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A close order formation is a military
tactical formation Element: A group of soldiers A tactical formation (or order) is the arrangement or deployment of moving military forces such as infantry, cavalry, AFVs, military aircraft, or naval vessels. Formations were found in tribal societies such as the ...
in which soldiers are close together and regularly arranged for the tactical concentration of force. It was used by
heavy infantry Heavy infantry consisted of heavily armed and armoured infantrymen who were trained to mount frontal assaults and/or anchor the defensive center of a battle line. This differentiated them from light infantry who are relatively mobile and l ...
in
ancient warfare Ancient warfare is war that was conducted from the beginning of recorded history to the end of the ancient period. The difference between prehistoric and ancient warfare is more organization oriented than technology oriented. The development of ...
, as the basis for
shield wall A shield wall ( or in Old English, in Old Norse) is a military formation that was common in ancient and medieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation, but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to should ...
and
phalanx The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly ...
tactics, to multiply their effective weight of arms by their weight of numbers. In the
Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Ren ...
, Swiss pikemen and German
Landsknechts The (singular: , ), also rendered as Landsknechts or Lansquenets, were Germanic mercenaries used in pike and shot formations during the early modern period. Consisting predominantly of pikemen and supporting foot soldiers, their front line wa ...
used close order formations that were similar to ancient phalanxes. Around the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
(1861–1865), such
organizations An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...
of soldiers became uncommon since improvements in
firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
and
artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during si ...
had made any such dense formation increasingly hazardous and less effective. The technological concentration of increased firepower to fewer soldiers had rendered the close order formation obsolete by the end of the 19th century. Modern infantry now use skirmish order, which is effectively the opposite of close order.


Antiquity

Images from the Sumerian kingdom from the 3rd millennium BC clearly show men with
spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastene ...
s in close order formation. That tradition continued in the ancient world with the
phalanx formation The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly u ...
of the
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, ot ...
and later the
Ancient Macedonians The Macedonians ( el, Μακεδόνες, ''Makedónes'') were an ancient tribe that lived on the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios in the northeastern part of mainland Greece. Essentially an ancient Greek people ...
. The Greek phalanx fought with the
aspis An aspis ( grc, ἀσπίς, plural ''aspides'', ), or porpax shield, sometimes mistakenly referred to as a hoplon ( el, ὅπλον) (a term actually referring to the whole equipment of a hoplite), was the heavy wooden shield used by the i ...
, a large round bronze faced shield and a large spear. The frontage per man was the width of the shield (about 3 ft), and the normal formation depth was four to eight men. The later Macedonian phalanx used a smaller shield but replaced the spear with a
sarissa The sarisa or sarissa ( el, σάρισα) was a long spear or pike about in length. It was introduced by Philip II of Macedon and was used in his Macedonian phalanxes as a replacement for the earlier dory, which was considerably shorter. The ...
, a long pike used in two hands. The normal frontage per man remained the same, but the normal depth grew to 16 ranks. An innovation was the introduction of a "locked shield order" (synaspismos), with a frontage of only about 18 in. The
Roman legions The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of ...
also fought in close order by using the
pilum The ''pilum'' (; plural ''pila'') was a javelin commonly used by the Roman army in ancient times. It was generally about long overall, consisting of an iron shank about in diameter and long with a pyramidal head, attached to a wooden shaft ...
and the
gladius ''Gladius'' () is a Latin word meaning "sword" (of any type), but in its narrow sense it refers to the sword of ancient Roman foot soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those of the Greeks, called '' xiphe'' (plural; singular ''xi ...
on a similar frontage per man to the phalanx.


Middle Ages

In the early Middle Ages, infantry used the shieldwall, a formation in which shields were held edge-to-edge or overlapped. Close order was routinely used by infantry in the later Middle Ages, the intention being to avoid the enemy penetrating and disrupting their formation. A common literary image was that an apple should not be able to pass between their lances. In the 15th century, the Swiss developed pike tactics that used closely packed deep columns. A reconstruction of the deployment of
Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...
forces in 1443 gives a formation 56 men wide by 20 deep, the formation having a width of 168 ft and a depth of 140 ft. The Swiss main formation at the
Battle of Morat The Battle of Morat (also known as the Battle of Murten) was a battle in the Burgundian Wars (1474–77) that was fought on 22 June 1476 between Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, and a Swiss Confederate army at Morat/Murten, about 30 kil ...
consisted of 10,000 men, and experiments have estimated its area of as little as 60 m by 60 m. The knightly cavalry of the Middle Ages could also fight in close order, stirrup to stirrup.


Growth in firepower


16th century

From 1490 to 1520 saw the emergence of a consensus in military thinking that armies should be increasingly ordered on the battlefield and that neat, rectilinear formations were the key. The uniform bodies of pikes would be ordered based on an area occupied by a soldier of three paces frontage and seven paces depth, the soldier being positioned at the centre of the rectangle. Pikes did not stand alone on the battlefield, however, and new formations of horns or sleeves of shot were developed to support the pikeblocks with firearms. In the late 16th century, a system called countermarching was developed to enable an exchange of ranks of shooters. That led to the development of thinner formations and set tacticians on the road to developing the linear fire tactics of the 18th century. On horseback, the old knightly tactics slowly gave way to new tactics involving firearms, which led to the development of pistol-armed cavalry known as reiters, who specialised in manoeuvring in deep, close formations and practiced a tactic known as the
caracole The caracole or caracol (from the Spanish ''caracol'' - "snail") is a turning maneuver on horseback in dressage and, previously, in military tactics. In dressage, riders execute a caracole as a single half turn, either to the left or to the r ...
in which successive ranks of men rode forward, shot and retired to reload.


