MILITARY HISTORY 101
-copyright 1999 David Shackelford-
With all of the fuss about our references to Napoleonic traditions, I will now provide to you what every military historian knows and most reasonably educated men knew in the 1860's. Remember that our first person individual was taught all about European history (most of us have European backgrounds) and the most famous person of that time, from a military standpoint, was Napoleon. Keep in mind that most of our reading material is written in English, the language of the victors. Thus, there is always a pro-Anglo slant. But lets see how our manuals deal with it:
REVISED US ARMY REGULATIONS - page 72-paragraph 480:
"The arrangement of the troops on parade and in order of battle is:
1st, the light infantry; 2d, infantry of the line;3d, light cavalry; 4th, cavalry of the line; 5th heavy cavalry."
What light infantry? What light cavalry? What heavy cavalry?
Well, one of Napoleons innovations was the introduction of "clouds of skirmishers". Each regiment had a company of light infantry attached and there were several entire regiments of light infantry called "legere". The British experimented with them during the American Revolution by forming one regiment of light infantry and several loyalist units. Eventually, most European armies copied the French and had their own light infantry force. The Austrians had the famed "grenzers". These men lived along the frontier with Turkey and was constantly involved in armed combat against raids, etc. They were not well-suited for the stand up fight but were masters of the skirmishing associated with light troops.
As for the heavy cavalry, that is how the European armies resolved the decisive moments in combat. The French curraissiery, the British heavy dragoon, the French carbineer---all are heavy cavalry aimed at crashing into the opponent at the decisive moment and breaking the opponent. (Yes, the same as in "Braveheart" a century earlier. Oh, those were British heavy cavalry weren't they?)
What does the drill manual say? Casey intitially wrote the book to include two companies of light infantry with each regiment. He deletes them on the first page, to wit, "First-That portion which requires that two companies shall be permanently detached from the battalion as skimishers, will be suspended. NOW WHERE DID HE COME UP WITH THAT IDEA?
Both the British and French army had a company of lights and a company of elite, heavy infantry called grenadiers in each regiment. They marched on the ends and were called the flank companies. (Thus the percieved honor of marching on the flank of the battalion/regiment). Since the American army rarely employed the grenade (the reason they were called grenadiers, get it?) Casey made both flank companies light infantry.
Now, go to his preface. Casey writes, "The following volumes of Infantry Tactics are based upon the French ordanances of 1831 and 1845, for the maneuvres of heavy infantry and chassieurs a pied. (Light of foot for you non-French types) . BOTH OF THESE SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN IN USE IN OUR SERVICE FOR SOME YEARS: THE FORMER HAVING BEEN TRANSLATED BY LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SCOTT, AND THE LATTER BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL HARDEE. {My emphasis.}
So what does this tell us? I am not going to draw conclusions for you. This information is for you to digest and perhaps motivate you to do some additional research. It may, just may, cause you to realize that most, if not all of our military tactics, uniforms, formations, drill, customs, etc , were based upon European armies. Their manuals of this period were mere extensions of their manuals in the Napoleonic wars.
There may be another lesson in this stuff, 102 if needed or wanted.
Dave