216. The changes of direction of a column marching, will be executed according to the principles prescribed for wheeling on the march.Whenever, therefore, a column is to change direction, the instructor will change the guide, if not already there, to the flank opposite the side to which the change is to be made.
217. The column being in march right in front, if it be the wish of the instructor to change direction to the right, he will give the order to the chief of the first platoon, and immediately go himself, or send a marker to the point at which the change of direction is to be made; the indicator or marker, will place himself on the direction of the guides, so as to present the breast to that flank of the column.
218. The leading guide will direct his march on that person, so that, in passing, his left arm may just graze his breast. When the leading guide shall have approached near to the marker, the chief of his platoon will command:
1. Right wheel. 2. MARCH.
219. The first command will be given when the platoon is at the distance of four paces from the marker.
220. At the command march, which will be pronounced at the instant the guide shall have arrived opposite the marker, the platoon will wheel to the right, conforming to what is prescribed in the S. S., No. 409.
221. The wheel being finished, the chief of each platoon will command:
3. Forward. 4. MARCH.
222. These commands will be pronounced and executed as is prescribed in the S. S., Nos. 411 and 412. The guide of the first platoon will take points on the ground in the new direction, in order the better to regulate the march.
223. The second platoon will continue to march straight-forward till up with the marker, when it will wheel to the right, and retake the direct march by the same commands and the same means which governed the first platoon.
224. The column being in march right in front, if the instructor should wish to change direction to the left) he will command, guide right. At this command, the two guides will move rapidly to the right of their respective platoons, each passing in front of his subdivision; the men will take the touch of elbows to the right; the instructor will afterwards conform to what is prescribed No. 217.
225. The change of direction to the left will then be executed according to the same principles as the change of direction to the right, but by inverse means.
226. When the change of direction is completed, the instructor will command, guide left.
227. The changes of direction in a column, left in front, will be executed according to the same principles.
228. In changes of direction in double quick time the platoon will wheel according to the principles prescribed in the S. S., No. 417.
229. In order to prepare the men for those formations in line, which can be executed only by turning to the right or the left, the instructor will sometimes cause the column to change direction to the side of the guide. In this case, his chief of the leading platoon will command: Left (or right) turn, instead of left (or right) wheel. The subdivisions will each turn, in succession; conforming to what is prescribed in the S. S., No. 415. The leading guide, as soon as he has turned, will take points on the ground, the better to regulate the direction of the march.
230. It is highly important, in order to preserve distances and the direction, that all the subdivisions of the column should change direction precisely at the point where the leading subdivision changed; it is for this reason that that point ought to be marked in advance, and that it is prescribed that the guides direct their march on the marker, also that each chief of subdivision shall not cause the change to commence till, the guide of his subdivision has grazed the breast of this marker.
231. Each chief will take care that his subdivision arrives at the point of change in a square with the line of direction: with this view, he will face to his subdivision when the one which precedes has commenced to turn or to wheel, and he will be watchful that it continues to march squarely until it arrives at the point where the change of direction is to commence.
232. If, in changes of direction, the pivot of the subdivision which wheels should not clear the wheeling point, the next subdivision would be arrested and distances lost; for the guide who conducts the marching rank having to describe an arc in length about once and a half the front of the subdivision, the second subdivision would be already up with the wheeling point, whilst the first which wheels has yet the half of its front to execute, and hence would be obliged to mark time until that half be executed. It is therefore prescribed, that the pivot of each subdivision should take steps of nine or eleven inches in length, according to the swiftness of the gait, in order not to arrest the march of the next subdivision. The chiefs of subdivision will look well to the step of the pivot, and cause his step to be lengthened or shortened as may be judged necessary. By the nature of this movement, the centre of each subdivision will bend a little to the rear.
233. The guides will never alter the length or the cadence of the step, whether the change of direction be to the side of the guide or to the opposite side.
234. The marker, placed at the wheeling point, will always present his breast to the flank of the column. The instructor will take the greatest pains in causing the prescribed principles to be observed; he will see that each subdivision only commences the change of direction when the guide, grazing the breast of the marker, has nearly passed him, and, that the marching flank does not describe the are of too large a circle, in order that it may not be thrown beyond the new direction.
235. In change of direction by wheel, the guide of the wheeling flank will cast his eyes over the ground at the moment of commencing the wheel, and will describe an are of a circle whose radius is equal to the front of the subdivision.
ARTICLE IV.
To halt the column.
236. The column being in march, when the instructor shall wish to halt it, he will command:
1. Column. 2. HALT.
237. At the second command, promptly repeated by the chiefs of platoon, the column will halt; the guides also will stand fast, although they may have lost both distance and direction.
238.If the command halt be not repeated with the greatest vivacity, and executed at the same instant, distances will be lost.
239. If a guide, having lost his distance, seek to recover it after that command, he will only throw his fault on the following guide, who, if he have marched well, will no longer be at his proper distance; and if the latter regain what he has thus lost, the movement will be propagated to the rear of the column.