Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age 1792-1815. Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics PDF
Preview Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age 1792-1815. Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics
FIGHTING TECHNIQUES NAPOLEONIC AGE OF THE FIGHTING TECHNIQUES NAPOLEONIC AGE OF THE 1792 - 1815 EQUIPMENT, COMBAT SKILLS, AND TACTICS ROBERT B. BRUCE lAIN DICKIE KEVIN KILEY MICHAEL F. PAVKOVIC FREDERICK C. SCHNEID THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS ST. MARTIN'S PRESS ~ NEW YORK Fighting Techniques ofthe Napoleonic Age Copyright © Amber Books Ltd 2008 THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS An imprint of St. Martin's Press. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. www.stmartins.com ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37587-4 ISBN-10: 0-312-37587-5 Editorial and design by Amber Books Ltd Bradley's Close 74-77 White Lion Street London Nl 9PF United Kingdom www.amberbooks.co.uk Project Editor: Michael Spilling Design: Zoe Mellors Picture Research: Terry Forshaw Printed in Dubai 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 The Role of Infantry 6 CHAPTER 2 Mounted Warfare 70 CHAPTER 3 Command and Control 130 CHAPTER 4 Artillery and Siege Warfare 170 CHAPTER 5 Naval Warfare 212 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 250 INDEX 252 CHAPTER 1 THE ROLE OF INFANTRY In the summerof1789, the political, social and economic upheavals that had plagued the French state f1nally erupted in crisis. The FrenchRevolutionwouldbring not justpoliticaland socialchanges but also a dramatic transformation in the conductofwar. U nlike the revolution in military affairs that began in Europe in the late fifteenth century and which was heavily influenced by the adoption of gunpowder weapons, the French Revolution altered warfare without introducing any major technological innovations. Indeed, the standard weapons, the smoothbore musket and cannon, had changed little in more than a century. It is true that there were minor incremental changes that made the flintlock musket and artillerymore efficient,buta soldierin the army of Marlborough would have easily been abletohandletheweaponsandtacticsusedbythe army of Wellington. Instead, the major changes THE CHATEAU OF HOUGOUMONT became afocalpointof Frenchforces during the battle ofWaterloo, drawing troops awayfrom the attack on theBritish centre. Here, troopsfrom the Coldstream Guards engage French troops assaulting the outside ofthe chateau. 7 FIGHTING TECHNIQUES OF THE NAPOLEONIC AGE were in the ways inwhich armies were recruited, military units, unit formations and methods of commandedandsupplied,andthese,inturn,ledto manoeuvre and combat. significant changes in the fighting techniques of The second factor that generated writings on the armies themselves. military theory was more philosophical and was The Revolution may have been the catalystfor embodied in the major intellectual movement of this transformation, but the French Army was the period,namelythe Enlightenment.Forthefirst certainly ready for change. For more than a few decades of the eighteenth century, its century, French officers had been debating a proponents, thephilosophes, dominated all areas number of military questions. There were two ofFrenchthought.The basis ofthe Enlightenment significant trends that influenced this debate,one was the synthesis ofreason,includingthe beliefin pragmatic,the otherphilosophical. naturallaw,theimportanceofclassicalmodelsand The pragmatic concerns that dominated systems, and the mathematical accuracy derived French military discussions centred on the from Newtonian science.The confluence ofthese performance of the French Army during the two trends - the self-reflection of the French course of the late seventeenth and early military and the Enlightenment - led to a eighteenth centuries. From the wars ofLouis XIV tremendous surge in the number of works of through to the American War for Independence, military literature produced as the century the army's performance had been mixed, to say progressed.This is particularly true of the period the least. Several major defeats had cost the from the SevenYearsWarthrough to the outbreak monarchydearly,especiallyintermsofitsoverseas of the revolutionary wars. In keeping with the possessions, including territory and influence in spirit of the age, many of these publications North America and India. Like many institutions attemptedto discernanorderly'system'thatcould with a tarnished reputation, the}army recognized be applied to the conduct ofwar. that such a lacklustre performance required serious self-reflection to overcome the L'Ordre Profonde deficiencies that had led to so many defeats.The One ofthemostheatedtopicsinmilitaryworksof fundamentals of military organization and tactics the period concerned the properformation to be began to be discussed, and a number of officers used in warfare. In the course of the latter wrote treatises that dealt with all manner of seventeenth century and throughout most ofthe subjects,including equipment,the organization of eighteenth century, the trend had been to thin, linear formations, which had been generally standardized to a depth of three ranks, allowing FRENCH INFANTRYCOMPANIESfrom 1791 to 1808 deployed in three ranks as shown in the Reglement the largest number of muskets to be brought to du 1erAout 1791.Thisformation was the building bear when firing. During theWar of theAustrian block ofFrench tacticalformations. Lines were Succession and the SevenYearsWar,Frederick the formed byplacing companies one beside another Great (1712-86) and the Prussian Army had while differentcolumns were createdbyplacing shown themselves to be the masters of this companies in deeperformations, usually nine or 18ranks deep. fighting technique. Some French military writers D 1 21 PRIVATES BDDDDDDDDDDB BDDDDDDDDDDB [I] 2 DRUMMERS DDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDD B 8 CORPORALS BDDDDDDDDDDB BDDDDDDDDDDE3 ~ 1FOURRIER ~ 4SERGEANTS ~ 1 SERGEANT-MAJOR o 2 LIEUTENANTS [I] 1 CAPTAIN 8
Description:The list of books you might like
