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Handy Hints from the Infantrie Garden
WHEELING AND COUNTERMARCHING 
by: "Seed Drill" Orders of the day, Volume 34, Issue 1, March/April 2002 |
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In the first of this series of Handy Hints, I explained how a body of soldiers should always be formed up in ‘battle formation’ - the formation that it will adopt when confronting the enemy - what may be referred to as being drawn up in ‘line’. This is the formation that it should always adopt except when circumstances dictate otherwise. It is the ‘default option’. The formation will normally consist of a division of pikemen flanked on each side by a division of musketeers. This combination is commonly referred to as a ‘battalion’ or ‘squadron’. From this basic line formation, a body will thus march off by segments (divisions, half-divisions, corporalships, or files) should the need arise to invert the line into a column, which will then be converted back into a line again as soon as opportunity permits. In moving our battalion and changing the direction it faces there thus are two basic formations that need to be considered - the line and the column. Of these the former is the more difficult. Indeed, in the case of the latter it is perhaps pertinent not to regard the motion as being one at all! The difficulty of wheeling a body of soldiers is directly related to the length of its frontage - the longer it is, the greater is the difficulty. The simplest way of overcoming this difficulty is to close up the frontage. Assuming that the body is at order (3ft) between files, closing this distance to close order (1’6”) will halve the frontage. At close order each man will be pressing very gently towards their point of dressing (normally the right hand man) because the width across each man’s shoulder is slightly greater than the 18 inches allowed for this distance. This contact may be used to facilitate the maintenance of the unit’s dressing. When the order to wheel is given, each man presses very slightly against the soldier on the side to which they are wheeling - that is, pressing right when wheeling to the right and pressing left when wheeling to the left - whilst at the same time glancing in the opposite direction. Thus when wheeling to the right each man looks to the extreme left hand man, who during the motion of the wheel becomes the dressing point, and when wheeling to the left each man looks to the right. The outside men, in both cases, look inwards. This method of pressing inwards to maintain contact with the inside man and looking outwards to follow the progress of the outside man should enable a body of even very great frontage to manoeuvre without the need of its sergeants to run about shouting “Watch your dressings!” which serves no purpose other than to tell the world that the unit is badly trained! This wheeling, wherein it is imagined that the pivot point is some few yards inside the inside man, is commonly called ‘wheeling upon an angle’. The inside man, not being the actual point of pivot, steps short, the outside man steps out to the extent that is comfortable and should on no account be expected to run. Such a manoeuvre as this must, like most 17th century motions, be given time and not rushed. Once the wheeling motion is completed, the body can then be halted and ordered to open its files to order. Authorities differ as to whether a ‘wheel’ assumes a turn of 90 degrees unless otherwise directed, or a continuous turning until otherwise directed. Given that, properly done, a wheel begins and ends with the unit stationary and changing its distance between files, and given that the process cannot be rushed, either procedure may be followed with equanimity. A second type of wheeling, called ‘wheeling upon the centre’, does use an individual as its pivotal point, usually, as the name suggests, the individual in the centre of the front rank. Much of the above (reducing frontage, pressing in and facing out, etc.) can also be applied to this manner of wheeling. The significant difference is that whilst one half of the unit is marching forwards, the other half is moving backwards. The centre pivot man spins very slowly on the spot. Although this split effectively halves the wheeling frontage, the fact that half the unit is moving backwards means that this motion is also not to be rushed. However, it is a very useful manoeuvre on tight and crowded SK battlefields. Given that the difficulty of executing a wheel is directly related to the frontage of a unit, when a unit marches along in column, with a frontage of only two, three or four men, the process of changing direction is so much just an incidental part of marching along - following a bend in the road perhaps (as a unit marches along with its officer in front!) - that it needs neither orders to be given nor ensigns to indicate with their flags. (The Highway Code post-dates all 17th century drill methods!) However, confusion has arisen over the process of marching from line into column and from column into line. These two processes are correctly known as ‘marching from line into column’ and ‘marching from column into line’ respectively. They are not ‘wheeling by division’, for three reasons. Firstly, ‘wheeling by division’ is a motion by which one half of a unit wheels to the right whilst the other half wheels to the left (Barriffe Chap. LX p. 64-65, Elton Chap. LVII p.50); secondly, whether any change of direction is required is purely incidental; it may not be; and thirdly, whether the ‘segments’ into which the battalion has been divided for the purposes of the immediate passage are actual ‘divisions’ is also purely incidental; half-divisions, corporalships, or even files, may produce the required frontage. Lets us now consider counter-marching. The sum total of uses to which counter-marching may be put whilst on an SK, or any other, battlefield are none (zero, zilch, bugger all). Counter-marching looks pretty in marching displays and it is a very good way of teaching your soldiers always to follow the man in front (for without that, you have muddle and confusion), but it has no practical use on the battlefield. If you need to face to the rear in an emergency, get your men to about face. You should anyway have your second best men in the rear rank (see ‘Orders of Dignity’) to act as temporary file-leaders. If the change of direction is to be permanent, much the easier course is simply to wheel them around. If you close them up to close order between files, you can wheel around in about the same space as makes their frontage at order. Whereas to counter-march, you need to double your frontage by opening the files to open order. Also, by a simple wheel you maintain your order of dignity, whereas once you have counter-marched, you must counter-march a second time (in the same or the perpendicular axis) to resume your order of dignity. Given that this whole process is rather tricky to explain fully and quite unnecessary, I shall not bore you with the details. See also:
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