CHAPTER VIII
MORE PROBLEMS OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE FIELD ORDER
(3) Order for Position in Readiness
1.—You are Major General Tuttill in command of the 10th Division of the 3d Corps, which is at Taneytown. On June 3, 1952, your division has been designated to keep a certain force of the enemy out of a battle which is going to take place with your whole army. This hostile force is directly in your front. You determine therefore to take up a position in readiness on the south side of Pipe Creek. You have been encamped with the outpost. You want this outpost and the cavalry which is attached to your command, to watch out for the retirement of your whole division to this position in readiness. After that, this whole outpost is to withdraw to Keymar. They are to get to Keymar by going over the road through Bruceville. The commander of the outpost will be notified when he will begin this withdrawal. The enemy, you have learned, is directly in your front and has gone into camp along Piney Creek near the village of Piney Creek toward the north. The third brigade is to start at 4 o’clock in the morning and is to march directly to Keymar, and the artillery brigade, all but one battalion, will start out at the same hour and will go around by Otterdale mill and will go to Montunion Church. The first brigade should march the very same hour with its destination to be near the vicinity of a small amount of woods, which are about 1,000 yards in a southerly direction from Trevanion. Your army on this very day crossed the Monocacy. During the expedition, they don’t meet with very much opposition, so that they intend on the next day to attack the main body of the enemy which is somewhere in the vicinity of Mt. Ary. Your signal company should leave the third brigade. When the signal company gets to Keymar, it should connect up that place with the station of the first brigade; it should put in on this line a station for the artillery brigade. In addition, the signal company ought to keep up a line of communication with the outpost until the outpost is withdrawn. You, as the commanding general of this division want to notify all your troops about a certain fact which applies to every one—namely, that the staff officers should go along with the infantry brigade before mentioned, and should pick out and mark points which are to be entrenched. Your engineer battalion will start to march at the same hour as the other troops mentioned above. They are to strike then across to Middleburg and then they are to go to places which are to be picked out by the chief of staff, and when they get to those places they are to assist in the entrenching. You decide that you are going to go to Taneytown and stay there until the outpost is withdrawn. You want the field trains to start out at three o’clock in the morning, and these should go along and follow in the course which has been already designated for the respective units to which the field trains belong. These field trains are to cross the Pipe Creek and are to assemble at Woodsburg. All the other columns of the trains will start out at the same hour as the troops. The ammunition columns and the two field hospitals are to halt at Ladysburg; all the others halt at Woodsburg. You issue this order at 10 o’clock in the evening and you sign it yourself, and you send copies of this, your 10th field order of the campaign, to all officers who come to your headquarters to receive orders.
(4) The Defense Order
2.—You are Major General Standish. You have just received word that the enemy to which you are opposed has been very heavily reenforced and has now about two divisions in the town of Taneytown. Your main army is not going to leave until the 19th, and then it will get as far as Marshall probably. You are in command of the 21st division of the 8th corps, and you are south of Emmitsburg on the 17th day of May, 1945. You decide that you can’t do anything else but take up a defensive position. You accordingly want to make your division occupy a position extending from McKee Knob to the northeast. You want the second brigade, which is going to be reenforced by the first cavalry and also by the 2d battalion, 1st field artillery to cover this movement, to take up a defensive position. General Calhoun of the second brigade has to put in place of the infantry of his brigade on the southern line of outpost, certain cavalry patrols. These cavalry patrols will come from two corps which have been sent to General Calhoun, or at least have been ordered to report to him at Motters at one o’clock in the morning. General Calhoun should relieve the outpost of the third brigade at two o’clock in the morning, and of the first at three o’clock in the morning. The first brigade, after its outpost is relieved, should immediately take up the march, going up the road which runs through Emmitsburg and Liberty Hall School House. It should halt when it gets northeast of 656. General Calhoun has to be placed in command in order to carry out his part of the situation as to certain other troops—in fact, the 2d battalion of the 1st field artillery, and the 1st cavalry, should now become a part of his command. The 2d battalion of the 1st field artillery is at the northeastern outskirts of the town of Emmitsburg, and the 1st cavalry has its headquarters at Fairplay; he will begin to command these troops at two o’clock in the morning. You write, at 11 o’clock at night, your sixth field order and send copies by Lieut. Fright to Generals Byrd, Carr, Dale, and to Colonel Fink and Captain Hervey. You read the message off to your staff and report by telegraph to army headquarters what you have done. You decide to have your third brigade, after this outpost is relieved, march by way of Emmitsburg from Four Points. Then the brigade is to march by the road just east of McKee Knob to a position half a mile north of 587; there the brigade will halt. General Calhoun should delay the crossing of the river by the enemy. He should do this as much as he is able, but he should not become too closely engaged with the enemy. You decide that you will be at Emmitsburg until after 5 o’clock in the morning; then you are going to be at Liberty Hall School House. The signal company will take up what lines it has laid down after two o’clock in the morning. Then one-half of the company will report to Brigadier General Calhoun, and the remainder of the signal company will proceed to join the 3d brigade. You want your entire command to know that there is to be on no occasion any unnecessary noise and that this noise is to be avoided at all hazards. You do not wish a bugle call to be sounded before the sun rises.
