That was a pretty good read, thank you.
On a side note - I got on the drill team at my base and the commands that we use today are very similiar, but for some stupid reason the letter "H" is added to the beginning of a lot of commands.. eg. Stand at hease, left/right flank harch (which I don't recall seeing in your manual, but it may not have existed back then), forward harch, port harms, present harms, et cetera.
When the commands are given, sometimes they throw in other random letters to (for example order arms is said orderp harms)
Again, I'd like to clarify that I don't know how long it's been like this, so I would say don't change anything in your Manual of Arms, unless you investigate it, and dig up new information.
All in all, if a poll was added to rate the content of your manual, on a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give it a 6.
*edited after this*
On your "by files right/left" picture... the guy on the inside turn (or 4th column in that picture) should be half stepping it, the guys in the 2nd and 3rd columns should be doing approximate normal steps and the guy in the first column should be taking longer steps. Obviously in an opposite turn, this would be switched around.
Edited by Thee Pirate, 16 August 2009 - 12:43 AM.