Those traditions would make sense, how to find a unit, lets say the lowest number of a brigade, you would try to find it on the right side - when like being an ADC you would have to give the colonel a command.

Hans - Karl:

A great deal of sense. Everyone in the army, from the enlisted man up to the Commander knows where their unit is in the scheme of things. A general can look at a battleline from a great distance, and if he can count flags, he knows where everyone is. And of course, the ADCs etc. would also. That order of battle is why Stewart at Albuera, even under time pressures, waited for Colburne to take his place in front of the column of brigades, instead of starting out and having him come up in the rear. It mattered where Colburne was in the battle array.

Fifty years later, you see Longstreet do the same thing on the 2nd Day of Gettysburg. He waited for Hood's division to take the lead, even though it meant a delay of more than an hour instead of having McLaws lead.

The same process is seen from the company to the Corps. It is the KISS factor at work.

Bill