Marching

[18thmississippi]

In every event that you go to you always see battalions or companies always have to dress there lines. After reading hardees probably 100 times and reading other books from officers during the war it seems that the problems is that your timing and foot stride is the cause of the problem. As any co or nco should know is first you step off with the left foot second the stride of the step is only 28 inches. The timing of the step is one.......one .........one.two.one. In one minute you should have completed 110 steps. During the war a soldier could march at that rate 1 mile in 20 minutes (549 steps). A lot of the times some of your officers have long legs making them stride out further than 28inches. this throws off your timing, because while your co is walking his common time your other men with shorter legs are having to take more steps to keep up with him( bring your knee up and shortening your stride will fix that problem). that brings us to the dress problem if your pvts are taking 3 steps to the cos one step then when he gives the command to either file right or files left the men have to bring either there right over there left or vise versa, that throws off there placement in line. keeping time and giving the command on the right foot will keep the men in there place. when a officer gives left or right file where the lines turn there should be a perfect circle where each man on the outside step and turn on one foot, its been done ive seen it. every man will be in his correct placement when you come to a halt in you battle line . spending more time practicing this rather than ridiculous movements that you may do once a year to brown noes your colonel will make you stand out amongst the other companies. One thing id like to add is that i get tired of every time you see a co give the command to charge bayonets you see everyman take off running, that's not correct you stay at your common step of 28 until he gives the command of at the double quick and even then it is not a run i hate seeing this it is only a 33 inch stride not faster not running just a longer stride. Because a force that charges into another battle line as one is more effective than one that has there right side hit first then there left and finally the middle you are stronger as one unit. changing these things will make it a more realistic feel than just going out and winging it

sincerely,
corp. 18thmississippi

 

[johan_steele]

Very few re-enactors are really that well drilled. The originals drilled for 5-8 hours a day for weeks on end. To the point where some units were so well drilled & accustomed to their officers commands they could follow commands w/out them even being voiced.

 

[18thmississippi]

Very few re-enactors are really that well drilled. The originals drilled for 5-8 hours a day for weeks on end. To the point where some units were so well drilled & accustomed to their officers commands they could follow commands w/out them even being voiced.

if the men could follow the drill without their officers giving the command than obviously there officers arnt doing agood job training. The officers were to change up the routine of the drill so men wouldnt inticapste orders, causing problems on the battle resulting in wasted lives. Just pickin on you i know what your talking about i wish i could drill my unit that ong we would be perfect i try to dril them on it as much as i can but we cant always have what we wish for

 

[johan_steele]

It meant they were so well drilled they didn't need their officers to give the commands... they knew what needed to be done.

 

[18thmississippi]

It meant they were so well drilled they didn't need their officers to give the commands... they knew what needed to be done.

Especially Jackson's boys good God

 

[CSA Expat]

i ca

In every event that you go to you always see battalions or companies always have to dress there lines. After reading hardees probably 100 times and reading other books from officers during the war it seems that the problems is that your timing and foot stride is the cause of the problem. As any co or nco should know is first you step off with the left foot second the stride of the step is only 28 inches. The timing of the step is one.......one .........one.two.one. In one minute you should have completed 110 steps. During the war a soldier could march at that rate 1 mile in 20 minutes (549 steps). A lot of the times some of your officers have long legs making them stride out further than 28inches. this throws off your timing, because while your co is walking his common time your other men with shorter legs are having to take more steps to keep up with him( bring your knee up and shortening your stride will fix that problem). that brings us to the dress problem if your pvts are taking 3 steps to the cos one step then when he gives the command to either file right or files left the men have to bring either there right over there left or vise versa, that throws off there placement in line. keeping time and giving the command on the right foot will keep the men in there place. when a officer gives left or right file where the lines turn there should be a perfect circle where each man on the outside step and turn on one foot, its been done ive seen it. every man will be in his correct placement when you come to a halt in you battle line . spending more time practicing this rather than ridiculous movements that you may do once a year to brown noes your colonel will make you stand out amongst the other companies. One thing id like to add is that i get tired of every time you see a co give the command to charge bayonets you see everyman take off running, that's not correct you stay at your common step of 28 until he gives the command of at the double quick and even then it is not a run i hate seeing this it is only a 33 inch stride not faster not running just a longer stride. Because a force that charges into another battle line as one is more effective than one that has there right side hit first then there left and finally the middle you are stronger as one unit. changing these things will make it a more realistic feel than just going out and winging it

sincerely,
corp. 18thmississippi[/quote
I can see why your "Pards"call you the Der Meister because of your grasp of company and battalion drill. Keep it up!!

 

[Poor Private]

As a 1st Sarg in our unit, I think there are more important orders, and maneuvers to be learned than how to march/walk. Such as weapon safety/how to fire correctly, the manual of arms, and in general how to change directions, even things as simple as the facings. Nothing looks wors in my opinion than saying left face and have 1/4 of the unit turn right.

 

[18thmississippi]

As a 1st Sarg in our unit, I think there are more important orders, and maneuvers to be learned than how to march/walk. Such as weapon safety/how to fire correctly, the manual of arms, and in general how to change directions, even things as simple as the facings. Nothing looks wors in my opinion than saying left face and have 1/4 of the unit turn right.

Well my unit and our sister company drill this way and so far have had a positive out come. And yes safety should always come first no matter what. But I feel if you train them to move as one single unit as to move on the right foot march the correct way they naturally become one moving body and move the same way on instinct. But I fear we don't have the time or commitment to get to that stage.