sorted to. Hence such warfare is far more sanguinary than that carried on with fire. arms; which rarely do much execution, unless when aided by artillery, and then only when at such distances as to be within reach of case-shot. It will no doubt surprise most of our readers, but is strictly true, that, taking the average quantity of musket ammunition expended, as a sum to be divided by the mumber of killed and wounded, not more than one shot in fifty will be found to take effect. Thus, after a battalion of 1000 men may have fired 20 rounds per man, making in all 20,000 discharges of musketry, they will have made terrible havoc, if 400 of the enemy be disabled. Hence we find, that the great features in decisive actions are few indeed; and they depend chiefly on tacties. Thus, where a large force is brought to bear upon any particular point, while the enemy is kept in ignorance as to the object in view; or where certain advantages of locality are gained, merely by dint of superior science in the art of conducting troops by the shortest means, and in the greatest order; or where, by certain evolutions, a small force is made to supply the purpose of a larger, or to resist, independently of entrenchments, &c. a more numerous body; all these evince the presence of the man of tactics, and qualify him for the designation of "an able General." We have also another branch, which is in a degree secondary, because it depends greatly on the success of the former; namely, the arrangement, or disposition, of a line, in such manner as may allow each description of force to act with ef fect: this can be done only when the nature of the service to be performed is suited to the nature of the troops by which it is to be attempted. In this we necessarily mean to restrict the operations of infantry to storming parties, cavalry to campaign operations, and artillery to situations where it can be duly protected, while rendering essential service. Hence the able tactician always arranges his force in such manner, as to allow each to perform its duty without interfering with the evolutions of any other class; and, in what is called manoeuvring his army, never fails to estimate the distances, and the time in which each may execute the assigned duty; so that the whole may coincide with one great intention, and insure success, by the accurate execution of its respective functions: were it to be otherwise, the whole must be subject to disorder; one failure often leading to the most serious consequence; the same as is caus- But, however skilful the commander, We shall endeavour to explain, in as brief terms as the subject may admit, the manner in which the British forces are now trained; commencing with the first stages of the recruit's tuition, and proceeding, in a regular course, through the operations of companies, battalions, and lines; whereby the chain of connection will be best preserved, and the whole be duly exhibited. The following preamble, taken from the "Rules and Regulations for Formation, Field Exercise, and Movements, of his Majesty's Forces," is so admirably suited to our purpose, that we present it to our readers as the best preparation we can afford : "The great object in view is, one general and just system of movement, which, directing the government of great as well as of small bodies of troops, is to be rigidly conformed to, and practised by every regiment in his Majesty's service. To attain this important purpose, it is necessary to reconcile celerity to order; to prevent hurry, which must always produce confusion, loss of time, unsteadiness, irresolution, inattention to command, &c.; and to insure precision and correctness, by which alone great bodies will be able to arrive at their object in good order, and in the shortest space of time; to inculcate, and to enforce, the necessity of military dependance, and of mutual support in action, which are the great ends of discipline; to simplify the exécution, and to abridge the variety of movements, as much as possible, by adopting such only as are necessary for combining exertions in corps, and that can be required or applied in service, regarding all matters of parade and show merely as secondary objects; to ascertain to all ranks the part each will have to act in every change of situation that can happen, so that explanation may not retard at the moment that execution should take place; to enable the commanding officer of any body of troops, whether great or small, to retain the whole relatively, as it were, in his hand and management, at every instant, so as to be capable of restraining the bad effects of such ideas of independent and individual exertion as are visionary and hurtful, and of directing them to their true and proper objects, those of order, of combined effort, and of regulated obedience, by the united force of all which a well disciplined army can only be defeated. The rules laid down will be found few, simple, and adapted to the understanding of every individual; but they will require perfect attention in all ranks, In the soldier, an equal and cadenced march, acquired and confirmed by habit, independently of music or sound: in the officer, precision and energy of command; the preservation of just distances; and the accurate leading of divisions on given points of march and formation. These circumstances, together with the united exertions of all, will soon attain that precision of movement, which is so essential, and without which valour alone will not avail." After this, the work in question proceeds to state: "The recruit must be carried on progressively; he should comprehend one thing before he proceeds to another, and he should not be uselessly fatigued; he is to be trained singly and in squad; nor is he to be allowed to join in battalion until he may be confirmed in every requisite; for one awkward man will frequently derange a whole line." The incipient parts of instruction, however simple they may appear, are by far the most difficult to inculcate; but they are of the most imperious consequence: when a good foundation is obtained, the work will proceed with rapidity and firmness, and the pupil will, from being sensible how much he has acquired at the onset, move and act, throughout the ulterior stages, with promptitude and confidence. Standing perfectly silent and motionless, fixing his eyes steadily either to the front, or to the right or left, as may be ordered; dressing up to the same line with others; carrying his body erect, the toes turned out, the limbs firm, but pliant, erect, raised, and his weight rather borne on the fore than on the hind parts