At dawn the French general formed his troops and started them on the march to gain the left flank of the red-coated enemy army. By nine in the morning his force was in position, deployed for battle, ready to begin the assault on the mountain where the English Duke's left rests. The general has deployed three veteran brigades in first line. Each brigade is formed in a brigade column of battalions (one battalion in line wide, four battalions deep). Considerable intervals separate the brigades from each other.

The fourth infantry brigade, also formed in brigade column of battalions, follows behind the others to act as a reserve. Twelve elite companies belonging to the first line battalions (one per battalion) are detached and precede the columns to cover the advance up the broken, wooded slope of the mountain. A battery of thirteen light guns provides close support for the attacking force. At the sound of a signal gun the serried columns begin their a march up the slope to the attack.

The report of the signal gun also alerts the balance of the French army waiting on the plain below that the battle on the flank has begun and that the general frontal infantry attack against the enemy held ridgeline can begin. The assault of the main army is made in echelon, the troops on the right being the first to step off. Due to the nature of the ground, the cavalry is held in reserve....

The preceding account might be an example of an attempt by Marshal Massena's Army of Portugal to bludgeon the Duke of Wellington out of another of his strong defensive positions covering Lisbon in 1810. In fact, Major General Arthur Wellesley did not become the Duke of Wellington until 1814, and the battle opening recounted above occurred 54 years before the future duke's famous defense of Portugal occurred in the Iberian Peninsula.

Although the tactics and formations described above could be called "Napoleonic," they were used at the battle of Hastenbeck, fought 26 July 1757, the first general engagement fought in the western German theater of operations during the Seven Years War. It is the red-coated Hanoverian army of William, Duke of Cumberland that is under attack by the French forces of Marechal Louis-Cesar duc d'Estrees. The French were victorious after a stiff fight.

This description of the opening of a battle during the Seven Years War helps illustrate that so-called Napoleonic infantry tactics did not suddenly emerge through necessity during the French Revolutionary wars as is sometimes perceived. The tactics of fire and maneuver we usually associate with the Napoleonic Wars developed through a careful evolutionary process during the course of the 18th Century as military theorists and officers in the field struggled to find better ways to employ the new weapons system that became available to them at the beginning of the century; the smoothbore flintlock musket with its socket bayonet.

More From Breitenfeld to Waterloo The Origins of Napoleonic Infantry Tactics

Introduction
Infantry in the Early Musket Era
The Flintlock Musket Revolutionizes Warfare
The "Order of Battle" During the Classical Linear Period
Firepower vs. Shock
Further Reading