3.—On the 4th of June, 1964, you are Major General Boswell in command of the first division of the fourth army corps. Your division is west of Gettysburg. You hear that the enemy in your front is at Cashtown and has been heavily reenforced. The troops for these reenforcements have come from his main army. This gives you the idea that you had better take up a defensive position; you had better take up this position astride the road which you now are on and you must hold this position throughout the day. Your third brigade should start right away to make preparations for the defense. They should take up a line in their defense preparations extending from somewhere east of Seven Stars, and should continue this line to the southwest for about three-quarters of a mile. The first cavalry should send two platoons to report to the Major who commands the engineer battalion near Moonsburg. These should be sent if the enemy advance in force, and they should be sent with the patrol on your right flank. The main body of this cavalry should patrol the left of your line to cover it. The 2d brigade will prepare for defense a line extending from near Seven Stars northwest. It should extend this line until it reaches the farm road which crosses the ridge. The 1st brigade will be the reserve. They are going to be under your direct orders; they should therefore remain midway between Knoxburg and 597. There is a road fork there where they should stay. The engineer battalion will go at once and prepare the high ground southwest of Moonsburg for defense, and in this defense which they will make at this point, they are to act as a right flank guard. The ambulance companies will be held near the north end of Herr Ridge. You have a second field hospital which you have established at Gettysburg and you want it to stay there. You want your first, third, and fourth field hospitals at the western outskirts of Gettysburg. You want these first, third, and fourth field hospitals to assemble by the road somewhere there. Company A of your signal corps you decide to have lay certain lines. All these lines should go from the position of the reserve to the second field artillery, and on this line there should be a station so that the commander of the second brigade could cut in, and then Company A also should lay a line from the first field artillery to the reserve. On this line also, the commander of the third brigade should have a station where he can go. The signal company also ought to arrange to have receiving stations for flag signals for the engineer battalion, and ought to do the same thing for the cavalry on the left flank. Two wagon companies of small arms ammunition should be held near 585, and another wagon company of artillery ammunition near 587. You are going to be at Division Headquarters at 597. Your second field artillery should set out at once to the road leading southwest about half a mile from Moonsburg; it should move around the Moonsburg road to do this. It should then go by this road, which leads southwest, to an intersection of that road to the next farm road. The Colonel of the second field artillery should prepare a position in this vicinity which would be capable of supporting the entire line of defense when this line was attacked. The first field artillery should go about half a mile south of this camp; it should proceed around by the road parallel to the Chambersburg road, and should go as far as a point one mile south of Seven Stars. When it gets there it should select and prepare a position to support the defense. You want all the other trains which you have not mentioned not to move out from where they are, but want them to be ready to move in any direction at your command. You know that your main army is going to attack the weaker hostile force, which is in its front, on the very morning your order is issued. You also know that if your own army is successful in this attack, it will send you later some reenforcements if you really need them. You write this order at twenty minutes of five in the morning. You send copies of this, your sixth field order, since the beginning of the campaign, to all officers who have been sent under your order to receive them.
