84. The company being in line of battle and correctly aligned, when the instructor shall wish to exercise it in marching by the front, he will assure himself that the shoulders of the captain and covering sergeant are perfectly in the direction of their respective ranks, and that the sergeant accurately covers the captain; the instructor will then place himself twenty-five or thirty paces in front of them, face to the rear, and place himself exactly on the prolongation of the line passing between their heels.
85. The instructor, being aligned on the directing file, will command:
1. Company, forward.
86. At this, a sergeant, previously designated, will move six paces in advance of the captain: the instructor, from the position prescribed, will correctly align this sergeant on the prolongation of the directing file.
87. This advanced sergeant, who is to be charged with the direction, will, the moment his position is assured, take two points on the ground in the straight line, which would pass between his own and the heels of the instructor.
88. These dispositions being made, the instructor will step aside, and command:
2. MARCH.
89. At this, the company will step off with life. The directing sergeant will observe, with the greatest precision, the length and cadence of the step, marching on the two points he has chosen; he will take, in succession, and always a little before arriving at the point nearest to him, new points in advance, exactly in the same line with the first two, and at the distance of some fifteen or twenty paces from each other. The captain will march steadily in the trace of the directing sergeant, keeping always six paces from him; the men will each maintain the head direct to the front, feel lightly the elbow of his neighbor on the side of direction, and conform himself to the principles prescribed in the S. S., for the march by the front.
90. The man next to the captain will take special care not to pass him; to this end, he will keep the line of his shoulders a little in the rear, but in the same direction with those of the captain.
91. The file closers will march at the habitual distance of two paces behind the rear-rank.
92. If the men lose the step, the instructor will command:
To the—STEP.
93. At this command the men will glance toward the directing sergeant, retake the step from him, and again direct their eyes to the front.
94. The instructor will cause the captain and covering sergeant to be posted sometimes on the right, and sometimes on the left of the company.
95. The directing sergeant, in advance, having the greatest influence on the march of the company, he will be selected for the precision of his step, his habit of maintaining his shoulders in a square with a given line of direction, and of prolonging that line without variation.
96. If this sergeant should fail to observe these principles, undulations in the front of the company must necessarily follow; the men will be unable to contract the habit of taking steps equal in length and swiftness, and of maintaining their shoulders in a square with the line of direction – the only means of attaining perfection in the march in line.
97. The instructor, with a view the better to establish the men in the length and cadence of the step, and in the principles of the march in line, will cause the company to advance three or four hundred paces, at once, without halting, if the ground will permit. In the first exercises, he will march the company with open ranks, the better to observe the two ranks.
98. The instructor will see, with care, that all the principles of the march in line are strictly observed; he will generally be on the directing flank, in a position to observe the two ranks, and the faults they may commit; he will sometimes halt behind the directing file during some thirty successive steps, in order to judge whether the directing sergeant, or the directing file, deviate from the perpendicular.
ARTICLE II.
To Halt the Company, Marching in Line of Battle, and to Align it.
99. The instructor, wishing to halt the company, will command:
1. Company. 2. HALT.
100. At the second command, the company will halt; the directing sergeant will remain in advance, unless ordered to return to the line of file closers. The company being at a halt, the instructor may advance the first three or four files on the side of direction, and align the company on that basis, or he may confine himself to causing the alignment to be rectified. In this last case, he will command: Captain, rectify the alignment. The captain will direct the covering sergeant to attend to the rear-rank, when each, glancing his eyes along his rank, will promptly rectify it, conforming to what is prescribed in the S. S., No. 329.