About: Square Formation   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

A defensive posture for musket-armed infantry units, creating an impassible wall of steel to fend off cavalry attacks. As the name suggests, this is four two- or three rank lines of infantry arranged as a hollow square, with everyone facing outwards. It is a version of the obsolete pike "hedgehog", making any cavalry charge a suicidal advance. Bayonets are fixed to muskets when appropriate and possible.

AttributesValues
rdfs:label
  • Square Formation
rdfs:comment
  • A defensive posture for musket-armed infantry units, creating an impassible wall of steel to fend off cavalry attacks. As the name suggests, this is four two- or three rank lines of infantry arranged as a hollow square, with everyone facing outwards. It is a version of the obsolete pike "hedgehog", making any cavalry charge a suicidal advance. Bayonets are fixed to muskets when appropriate and possible.
dcterms:subject
Requires
  • Nothing
Leads
dbkwik:empiretotal...iPageUsesTemplate
stream
  • Military, Military
Building
Effects
  • * Enables infantry square formation * Enhances national prestige
abstract
  • A defensive posture for musket-armed infantry units, creating an impassible wall of steel to fend off cavalry attacks. As the name suggests, this is four two- or three rank lines of infantry arranged as a hollow square, with everyone facing outwards. It is a version of the obsolete pike "hedgehog", making any cavalry charge a suicidal advance. Bayonets are fixed to muskets when appropriate and possible. Forming a square requires good order in the ranks. The outer companies of an infantry unit in line have to "fold back" to form the sides and back of the square, without losing cohesion in the process. The unit colours take up station in the centre, a final rallying point should the square be broken. It is also possible to form larger squares with more than one unit. The square is, of course, a tempting target for enemy artillery. Whether it is better to form square in the face of cavalry and risk an artillery barrage, or stay in line to mitigate artillery fire and risk a cavalry charge can be a tactical conundrum! Theoreticians argued infantry could defeat a cavalry charge by firepower alone. Brigadier General Richard Kane (later Military Governor of Gibraltar) remarked, "If a body of Foot have by Resolution and keep their Order, there is no Body of Horse dare venture within their Fire..." but for him that fire was to be delivered from a square, not a line. He was arguing for discipline as the key to success.
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