Yet even West Point occasionally varies from the "Tactics,"-- as, for instance, in requiring the line officers to face down the line, when each is giving the order to his company.

In our strictest Massachusetts regiments this is not done.
It needs an artist's eye to make a perfect drill-master.

Yet the small points are not merely a matter of punctilio; for, the more perfectly a battalion is drilled on the parade-ground the more quietly it can be handled in action.

Moreover, the great need of uniformity is this: that, in the field, soldiers of different companies, and even of different regiments, are liable to be intermingled, and a diversity of orders may throw everything into confusion.

Confusion means Bull Run.
I wished my men at the review to-day; for, amidst all the rattling and noise of artillery and the galloping of cavalry, there was only one infantry movement that we have not practised, and that was done by only one regiment, and apparently considered quite a novelty, though it is easily taught, -- forming square by Casey's method: forward on centre.