This is the first part of a series in which we want to explore tactics and manoeuvres using research tools such as autobiographies, etc. If you have anything that you want to bring to Carl's attention, please send it, with full references, to the usual address.

In the minds of quite a few people many combats in the period boil down to British line versus French column. This is an over simplification of a more variable series of situations. Excepting the British use of columns in sieges which Paddy Griffith dealt with generally in AON 14 there were many times in the period when the British used column successfully in the field. The first examples I am going to quote from "The Letters of Private Wheeler 1809-1828" Edited by Captain B.H.Liddell-Hart. Michael Joseph 1951. Wheeler was, I think, in the 51st, but I neglected to note this.

p.29."AUG 1809. WALCHEREN. At length we marched out on the great road to Flushing. Colonel Mainwaring with one of our Companies and the Light Company of the 82nd Regiment formed the advance guard.

Before the rear of our Brigade had cleared the city, we received a volley of musketry on our pivot flank (we were marching in column of subdivisions* right in front). The word was now given 'Wheel into line', 'Prime and Load'

(* An explanation is here required of the term 'subdivision'. A battalion was composed of eight normal companies to which a grenadier company and a light (or skirmisher) company was added. But apart from these two specialist detachments, the company was an administrative unit, not a tactical unit. When the battalion assembled on parade ready to move off, it was divided into eight equal parts, and then subdivided into sixteen subdivisions'. Thus the 'subdivision' corresponded to the twentieth-century platoon.)

p.87 .22 AUG 1812. SALAMANCA. The 7th Division "In the afternoon we broke into open column of divisions right in front* and marched up the rear of our enemy. This was not a very agreeable job as the enemy were cannonading the whole length of their line, and our route lay within range of their guns. The fire at length became so furious that it were expedient to form grand division, thus leaving an interval of double the space for their shot to pass through."

(When the battalion paraded in line, three ranks deep, and the eight companies were equalized as 'divisions', each pair of them formed a 'grand division'. If the battalion advanced in column of 'grand divisions', one behind the other, it would thus have twice as broad a front as in column of divisions. while comprising four successive lines instead of eight. But when moving 'right in front' (i.e from the right flank) there would be twice as wide a space between each of these 'end on' lines an advantage in diminishing the effect of the enemy's fire.)

p.117 20 JUN 1813. VITTORIA. "The Brigade were in column, in front of a strong position occupied by the enemy. After sustaining their fire for some time we dashed forward, drove them from their position in such a hurry that they left ten guns behind. This charge was executed so sudden that altho they sent us a shower of balls and bullets very few done any harm".

My next examples come, surprisingly, from a rifleman. One tends to think of these operating in skirmish or open order but this was far from being the case. In 'A British Rifleman' by Major George Simmons published by Greenhill Books in 1986 many examples of moving and fighting in column are given.

REDINHA 12 MAR 1811. p140 "The wooded heights were attacked by a wing of the 1st Battalion (Rifles), commanded by Major Stewart, who carried them in gallant style. The other wing attacked the left, the Light Division acting in unison with these attacks, our columns moving rapidly into the plain, forming line and moving on, the cavalry also."

Also REDINHA. P153. "On their right and left were woods filled with sharp-shooters. Our columns moved up and our regiment, the 43rd, 52nd, and Portuguese Light Infantry, amounting to 5000, extended to a distance of three miles"

Pre Fuentes D'Onoro. 1 MAY 1811. P. 166. ESPEJA. "The Light Division retired before the enemy about three miles and formed column of regiments in a very extensive wood. The British cavalry were drawn up in a plain to our front. It was occupied by them for the night. Bivouacked,"

FUENTES D'ONORO. 5 MAY 1811. P. 168. "The Light Division was moved to the right and also some distance to its front, and entered a large wood, throwing out skirmishers to our front, as it was expected from the enemy's maneouvres that a large force was concentrating there under cover, for the purpose of making a sudden attack upon the right of our line. Their skirmishers kept up a fire, but did not attempt to drive us out until a large body of their cavalry had debouched some distance to our right and when clear of the wood, wheeled to their right, so as to intercept our retrograde movement.

The enemy's skirmishers then followed us up, keeping up a smart fire until we left the wood and formed column at quarter-distance ready to form square at any moment if charged by cavalry, and in this way we marched to that part of the position where the Guards were formed in line. A body of cavalry hovered about us, but from our formidable appearance and the steady manner in which the movement was conducted, the enemy did not charge us. A company of the Guards wheeled back, their battalion being in line; we passed through and then halted in column and became a support to that part of our line."

p 170" The enemy's guns kept up a very heavy cannonade upon our line. Our heavy artillery was drawn up in front of the 1st Division, and kept up a well directed fire upon the enemy's guns and silenced several. As our men were lying down in column just behind the line of the Ist Division, ready to be slipped at anything that might be thought necessary, a body of French cavalry menaced a charge upon our guns and came up in the boldest manner, receiving repeated discharges of grape-shot that literally made lanes through them. Finding it of no use, the cavalry moved off."

"The division moved off in companies at quarter distance, ready by regiments to form square if the enemy's cavalry should charge;".. "In passing a small river named the Guarena in order to get possession of some heights that both armies were moving towards as the immediate bone of contention, the enemy began to cannonade our columns,"

NIVELLE 9 NOV 1813 p.321. "After dark the Light Division filed from the encampment behind La Rhune with the least possible noise and formed up into columns and lay down close behind our advanced picquet."

'Life in Wellington's Army' by Antony Brett-James, 19 72. Publisher George Allen & Unwin, Ruskin House, Museum Street, London.

p25. On several occasions during the war detailed orders were issued for a column of march. When the country was open, two or more divisions of infantry or brigades of cavalry , moving from the same camp, were to march half an hour after each other; in close country they were to march at one hour intervals.

'From-Waterloo-to-Balaclava' by Hew Strachan. Publisher: Cambridge University Press 1985.

P25. The column, however, gave a more rapid advance (than the Line). The 1824 Field Exercise prescribed that columns were for convenience of movement. The quarter distance column that is to say companies lined up one behind the other, with a gap equal to a quarter of a company's front between each was favoured because in brigade every man was within earshot of the brigadier and it enabled quicker deployment into line or square.

Oman's 'A History of the Peninsular War' Volume V, p322 gives an interesting insight into Hill's storming of the forts at Almaraz. It appears from the Dickson manuscripts that the attack was made in three columns of half battalions which were completely successful.

My last, but to me the most interesting snippet, comes from 'Wellington's Masterpiece' by J.P.Lawford and P.Young. George Allen & Unwin. 1973. This gives illustrations (one of which is shown) by Colonel Frank Wilson of the 3rd Division moving in two columns across the front of the French before wheeling into Line to make its attack. The division was actually attacked by a cavalry squadron whilst on the move but saw the attack off without forming squares. It was supported by D'Urban's Cavalry Brigade who charged other French cavalry which threatened the 3rd Division's advance. The episode needs reading in full either in the quoted book, or in Oman's 'A History of the Peninsula War' Volume V, to do it full justice.

It will be seen from the above examples that the British use of columns was quite normal, and that they were used in fact as well as being theorised about in the drill books of the time.