126 Chapter FourClose Order Marching as Practiced in the Eighteenth Century
To march well and deploy large numbers of men swiftly into prescribed formations
took endless practice. The diagram above, opposite page shows how a regiment,
subdivided into two battalions and twelve platoons, ought to shift from line forma
tion to column of attack; and the etching below shows the regiment ready to advance
against the foe after completing the maneuver. Such drill had powerful psychological
impact on soldiers subjected to it, creating sentiments of solidarity and esprit de corps
in a fashion drillmasters only dimly comprehended.
Denis Diderot, A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry, edited by Charles Coulston
Gillispie (New York: Dover Publications, 1959; vol. 1, pi. 67). Facsimile reproduction from origi
nal Paris edition of 1763.
perses, to exercise the soldiers in the manual of arms and various
movements to the left and right and forward to teach them to
march well in small units.^7
Of course, Louvois’ concern with marching well was not entirely
new. But the history of drill in European armies before the turn of the
seventeenth century is very obscure. Swiss and Spanish pikemen in
their “hedgehogs” marched to the tap of drum,^8 and certainly strove to
keep a tight formation in the field so as to leave no gaps for attacking
cavalry to penetrate. Other infantry forces also marched in formation,
as had been true in antiquity as far back as the Sumerians. But drill,
day in and day out, practiced year round when on garrison duty, and
occupying spare time even when on campaign and in the field, was
something earlier armies had not, so far as one can tell, found either
necessary or sensible. Yet insofar as Louvois and his agent, Colonel
Martinet, were successful in making their will obeyed by French of
ficers and troops, routine drill became the daily experience of soldiers
coming off guard duty. One may well ask why.
The answer is that by Louvois’ time two generations of European
commanders had discovered that drill made soldiers both more obe
dient and more efficient in battle. The person principally responsible
for developing modern routines of army drill was Maurice of Nassau,
Prince of Orange (1567–1625), captain-general of Holland and Zee
land between 1585 and his death, and of the forces maintained by
other Dutch provinces for varying periods of time. Maurice was a- Translated from Camille Rousset, L’histoire de Lou rois, 4 vols. (Paris, 1862–64),
1:209. Garrison regulations settled down to a routine of drill exercises in the presence
of an officer twice a week, with the entire garrison parading in battle formation once a
month before a high-ranking officer or other important personage. André, Michel Le
Te Hier, pp. 399–401. - Roberts, Essays in Swedish History, p. 219.