[COUNTER- 6.]
1. A march in the contrary direction; a march back. Also fig.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, II. i. 28. Keeping well their arayes, in march, countermarch, [etc.].
1679. Everard, Prot. Princes Europe, 12. By the divers Marches and Countermarches which these two Armies made.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., VI. 441. To give General Leith’s corps the trouble of a countermarch.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, II. 507. Wasting time and strength in a march towards the seashore, and a countermarch back to the Telegraph.
2. Mil. An evolution by which the front and rear, or the right and left file, of a body of cavalry or infantry change places, the original order of the files being retained. Now Obs.
The front rank turns to the right and marches off, while the rear rank does the same to the left, each wheeling close round the end toward which it marches, and thus stepping into the place of the other, but facing in the opposite direction. It is now superseded by ‘changing ranks,’ in which the whole simply face about, and number off anew, the rear rank then becoming the front.
1635. Barriffe, Mil. Discip., xviii. (1643), 56. A part-Countermarch is when one Moity or part of the body, countermarcheth, [etc.].
1678. A. Lovell, Fontaine’s Duties Cav., 9. Of Counter-marches.
1796. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1803), 131. The Countermarch changes the front and flanks of a body, and faces it to a rear, and is equivalent to a wheel of the half circle made on any of its parts or points.
1847. Infantry Man. (1854), 55. Countermarches by files … tend to an extension of the files.
1884. Field Exerc. Infantry, 84. On the word Front, the guides will change flanks and take post as before the counter-march.
