Halt

is likewise a word of command in familiar use when a regiment is on its march from one quarter to another. The men are permitted to refresh themselves half-way. It should be generally observed, that to prevent soldiers from straggling about, or getting among persons who might entice them to be disorderly, a strict order ought to be given by the commanding officer of every battalion not to allow any division or detachment to halt in or near a town or village. A convenient midway spot should be chosen for the purpose, and when the men have piled their arms (which may be done in line or in column), a few steady soldiers should be detached to guard the ground, and to prevent others from straggling beyond certain limits. Among the French it was usual for the commanding officer of a battalion, division, or detachment, in hot weather, to send a sergeant and a few steady grenadiers forward, in order to secure good water for the troops. This practice ought to be avoided as much as po ible; for men are more exposed to suffer from drinking when overheated, than they would be by patiently enduring the thirst until they reached the spot where the day’s march is to terminate. To Halt in open column for the purpose of wheeling up into line . When the several companies of one or more battalions have entered the a ligne ment, and marched with their guides of manœuvre, or pivot flanks along the line, covering each other at their due distances (for which company officers are answerable), the open column is then in a state to be wheeled into line. As soon, therefore, as the head or rear division, according to circumstances, arrives at the given point where it is to form line, the commander of the battalion gives the word mark time , in order to afford the several ranks time to correct their dre ing and distance by their guides and pivots: on the delivery of this word, the foot which is then off the ground, finishes its proper step, and the other is brought up to it; and when the whole are dre ed the word is given to halt . The instant the halt is ordered, the commanding officer from the head division of each battalion (taking care that an adjutant is placed in the true line) makes any small correction on a near point in that line that the pivots may require, although no such correction ought to be nece ary. To Halt after having wheeled from open column . The officers commanding companies, . having during the wheel turned round to face their men, and inclined towards the pivot of the preceding company, as they perceive their wheeling men make the step which brings them up to their several pivots, they give the word mark time—halt . The men, on receiving this last word of command, halt with their eyes still turned to the wheeling flank, and each officer being then placed before the preceding guide or pivot, to which his men are then looking, corrects the interior of his company upon that pivot, his own pivot, and the general line of the other pivots. This being quickly and instantaneously done, the officer immediately takes his post on the right of his company, which has been preserved for him by his serjeant. Thus the whole line, when halted, is imperceptibly dre ed. In cavalry movements, when the open column halted on the ground on which it is to form, wheels up into line, the following specific instructions must be attended to: Distances being just, guides and pivot leaders being truly covered, the caution is given, Wheel into line! when the then pivot-flank leaders place themselves each on the reverse flank of such divisions, as by its wheel up brings them to their true place in the squadron. The leading division of each squadron sends out a guide to line himself with the pivot files. At the word march! the whole wheel up into line, which is marked by the guides or pivots, and also bounded by the horses’ heads of the faced guides of it.— Dre —halt! is then given (as well as the other words by each squadron leader) the instant before the completion of the wheel; the eyes are then turned to the standing flank (to which the correction of the squadron is made), and remain so till otherwise ordered; so that a line formed by wheels to the left, will remain with eyes to the right; and one formed by wheels to the right will remain with eyes to the left. During the wheel up, the standard moves to its place in squadron, and at the halt every individual must have gained his proper post.