TRY THIS 1863 EXERCISE IN MOVEMENT
Study the map supplied at the bottom. Answer the following questions, you may open your Poinsett's Cavalry Tactics book to get your answers as well as Mahan's Outpost, and Kautz's or any other book of the era that will help you.
1. The
company is foraging in the apple orchard and the captain tells you to form them
up on the road.
a.
What commands do you use to do that?
2. The captain asks you to take a
squad of 8 men and place a guard on the road leading up from the south (bottom
middle of map).
a.
How do you select the guard?
b.
What commands do you use to form them up and march them out?
c.
How would you set them up to guard the road?
3. Orders from the captain are to
return the guard to the company and ride by column to the bridge. You
must move the company to the bridge in column of fours.
a.
How do you get the guard back into the company?
b.
What commands do you use on the march to the bridge?
4. The captain wants you to take
the company to the grist mill immediately.
a.
What commands would you use to march the men from the apple orchard to
the gristmill by the shortest route?
5.
You and the company are at the bridge in column of fours at a halt.
The captain asks you to place a guard of 12 men at the bridge and move
the rest of the men up to the curve in the road to face them east.
a.
Since the bridge has trees on the sides you decide to place the guard
dismounted. How many men do you
need to pull from the formation?
b.
Once the guard is placed, what commands do you use to move the rest of
the company to the curve in the road?
6.
The captain is shot suddenly by a sharpshooter and you find yourself
second in command and with a just delivered message from the colonel.
The message tells you to make an advance on the enemy. Scouts have
informed you that the enemy is NW of the Grist Mill at the barn. You know
you will have to enter the field above the gristmill where the enemy is
positioned and make an advance on them through the woods near the barn.
You know this requires dismounting the men as skirmishers so you can use
the woods effectively.
a.
How do you get the company from the curve in the road to the woods inside
the field?
b.
Once in the field what is the command to get the men to skirmish?
c.
If the enemy has 45 men present at the barn and no other troops in the
vicinity how would you capture them?
There are no wrong answers, just some better than others. Some will get you to the position quicker than others, some might be detrimental to the organization of the men. You can put all the answers down that you can think of. You can use all the tactics you can think of. Just do it in a period manner and generally by the book with drill commands if possible..
Here is the map you will need to finish this exercise
If you want, send in your answers to me at captain@9thvirginia.com