(5) Retreat Order
4.—On May the 2d, 1919, at 4 a. m., you wish copies of this your 12th field order since the beginning of the year sent to the commanders of the first brigade, the artillery brigade, and the 10th cavalry by Lieut. Alber; to the commanders of the second brigade, the engineer battalion, the signal company, and the chief surgeon by Captain Cutts; to the commander of the third brigade, and to Major Quincy by Sgt. Donohue. Your name is Major General Slump. You are in command of the second division of the third army corps. Your division is at Platte City, Missouri. There are two divisions of the enemy who are coming down against Platte City from the north. You know this to be reliable information, and you know, also, that one division of the enemy went into camp last night before you found out that the outposts of that division were six miles north of Tracy on the road that runs through Tracy and Severn. The other division, you know, camped six miles further to the north. You give, in your order, the direction that the first brigade is to take up a position on the west end of the farm road which runs west from Nile. You want this brigade to be prepared to make all sorts of resistance—in fact, you want it to delay the enemy’s advance, and to hold this position until you order it to retire further. You decide really that your whole division should go into a position west of the Platte river. Your idea is that it should hold back the enemy there, and should hold it back sufficiently until the trains can be withdrawn. When the trains are all withdrawn, then you ought to be able to make an orderly retreat in the general direction of the Nile. At the crack of dawn the next day, you figure that the cavalry ought to begin going out and looking for the enemy with all possible speed and vigilance. And then, too, you think that the cavalry ought to look out especially for your left flank. Your second brigade should start out at ten minutes to five the next morning. It should go to “E” and should close up off the road near “E,” and should march by the B-D road. This brigade is to be the second line and it should take up such a position and be in such a state as to hold back any movement of the enemy which should come in this direction. If it is going to be necessary, this second brigade ought to cover the troops of the first line who are withdrawing. The engineer battalion should be ready to march out at half past four; it ought to follow immediately behind the artillery brigade until the engineer battalion gets somewhere beyond Tracy. The signal company will be ready to march at twenty-five minutes of five and to follow the battalion of engineers until the signal company gets to the southeast corner of Tracy. The advance should move out in this way: the supply trains, the ammunition columns, the bridge train, and the field hospital will march at a quarter of four and they should march toward Leavenworth. They should go by the road that runs two miles east of Platte City through 56 and 54. The field train of the first brigade will clear “15” at 4 o’clock. The field train of the second brigade, the engineer battalion, the signal company, ambulance companies, and division headquarters, in the order named, will move out toward 56 at half past five in the morning. These trains just enumerated will follow the division trains. The baggage of the third brigade, and the artillery brigade will proceed to Leavenworth and will go by the road which runs through 56 and 54. The baggage will go any prescribed distance as far as 50; during this move it will follow the third brigade. You want Major Quincy to be put in charge of all the division trains—in fact, you want him to be put in charge of all the trains that join his column, and you want him to regulate the march. You want messages sent to you between five o’clock in the morning and the time of the withdrawal of the first line to the small orchard which is between 13 and 15. After that time you want messages sent to you at “12.” One section of your artillery ammunition, and one section of your small arms ammunition are to be at a point between 50 and 52 at six o’clock in the morning. All the other sections of the ammunition column will be on the road between Alexander and “50” after one o’clock in the morning. The ambulance companies will march at 5:30 a. m., and park by the road near “B.” The road fork at “14” will be the collecting station for the slightly wounded. The artillery brigade will get into position as follows: one regiment about one mile north of “15,” the other somewhere near a mile north on the road 1,100 yards northwest of 13. The artillery command should open fire as soon as the enemy is seen anywhere, or, in any strength, at any time.
(6) Pursuit Order
5.—You are Major General Jervey in command of the 12th division 6th corps. You have just defeated the enemy, and you have defeated him so badly that he is retreating in great disorder in the direction of Gettysburg. You are near Cashtown when you issue your 12th field order of the campaign. It is twenty minutes to four in the afternoon, June 12, 1925, when you issue to your brigade commanders, and to Lt. Col. Miles, Colonel Forse, Major Good, and Captain Harrow copies of your order. You decide to pursue the enemy without any delay. You want your second brigade, which is now without the 6th infantry which ordinarily belongs to that brigade, to reform itself, and you want the second brigade at half past four to follow the third brigade in the general direction of Gettysburg. The third brigade, which is under the command of Brigadier General Dunn, you think ought to advance at once. You are going to reenforce it, however, with the second infantry, the second field artillery, and the first cavalry. The third brigade ought, by all reasonable surmise, to drive the enemy inside of Gettysburg or even beyond Gettysburg. After the third brigade with this reenforcement has done so, it ought to seize the whole of the McPherson Ridge and hold it. Two companies from the second brigade ought to be detailed to report to the division surgeon there. They should assist him in policing all the field. You are going to be at Seven Stars as soon as you can get there and you are going to start at five o’clock. All but one squadron of the first cavalry will move out by the north of Gettysburg. You plan that it shall be the first cavalry’s object to interrupt communication and delay traffic on the railroad there, and then it ought to reconnoiter in the general direction of the east. The first brigade you think ought to follow the first field artillery. The first brigade you figure should select two companies from its organization and detail them to report to the division surgeon. Those two companies should assist in policing all the battle-field. The first field artillery will follow the second brigade: this regiment should detail an officer and thirty men, and this officer and thirty men ought to do the same thing as the two companies from the first brigade were detailed to do. The division will have entire charge of the policing of the field. A field hospital ought to be established at Cashtown. Cars will be available for the division surgeon by five o’clock at Ortanna. The evacuation of the wounded, therefore, should be through Ortanna. The whole of the first battalion of engineers will report to the division surgeon and go under his orders.
