Military Tactical Formations
In military tactical formations, "linear formations" were adapted from phalanx-like formations of pike protected by handgunners towards shallow formations of handgunners protected by progressively fewer pikes. This kind of formation would get thinner until its extreme in the age of Wellington with the 'Thin Red Line'. It would eventually be replaced by skirmish order at the time of the invention of the breech-loading rifle that allowed soldiers to move and fire independently of the large-scale formations and fight in small, mobile units.
Read more about this topic: Linearity
Famous quotes containing the word military:
“Who are we? And for what are we going to fight? Are we the titled slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the Great? Or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar? No—we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world; and the only people on earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)