George Gawler

“ On British soldiers also, perhaps more than on any others, it is important to impress these observances; for there is in them such a peculiarly strong national perception of that great military maxim, “concentration is strength,” that overlooking its exceptions, they are always powerfully impelled the hotter the fire to group the closer together.
Nothing but deeply impressed instruction, or dearly bought experience, can break in them the bonds of a propensity so thoroughly at variance with good skirmishing. ”

“ For these reasons, on the drill field, instead of the loose careless practice too common in this particular, the soldier, and especially the skirmisher, should be unsparingly compelled to go through the motions of aiming and firing at a precise object, as accurately as if at actual ball practice, until the habit be engraven too deep on his mind to be obliterated by any circumstances of confusion. ”

“ The increased rapidity with which, to prevent ruinous destruction, troops of all kinds, when under fire, must now move for considerable distances, gives increased importance to the very plain principle, that the efficiency of a locomotive weapon of war is, in the highest degree, dependent upon the proportion of its weight to the strength of the animal that carries it. Weight of metal is of immense moment on a rampart; but lightness of heart and litheness of limb, producing sustained and easy movement and careful firing, are advantages of more importance to the soldier in the field. ”

“ The man in the ranks who shrinks away from a shell or cannon ball, or who goes out of his commanded course to cover himself from musquetry, has little claim to the name of a brave soldier; while he who in a trench or battery does not bow low at the cry “shot,” or fall prostrate before a blazing shell, or who in a skirmish neglects to make the best of every foot of cover, has no right, to the title of a wise one. ”

“ The true summit of perfection in skirmishing is, the preservation of order in disorder and of system in confusion; for the circumstances which accompany skirmishes of necessity produce, almost always, more or less mixture, inversion, and general irregularity. In hot contests over large extents of intricate ground, men of different companies regiments, brigades, and even divisions, mingle with each other. Soldiers should therefore be drilled, not indeed to fall into such irregularities on principle, but to be ready for them in practice. ”

“ Popular error ought to be corrected in regard to colours suitable for light infantry, by the plain matter of fact, that skirmishing is not in general a prowling, wolf-like proceeding, but sheer hard and open fighting; in which, indeed, the parties engaged make the best of any cover that presents itself, but in which also the flashes and smoke of firing alone present marks for reply that no tint of uniform can conceal. ”

“ Circumstances have actually occurred, and, in intricate countries, are likely often to be repeated, of fine fellows, slowly retiring before an overwhelming enemy, their whole attention absorbed upon their front, suddenly finding further retreat intercepted by impassable obstacles, with no alternative remaining but to surrender, or fight their way right and left at the risk of almost utter destruction. ”

“ Nothing but keeping men in hand by the principle of well understood and well maintained centres of direction can prevent similar evils.
Supports, in their movements, should be guided by the same general principle as skirmishers—that is, the centre or right centre support of each battalion should be, unless otherwise ordered, the support of direction, except in the cases of wheeling on a fixed pivot, or of taking ground to a flank. In the first exception, all conform to the pivot, and in the last to the leading division, unless at the time otherwise ordered. ”

“ Instead of being planted, as an obstacle to the enemy, 100 yards in front of the intended line of defence, it is but too commonly placed on that line, and when the struggle comes, is thickly occupied as a sort of rampart. On such striking objects the enemy’s fire concentrates, every ball goes through, and the loss behind is severe.
Skirmishers must not only seek for cover, but make the best of it. Good cover loses half its advantages if stupidly occupied, and ingenuity will often make bad cover ball-proof. ”

“ It is true, indeed, that the British light infantry man has a practical system in some important particulars peculiar to himself; and in none more so than that, under all circumstances, he continues the well-disciplined soldier, never systematically assuming the character of the loose, lawless, free-corps freebooter. ”

“ Active intelligence, therefore, in every point of view, is invaluable to the skirmisher; and the attention of all drill superintendents and instructors should be unremittingly directed to stamp it on his mind and to mix it with his practice.
II. The soldier at close order always has, or should have, a large mark for his fire. Nothing can be more unsteady or unsoldierlike than for a closed body to pour a volley upon mere skirmishers: from troops concentrated, no object but an opposing mass or line within 200 yards should provoke a single shot. ”

