Rank
Rank (German “Glied”), in military terminology, refers to soldiers standing side by side; closed when they are touching, open when they have space between them, as in fencing drills, etc. Distance (German “Gliederabstand”) is the free space between ranks standing one behind the other; in the German Army, for infantry, it is 64 cm from the chest of the rear soldier to the back of the front soldier, for cavalry, one step. The infantry of all military states has adopted the two-rank basic formation since 1870. “Gliederfeuer”, firing by ranks. About the four-rank volley, see volley.
The French infantry battalion above is deployed in line (of three ranks). Six files of grenadiers are positioned on the right flank, six files of voltigeurs on the left, and 24 files of fusiliers in the center. These 1:300 scale Heroics & Ros miniatures were painted with artist-quality acrylic paints, and they are mounted for the “Complete Brigadier” game system.
Source: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, 6. Auflage 1905–1909