Casey's Infantry Tactics - School of the Battalion

ARTICLE SECOND.

Oblique march in line of battle.

623. The battalion marching in line of battle, when the colonel shall wish to cause it to oblique, he will command:

1. Right (or left) oblique. 2. MARCH (or double quick-MARCH).

624. At the first command, the major will place himself in front of, and faced to, the color-bearer.

625. At the command march, the whole battalion will take the oblique step. The companies and captains will strictly observe the principles established in the school of the company.

626. The major in front of the color-bearer ought to maintain the latter in a line with the centre corporal, so that the color-bearer may oblique neither more nor less than that corporal. He will carefully observe also that they follow parallel directions and preserve the same length of step.

627. The lieutenant colonel will take care that the captains and the three corporals in the centre keep exactly on a line and follow parallel directions.

628. The colonel will see that the battalion preserves its parallelism; he will exert himself to prevent the files from opening or crowding. It he perceive the latter fault, he will cause the files on the flank, to which the battalion obliques, to open out.

629. The colonel, wishing the direct march to be resumed, will command:

1. Forward. 2. MARCH.

630. At the command march, the battalion will resume the direct march. The major will place himself thirty paces in front of the color-bearer, and face to the colonel, who will establish him, by a signal of the sword, on the direction which the color-bearer ought to pursue. The latter will immediately take two points on the ground between himself and the major.

631. In resuming the direct march, care will be taken that the men do not close the intervals which may exist between the files at once; it should be done almost insensibly. Remarks on the oblique march.

632. The object of the oblique step is to gain ground to the right or left, preserving all the while the primitive direction of the line of battle; as thus, for example: the battalion, departing from the line (sz), arrives on the line (xx) parallel to (sz).

633. It is then essential that the corporals in the centre of the battalion, and the captains of companies, should follow parallel directions, and maintain themselves at the same height; without which they will give a false direction to the battalion.

634. The colonel and lieutenant colonel will exert themselves to prevent the files from crowding;} for, without such precaution, the oblique march cannot be executed with facility.

ARTICLE THIRD.

To halt the battalion, marching in line of battle, and to align it.

635. The battalion marching in the line of battle, when the colonel shall wish to halt it, he will command: 1. Battalion. 2. HALT.

636. At the second command, the battalion will halt; the color-rank and the general guides will remain in front; but if the colonel should not wish immediately to resume the advance in line, nor to give a general alignment, he will command: Color and general guides-POSTS.

637. At this command, the color-rank and general guides will retake their places in line of battle, the captains in the left wing will shift to the right of their companies.

638. If the colonel should then judge it necessary to rectify the alignment, he will command: Captains, rectify the alignment.

639. The captains will immediately cast an eye towards the centre, align themselves accurately, on the basis of the alignment, which the lieutenant colonel will see well directed, and then promptly dress their respective companies. The lieutenant colonel will admonish such captains as may not be accurately on the alignment by the command: 

Captain of (such) company, or captains of (such) companies, move up or fall back.

640. But when the colonel shall wish to give the battalion a general alignment, either parallel or oblique, instead of rectifying it as above, he will move some paces outside of one of the general guides (the right will here be supposed), and caution the right general guide and the color-bearer to face him, and then establish them, by signal of the sword, on the direction which he may wish to give to the battalion. As soon as they shall be correctly established, the left general guide will place himself on their direction, and be assured in his position by the major. The color-bearer will carry the color-lance perpendicularly between his eyes, and the two corporals of his rank will return to their places in the front rank the moment he shall face to the colonel.

641. This disposition being made, the colonel will command: 

1. Guides-ON THE LINE.

642. At this command, the right guide of each company in the right wing, and the left guide of each company in the left, will each place himself on the direction of the color-bearer and the two general guides, face to the color-bearer, place himself in ear of the guide who is next before him at a distance equal to the front of his company, and align Himself upon the color-bearer and the general guide beyond.

643. The captains in the right wing will shift to the left of their companies, except the captain of the color-company, who will remain on its right, but step into .he rear rank; the captains in the left wing will shift to the right of their companies.