“ Squares have a moral strength in proportion to the mutual acquaintance of the men and officers who compose them. Men of the same company stand better together than those of mixed companies, and men of the same regiment better than those of different corps. However, as in the field thorough mixtures do occur, and as they, if observed, are likely above all other things to bring on charges from the enemy’s cavalry, squares of mixed masses should, in instruction, at times be practised. ”

“ The reconnoissances of mounted staff officers, the patrolling, skirmishing, and menacing of charges by small bodies of cavalry, and even the action of artillery on that very large proportion of the surface of the earth in which vision is limited to at most one thousand yards, will be greatly controlled by the accurate and distant infantry marksman. Nay, even columns and lines of infantry will now only be able to repel his power of destructive annoyance by meeting him with troops in extended order. ”

“ He is then warned to bring up the rifle quietly from the hip, looking, while he does so, at the point he wishes to hit, to shut the left eye close, and to look with the right eye through the sights themselves, and not over or beneath them, to pull the trigger steadily the moment the object is accurately covered, at this instant throwing his attention to the care of keeping the line of barrel direct to the mark until the bullet has left the muzzle—perhaps the most difficult attainment in ball practice, and that which constitutes the greatest difference between a good shot and a bad one. ”

“ In attacks, supports are useful for filling up accidental gaps in the front line—for prolonging its flanks or covering them obliquely or perpendicularly—for strengthening the skirmishers at any moment that these may find their numbers unequal to important work before them—for relieving them when they or their ammunition become exhausted—for coming up in close order to charge bridges, streets, villages, or other defiles, too strongly occupied to be forced by the skirmishers, and to serve as bases, when time allows it, for the formation of squares against cavalry. ”

“ Even in single files, men loading should incessantly cover with precision their file leaders, so as to offer marks of but one in front.
In skirmishing, more than in any other branch of warfare, men may be uselessly thrown away; and therefore in this, more than in any other, economy of life and limb should form a paramount object of attention. ”

“ In the ranks, the closer men attain to a state of unreflecting mechanism, with nothing of mind but attention, the nearer they are to true soldier-like perfection. Not a thought should arise, an eye-ball turn, or a finger tremble, but in obedience, and that obedience should be accurate and instantaneous as the word. ”

“ Facts are the best arguments; and a few of those which occurred under the author’s own observation, in a corps probably as little liable to make mistakes as any that ever stood on a battle-field, are offered in enforcement of this consideration.
During the retreat from Madrid, in the grey of the morning, after having been harassed through the greater part of the day before by impudent dashes of the French light cavalry, a Spanish cavalry patrol was fired upon, under the very natural impression that they were Frenchmen, re-commencing their previous practice. ”

“ When the ground is nearly occupied, the officer in command fixes on a point of direction, to which the whole conform.
In the event of infantry skirmishers pressing forward to harass a square, or of cavalry endeavouring to prevent its movements by hovering near without charging, one or two ranks from the rear face may, by order, move briskly round by the right and left—double into files—cover the front at a short distance, and rush round again to their places whenever there appears a necessity for the square itself to fire. ”

“ The marker instantly steps out of his ball-proof box, with a light pole, having at its extremity a bright scarlet circle, which he lays upon the shot-hole in the wooden target—the number of inches above or below, and right or left, of the centre of the “bull’s eye” is entered in the firing book—the man falls back to the squad, and the next for firing takes his place.
If a man hit very wide of the proper mark, it might be well to make him fire until he had attained a reasonably good shot, charging to his account the surplus ammunition so expended. ”

“ From this designation the author would by no means exclude any portions of the armed land-defenders of the British empire, so far as they might have claim to it by character and attainments. Let the volunteer rifle corps and militia acquire and maintain (as did the county militias during the last great war, and as have done many of the yeomanry corps since that period) that drill and discipline without which, in the hour of danger, men-at-arms are jests to their enemies and pests to their friends, and they also may with justice be classed among the soldier-like guardians of their country. ”

“ Perhaps the greatest defect in modern skirmishing is, that, in extensive affairs, this principle of an established point of direction is not well maintained. However much it may be recognised in mere theory, it is not, in instruction, explained in sufficient fulness, or required with sufficient rigour ”