of the feet, are all matters tending greatly to his perfection. He learns to face to the right and left, or about; to move forward in a perfectly straight line, without losing squareness to the front; to move obliquely to the right or left, under the same precaution; and to mark time, to step out, or to step short; to change feet when he does not move with the rest of the company; to close, (or take room,) to the right or left by the side step; to change from quick to ordinary time, or vice versa, with unerring readiness: to march in file; to wheel either forward or backward; and, in general, to acquire a habitude of acting in concert with his companions in arms, so as not only to avoid embarrasing them, but proving a firm support, and becoming a manageable tool in the hands of his officer. All these are indispensably necessary to be fully acquired; they must be so perfectly familiar, as to seem rather the effect of instinct than of education. Thus much being duly attained, the recruit is instructed in the use of arms, in which he cannot be too perfect: the great difficulty is, to impress him, in a sufficient manner, with the advantages of close motion, and of preserving the body from distortion, or change of position, so far as relates to uprightness, squareness to the front, and undeviating attention to dressing in line. For it is to be observed, that unless very great strictness be observed on the part of the drill serjeant, the whole course will be perverted by the handling of the musket. It would not suit our purpose, nor could it be equal to the views of our readers, were we to enter upon all the details regarding the motions of the firelock; or what is called the manual exercise in the present posture of political affairs, such would be perhaps unnecessary; it having, within these few years, become the duty of many, and the amusement of all, to acquire some knowledge of that branch of discipline: we shall therefore proceed to treat of the firings, which constitute a very principal part of the soldier's duty, and greatly interest both the officers commanding divisions, and those in charge of whole battalions. We must, at the same time, express our hope, that the frivolous practice of expending so many rounds of light cartridges will be in time much curtailed; in order to make way for a more extended practice with ball; the propriety of enforcing a correctness of aim must be self-evident; and is considerably enhanced by the little execution done by musketry, as has already been shown. Troops are drawn up in two or three ranks, according to the nature of the service on which they are to be employed, or the enemy to which they are to be opposed. To resist the charge of cavalry, it is found that three ranks are preferable; as is also the case where an enemy advances en masse, or bears down in column; in this arrangement, the front being diminished onethird, many objections may be urged under local circumstances, especially when acting behind entrenchments, when covered by morasses, or when the enemy cannot advance with rapidity in compact heavy bodies. The mode of drawing up in two ranks is peculiarly adapted to the foregoing, and on some occasions must be adopted, in spite of every adverse argument, for the purpose of extending a front; add to this, that both the round and the grape shots, from the enemy's artillery, do less execution among two, than when three ranks are opposed to them. When a battalion is drawn up in two ranks, they both fire standing; but when in three ranks, only the two rear ranks fire, whilst the front kneels, and presents a formidable impediment to the charge of an enemy, both by its reserved fire, and by its line of sloped bayonets. According to our improved system of discipline, one officer and one covering serjeant perform all the evolutionary duties of each company, when formed in line; the rest being disposed of in the rear, for the purposes of keeping the men to their duty, and of being in readiness to take command of those lesser portions into which the companies occasionally break. By this arrangement the utmost precision is secured; especially as select men are placed on the flanks of all the companies, also of their sub-divisions and sections, whose duty it is to regulate their wheelings, or changes of locality, by constantly preserving the distances and alignements of their respective portions. Perhaps among the greatest improvements of the day, we may count the modern method of marching by files; formerly this was effected in a kind of open order, the leaders gradually gaining distance, so as to give a greater space between the files, under the apprehension of treading on each other's heels: but it is now the practice to make every soldier retain the same distance on all occasions from his neighbours; by which means, the right leg of one crosses at the side of the left leg of the other, and vice versa. It is obvious, that while the leaders were allowed to gain ground, so as to open the distances between the several files, some time was required for the rear files to close up after the front has halted; and that, if the battalion were to be ordered to front while in the act of marching by files, under the old system, it would appear of double its due extent; for they would be so distant as to allow space for an additional file between every man in the ranks. Our readers cannot fail to perceive the high importance of keeping troops always to the same extent of front as when formed in line; for if allowed to vary, from any inattention to regularity, it would be utterly impossible for the commander to perform his evolutions upon a given scale; or for any dependance to be placed on the exertions of a line, (particularly in resisting a charge,) of which the solidity, that is, the compactness, could not be ascertained. The extreme difficulty which prevails in the ordinary course of actual service, in keeping the due distances between marching files, has in a great measure rendered that mode obsolete: besides, the facility with which troops move in small divisions, or even by whole companies, in column, &c. whereby intervals are left between them, tending greatly to the convenience and ease of the men, certainly gives the latter mode every claim to preference, except under particular local circumstances. But even in proceeding by files, it is best to march by fours, causing the files to be doubled previous to stepping off. By this means, the whole corps is broken into ranks of four men each, with one space interval between the several ranks. A battalion, thus arranged, is formed in