Advances in Europe’s Art of War, 1600–1750 129his predecessors in being far more systematic. He analyzed the rather
complicated movements required to load and fire matchlock guns^10
into a series of forty-two separate, successive moves and gave each
move a name and appropriate word of command. His soldiers could
then be taught to make each movement in unison, responding to a
shouted word of command. Since all the soldiers moved simulta
neously and in rhythm, everyone was ready to fire at the same time.
This made volleys easy and natural, creating a shock effect on enemy
ranks. More important, soldiers loaded and fired their guns much
faster and were much less likely to omit any of the essential steps. The
result was to make handguns more efficient than ever before, and
Maurice increased their number in proportion to pikes accordingly.
He also regularized marching. By keeping in step, all the men in a
unit could be taught to move in prescribed patterns, forward or back,
left or right, shifting from column to line and back again. The most
important maneuver of Prince Maurice’s drill was the countermarch,
whereby, having fired their weapons, a rank of arquebusiers or mus
keteers marched between the files of the men standing behind them,
and proceeded to reload in the rear while the men in the next rank
were firing their pieces. With practice, and with an appropriate
number of ranks, by the time the first rank’s guns were again fully
loaded, each of the other ranks had fired and retired in its turn, allow
ing the soldiers of the first rank to fire their second volley without
obstruction or delay. In this fashion, a well-choreographed military
ballet permitted a carefully drilled unit to deliver a series of volleys in
rapid succession, giving an enemy no chance to recover from the
shock of one burst of fire before another volley hit home. The trick
was in the timing, and in preventing men from fleeing the battlefield
entirely when they turned their backs on the enemy in order to reload
in the rear. Oft-repeated drill, making every movement semiauto
matic, minimized the possibility of breakdown. Closer supervision of
the rank and file by an expanded cadre of officers and noncoms was also
necessary to make the countermarch practicable. But when everything
went as intended, the pay-off was spectacular.
Maurice’s third reform both made drill more effective and was itself
made effective by repeated drill: to wit, he divided his army into
smaller tactical units than had been customary before, in imitation of
- The gun had to be loaded with powder, followed by a wad to hold the powder in
position; then a ball and a wad to hold the ball in place; then the primer pan had to be
filled with a different sort of powder. The lighted match (held in the meanwhile in the
left hand) was then affixed to the firing mechanism and the gun was at last ready to be
aimed and fired. The match had to be detached from the gun before the cycle could be
safely repeated.