“ It cannot be too constantly upheld as a permanent principle that, even in skirmishing, order is the rule and irregularity the exception.
On the signal “double quick” in immediate succession to the sounds established for the formation of squares, [14] officers, exercising most actively their intelligence, in proper numbers and at proper distances, hold up their swords or caps, and the men rush round them into masses of defence without any regard to company or other distinctions. ”

“ The mechanical stiffness, formerly much seen in British light infantry, arose, there can scarcely be a question, from the formality of our old ordinary mode of applying the system of light infantry drill. The automatonism, proper to the ranks, was extended to skirmishers, and they also were taught to move only as they were wound up. ”

“ Other civilized states are most active in investigation and in application. The British soldier stands cheerfully ready and willing to do his duty to the country—it is for England to do her duty to herself and to the soldier. ”

“ The rank which is loaded steps up to one pace in front of the rank that is loading, both advance together loading and firing as they move on; the man who has fired stepping a little to the left, to allow his comrade to pass in front of him.
(In this mode of “firing” in “single line” “advancing,” there can be no running or kneeling. It may be especially useful against small and distant bodies of cavalry.)
The skirmishers may “TAKE GROUND TO THE RIGHT” OR “LEFT,” in “SINGLE LINE FIRING” to the front, on the same principle. ”

“ From the moment that he “shakes out” from the elbows of his right and left comrades, reflection must awake, and, in due dependence on a broad established system, be energetically directed to gain every advantage on the opposing foe.
The French as skirmishers excel in active intelligence. Every man manœuvres as if the fate of the day depended upon his conceptions. Their ability, in this particular, may spring in a great degree from the looseness of their instruction practice of all field exercise. ”

“ A piece of level ground must be set apart for rifle practice. The length, with the present power of range, should be from 1400 to 1500 yards. Forty feet would be sufficient for the width, excepting at the permanent butt, where, for security’s sake, it should be at least forty yards. It would be very desirable that no boundary straight walls or fences should guide the eye to the target. At the permanent butt, a racket court wall should be built, from thirty to forty feet high, and from thirty to forty yards wide, with side-wings, to stop glancing shot. ”

“ In concealing-cover, not the coat, but the head dress and face are seen. It is a reasonable subject of doubt whether on open ground, at a distance of six hundred or eight hundred yards, red, soiled by dust, dirt and drenching, does not mellow into a greyish-purple, as little calculated to make the man who wears it a mark as blue, black, or dark green. ”

“ In extended order he is just as ready, as at any other time, to fix his bayonet and dash to close quarters, if the enemy, on tolerably equal terms, will stand for him; and if his piquet be pressed by a heavy attacking column, he sees no more reason than at any other time, to surrender an inch of ground, as long as he can stand upon it. ”

“ Against great charges of cavalry, large squares are unquestionably the safest and most efficient; but, in opposition to the small dashes which occur in skirmishing, large squares are often impracticable, and small ones more advisable, as being more rapidly formed and broken up. ”

“ The notorious facts referred to are, that the marvellous inventive spirit of the age has, at one bound, made military efficiency dependent, in a super-eminent degree, on skill in rifle practice, and that other nations, sensitively alive to the circumstance, are devoting to it immense methodical attention. ”

“ The wooden rest is placed in the centre, and a rifle laid steadily in it, at the elevation given by the instructor as necessary for hitting the distant “bull’s eye.”
To prevent accidents, this rifle is not cocked. At a signal given the paper targets are shut, beginning with the nearest to the butt, the recruits being made to remark, as they are successively closed, that the “Bulls’ eyes” are in a perfect line. The nearest bell is rung; two minutes are allowed for persons on the line to run into the ball-proof sentry-boxes, and the shot is steadily fired. ”

“ Except in ground absolutely impracticable for cavalry, skirmishers must move in constant expectation of them.
The eye of the officer should be accustomed to recognise habitually those frequently occurring posts of defence against cavalry, copses, walls, hedges, ditches, &c., which are preferable to small squares; and the minds of men should be well prepared by previous instruction and explanation, to recollect, in an instant, in what their strength in such cases consists, and to be undaunted in it. ”

“ In defences, in addition to the foregoing duties reversed as to bodies retiring, supports have the highly important responsibilities of leading the skirmishers in the true and best line of retreat—of opening that line in all suitable places for their convenient passage, and of taking care that it be not intercepted by the enemy. ”