Evolutions

As mentioned in the Drill section, as reenactors we generally don’t drill and march enough to develop a true mastery of these skills.  If each soldier, however, understands two basic maneuvers – the Wheel command and the Turn command – he can successfully complete any evolution on the field.  The challenge is for the officers and NCOs to translate the evolution (forming a line when in column formation, for example) into those wheel and turn commands. 

We have created animated training sessions which illustrate the orders, the steps, and the specific motions for the Turn command and four of the most useful field evolutions. Simply click on a link and that will launch a new window in your browser. Please note that these are Flash files. Basic instructions and trouble-shooting, if you need them, are found below.

• Turn Command
• Line to Column
• Column to Line
• Advance by Files
• Forming a Battalion

Help Viewing the Evolutions:

When you click on one of the links above, you should have a new browser tab or window opened with a Flash file. This will include:

• the name of the command or action that is to occur
• a list of what is supposed to happen
• how many pages are in the animation (shown at the upper right)
• the "soldiers" (shown as little red arrow)
• at the activity buttons at the bottom, such as this example:

Press the MARCH button to begin the animation.

Press PAUSE to stop the animation at any time.

One one page has completed it's animation, press NEXT to go on to the next step/page in the command. In many cases, the next pages are further clarification. Press MARCH again to being.

Press REPLAY to restart the page you are on.

Press RESTART to return to the beginging of page 1.

If you recieve an error message, you probably do not have Flash installed and need to install the free Adobe Flash Player software.