Pivot

( Pivot, Fr. ) in a military sense, that officer, serjeant, corporal, or soldier, upon whom the different wheelings are made in military evolutions. There are two sorts of pivots distinguished according to the position of the troops who are governed by them, viz. standing pivot and moveable pivot. When a battalion, for instance, stands in open column of companies, the right in front, the last man upon the left of the front rank of each company, is called the inner, or standing pivot; and the first man upon the right ditto, is called the outer pivot, or wheeling flank. So much depends upon the accurate position of the different pivots, that no movement can be thoroughly correct unle the most scrupulous attention be paid to them. Officers, in particular, ought to recollect that when they are posted upon the flanks, they become e entially nece ary to the preservation of that perpendicular and parallelism of a march, without which direction the best digested manœuvres must be ultimately rendered usele . They must constantly bear in mind, that it belongs to the mounted field officers to watch the aggregate, and that they themselves, being incorporated parts of the different divisions, are to move succe ively forward, with no other object in view than the perpendicular point before them. For if they once turn to the right or left, or become anxious about the movements of others, instead of being the means of insensibly correcting any errors that might casually occur, they will deviate themselves, and at every step increase the irregularity. On this account, the instant an officer has wheeled his division, he must resume his perpendicular position, look stedfastly on his leading pivot, preserve his relative distance, and keep his person perfectly square. He ought likewise to be particularly correct in stepping off when the wheel is completed. Moveable Pivot , one which during the wheel of its division advances in a circular direction, instead of turning on the spot where it originally stood. Thus when divisions, . are succe ively wheeled, without being first halted, the pivot upon which they wheel is said to be moveable . In the drill, single ranks are frequently wheeled on a moveable pivot. In which case, both flanks are moveable, and describe concentring circles round a point which is a few paces from what would otherwise be the standing flank; and eyes are all turned towards the outer pivot or flank man, whether he is on the outward flank, or on the flank wheeled to.