might have been made
smaller considering the size of your platoon (6 squads), but I think
the squad outpost is so much better than one not composed of a
complete unit, that it is correct in this case. With Corporal Evans'
patrol of three men, the visiting patrol requiring six men, the
sentinel post requiring three men, Sergeant Barnes, and the two
outguards, you have thirty men actually on duty or detailed for duty,
out of fifty-one. Of course, the men constituting the outguards, the
man detailed for the visiting patrol and support sentinel, have
approximately two hours on duty and four hours off duty, so they get
some rest. Furthermore, you should have a three-man patrol watching
the crossroads at Salem during the night, Corporal Evans' patrol
having returned. This patrol should be relieved once during the night,
at a previously stated hour, which means six more men who do not get a
complete night's rest.

=Sergeant Adams:= Isn't Salem rather far to the front to send a patrol
at night?

=Lieutenant:= Yes, it is, but unless you touch the crossroads there
you would have to have two patrols out, one near Maxey's farm and one
on the Chester Pike. As it is you are leaving the road from York to
the crossroads in front of Outguard No. 1 uncovered, but you should
find that this is covered by a patrol from the adjacent support. The
cross roads in front of Outguard No. 1 is the natural place for a
stationary, night patrol, but it is so close to the outguard that the
benefit derived from a patrol there would be too small to justify the
effort.

(Note: Further details of the duties of this support can be gone into.
The messages should be written, and patrols carried through their tour
of duty with the resulting situations to be dealt with; the sentinels
tested as to their knowledge of their duties, etc. Also note carefully
the manner in which the support commander uses his noncommissioned
officers for carrying out his intentions, and thus avoids the most
objectionable and inefficient practice of dealing directly with the
privates.)

Problem No. 3 (Infantry)

=1079.= (See Fort Leavenworth map in pocket at back of book.)

=Situation:=

A Blue force, Companies A and B, 1st Infantry, under Captain A, in
hostile country, is covering the Rock Island Bridge and camped for the
night, April 20-21, on the south slope of Devin ridge (rm'). The enemy
is moving northward from Kansas City (30 miles south of Leavenworth).
At 3:30 P