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Anyone that thinks they waited 42 seconds under fire while the Charge was being sounded so that the call would finish needs to rethink the use of signals.
COPPEE's Evolutions of the Brigade was used by many Brigadier's and their staff. One of its basic tennents is that in the absence of orders or signals: succeeding companies, battalions, brigades in formation will imitate the preceding units evolutions as soon as discerned. It's assumed that battlefield noise and dead couriers just might obliterate the actual command. When first company goes to shoulder arms on a march, this is copied by all companies in the regiment. When first company goes "By Company into Line" then all companies follow suit. In the absence of countermanding orders. And it's the same for battalions (and brigades). It's the Railroad Train car syndrome, with each car/company picking up the slack, reacting to the first car, until all cars are on the same track at the same pace and interval. And it results in V'd assaults as the flank companies respond to the Color moving forward from the center and the natural time delays of orders delivered over distance.
I would argue that almost ALL bugle calls are acted upon when recognized. Any one know of a Camp Duty Call that you wait until the very end (and Roll Call begins AFTER the last note of the Fife and Drum tune, not the bugle call). Very few calls are waited upon until the end (Forward, Wheels, Flanks). Or are too short of a call to even matter when the call is acted upon (Commence Fire, Cease Fire, Rise Up, Lie Down, HALT!, Attention). To the Color sounded at the front of a column (as ordered by Little Mac August 1861) is the signal to from battle line. But there are so many ways to do this that you just know that this pretty call is being sounded simultaneously (and at the same time....) with horse galloping orders being shouted out down the column (By Company Into Line, Battalion Forward Into Line, Form Brigade on 3rd Battalion, 3rd Company). And ATTENTION to a resting column means fall in quickly, prepare to resume the march, not snap to on the final note.
Quick Step and Double Quick Step (and Charge, and maybe even the Run) are both signals and march cadences.
My opinion on the quick step(s) is that they are the same call for line (or when marching by the flank (that's a column of 4's but they did NOT call it that)) and skirmishers / light infantry precisely because, as Joe points out, skirmishers habitually are to move at the quick step. So sounding the Quick Step moves the line or column along faster......but the skirmishers continue to do their own thing. Recall also that although the skirmishers are to keep a 'line'...they are also supposed to be 'bounding' from cover to cover....minimal exposure to enemy fire, maximum use of terrain, intervals be damned if a tree or fence post is nearby. So they move by rushes and dashes and zig zag evasive manuevers....and AVERAGE 110 steps a minute. Movement to contact is always an iffy proposition....the need for forward movement versus the survival instinct to hug the earth or seek cover at all times.
Don't think they waited for Soupy Soupy Soupy to end before they formed the mess line or filed over to the company mess fires.
And I love the old rag about striking all of the tents on the final note of the General. Maybe in the Regular Army, prewar, not on bivouac (which means no tents), in company street tentage order...and it's in the 'official' ditties from the 9th Cavalry bugle signals circa 1890. But to expect x,000 tents to drop on a PRESTO tempoed exercise in double tonguing bugle signal, without a ton of advanced warning, is hilarious. The manuals state the call is the 1 hour warning to marching out of camp with all one's earthly possessions.
For those Federal units in the North South Alliance, you have learned how important it is to be attuned to your unit's Prelude Call and the subsequent order delivered by bugle signal. Your commander's will give you the actual order to act upon.....and hopefully they won't wait until the end of RALLY to form fours against cavalry.....they didn't, because they might have been gobbled up if they had waited for the end of a call.
RJ Samp
COPPEE's Evolutions of the Brigade was used by many Brigadier's and their staff. One of its basic tennents is that in the absence of orders or signals: succeeding companies, battalions, brigades in formation will imitate the preceding units evolutions as soon as discerned. It's assumed that battlefield noise and dead couriers just might obliterate the actual command. When first company goes to shoulder arms on a march, this is copied by all companies in the regiment. When first company goes "By Company into Line" then all companies follow suit. In the absence of countermanding orders. And it's the same for battalions (and brigades). It's the Railroad Train car syndrome, with each car/company picking up the slack, reacting to the first car, until all cars are on the same track at the same pace and interval. And it results in V'd assaults as the flank companies respond to the Color moving forward from the center and the natural time delays of orders delivered over distance.
I would argue that almost ALL bugle calls are acted upon when recognized. Any one know of a Camp Duty Call that you wait until the very end (and Roll Call begins AFTER the last note of the Fife and Drum tune, not the bugle call). Very few calls are waited upon until the end (Forward, Wheels, Flanks). Or are too short of a call to even matter when the call is acted upon (Commence Fire, Cease Fire, Rise Up, Lie Down, HALT!, Attention). To the Color sounded at the front of a column (as ordered by Little Mac August 1861) is the signal to from battle line. But there are so many ways to do this that you just know that this pretty call is being sounded simultaneously (and at the same time....) with horse galloping orders being shouted out down the column (By Company Into Line, Battalion Forward Into Line, Form Brigade on 3rd Battalion, 3rd Company). And ATTENTION to a resting column means fall in quickly, prepare to resume the march, not snap to on the final note.
Quick Step and Double Quick Step (and Charge, and maybe even the Run) are both signals and march cadences.
My opinion on the quick step(s) is that they are the same call for line (or when marching by the flank (that's a column of 4's but they did NOT call it that)) and skirmishers / light infantry precisely because, as Joe points out, skirmishers habitually are to move at the quick step. So sounding the Quick Step moves the line or column along faster......but the skirmishers continue to do their own thing. Recall also that although the skirmishers are to keep a 'line'...they are also supposed to be 'bounding' from cover to cover....minimal exposure to enemy fire, maximum use of terrain, intervals be damned if a tree or fence post is nearby. So they move by rushes and dashes and zig zag evasive manuevers....and AVERAGE 110 steps a minute. Movement to contact is always an iffy proposition....the need for forward movement versus the survival instinct to hug the earth or seek cover at all times.
Don't think they waited for Soupy Soupy Soupy to end before they formed the mess line or filed over to the company mess fires.
And I love the old rag about striking all of the tents on the final note of the General. Maybe in the Regular Army, prewar, not on bivouac (which means no tents), in company street tentage order...and it's in the 'official' ditties from the 9th Cavalry bugle signals circa 1890. But to expect x,000 tents to drop on a PRESTO tempoed exercise in double tonguing bugle signal, without a ton of advanced warning, is hilarious. The manuals state the call is the 1 hour warning to marching out of camp with all one's earthly possessions.
For those Federal units in the North South Alliance, you have learned how important it is to be attuned to your unit's Prelude Call and the subsequent order delivered by bugle signal. Your commander's will give you the actual order to act upon.....and hopefully they won't wait until the end of RALLY to form fours against cavalry.....they didn't, because they might have been gobbled up if they had waited for the end of a call.
RJ Samp