549 
, I, 
NOTE ON INFANTRY TACTICS. 
BY 
LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR W. J. WILLIAMS, K.C.B. 
Our Regulation formulates no system of attack; but gives principles 
and general rules. Until further orders shall be issued to the Army, 
a battalion, in drilling as against the enemy in battle, will be drilled 
as a battalion in First Line, according to the principles and general rules 
of Regulation, and perhaps in some degree according to the knowledge 
of battle of the commanding officer, such drill being subject to altera¬ 
tion by order at inspection, or on the battalion moving to another 
District, or on another General officer succeeding to the District com¬ 
mand. Commanding officers will not drill, or will seldom drill, as in 
Second Line. There is no mention in Regulation of brigade column 
of battalions, nor of forming Lines. We can form column of battal¬ 
ions without saying to each commanding officer “bring your battalion 
here, and deploy it,” and we can attack from brigade column of route 
without forming Lines to a halt; but it would be better to have the drill 
for battle formations. There is no drill for the conduct of Lines. A 
brigadier will say to the officer or officers commanding the First Line 
“ there is your objective; try to envelop the position of the enemy, but 
do not exceed your proper frontage; do not exceed your depth of 800 
yards; look out for flank attacks ; advance to within 500 yards of the 
enemy, and take up a defensive position; now, go.on;” and the officer 
or officers will extend something, and go on, each, if there shall be two, 
after the manner in which he shall have drilled his battalion. To the 
commanding officer of the Second Line the brigadier will say “let the 
First Line have half a mile distance; then follow in several lines ; keep 
as far away as you can as long as you can, but you must be near at any 
crisis; you are to assault the position of the enemy, but do not pass on 
to assault until I shall have let you know where I shall mean the main 
attack to be.” Or, if the officer commanding the attack should have 
made up his mind without feeling his way, he would point out the 
objective of the main attack, and the several lines would be placed 
opposite to the objective, before the advance of the Second Line. As 
the first two Lines together have more than a mile of depth, and as the 
Second Line advances in several lines, it is not clear what the half 
mile distance of the Third Line means; but the Third Line will be 
ordered to take up a defensive position. Such will be our orders for 
attack. In the Regulation and his orders, taken together, there ought 
to be enough to guide the conduct in the field of an officer of average 
ability. We can well imagine that an officer of average ability, who 
should have put his faith in Regulation, on receiving orders in battle 
11 . YOL. XX. 