17th and 18th centuries

In the 17th century, European armies expanded their use of firearms, which were at first
matchlock A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Befor ...
weapons like
arquebus An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. Although the term ''arquebus'', derived from the Dutch word ''Haakbus ...
es. They were later supplanted by unrifled
musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually di ...
s fired by a
flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism itself, also know ...
mechanism, which became the weapon of choice because it could be fired relatively rapidly (six shots per minute). Because of their poor accuracy, such weapons were typically used in line formations in which a commanding officer would order
volley fire Volley fire, as a military tactic, is (in its simplest form) the concept of having soldiers shoot in the same direction en masse. In practice, it often consists of having a line of soldiers all discharge their weapons simultaneously at the enemy ...
to increase the chances of inflicting casualties on the enemy. Such tactics were used throughout the 18th century. Line formations were, however, not without risks. Line commanders and other field officers were often highly visible targets and became the target of
sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...
attacks as rifling technology, which significantly increased the range and accuracy of firearms at the expense of a substantially reduced rate of fire, began to see increased use in the late 18th century. Fortifications were designed to break up formations by reducing the effectiveness of volley fire or to expose them to
enfilading Enfilade and defilade are concepts in military tactics used to describe a military formation's exposure to enemy fire. A formation or position is "in enfilade" if weapon fire can be directed along its longest axis. A unit or position is "in de ...
fire. In the latter, an enemy that could fire down the length of a line with an inaccurate weapon or
cannons A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder dur ...
loaded with anti-personnel
grapeshot Grapeshot is a type of artillery round invented by a British Officer during the Napoleonic Wars. It was used mainly as an anti infantry round, but had other uses in naval combat. In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of ammunition that consists of ...
greatly increased their chances of hitting something. Another formation that saw use was the
infantry square An infantry square, also known as a hollow square, was a historic combat formation in which an infantry unit formed in close order, usually when it was threatened with cavalry attack. As a traditional infantry unit generally formed a line to adva ...
. Designed to defend against cavalry charges, an infantry battalion would form a square with the unit's
standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...
in the center, along with reserve forces. That formation enabled the defenders to fire on cavalry on all sides of the formation although there was some risk that fire from one square might reach other squares formed nearby. The effectiveness of a square depended on the ability of the infantry to hold their ground against cavalry charges.


Eclipse

In the 19th century, advances in firearms technology rendered the use of close formations obsolete. The widespread use of rifled artillery and the advent of reliable
breech-loading weapon A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition ( cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle). Modern firearms are generally br ...
s altered the tactical landscape. These weapons had a significantly increased fire rate compared to
muzzleloaders A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the modern (higher tech and harder to make) desig ...
, and technological improvements also simplified the targeting of large, mobile bodies of enemy forces. This, coupled with improved infantry weapons and automatic weapons such as the
Gatling gun The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon. The Gatling gun's operation centered on a c ...
and the
Maxim Gun The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian ...
, made close formations incredibly costly. A major exception was in the
Anglo-Zulu War The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the passing of the British North America Act of 1867 forming a federation in Canada, Lord Carnarvon thought that a similar political effort, cou ...
after the
Battle of Isandlwana The Battle of Isandlwana (alternative spelling: Isandhlwana) on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Eleven days after the British commenced their invasion of Zulul ...
. After that humiliating defeat, the British army found that close-order infantry formations were necessary to concentrate firepower to break the Zulu warriors' formidable massed charges. One of the last occasions involving the deployment in the face of the enemy of substantial numbers of British troops in close order occurred at the
Battle of Magersfontein The Battle of MagersfonteinSpelt incorrectly in various English texts as "Majersfontein", "Maaghersfontein" and "Maagersfontein". ( ) was fought on 11 December 1899, at Magersfontein, near Kimberley, South Africa, on the borders of the Cape Co ...
during the,
South African War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...
. The Scottish Brigade, consisting of 3,500 men shoulder to shoulder in 90 lines with a front of only 45 yards, moved forward in pre-dawn darkness to attack the entrenched Boer positions. Two of the four Highland regiments kept their tight formation with long ropes carried by the left hand man of each file. The result was a rout of the brigade after nine hours fighting, with nearly a quarter of the Scottish soldiers killed or wounded. In peace-time the major European armies persisted in training their infantry in close-order tactics that were to ensure very heavy casualties in August 1914. During the
Battle of the Frontiers The Battle of the Frontiers (, , ) comprised battles fought along the eastern frontier of France and in southern Belgium, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. The battles resolved the military strategies of the French Chief of ...
and the Battle of the Sambre the French attacked in shoulder to shoulder masses while at the
Battle of Mons A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
the German regiments went forward "as if advancing on a parade ground".


Military parades

Though of no military value under modern conditions,
military parade A military parade is a formation of soldiers whose movement is restricted by close-order manoeuvering known as drilling or marching. The military parade is now almost entirely ceremonial, though soldiers from time immemorial up until the la ...
s still feature soldiers standing and marching in close order formations for ceremonial purposes. Many armies maintain special ceremonial units, whose soldiers hold rigorous training in holding such formations, including armies established in the 20th century, which themselves have no experience of using such formations on the battlefield.


See also

*
Night attack formation Night attack formation refers to the arrangement of soldiers in advancing in attack at night. With the advances in arms that led to trench warfare, daytime attacks across open ground toward defensive positions became prohibitive and often futile. ...
*
Phalanx formation The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly u ...
* Shieldwall


References

{{reflist, 2


External links


Moving 17th. Century Soldiers
Website devoted to 17th. century drill which explains "close order" as it relates to pike and musket formation from the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...
era. Tactical formations of the Napoleonic Wars Tactical formations