Retreat

is also a beat of the drum, at the firing of the evening gun; at which the drum-major, with all the drums of the battalion, except such as are upon duty, beats from the camp colors on the right to those on the left, on the parade of encampment: the drums of all the guards beat also; the trumpets at the same time sounding at the head of their respective troops. This is to warn the soldiers to forbear firing, and the sentinels to challenge till the break of day, when the reveille is beat. The retreat is likewise called setting the watch. Chequered RETREAT , rétraite en échequier , Fr. It is so called from the several component parts of a line or battalion, which alternately retreat and face in the presence of an enemy, exhibiting the figure of the chequered squares upon a che board. All manœuvres of a corps retiring, are infinitely more difficult to be performed with order, than those in advancing. They must be more or le accomplished by chequered movements; one body by its numbers or position, facing and protecting the retreat of another; and if the enemy pre es hard, the whole must probably front in time and await him: as the ground narrows or favors, different parts of the corps must double; mouths of defiles and advantageous posts must be po e ed; by degrees the different bodies must diminish their fronts, and throw themselves into column of march when it can be done with safety. The chequered retreat by the alternate battalions or half battalions of a line going to the rear, while the others remain halted, cover them, and in their turn retire in the same manner, is the quickest mode of refusing a part of a corps to the enemy, and at the same time protecting its movement, as long as it continues to be made nearly parallel to the first position. In the chequered retreat , the following rules must be observed: the battalions of the division nearest to the enemy, will form flanks as soon as there is nothing in their front to cover them; but the other divisions will not have any flanks except to the outward battalion of each. The battalions always pa by their proper intervals, and it is a rule in retiring, that the left of each shall always pa the right of the neighboring one.—Whatever advantage the ground offers, those advantages must be seized, without too critical an observance of intervals, or minute adherence to the determined distance of each retreat. The division next the enemy must pa in front, through the intervals of the division immediately behind, and any battalion that finds it nece ary, must incline for that purpose. The retiring division must step out, and take up no more time than what is absolutely required to avoid confusion. The division nearest the enemy fires ; the flanks of its battalions only fire when the enemy attempts to push through the intervals. When that division retires it fires on, skirmishes by its riflemen, and if they have none, by men detached from the light companies, if any, or from platoons formed of rear rank men of one or two of the companies, and placed behind the flanks of the battalions. But should any of its battalions be obliged to halt and to fire, a shorter step must then be taken by the line; and should the enemy threaten to enter at any of its intervals, besides the fire of its flanks, such platoons of the line behind it, as can with safety, must give it support.