A close order formation is a military tactical formation wherein soldiers are close together and regularly arranged for the tactical concentration of force. At about the time of the U.S. Civil War (1861–1865), such combat formations of soldiers became unnecessary, when improved small arms and artillery made a death trap of open ground for any formation so exposed. Hence, the technological concentration of much firepower to fewer soldiers rendered the close order formation obsolete by the end of the 19th century.
Famous quotes containing the words close, order and/or formation:
““We, we children, why our lives are circumscribed, circumferential;
Close, too close to the center....””
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds of our normal sensibility.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“Out of my discomforts, which were small enough, grew one thing for which I have all my life been grateful—the formation of fixed habits of work.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)