stile advance guard, I
will want to rush them out of their favorable position under cover of
the stone wall, buildings and orchard, before any more of their force
can come up. This would give the favorable position to our force; by
acting too cautiously we would lose the valuable moments in which the
enemy's reenforcements (next elements of the advance guard) were
coming up, with this desirable position being weakly held by a small
part of the enemy.

=Captain:= That is all correct. What messages would you have sent?

=Sergeant Adams:= Up to the present time I would not have sent any. I
could not have sent any. I could not afford to take the time to send a
man back, nor could I spare the man. Besides, all I could say was that
we were fired on, and you should be able to see and hear that from
where the company is.

=Captain:= About the time you reached the position of Corporal Baker
the firing ceases, and when you reach the wall you see five mounted
men galloping northeast up Farm Lane. The Brown farm appears to be
deserted.

=Sergeant Adams:= I would turn to one of the men and say, "Run back to
the Captain and tell him we were fired on from this orchard by a
mounted patrol of five men who are galloping off up a lane to the
northeast. I am going south." When he had repeated the message I would
start south down the Chester Pike, directing Corporal Baker to follow
this road south and to tell Davis to follow the high ridge west of the
road, going through the clump of woods just ahead. I would send one
man as a left flanker to follow the west bank of Sandy Creek. This
would leave me with two men, one watching for signals from the front
and along Sandy Creek, the other from Davis and from the rear. I would
expect to see a patrol from the company moving across towards Boling
Woods. Had I not been mixed up in a fight as I approached the Brown
farm I would have sent two men as left flankers across country to the
cut on the Chester Pike on the western edge of the Boling Woods.

=Captain:= Very good. That is sufficient for this problem. All of you
should have caught the idea of the principal duties of the point and
flankers of an advance guard. You must watch the country to prevent
being surprised and you must at the same time manage to push ahead
with the least possible delay. The point cannot be very cautious so
far as concerns its own safety, for this would mean frequent halts
which would delay the troops in rear, but it