New to Napoleonic Warfare/battles

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Calvin809
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New to Napoleonic Warfare/battles

Post by Calvin809 »

I'm completely new to Napoleon and warfare of that era. How did a typical battle usually play out (if there can be a typical battle)? I've read a little about attack column which was interesting. Did they stay in column formation when they hit the enemy's lines or once they broke through was there another formation they utilized?
Jack ONeill
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Re: New to Napoleonic Warfare/battles

Post by Jack ONeill »

Cal,

Good Lord, where to start. Yes and no to the Typical Nap Battle. Light Cav out front in a wide screen to scout, locate the enemy and screen their own side, (with, generally, Dragoons in support). Infantry and artillery moving on separate roads forward towards the designated assembly areas. If the enemy was located, the Infantry Corps and Reserve Cavalry Divisions would concentrate towards that area, marching hard to get to their assigned battle positions. General Officers would ride ahead to determine avenues of approach and attack for the Infantry and Battery positions for the Guns. The Foot Artillery would open the fighting with long range bombardment on the enemies deploying troops. The Infantry would deploy to their assault positions as the Heavy Cavalry moved into supporting areas, Horse Batteries close at hand. Skirmishers would deploy forward to begin the assault, feeling out the enemy positions and screening their own side from the enemy skirmishers from doing the same thing. After a time determined by the Commander, the Battalions would advance. There were definitely columns of assault, again screened by hordes of skirmishers and, (on the French side), the formation L'Order Mixte was widely used. (For reasons of time, no discussion of the why of this right now). Heavy Cavalry was to advance and charge, driving off the Enemy Cav and forcing the enemy Infantry into square. While this was happening, the Horse batteries would rumble forward, unlimber and pour canister into the packed ranks of the squares, causing devastating losses. While this mayhem was going on, the Infantry Battalions would be advancing, preparing to charge the weakened squares before they could redeploy. All going well, a hole would be punched into the weakened enemy lines, whereupon the reformed Light and Medium Cavalry would be unleashed to harry and run down the retreating enemy troops, pouring through the gaps in the lines to complete the Victory.

That's the theory, anyway. Depending on who the enemy combatants were, there were definitely variations on this theme.

(Note) - the L'Order Mixte was a tactically flexible formation combining elements of both Line and Column. The standard French Regt was of 3-4 Battalions. In the advance it would deploy with two 1-2 Battalions in Line for firing and the other 2 in Columns on either end of the Line for Assault purposes. This was generally preceeded by a Skirmisher screen. Also, the Battalion columns were suppoed to deploy into line for firing before charging home, but depending of training, sometimes it was better to just keep them in column and charge that way.

Hope this helps.

Jack B)
Last edited by Jack ONeill on Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
American by birth, Californian by geography, Southerner by the Grace of God.

"Molon Labe"
Calvin809
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Re: New to Napoleonic Warfare/battles

Post by Calvin809 »

Thanks for the info! A lot more roles for the cavalry in battle it looks like. I've heard that Napoleon used artillery quite a bit. It seems like it would be quite useful to destroy attack columns if you could get your pieces in front or behind the column. Did he use artillery in a different way than usual at the time?
Last edited by Calvin809 on Sat Mar 08, 2014 1:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jack ONeill
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Re: New to Napoleonic Warfare/battles

Post by Jack ONeill »

Cal,

Yes he did. He was a gunner himself, having graduated from the Ecole Militaire, and then later the Royal Artillery School. He likened his Horse Batteries as using a pocket-pistol, something to whip out as necessary when needed. He was a huge fan of as many Guns as possible.

Yes, Artillery was massively dangerous to assault in massed columns.

Napoleon's maxim of "Cavalry is useful before, during and after a Battle. Victory is won by Armies. Great Victories are won by Cavalry" was never more correct.

Download the latest NapMod edition from the Kreigspielers and get stuck in.

Jack B)
Last edited by Jack ONeill on Sat Mar 08, 2014 2:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
American by birth, Californian by geography, Southerner by the Grace of God.

"Molon Labe"
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