Guides Posts is a Civil War manual devoted to necessary company and division drill for reenactors and is targeted at the newest soldier through the most seasoned company commander.

    The manoeuvers detailed in the period manuals penned by William Gilham, Silas Casey and William Hardee are generally the same. Each manual commenced with schools of the soldier then proceeded to the schools of the company and battalion. This scattering of concepts has caused many reenactors to miss the nuances between how a manoeuver is handled in the lower schools and in the higher schools. Guides Posts retains the specific language from these period manuals, but otherwise discards the old system by combining topics from the different schools and reorganizing them into new topics constituting one large school of several subparts.

    The base manual for Guides Posts is General William Hardee’s revised and improved manual of 1862. Just as one cannot modernize Shakespeare, the language and grammar from Hardee’s manual have been retained. Where Hardee was unnecessarily vague, other period sources were consulted to clarify the sometimes confusing concepts of 19^th Century drill. For conversion purposes, a table cross references the paragraphs used herein with those written by Hardee, Casey and Gilham. Generally, references are to the first numbered paragraph of the movement. Where principles have been merged or combined, extra references are noted for said movement.

    The recommended weapon for reenactors is the "three band" musket, but most learn the drill from a widely available reprint written for the "two band" rifle. Guides Posts replaces that reprint by detailing the correct drill for the weapon actually used by nearly all infantry reenactors. Relevant differences between Hardee, Casey and Gilham are noted in the appendix.          

    Due to fundamental differences between the manuals of arms in the three texts, not all the different movements for all the manuals of arms is included. For example, Casey’s manual for the musket is similar to Hardee’s manual. Where differences exist, the complete paragraphs of Casey’s are included in the appendix. To include the musket manual from Gilham’s or the smoothbore manual from the 1861 U.S. Tactics would add considerable size to this already large manual. It would also go beyond the scope of Guides Posts which covers the commonalities of manÉuvres, not differences in weaponry.

    As the overwhelming majority of reenactors perform the movements associated with arms at the right shoulder, it is the chosen method for this manual. The author prefers the old smoothbore drill and would have preferred to highlight the smoothbore system, but the weight of numbers and accidents of history decided the issue, not personal preference.

    A unique feature of Guides Posts is that it translates platoon drill found at the end of the School of the Company into division drill. At events, pairs of small reenacting companies are generally reluctant to consolidate into platoons of one large company as they should do. To accommodate present practice of keeping companies intact, platoon drill has been converted into division drill per suggestions in the Schools of the Company and Battalion. The specific movements of guides and officers in divisions are throughly detailed. The period drawings of company manÉuvres in the appendix as shown were designed for platoon movements in a company and have been included as suggestions of how companies manoeuvre as a division. Because division drill is a great introduction to battalion drill, some aspects of battalion drill noted.

    Students of drill are encouraged to review the fascinating and much overlooked lessons in the Schools of the Battalion in the period manuals. The best modern summary of them is Dom Dal Bello’s indispensable Parade, Inspection, and Evolutions of the Line. His summary and Guides Posts complement each other rather than compete with each other. My hope is that P.I.E. and Guides Posts will share space in the knapsack of every student of drill rather than the exclusion of one manual over the other.

    Another feature of Guides Posts is the inclusion of the complete skirmish drill which has not been widely available. This has added some bulk to this manual, but skirmish drill needs to be taught from the original text rather than from fuzzy, anecdotal recollection.

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Last Updated 30 April 04 at 2115 hrs