an instant, by the files resuming their places. Yet it cannot be said that this method is so eligible as that of marching by divisions, especially when consisting of only two ranks: in such case on with perfect the front rank moves freedom, each man seeing the obstacles he is to surmount many paces before he arrives at them; and the rear rank, keeping a well opened distance, is considerably liberated, in consequence of the great interval behind it. Add to this, the promptness with which the line can be formed, either to the right or left, by the several divisions wheeling up accordingly. We shall now proceed to show the which will be found in Plate XV. Miscel- large scale, as well as of small parties, The first matter requiring consideration is the act of wheeling, which may be performed either to a given point, say to the right; or on a given point, say on the left; in either case, the front will be to the right. But when a body of men has wheeled to the right, as A, in fig. 11, changing place to B, and that it be required to wheel up into line, i. e. to the left, such body will have gained both to the right and to the front equally; the But troops do not always make a full wheel, i. e. of 90°; in many instances, as in fig. 12, where an oblique position, D, is to be taken, the whole line, F, wheels the eighth of the circle, corresponding by small divisions, only an octavo, i. e. with 45°, and thus show a succession of fronts, like the teeth of a saw, all parallel It is to be remarked, that eghellon movements may be made in any direction, whether to front or rear; the divisions wheeling to front or rear accordingly; thus, in fig. 13. which represents a change from G to H, as the new direction runs through the old one, those divisions which are to be in front wheel forward, while those which are to be in the rear of the first position, G, face about, and wheel towards the rear; observing that the whole wheel the same way, i. e. to the right. The two companies nearest the line, H, may be previously posted thereon to advantage, so as to be settled by the time the word is given for the others to march. When those of the rear have come to their places, they face about to the front, and dress. And here it is necessary to remark, that the exterior flank of every company, after being settled in its post, becomes the point d'appui for the next which is to arrive, and to place itself on that flank; but that the officer always looks from the point d'appui towards some object, such as a banneret, or a staff officer, &c. fixed as a guide for the alignement at that point, which is to be on the flank, as at S S in this example. The column, which is one of the most frequent and important figures of the tactic system, may be formed in a variety of modes: the most ordinary is by wheeling, either wholly, or in eghellon, but it is of ten useful to form it by the march of divisions in files towards their posts, as shown in fig. 14. When this is done, three files (the leading ones) of each division turn towards their new stations, at which their several pivot-men are ready placed; the whole, when ordered, march towards those men, and when the division, on which the column forms, is duly covered, each company, in succession, fronts in conformity with that division. This figure shows a battalion, &c. forming upon its sixth company, the left in front; to effect this, the five divisions, on the right, file from their left flanks, and proceed to place themselves behind the sixth company; while the two companies of the left file form their right flanks, towards the front, and cover. Our readers will perceive, that this is on the same principle as the change of front already described; in fact, the formation of a coJumn is tantamount thereto; it being obvious, that the one unavoidably prepares for the other. In this we suppose the operation to be done in a proper manner; for a column may be easily formed, hav. ing its flanks reversed, so that, when ordered to wheel up into line, the flanks of companies will all be misplaced; this is called, "clubbing a battalion," meaning that it is thrown into a state of confusion. The column may, with great advantage, be formed from the centre of a battalion, the colours moving forward, supported by the two adjunct companies, the residue of each wing facing inwards, and follow. ing its respective leading company. Thus the whole will exhibit a column of grand divisions, each of which is formed of a company from either wing. When the column is to be of only one company in width, the reserve leads off with the colours, and the companies of either wing follow alternately; in this manner the ten companies will all be separated. To form the line from such a column, it is usual either to face the whole outward, excepting the leading division, and causing each to move out direct to the direct parallel of its place in line, order them respectively to front, and move up in succession: or upon the whole facing outward, they may be led by files to their several sta. tions. When the column is in narrow bounds, from which it cannot deploy (or unfold) in either of the above modes, the centre must halt, or step short, while the several divisions close up thereto, and then wheel, or face, to the right and left, according to the wings they may belong to, and countermarch along the rear until they arrive opposite to their respective stations in line. Fig. 15. shows the deploy from a column of grand divisions: the companies of the right wing proceeding straight forward to their parallels; the companies of the left wing leading by files into line. Fig. 16. shows a column of companies alternately from the right and left wings; the right wing making a half wheel into eghellon of whole companies, which as they arrive at the point d'appui dress up into line: the companies of the left wing, not having space for deploying, move up nearly to the rear of the centre, wheel to the left, countermarch along the rear of those divisions which precede them respectively, and arriving at the point d'appui, wheel to the right into line. The column of grand divisions cannot always proceed; otherwise it would be by far the most eligible for the march of single battalions, in situations where the enemy's cavalry might make an attack; the grand divisions should all close up to half distance, so that, when ordered to wheel up and form the square, they might leave no gap in either of the flank faces; the two rear companies moving up to the spot on which the grand division immediately preceding them wheeled off, right and left; the front companies halt |