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Re: Little Army
In Response To: Re: Little Army ()

In Napoleonic warefare, on open battlefields, the goal of each army is to silence each others artillerty first. Any forward position artillery would be a prime focus of opposing army. This could be done in different ways according to the makeup of each army. The ideal method of defense was to keep enough line infantry around the artillery for support in case of direct attack upon it. Leaving only a light infantry unit to protect a forward place battery would be inviting an attack, and with those uniforms, everyone knew where the Zouaves were. Their tactics were no match against line infantry or large amounts of cavalry in a defensive mode. In years past, regimental artillery was usually protected by grenadiers when regular line infantry units could not be spared. Grenadiers where smaller units in number, (larger men in size if I remember right) but were elitely trained as line infantry with better weapons.

Skirmishers were not a choice unit to defend on the open battlefield. Defensively they were best used well forward of the line to slow down an advancing enemy; fire and retreat until line infantry could be moved to the area to from a line to meet the advance. Using them as the only support for a forwardly place battery on an open battlefield was a tactical mistake.

David

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