Yeah, the singing attack goes back a long ways in the history of most cultures. For example the singing attack of Baron Talifor against King Harold of England at the Battle of Hasting in 1066, during the Norman Conquest. That attack broke King Harold's line and gave the victory to a little known guy by the name of William the Conquerer.

The rolling attack is also good for defense. At the 125th Reeactment of Vicksburg in '88 I was in command of a company which was manning a corner of a redoubt. I had my company in two ranks with half my company facing one angle and the other half at a 90 degree angle manning the other side.

The enemy (bluebellies)attacked the angle manned by the right half of my company. At the range of 30 yards I gave the order to "fire by ranks", "1st rank Fire". The first ranks fired a beautiful volley and the second rank advanced. At the same time I gave the orders for my #2 platoon to "about face" and to "left wheel" into line.

By this time my rear rank 1st platoon had again delivered their volley as my rear rank of 2nd platoon moved to the wall behind them and delivered their volley follow by the front rank of 2nd Platoon. At this point those men who where reloaded simply handed the muskets to the front who kept up the volume of fire.

At that point my company was so mixed up as far as formation goes that there was little order left except for the men to do their job on their own. But the point was that the attack was completely broken up by the sudden application of four volleys delivered in quick secession and the sustained volume of fire afterwards. Their attack shifted to another portion of our fortifications and we were relieved by the battalion reserves so we could rearm and resupply our ammunition.

So you can do a lot of things with a well trained command. I think I only had to give those few commands during the whole fight until we were relieved. Our colonel said afterward that he had never seen such a slick manuver before.