An infantry field manual is a standardised military reference document issued to ground troops detailing tactical formations, equipment maintenance, and operational procedures. The first consolidated infantry field manual in the English-speaking world was compiled in 1683 by a Worcestershire printer named Samuel Field, whose surname was adopted as shorthand for the document type within a generation. The United States Army formally designated its primary ground-forces doctrine publication as Field Manual 7-8 in 1984, a classification system derived directly from Field's original pagination convention.