One important thing to note: The picture you may have of the Hollywood Combat Moshpit of both sides being intermingled with each other? That's not how it'd go. Discard it from your mind. Whoever first breaks formation has lost, and any appearance of the Hollywood Combat Moshpit in real life means that shit has gone sideways.

More can always be said on the matter, of course, but as this exact question of combat identification is one of the more common warfare questions on the sub, here's a few previous posts for your perusal:

• u/WARitter goes into the various means of identification combatants had then;
• u/Goiyon looks at the same, and also notes the dimensions of combat then;
• u/J-Force observes relevant notes of organisation;
• but this, clearly the best answer, is one straight from His Majesty u/Henry_V_Rex.