4th Corporal

[Silas]

numbering of corporals

Ideally, there are eight corporals "anchoring the ends of the front rank's four sections of the two platoons of a company.

Right to left, they are paired in sections numbered 1-4 right to left as (starting on the right) 1 and 5, 6 and 2, 3 and 7, and 8 and 4.

The first and fourth corporal being on the right and left of the company's front rank.

From right to left: 1,5,6,2,3,7,8,4.

Or, looking AT the company, 4,8,7,3,2,6,5,1

Curt

Got a citation for that, Curt? I did a quick look online while marking time in court this afternoon and did not see anything which designates any numberical order in line of battle for the corporals. Until I re-read your post I was thinking that your ordering was the same as used to number companies of a battalion. That's not it.

Cooper's manual has a fine statement about how many corporals and where they belong, but no specifics on order.

Morris has a great drawing for the company, but still, no order.

No help in viewing the diagrams from scanned copies of the 1861 Tactics or subsequent volumes.

I didn't review any of Scott's manuals. Maybe it's there.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: 4th Corporal

Hallo!

I will look tonight. (The curse of doing things from memory first.)

No not Scott's though. Scott said:

37. Corporals, other than those selected as the colour-guard, the corporal of pioneers, and the one covering the sergeant on the left of the battalion, belong to the rank and file of their respective companies. They will be placed in the front and rear ranks, and on the right and left of platoons, according to their height.

Curt

[Mudslinger]

Re: 4th Corporal

Naw...

When forming the company, it just makes it easier to "insert the corporals" at the squad breaks when the lads know where to go rather than milling around and fighting over who gets to go where.

Just a-funnin'...

Hilarious yet true Curt! We need to try that at an early-war recruitment camp scenario sometime :)

[Silas]

Re: 4th Corporal

Seems to me there's an early war camp being formed for some event in Richmond in a couple years ; however, I could be wrong ....

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: 4th Corporal

Hallo!

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,"

My error is memory...

Traced back to Scott Washburn's "Simplifed infantry Tactics" circa
1986ish. Sorry.

I did a quick review of Casey's and Hardee's. Gilham's. like Scott's, takes about forming the company with corporals by their height decreasing tallest right to left at the platoon ends.

Thinking to Hardy's and Casey's, they are pretty lax on forming a company, which gives me pause to reflect whether they "assumed" when forming companies that everyone already knew Scott's so there was little need to obsess about it.

:) :)

Again, sorry for the errant post.

Curt

[Silas]

Re: 4th Corporal

I just didn't want some guy to say he saw it here from a regular on this forum so the numbering method described it must be so. Of course, it probably will happen anyway.

[Ringgold]

Artillery perspective on a 4th Corporal

I know you gents are discussing the matter as it pertains to the Infantry, but I figured that I would throw this in just in case there might be an artillery connection to the question.

In the Artillery, the 4th Corporal would be the Gunner of the #4 Gun of the Battery. His Caisson Corporal would be the 8th Corporal if it is a Four gun battery, or the 10th Corporal if it is an six gun battery. From what I have read, the numbering of the corporals was not done according to seniority, but rather by their position in the battery.

Yep, not relevant to the discussion, just putting it out there for a different perspective . . .