80 MILITARY SCIENCES. 



purpose each company has an especial non-commissioned officer (marker), 

 who carries a small flag (guidon, marker's staff). If the whole battalion is 

 to take a new direction, the adjutant first establishes the markers at com- 

 pany distance from each other on the new line ; then, at the command 

 " Guides on the line !" the proper non-commissioned officers step forward 

 for each platoon and establish themselves on the line ; if then the new line 

 is not more than four paces distant from the old, the men form themselves 

 upon it by the command " Right" or " Left Dress !" but if the distance is 

 more than that, then at the command " Dress !" the chief of each company 

 gives the command " March !" and leads his company by the shortest line 

 upon the new alignment. 



Changes of front are effected either by the various facings of individual 

 files or by evolutions of the whole together. When the line is faced 

 about, the front rank, of course, becomes the rear and the right flank the 

 left ; in order, therefore, to maintain the proper position of the flanks and 

 files, the countermarch must be performed {pi. 29, fig. I). When the 

 companies have made the about face, the sections will be in the order 

 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and the first rank will be the last ; then the command 

 " Left face" is given, and at the word " March !" the leading file of the 

 second rank turns on his own ground to the right, while his rear-rank man, 

 who is the leading file of the first rank, turns on him as a pivot until he 

 fronts towards the new flank, maintaining the proper touch of elbow ; then 

 this file marches along the front, followed by all the other files in succession, 

 each turning in the same manner on the same ground, until they arrive at 

 8, when the command " Halt, front !" is given, and the company has the 

 position 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, the first rank being in front and the flanks in 

 their proper place. As this manoeuvre would take too much time with 

 a long line, it is made by sections or by platoons {fig. 2). 



Another method of changing front in line is by wheels to the right or 

 left. On the command " Left wheel !" the left file of the company faces to 

 the left {fig. 3) and the rest of the line step out, so that each man on the 

 march describes a circle, of which the left file is the centre. As soon as the 

 company has arrived upon the new line of direction the command " Forward 

 march !" is given, on which each man marches again direct to the front. By 

 this method of course, the company, when the wheel is ended, has gained its 

 whole breadth to the left ; but if the wheel must be on the same ground, 

 then it must be made on a centre pivot {pi. 29, fig. 4) ; in this case one 

 half the company, here the sections 5, 6, 7, and 8, faces about, and at 

 the word of command each wheels independently ; when the new line is 

 attained the command " Halt !" is given, the sections 5, 6, 7, and 8 face to 

 the front, and the new alignment is established. Another species of wheel 

 is " Shoulders forward !" which differs from the first in this, that the pivot 

 man does not remain standing, but describes, taking very short steps, a 

 small circle about the wheeling point {fig. 34 at ^). In all the above 

 described manoeuvres, the men must take longer steps the further distant 

 they are from the wheeling point, so that the line shall remain always 

 straight. To the changes of front belong also the formations by file, 

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