Civil War Infantry Tactics by Earl J. Hess

Author:Earl J. Hess [Hess, Earl J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, State & Local, General, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
ISBN: 9780807159385
Google: o1njBgAAQBAJ
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2015-04-13T03:12:06+00:00

MIX OF LINE AND COLUMN

Civil War armies very often operated in a combination of lines and columns. The French and the Prussians had experimented with this mixture in the 1700s. By the Napoleonic era, it was known as the ordre mixte, which referred to placing a unit in column next to another unit in line within the same formation. While the ordre mixte was rare in the Civil War, it was very common for Union and Confederate commanders to mix line and column in other ways that were also consistent with European practices. They typically formed the forward unit in line, with the supporting units in columns. This scenario can be found in reports emanating from eastern battles such as Fair Oaks, Second Bull Run, Gettysburg, Kelly’s Ford, and Petersburg. Col. A. T. A. Torbert, for example, organized his brigade of six New Jersey regiments at Fredericksburg in two formations. The first consisted of two units in line, with the other four regiments forming his support “in line of masses 100 yards in rear.”18

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