Under the immense increase which is now taking place in the length of range and accuracy in effect of small arms, there must, of necessity, come an increase of the importance of skill in skirmishing. The reconnoissances of mounted staff officers, the patrolling, skirmishing, and menacing of charges by small bodies of cavalry, and even the action of artillery on that very large proportion of the surface of the earth in which vision is limited to at most one thousand yards, will be greatly control

Some high continental military authorities have of late years proclaimed that British soldiers are incapable, or next to incapable, of acting as light infantry. Than this announcement there never was a clearer illustration of the golden maxim, “Assertions are not proofs.” If our censors had taken the trouble to search for evidence, southern and western Europe would have told them, that in these portions of the civilized world there have not been known, in the middle and modern ages, light troops

The life and especial mark of the good skirmisher is Active Intelligence . In the ranks, the closer men attain to a state of unreflecting mechanism, with nothing of mind but attention, the nearer they are to true soldier-like perfection. Not a thought should arise, an eye-ball turn, or a finger tremble, but in obedience, and that obedience should be accurate and instantaneous as the word. Not so the skirmisher; within certain limits he is his own general, and must think for himself. From the mom

The soldier at close order always has, or should have, a large mark for his fire. Nothing can be more unsteady or unsoldierlike than for a closed body to pour a volley upon mere skirmishers: from troops concentrated, no object but an opposing mass or line within 200 yards should provoke a single shot. [4] The skirmisher has not this advantage, his mark is generally small and often indistinct; besides which, the temptation to careless aim is much greater to him, who fires away sixty or one hundre

Daring courage, as an acknowledged essential to the thorough soldier of every class, it would scarcely have been necessary to have noticed in the present enumeration, did not an opinion appear to obtain, much on the continent and with some in Great Britain, that light troops are required to exercise it in a less desperate degree than men at close order. Foreigners, when extended, often spend systematically much time in long shots and shy fighting, and give way, as a matter of course, before troo

Conduct which in some cases, under fire, is disgraceful, in others is meritorious. The man in the ranks who shrinks away from a shell or cannon ball, or who goes out of his commanded course to cover himself from musquetry, has little claim to the name of a brave soldier; while he who in a trench or battery does not bow low at the cry “shot,” or fall prostrate before a blazing shell, or who in a skirmish neglects to make the best of every foot of cover , has no right, to the title of a wise one.

One man at 200 yards [10] is a very small mark. Two abreast together, a tolerably good one; three abreast together should almost always be hit, and four never be missed. Our opponents, therefore, in skirmishing, cannot serve us better than by grouping together; and that which we would wish them to do, we ourselves must carefully avoid. Skirmishers should move in single files, [11] except in thick “concealing cover,” when two or three together may, without exposure, increase mutual confidence; or

In all systems of movement composed of many distinct bodies, there must be a common centre of direction, connexion and extension, or unity of purpose and effect must cease, and confusion, dispersion or concentration ensue. Such a centre there is in the minutely regular mighty moving system of the universe; and from it, down through every degree of importance, to that in the more mob-like progress of a swarm of bees. Perhaps the greatest defect in modern skirmishing is, that, in extensive affairs

Skirmishers, by the looseness of their formation, are dangerously exposed to charges from small parties of the enemy’s light cavalry; and in districts destitute of continuous fences, but abounding in hollows, isolated patches of wood, or other features convenient for concealment, such attacks may burst forth with most confusing suddenness. Except in ground absolutely impracticable for cavalry, skirmishers must move in constant expectation of them. The eye of the officer should be accustomed to r

Contending without a reserve is desperate risk in struggles of all kinds, civil and military. In such predicaments, if fortune frown, well nigh all is lost. In skirmishes, reserves, including in the first place supports, are not only of great importance as rallying points, in extraordinary cases of misfortune, but also as necessary aids to the ordinary movements of the extended line. In attacks , supports are useful for filling up accidental gaps in the front line—for prolonging its flanks or co

1. The company or division of about sixty men, is the unit of extended Light Infantry, in the same manner as the battalion of about six hundred men, is the unit of a large military force at close order. Every company, or portion of a company, acting as Light Infantry, is therefore kept in hand by its immediate commander. 2. Extensions from close to skirmishing order, are always from the centre of the company or portion of the company, unless at the time otherwise ordered. 3. Closings from skirmi

Company or division, say of sixty men, at close order in line two deep, told off into “threes,” “right and left files,” two “sub-divisions” of fifteen file each, including four “sections,” two being of eight files and two of seven files, the larger numbers always on the flanks. The centre file (the left file of the right sub-division) stands fast, arms ordered, the remainder of the right sub-division turn to the right, the whole of the left sub-division to the left, arms at the long trail (horiz

No. I. Extend. No. II. Close. No. III. Advance. No. IV. Halt. No. V. Fire. No. VI. Cease Firing. No. VII. Retreat. No. VIII. Assembly. No. IX. Incline to the Right. No. X. Incline to the Left. No. XI. The Alarm. The Quick Time. The Double Time....

The recruit or pupil must FIRST have his intelligence distinctly informed, and his memory strongly impressed, with what the Rifle can be made to do at any given distance . He will thus be prepared for instruction, SECONDLY , in the art of making it do what it can do. The first particular may perhaps be accomplished to full satisfaction by the following method. The trials that now induce the proposal of it, [17] were, with the regulation musquet, very satisfactory. The various degrees of the powe

It is so distinctly evident that the immense advance which is at the present period in operation upon military weapons and practice must extend its influence to dress and appointments, that a treatise of this kind would not now be complete in its parts without a reference to them. Dress will be affected pre-eminently, in a manner which has not, as yet, attracted much, if any, public attention. It will be indescribably more than ever important to distinguish the troops of one nation from those of