Changing Front

[jamie gillum]

I am studying a battle inwhich a brigade commander is ordered to let a routed brigade pass through his ranks and form in his rear.

He orders his brigade to "Change front forward on the first battalion."

Not knowing all the particular commands, I am assuming that either each of the two battalions of each regiment wheeled into line changing thier front to the right momentarily and would then wheel back into line to dispute their original frontage.

OR

The regiments wheeled into line by company.

Either way, wouldn't this create a passage between comapanies or battalions to allow the routed troops to pass through?

The exact quote is this: "By order of General Wagner I changed my front forward on the first battalion, let the Third Brigade pass me and form in my rear, and prepared to dispute the enemy's further advance with a line of skirmishers well out."

The way I interpret this is the Brigade maintined their positions and merely wheeled into a temporary column of companies or in this case perhaps battalions, only to shift directly back to their original front after the passage of the routed troops.

Can anyone please expound this movement?

Thanks,
Jamie Gillum

[Dignann]

Re: Changing Front

Jamie,

I can't speak to its advantage in the specific event you describe, but the command and movement can be found in Casey's Infantry Tactics, Vol. III, para. 619.

Eric

[Clsinclair]

Re: Changing Front

Changing front forward on the first company would allow a brigade to pass. Then he would have to do a front to rear movement to get back into line.


Or you can simply order "Center Company, Obstacle". The center company or companies would do a right or left face, to the rear into column guide left or right and allow the others to march through the center. If you are marching in a battalion front you would do a the same but instead the Captain would would order by the left flank to the rear into column. Once the army has passed the Commander would order "Forward Into Line" and the captain would order "Company, right-half wheel, march" If my memory serves me correctly you can find the specific order in Hardees, Vol 11 section 382.

Regards,
Claude Sinclair

[Tom Ezell]

Re: Changing Front

Change of front typically implies a move of a stationary line of battle to a new direction which is either oblique or perpendicular to the original line. It's the maneuver typically used to move a battalion to refuse the brigade or division line, or to reposition in order to address a developing threat on your flank. Since technically you don't "wheel" a battalion (doing this same thing while on the move is called "changing direction") this lets you swing the line out of the way of the routing unit to your front, but leaves you with the follow-on problem of getting your line back into position to face whatever the other guys were trying to get away from.

Another means would be to execute a passage of lines, but this situation is a little different than what you describe, in letting a routed unit pass back thru your line. At brigade and division level this is done pretty much as Claude described, forming the passing unit into doubled column and the passed unit opening their line as though passing an obstacle.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Changing Front

Sir,

Could you provide the battle and brigade for which you are speaking?

Paul B. Boulden Jr.

23rd VA Volunteers
RAH VA MIL '04

[Greg Renault]

Re: Changing Front

First, remember that the unit in question is a brigade. Eric Mink provided the correct reference for this in his post. Those posts that reference the battalion change-of-front may overlook the greater complexity and scale of a brigade evolution.

Secondly, the the initial quote may actually be speaking of three separate activities, viz.: "By order of General Wagner I [1] changed my front forward on the first battalion, [2] let the Third Brigade pass me and form in my rear, and [3] prepared to dispute the enemy's further advance with a line of skirmishers well out."

I suspect this is what happened, and that changing the front of the brigade was unrelated to the passage of the Third Brigade through its lines (just as those activities were distinct from the action of deploying skirmishers). Of course, this doesn't tell us how the passage of lines was achieved--but I bet it was not by the brigade changing its front, which could have serious consequences when done while engaged.

[jamie gillum]

Re: Changing Front

The battle to which I am refering is the Battle of Spring Hill fought Nov. 29, 1864 - the day before Franklin.

When Luther Bradley's 3rd Brigade was routed by Cleburne's Divison, they rushed back towardthe village in a complete rout. No organization what-so-ever!

Lane's 2nd Brigade of Wagner's Division was fronted to the east-southeast and as the routed troops ran back toward town they had to pass through the lines of Lane's Brigade and the 103rd Ohio.

The way I understood it was that perhaps Lane changed front momentarily - by battalion - to maintain discipline and prevent the 3rd Brigade from routing his own troops as they scrambled through the lines - then wheeled or moved back to their original direction and pushed out their skirmishers.

The brigade as a whole did not execute this movement - only the farthest right regiment or regiments.

Keep coming back with thoughts please.
Jamie

[Greg Renault]

Re: Changing Front

"The way I understood it was that perhaps Lane changed front momentarily - by battalion - to maintain discipline and prevent the 3rd Brigade from routing his own troops as they scrambled through the lines - then wheeled or moved back to their original direction and pushed out their skirmishers."

I doubt that the change of front was done to allow the routed brigade to pass through the second brigade. There is no need to make the space, as it already exists in the brigade line. When a battalion is in line formation its component companies are adjacent to each other, so that the line presents as a solid front. However, when a brigade is in line, there is supposed to be a space of 22 paces between each battalion. As the distance for a pace in common or quick time is 28 inches (Casey, Scott's Military Dictionary), this works out to slightly more than 50 feet between battalions. There would have been plenty of room for the men of the routed 3rd Brigade to skedaddle through the 2nd Brigade line.

"The brigade as a whole did not execute this movement - only the farthest right regiment or regiments."

The quote you provided states otherwise: "By order of General Wagner I changed my front forward on the first battalion...." If this is the brigade commander writing, then I construe this as a change of front for the whole brigade. This evolution is performed by moving one battalion (in this case the first, or rightmost)to the direction desired, then having the other battalions align on the designated one to comform to the new direction, thus changing the direction of the brigade front. (Battalions change front in a similar manner, but by company.) If only part of the brigade changed front, I would expect the description to read something like "By order of General Wagner I refused my flank by having the first and second battalions change front to the rear on the second battalion."