82 MILITARY SCIENCES. 



company moves direct to the front until it has gained company's distance, 

 when it halts. Meanwhile each of the other companies has made the J 

 wheel to the right and halted. At the command, " March !" the first com- 

 pany moves forward, the second commences the wheel to the left, and as 

 soon as it is completed moves forward, as shown at ' "^ ; meanwhile the 

 third company has reached the wheeling-point, and wheels at the instant 

 the second marches to the first, and so on in succession to the eighth. The 

 movement is made from the left flank by the same means in reversed order 

 and command. If after a march by companies the full front is to be 

 formed again, the first company, if the march has been right in front, 

 halts on reaching the designated alignment, the second company wheels at 

 the same time to the left, and as soon as the wheel is completed comes 

 right into line ; with the commencement of this movement the third 

 company has arrived at the wheeling-point, when it wheels to the left and 

 then marches forward until it arrives opposite the left flank of the second 

 company, which by this time is established on the line, when it comes right 

 into line, as before, and so for each company in succession. If the march was 

 left in front {pi. 29, fig. 24) the eighth company halts, and the movements 

 already described are made by the others in reversed order and direction. If 

 the march has been by platoons and it is desired to form companies {fig. 15), 

 the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth platoons move in quick time left oblique 

 to the side of their corresponding covering platoon, and if then the front is 

 to be re-established the first company halts on the designated line, and the 

 other companies do the same as soon as they have covered those in front 

 of them ; the first, second, and third companies then face to the right and 

 march by that flank, until they are opposite their proper place in line, 

 when they face to the left and come up on to it, the fourth company 

 moving, as soon as uncovered, directly forward to its place. If the line is 

 to be formed to the left of the point at which the column has struck it, the 

 first company stands fast ; the second, third, and fourth, as soon as they 

 have covered, face to the left, march to that flank in the same manner as 

 before, and come by the right face into line. If a bridge is to be crossed 

 which is too narrow for the front of a company or platoon {fig. 16), the ' 

 first section passes by the front, the second files round by the flank, per- 

 pendicularly to the line of the first, as at ^ and in this position crosses the 

 bridge, as at * ; when the other side is reached it comes again into Hne with 

 the first section by a file formation. 



To the march with changed front belongs the march to the rear, the 

 simplest form of which, by the about-face in line of battle, has been 

 already described. Fig. 13 shows a march to the rear in broken front and 

 from the left flank. The eighth company makes a half-circle wheel to the 

 left and thus moves direct to the front ; all the other companies make at 

 first only the quarter wheel, and the second wheel only on reaching the 

 ground where the eighth has wheeled. The same movement may be made 

 to the right. If the march was made by the about-face by companies 

 from the left flank, so that the eighth company is leading and the rear-rank 

 in front, then the line is re-established by counter-marching the companies, 

 558 



