Thank you, but that doesn't sound right. I heard the term in a feature film. Charlton Heston is a hard-bitten infantryman detailed to run a boys' military school. He seem them pass in review and mutters, they're still using [something] and [something] drill.
It's been referred to as Flexible and Forward, in the past due to the logic behind the technique. The nearer to the enemy, the more faulty the lines and the more ragged the first (line) until it crumbled and mixed with the skirmishers. Forward went this muddle leading the wavy rest. Finally the mass obtruded upon the point of attack. In a sustained, stubborn clash, even the third would join the melee. Meanwhile the usually weak reserve tried to be useful on the flanks, or stiffened places that faltered, or plugged holes. In sum it had been a division neatly drawn up. Now its units, anything but neat, vaguely coherent, resembled a swarm of skirmishers.
Good observation. I also thought Rows and Columns AKA, Rank and File, but believed it more often used to refer to the location of the officer relative to the horizontal (Ranks, rows.) and vertical (Files, columns). I leaned more toward the drills and battlefield techniques that used this specific Prussian formational discipline. These were used more often than not, closer to the beginning of the war. They eventually came to the realization that the loss of a ranking officer using these tactics was more likely and could cripple an entire advance. As the war went on we would see less and less use of these field formations, echelons for example, using Gaussian elimination, row reduction, or reduced row echelon form/row canonical form, or as I mentioned earlier, flexible and forward, in trade for more modern skirmish and defensive principled disciplines.
Well throughout the entire war men were drilled (usually) by Hardee's or Casey's manual. To maneuver as a unit at all (not just on the battlefield but anywhere) they had to know how to at least form the various formations. When a company formed into skirmish line they still went by how it was instructed in the manuals. Of course in combat the two rank line of battle often dissolved into a mixed line of men fighting from all sorts of positions, like a "heavy skirmish line". But nevertheless, both sides typically went by what was in the manuals, with some improvisations here and there.
Indeed, good points, sir. I didn't realize we were only speaking on the drill or discipline aspects of the manuals or formations.
If you reviewed the dialogue, that is it. I remembered it as something else. Did you have the movie and play it again? What a forum this is.
Yes, I found the movie and checked it. It was in the first 10 minutes. I found your question interesting but I couldn't think of anything else it could be that hadn't been listed. Close order drill involves columns and is geared mainly for drill, parade, ceremony, troop movement and positioning troops in combat. Open order was a lesser of two evils answer for crossing fields under heavy fire to minimize casualties. Plattsburgh as he was referring to it would have been pre WWII drill technique or protocol used at that military academy or for JROTC to the best of my knowledge. Thats the only thing I saw in the movie that seemed like it was on the topic of your question.
Bringing the