southwindows
Cadet
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2018
My great-uncle wrote a poem, based on a conversation he heard between his father and some other veterans of the 77th NY Infantry, about the battle of Spotsylvania. It describes how the regiment was sent to capture some Confederate earthworks and contains these lines:
Debouched from the wood and deployed in the field
And obliqued to square with the rifle pit
Dictionaries say that ‘obliqued’ as a military term means moving on a diagonal. So I think ‘obliqued to square’ means that they were not attacking the trenches head-on but instead moving forward at an angle to the trenches. Is that right? I had not heard this phrase before and want to make sure I understand correctly.
Debouched from the wood and deployed in the field
And obliqued to square with the rifle pit
Dictionaries say that ‘obliqued’ as a military term means moving on a diagonal. So I think ‘obliqued to square’ means that they were not attacking the trenches head-on but instead moving forward at an angle to the trenches. Is that right? I had not heard this phrase before and want to make sure I understand correctly.