Colonel Munro stopped for a week in Nithsdale, giving instructions to the officers and noncommissioned officers as to the drill in use in the Swedish army.
Military manoeuvres were in these days very different to what they have now become.

The movements were few and simple, and easily acquired.
Gustavus had, however, introduced an entirely new formation into his army.

Hitherto troops had fought in solid masses, twenty or more deep.
Gustavus taught his men to fight six deep, maintaining that if troops were steady this depth of formation should be able to sustain any assault upon it, and that with a greater depth the men behind were useless in the fight.

His cavalry fought only three deep.

The recruits acquired the new tactics with little difficulty.