The signals for battle among the Greeks were of two kind!, either visible or auricular. The most an cient were lighted torches, thrown from both armies by the priets of Mars, whose persons were held in violable. The elevation of their ensigns, or flags, or a purple mantle raised upon the top of a spear, were also signals for battle. But these being laid aside, the sound of the shell and the trumpet indica ted the orders of the general, and animated the souls of the brave.. The Greeks then rushed into battle with a loud shout, to encourage themselves, and inti midate their enemies.
Amongst the Romans, signals were distinguished by the terms—vocal, semivocal, and mute. Vocal signals were the words given for the engagement by the general ; semivocal, by the sound of the trumpet, cornet, or buccina, which directed the army whether to halt or advance, to pursue the enemy or to retreat. Mute signals, were the eagles, dragons, standards, &c. which the soldiers followed wherever they mo ved. The troops • were accustomed to understand and to obey all these signals, whether in their quar ters, or on marches, in camps, or in battles. It was also customary for bodies of troops, at a distance from each other, to convey intelligence by fires in the night, or by smoke in the day.
Before joining battle, it was the practice of the generals to address their armies ; and the pages of the ancient historians are full of these harangues. They were adapted to the.occasion, and calculated to im press the soldiers with the justice of their cause, or to confirm their hatred to the enemy. By such ora tions they were often animated with new life and courage ; and sometimes retrieved their affairs, when desperate, in consequence of a seasonable appeal to their passions and patriotism. The great generals of antiquity were too well acquainted with the effect of these harangues to omit them on any important oc casion ; and they were followed by a shout from the soldiery, which still further stimulated their courage.
Haranguing the army, war cries, and shouts, were common to all nations ; and Tacitus has preserved the speech of Galgacus to our barbarous forefathers, before they engaged Agricola's army in the battle of the Grampians. In latter ages, the feudal chief tains of Scotland also observed this custom, and each clan had its peculiar rear-song, called shia,gan, slog gan, or slughonz, which are corruptions ot the Gaelic :iaenc.ixt Ott 1N, i. e. the war•song. These sluagh
orans were sometimes composed of a few words, and sometimes were of considerable length. Of the first kind is la/loch•arc!, (i. r. the high hill,) which was the war-cry of the Mackenzies ; Lochow, e. the water of the loch,) the war-cry of the Campbells ; and of the latter kind is the speech of Galgacus, which may have been repeated to the Romans by the Caledonian bards, who were the composers of such pieces, and therefore not altogether a fiction of the ' historians, as generally imagined. . , The invention of gunpowder introduced a' new era in the annals of war ; and, from the difference of the armour of the ancients and moderns, a difference in the disposition of an army in battle necessarily result ed. The power of artillery, and even of small arms, .rendered the phalanx, or deep column, totally useless, as the physical strength of met is of no avail against a ball projected by the force of gunpowder. Al . though the nature of the weapons now employed re . quire a disposition in battle different from that of; he most skilful captains of antiquity, yet the same prin _ ciple that guided the tactics of Epaminondas and Philip has been successfully adopted by some of the most celebrated generals of modern times. To ren der the assault irresistible in one point, that the con fusion produced there might be communicated to the whole line, was the object of the Theban hero, when he led his column in the shape of a wedge to attack the Lacedemouians ; and the phalanx of Philip of Macedon, in the battle of Chwronea, from the same cause, produced similar consequences. ,^ Frederick of Prussia imitated and improved the I tactics of these great men, and reduced their science I to a practical application that corresponded with mo dern weapons. The attack in flank, which had been considered as only incidental, became the principal action in his battles ; and to form unforeseen and skil ful dispositions in the moment of onset, or during the engagement, constituted his system in the field : . the principle of which is, that a greater front can be brought to act against a smaller ; and thus an army, • inferior in number, may surpass the enemy in exer tion on these particular points, where the attack is likely to prove decisive.