Staff ride

The term staff ride describes three different types of exercise, each of which is conducted on a particular piece of ground:

The classic staff ride (a direct translation of the German term Stabs-Reise) is a technique made famous by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder in the second half of the nineteenth century. While serving as chief of the Great General Staff of the Prussian Army, Moltke took his subordinates on riding tours of areas where, in the event of war, significant military events (such as battles or the deployment of large numbers of troops) were likely to occur. These exercises served the double purpose of training staff officers to appreciate the operational and strategic significance of particular pieces of terrain and informing contingency planning. The term "staff" refers to the fact that participants in these exercises were originally members of the Great General Staff. The term "ride" recalls the fact that these exercises were conducted on horseback.

The Prussian staff ride evolved to an intermediate stage between table-top war games and army maneuvers. In this expanded form of staff rides, the commanding officers and staffs would deploy in the field as if at war, but without troops, with 'teams' for both sides. Reconnaissance and movement orders were given to umpires, who decided what units would be sited or encountered, and when, passing the information back to the commanders and staffs. The exercise thus allowed the commanders to war game more realistically than on a table top. Critiques would take place at the conclusion of the staff rides. As an example, the Battle of Tannenberg was largely anticipated in one of Alfred von Schlieffen's pre-war staff rides.

The Leavenworth staff ride was introduced by Major Eben Swift of the US Army, while he was serving as assistant commandant of the General Service and Staff School (today's Command and General Staff College) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Like the classic staff ride, the Leavenworth staff ride was originally conducted on horseback. However, rather than studying the role that a particular piece of ground might play in a future conflict, the participants in a Leavenworth staff ride studied the ground associated with a battle or campaign that took place at some point in the past.

The staff rides conducted by Major Swift were invariably those of the American Civil War. For example, in 1906, Major Swift led a group of twelve students on a staff ride to the site of the Battle of Chickamauga.

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