The Young Dragoon: Every Day Life of a SoldierDrayson, Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks)
History
The Young Dragoon: Every Day Life of a Soldier
Drayson, Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks)
Soldiers -- Juvenile fiction
In the first lessons as to position, the instructor should carefully
place the hands, arms, etc, of the recruit in the form desired. When he
is more advanced, he should not be touched; but from the example shown,
and the directions prescribed, be taught to correct himself when so
admonished. Recruits are not kept too long at any particular part of
their exercise, so as to fatigue or make them uneasy. Music is not used
in the early stages of the recruit's drill; and he is taught and
confirmed by habit alone to the cadence of step which he is afterwards
required to maintain in his march to the enemy, in spite of every
variety of noise and circumstance that may tend to derange him.
A very useful movement for a civilian to learn is to "change step." We
frequently see two persons walking together (often arm-in-arm) in
different steps, that is, while one is stepping forward with the left
foot, the other has his right foot advanced, which causes them to roll
and jostle each other in a very unseemly and awkward manner. To remedy
this, without stopping, one of the parties should complete his pace with
the advancing foot, and bring the toe of the other quickly up to the
heel of the advanced one, which instantly makes another step forward, so
that the cadence may not be lost, and both parties will then be found
walking "in step," each with the same foot in advance.
If any of my young readers will practise the movement according to the
above directions, they will be surprised at its simplicity, and the
rapidity with which it may be acquired, and it will be extremely useful
in after life, especially while engaged in the pleasing duty of
escorting their female friends, for nothing looks so ungainly as a
gentleman walking in one step and a lady in another. The "back step" is
a very useful movement in foot drill, by which the recruit is taught to
move straight to the rear, preserving his shoulders square to the front,
and his body erect. On the word "halt," the foot in front must be
brought back square with the other; only a few paces of the back step
is, however, necessary at one time, in military tactics. After the
cadence of the ordinary step has become perfectly habitual to the
recruits, they are able to march and manoeuvre in small squads, and are
taught to march in what is called quick time, which is 108 steps in the
minute, each of 30 inches, making 270 feet, or 90 yards in a minute.
The command "quick march" being given with a pause after the word
"quick," which is to be considered as a caution, the whole of the
recruits must remain perfectly still and steady, until the word _march_
is given, when they step off with the left feet foremost, keeping the
body in the same posture, and the shoulders square to the front, the
foot to be lifted off the ground, so that it may clear any stones or
other impediments in the way, and to be thrown forward and placed firm,
the whole of the sole to touch the ground, and not the heel alone; the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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