(7) Halt Order
6.—You are Brigadier General Short; you are in command of a detachment from the first division. You have just decided that your whole command should go into camp for the whole night. Your command is at Bonnyville. You want to let your troops know that your cavalry has come in contact with hostile cavalry, and that this attack was made near Whitehall. About an hour after the issue of your message your cavalry drove back the hostile cavalry toward Littlestown. You want the second infantry to camp in a field southwest of the town in which your division is now located. You want your first battalion of your fourth artillery to camp in a field northwest of the same town. You understand from a patrol which has just reported to you, that at noon a column of the enemy was on the march going west, and that at that time the advance guard of this column of the enemy was at Center School House. You decide to place the first infantry in a camp northwest of Sweet Home School House. There this first infantry is to establish an outpost. The outpost is to extend from Hill 627 on the north, along through St. Luke’s Church up into a place called Coshun. You want to notify the first infantry of your command, that in case it is attacked, the line which has just been designated will be the one to be held. Your third infantry you want to have camp in a field north of the town in which you are. You want your field trains to join their organizations; that is, the organization to which they ordinarily belong, and you want this done right away. You yourself at your own headquarters are going to camp where the main street comes out of the western end of this town at which you are located. At one o’clock in the afternoon of June 2, 1930, you deliver this order verbally to your advance guard commander, to all your columns of infantry, to your artillery commander, and all your staff; you send one of your aides with a copy of the order to Major Kline of the fifth cavalry, Captain Quigley who is in charge of the train, and to Captain Supple of the signal corps. This is the 7th field order you have written in this campaign. Signal Company A is to be camped west of the second infantry, and the first ambulance company is to be near the signal company. All the ammunition companies are to be camped near the farm house called Lawrence. The first squadron of the 5th cavalry ought, you figure, to camp somewhere near and west of the artillery.
7.—The enemy has been retreating; he is continuing his retreat. Your troops know that he has been retreating, but they do not know that he is continuing his retreat. In fact, he is retreating in great disorder. He is retreating in such great disorder that he is offering no show of resistance to any of your troops who are pursuing him. You are Major General Plight in command of the first division of the first army corps. You are on the Baltimore Turnpike near White Run. You decide to have your advance guard camp north of Two Taverns and to establish an outpost line. They are to have a line of observation and keep on the alert on that line of observation which will extend from Bonnyville through Germantown to the cross-roads at 568. The first brigade will come between the two branches of White Run, which are north of the road just mentioned. The artillery brigade, with one battalion gone, will camp along the road which runs through the western branch of White Run. The ambulance companies, you figure, should camp south on the road just mentioned and west of White Run. Your division headquarters you decide to have placed west of the farm house. This farm house is located west of where the road you are on crosses over Rock Creek. You wish to tell your command that orders will be issued from these headquarters at nine o’clock. Your whole command, you decide, should halt for the whole night. Your second brigade should camp just north of the road where you are located, and just west of a road known by the name of Low Dutch. This 2d brigade should have a detached post which it will detail for outpost duty. Such a post should be in observation of the cross-roads at 530. This cross-roads is just west of the Mt. Vernon School House. The engineer battalion should camp south of the road you are on and east of White Run. The signal company should camp at a spot where the road you are on goes across Rock Creek. You want the signal company to lay a wire from there to the outpost, and you want the signal company to have a station on this wire or line at a place indicated by 489. You want your outpost to know that if they are attacked they will be supported by you. You give copies of this order to the officers who are sent from the various commands to get the orders. You issue the order at a quarter after two in the afternoon of June 2, 1935. They are the 77th field orders you have issued in this campaign. Your field trains ought to join their commands right off. You want the remaining trains to go into park on the main battle-field of Gettysburg. You decide that issues of supplies will be best made from the supply column and that these issues should be made at half past five in the morning. The place you decide from which such issues should be made is 523. Your supply wagons, which have been emptied, ought to proceed to Ortanna for the night. There they should fill up with supplies and come back and join early the next day.