644. The lieutenant colonel will promptly rectify, if necessary, the positions of the guides of the right sing, and the major those of the other; which being executed, the colonel will command:

2. On the centre —DRESS.

645. At the command, the companies will move up in quick time against the guides, where, having arrived, each captain will align his company according to prescribed principles, the lieutenant colonel aligning the color-company.

646. If the alignment be oblique, the captains will take care to conform their companies to it in conducting them towards the line.

647. The battalion being aligned, the colonel will command:

3. Color and guides-POSTS.

648. At this command, the color-bearer, the general and company guides, and the captains in the right wing, will take their places in the line of battle, and the color-bearer will replace the heel of the color-lance against the right hip.

649. If the new direction of the line of battle be such that one or more companies find themselves in advance of that line, the colonel, before establishing the general guides on the line, will cause such companies to be moved to the rear, either by the back step, or by first facing about, according as there may be less or more ground to be repassed to bring the companies in rear of the new direction.

650. When the colonel shall wish to give a general alignment, and the color and general guides are not on the line, he will cause them to move out by the command:

1. Color and general guides-ON THE LINE.

651. At this command, the color-bearer and the general guides will place themselves on the line, conforming to what is prescribed No. 640.

ARTICLE FOURTH.

Change of direction in marching in line of battle.

652. The battalion marching in line of battle, when the colonel shall wish it to change direction to the right, he will command: 1. Change direction to the right.

2. MARCH (or double quick-MARCH).

653. At the command march, the movement will commence; the color-rank will shorten the. step to fourteen or seventeen inches, and direct itself circularly to the right, taking care to advance the left shoulder, but only insensibly; the major will place himself before the color-bearer, facing him, and so direct his march that he may describe an arc of a circle neither too large nor too small; he will also see that the color-bearer takes steps of fourteen or seventeen inches, according to the gait.

654. The right general guide will wheel on the right captain of the battalion as his pivot; the left general guide will circularly march in the step of twenty-eight inches or thirty-three inches, according to the gait, and will align himself upon the color-bearer and the right general guide.

655. The corporal placed in the centre of the battalion, will take steps of fourteen or seventeen inches, and will wheel to the right by advancing insensibly the left shoulder; the battalion will conform itself to the movement of the centre; to this end, the captain of the color-company, and the captain of the next to the left, will attentively regulate their march, as well as the direction of their shoulders, on the three centre corporals. All the other captains will regulate the direction of their shoulders and the length of their step on this basis.

656. The men will redouble their attention in order not to pass the line of captains.

657. In the left wing, the pace will be lengthened in proportion as the file is distant from the centre; the captain of the eighth company who closes the left flank of the battalion will take steps of twenty-eight or thirty-three inches, according to the gait.

658. In the right wing the pace will be shortened in proportion as the file is distant from the centre; the captain who closes the right flank will only slowly turn in his person, observing to yield ground a little if pushed.

659. The colonel will take great care to prevent the centre of the battalion from describing an arc of a circle either too great or too small, in order that the wings may conform themselves to its movement. Ie will see also that the captains keep their companies constantly aligned upon the centre, so that there may be no opening and no crowding of files. He will endeavor to prevent faults, and, should they occur, correct them without noise.

660. The lieutenant colonel, placed before the battalion, will give his attention to the same objects.

661. When the colonel shall wish the direct march to be resume the will command:

1. Forward. 2. MARCH.

662 At the command march, the color-rank, the general guides, and the battalion will resume the direct march; the major will immediately place himself thirty or forty paces in front, face to the colonel, placed in rear of the centre, who will establish him by signal of the sword on the perpendicular direction which the corporal in the centre of the battalion ought to pursue; the major will immediately cause the colorbearer, if necessary, to incline to the right or left, so as to be exactly opposite to his file; the color-bearer will then take two points on the ground between himself and the major.

663. The lieutenant colonel will endeavor to give to the color-company and the next on the left a direction perpendicular to that pursued by the centre corporal; and all the other companies, without precipitancy, will conform themselves to that basis.