touch of the elbow, and a regular cadenced step, the chief dependence must be placed: for if the men be often permitted to glance at the centre, they will, by so doing, insensibly contract that habit, abandon the touch of the elbow, shorten or perhaps lose the cadence step, and in proportion, as the files which are removed from the centre, adopt that method, the line itself will gradually assume a concave form, by the flanks bending inwards.

When any waving, or fluctuation in the march, is produced by an inequality of step, the major and adjutant, who from their situation are particularly calculated to correct the irregularity, will immediately apprize the companies in fault, and cooly caution the others that are well in their true line, not to participate of the error.

When a company has lost the step, (a circumstance which frequently happens) the supernumerary officer of that company must watch a seasonable moment to suggest a change of step, in which operation, he will be assisted by the supernumerary serjeants. For it must be an invariable rule among officers in the ranks, never to deviate from their own perpendicular line of march, to correct the errors of their several companies. That business belongs entirely to the major and adjutant, who are occasionally assisted by the supernumeraries, in the manner just mentioned.

It very often happens, that a central division by bulging out, may make a flank of a battalion appear to have lost ground, when the fault in reality arises from that division, either stepping out too far, or from it being warped towards the colors, and thereby preventing the flank from being seen.

All changes and corrections that are judged necessary to be made, in any part of a battalion, during its march in line, must be effected gradually. Any abrupt alteration would unavoidably produce a waving, which must be felt in every part. The mounted officers only, with the imperceptible aid of the supernumeraries, can alone point out and correct such faults.

The flanks are not, on any account, to be kept back; much less are they to be advanced before the centre, since in either case, the distance of files must be lost, and the battalion will not be covering its true ground. The commanding officer of every battalion, will easily perceive this defect, by casting his eye along the line, which must soon acquire a concave or convex shape, unless the beginning of each inaccuracy be studiously attended to, by the necessary officers.—The two officers who are on the two flanks of the battalion, being unconfined by the rank, and not liable to be influenced by any floating that may arise, by preserving an accurate step, and having a general attention to the colors, and to the proper line which the battalion should be in, with respect to the advanced directors, will very much contribute towards preserving the flanks in their due position. When either of them observes that a line, drawn from himself, through the centre of the battalion, passes considerably before the other flank, he may conclude, that he is himself too much retired; when such line passes behind that flank, he may be certain that he is too much advanced; he will, therefore, regulate himself accordingly. When the battalion in march is convex, the wings must gain the straight line of the centre, by bringing up the outward shoulder; and it must be strongly impressed upon the soldier’s mind, that in all situations of movement, by advancing or keeping back the shoulder as ordered, the most defective dressing will be gradually and smoothly remedied; whereas sudden jerks and quick alterations break the line, and eventually produce disorder.