(8) The Outpost Order
8.—You are Colonel Fluke of the 99th infantry, and you are located near Bonnyville. You decide to establish an outpost, and you decide that your regiment should go into camp in the vicinity of Sweet Home School House. The outpost should extend from Hill 627 at the northern extremity, and then go on through St. Luke’s Church, and should extend to the right fork at 587 at its southern extremity. This road fork at 587 is south of the Coshun place. You want the line of support to be held if you are attacked. Your line of support will be at one, two, three, four, and five, in order. Your support No. 1 will take a position near the road fork at 587, about a mile southwest of Bonnyville. This support will cover the sector from the stream on the west to the first stream on its east both inclusive. Frequent patrols will be made to the Baltimore Turnpike. You issue this, your first field order, at half past one on the afternoon of June 2, 1950. You deliver this order in person by reading it after you have assembled all your field officers, your staff officers, and your company commanders. You decide that you will be at the Sweet Home School House during the continuation of the outpost. Your cavalry on this very day came in contact with some cavalry of the enemy. About noon at Whitehall this occurrence took place. There your cavalry drove back the enemy’s cavalry toward Littlestown. From reliable patrols you get a report that at noon, the very same time that this occurrence took place, a large column of the enemy was seen to be coming west. The head of the advance guard of this platoon of the enemy was then at Center School House. Your Support No. 1, in command of Captain Link, will consist of Company G and four mounted scouts. Support No. 3, you decide to go into a position near St. Luke’s Church. It ought to be responsible for the sector of ground which you designate to extend from the stream about 500 yards south of St. Luke’s Church, on to a farm house 1,000 yards northeast from a point 500 yards south of St. Luke’s Church. You wish to include both these extremities in the sector of Support No. 3. Support No. 3 ought to patrol the road which runs past Whitehall School House. The reserve ought to camp near the Sweet Home School House. Support No. 5 should take a position on the north slope Hill 627; the duty of Support No. 5 ought to consist of connecting with Support No. 3, and of covering by their observations the road forks of 601 and 598. Support No. 5 will consist of 2d Lieut. Prince and the first section of Company I. Support No. 4 should go and take a position at a point on the Hanover road. This point is the place where the Hanover road joins with the Bihl farm road. Support No. 4 will cover the ground around Support No. 3, and the road fork at 597. This road fork is north of Square Corners. Support No. 4 will include in its observations the points mentioned as the extremities of this section. Support No. 2 should take a position somewhere near the road fork of 617; this road fork is just about a mile and a quarter south of the camp where you are. Support No. 2 should cover the territory which is included in the ground around the stream, which is west on the road for 617, to a point 500 yards east of this road fork. The reserve should consist of the first infantry, of which five companies will already have been taken out, and also fourteen scouts. You want the wagons of the field trains to go ahead right away and join the organizations to which they ordinarily belong. Support No. 3 is to be under the command of Captain Nutt, and is to consist of Company H and six mounted scouts. Those wagons of the field trains, which belong to the companies in support, will join the wagons of the regimental headquarters; they will do this by eight o’clock in the evening. Support No. 3, under the command of Captain Nelson, will consist of Company I, excepting the first section, and two mounted orderlies. Support No. 2, under the command of Major King, will consist of the second battalion, all except Companies G and H and will also consist of four mounted scouts. You want to tell your troops that your brigade to which your regiment belongs is about to go into camp in the vicinity of Bonnyville.
March Orders with Advance and Rear Guard
9.—On the 4th of September, 1956, you are Major Britton. You are in command of the fourth division of the 19th army corps and you are about to issue an order which will keep your division on the march on the next morning; you have been marching. At 10 o’clock at night you issue your order near Abbottstown, stating that you yourself are going to be at the head of your main body. You feel that you should march in the general direction of York on the next day. Your main body in this order of march will consist of the first infantry, of the second battalion of the 8th field artillery, of the third brigade, of signal company “D,” and of the four ambulance companies. Your main body should move out so as to come along behind the advance guard, so that the tail of the advance guard will be 1,000 yards ahead of the head of the main body itself. Wagon trains should move out so that they in turn will come along behind the main body, so that the head of the lead horses will be 1,000 yards behind the tail of the main body. You are in such a position between two large forces of the enemy that you must have a rear guard. This rear guard will be in command of Major General Huff. It will consist of the first cavalry division, of the second brigade, of the 7th field artillery, of the 4th battalion of engineers, and of the 1st, 2d, and 3d ambulance companies. You hear that the enemy has probably been reenforced and that this reenforcement probably consists of a brigade of cavalry. You also hear, just when you issue this, your 7th field order of the campaign, that there are some hostile infantrymen near York, say, about a brigade. The rear guard, you figure, ought indeed to keep the enemy in check. A rear guard of this nature ought to resist any advancement on the part of the enemy until your advance guard can open a road through York. The first cavalry division, you have knowledge, is bivouacking near where you are. It has, indeed, reported for duty in connection with the work of the division.
The idea of the last two chapters has been to put a jumbled military decision into good working form. The object has not been to solve tactical problems, but rather to put the ideas correctly expressed into their logical places.