Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age 1792-1815. by Robert B. Bruce, Iain Dickie, Kevin Kiley, Michael F.

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Neither of these formations was really new; most armies had closed columns as part of their manoeuvres, but they were not used extensively. The Austrians now began to use them more frequently on the battlefield, especially for use against cavalry, since they were easy to form. The hollow square, the more standard formation used in the face of cavalry, required complex evolutions. During the 1809 campaign, there are a number of instances of THE ROLE OF INFANTRY Austrian· units in these formations repulsing French cavalry.

38 THE ROLE OF INFANTRY ISDORF ~ L. orcements. In the attack that follows, the Duke of Brunswick is mortally wounded. co •• 4 FrenCh reinforce from General F Division and the cavalry and h arrive to re hard-pressed 39 FIGHTING ,TECHNIQUES OF THE NAPOLEONIC AGE was a brief break in the fog, so Bourke and his 39 who had engaged a superior force of Prussian cavalry and horse artillery, retired back to the safety of their infantry. First Contact The leading division was led by General of Division Etienne Gudin (1768-1812), and contained eight battalions of line infantry and a battery of horse artillery, a total of 8400 men.

This particular specimen belonged to a unit from Hesse-Darmstadt, since the shako plate carries the Hessian lion. The shako was made of leather and felt, and carried a pompom - in French units, the pompom's colour denoted the company. FRENCH STYLE INFANTRY coincided with a time of relative peace, which allowed him to codify and institutionalize his ideas about warfare. The Napoleonic synthesis embodied itself in the Grande Armee. This force was made up of several corps d' armee, and invariably included the Imperial Guard, which grew from a relatively small formation of four infantry regiments, two cavalry regiments, and some artillery to a virtual army within an army by the time of the 1812 campaign.