John Bright's Regiment of Foote

Part of the Roundhead Association in the English  Civil War Society
 

The Basics

Definitions: Any formation is made up of Ranks and Files. Files in the RA are always composed of 4 men (I will use men to mean men or women). A Rank is formed by putting your files alongside each other. Thus we should not have to ask any more "What frontage do you want?".

Within a formation there are various important positions. These are displayed on the following diagram (a)File Leaders,
(b)Bringers up, (c)Half-file Leaders, and (d) Front Half-file bringers up.

The body is further divided in to Half-ranks. These are Half-ranks to the Right (files 1-6) and Half-ranks to the Left (files 7-12). The lines show how Half-files divided into Half-ranks are formed.

The man with "Dignity" in the manoeuvring formation will control the movement and will be the base on which all dressings will rest. Where files or Half-files are the moving elements then the Right hand File leader(1a) or Half-file leader(1c) is the man. Where Half-ranks are moving the Right hand file leader of each half rank(1a & 7a) controls; if Half-files of Half-ranks are moving then the right hand File Leaders (1a & 7a) or Half-file leaders (1c & 7c) of the Half-ranks control. If that didn't confuse you too must then maybe we stand a chance of getting this to work.

When a unit forms up it has a Front, a Rear, a Left and a Right. The Front (or Front-proper) remains the front of the unit no matter what Face changes, doublings or counter marches are made. If the men are told to "Face to the right about" they turn to face the rear, this now becomes the Front-accidental, but not the Front-proper. The only way to change the Front proper is to "wheel". But more of that later.

As several of Barriffe's orders involve the use of the word "Division", meaning to divide the unit, We will not be using this term to mean a "block" within the whole body. Rather for this we will use the term "Squadron". This is not an excuse to don a helmet and goggles and say "wizard" and "prang" alot.

Right, with the basics out of the way, let’s head off to Doubling.