Twenty plus years ago in the club I then attended regularly the game raged hotly. The result depended on the final Confederate attack which was now launched against the Federal positions on the ridge. (Yes, I know these are Napoleonic snippets bear with me). Just below the main defensive line a confused melee was in progress which the bluebellies, outnumbered, looked likely to lose.

The blue clad Corps Commander sat astride his horse next to the Divisional GOC whose troops were in the melee. Behind the melee units of the same divison were formed and in a good state of morale and ammunition. "Fire into the melee" ordered the Corps Command. "No way" was the staunch reply. "You are relieved of your command" was the unexpected response. And the division when ordered by the Corps commander fired into the ruckus and saved the day.

Afterwards the argument raged fierce. "Unreal" said some players. "Correct" said others. No conclusion was reached as in those days wargame research was in its infancy. Since that day, however, I have kept a record of every account I find of troops Firing into their own units/friends/allies whether accidentally or deliberately, and these occasions I now relate below.

1. LAUFFELD. 2 July 1747.

This incident from the War of Austrian Succession took place near Maestricht. Cumberland, hoping to surprise a detachment of Saxe's French troops was himself surprised by the speed of the French response, and ended up fighting a defensive battle to secure his Lines of Communication. His army, a mixture of British, Hanoverian, Dutch and Austrian troops was widely spread in a cordon.

The 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers fired on Dutch cavalry which was galloping at them in an unjustified panic whilst fleeing from the French. As a result the 21st stayed formed and repulsed a French attack. The 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers did not so fire and so were carried away by a mass of Dutch cavalry. History of the British Army by Hon. J.W.Fortescue. Macmillan & Co 1910. Vol 11 p.161.

2. EYLAU. February 1807

Blinded by the driving snow Augerau's VII Corps in attacking the Russians drifted too far to its left. "They thus passed partially in front of the batteries at EYLAU, which in the darkness fired on their own troops."

Napoleon's Campaign in Poland 1806-07 by F.L.Petre. Page 181. Arms & Armour Press. 1976.

3. CELORICO (FOZ d'ARONCE). 16 March 1811

During Massena's retreat the French 39th Regiment hearing close combat breaking out in their rear rushed the bridge across the Ceira river to reach the safety of the northern bank. They were fired upon, not only by Ross's and Bull's horse artillery batteries, but by the guns of their own 8th Corps. In the deepening twighlight these were unable to distinguish between pursuers and pursued.

A History of the Peninsular War. Oman. Vol IV. Page 158.

4. ALBUERA. May 1811

The head of Houghton's Brigade consisting of the 29th (Worcestershire), 48th (Northampton) and 57th (West Middlesex) Regiments fired into the scattered Vistula Lancers and shot a great number of Zayas' Spaniards in the back. "To their eternal credit the Spaniards did not break but continued their frontal contest with Girard's divison."

History of the British Army. Fortescue. Page 199 and A History of the War in the Peninsular. Oman. Vol IV Page 385.

5. VITTORIA. 1813.

British batteries fired on the French and on the Rifle Brigade thinking they were French. I cannot now trace the provenance of this, but believe it was from Jackets of Green, the history of the Rifle Brigade by Arthur Bryant.

6. WACHAU near LEIPZIG.

16 October 1813. In the confused cavalry melee near Gueldengossa the Silesian Curassiers charged Bourdesoulle's Curassiers. "The (French) Horse Artillery battery.... now fired on friends and foes alike, in order to check the Allied advance

The Achievements of Cavalry by General Sir Evelyn Wood. page136.

7. MAYA. THE PYRENEES. July 1813

The left wing of the 92nd (Highland) Regiment, afterwards the 2nd Bn The Gordons, deliberately fired into the remnants of the right wing mixed with the French. "yet so dreadful was the slaughter, especially of the 92nd, that the enemy was, it is said, actually stopped for a time by the heaped mass of dead and dying; and then the left wing of that noble regiment, coming down from the higher ground, was forced to smite wounded friends and exulting foes alike, as mingled together they stood or crawled before its fire." English Battles and Sieges in the Peninsular by General Sir William Napier K.C.B. John Murray 1910. It has to be said that Oman vol VI page 633 denies this happening.

8. WATERLOO. 18th June 1815

"The 12th and l6th Light Dragoons came also under fire from the French positions, but this was more destructive to Jaquinot's Lancers than to our men"

The Achievements of Cavalry by Sir Evelyn Wood. Page 149.

9. WATERLOO. 18th June 1815

"We were for a short time so intermixed, that the fire from the infantry on our right and left, as also showers of grape shot from their guns, was equally destructive of friend and foe"

Authors Note. 12TH Lt. Dgns v French Chasseurs a Cheval. The latter said to have heavier horses. Reminiscences 1808-15 under Wellington by Captain W.Hay C.B. Publisher Simpkin Marshal 1901. Page 179.

You will note that although I started with an incident from an American Civil War game that I have no examples from that period. This is because I have not done much reading in that period since the early 1970's. I believe such occurrences could be found if searched for, particularly bearing in mind the untrained state of the earlier ACW armies and the confusion that must have occurred because both sides wore both blue and grey uniforms. Any offers from our readers?

Enough evidence is therefore available to permit deliberate firing on one's own troops using any set of rules I have read.

However, I have yet to come across a rule in any wargame set (including my own) that legislates for accidental fire on one's own troops. Any suggestions as to wording?

Whilst fleshing out my notes on the above I have come across several more examples of the British use of columns in the field (see AoN 16) which I quote below:

1. VITTORIA. 21 June 1813. page 403.

"To his (Wellington's) left and right the Light and 4th Divisions lay in two masses ... the battalions in contiguous close column laying down in hollow roads or behind outcrops of rock"

2. page 406. "Meanwhile Robinson's brigade of the 5th divison had stormed Gamarra Major ... This was a brilliant and costly affair it was no light matter to attack in column of battalions the barricaded streets of a compact village."

3. p421. "I noticed a regiment, which by its yellow facings was the Connaught Rangers, marching in close column of companies to attack a French regiment drawn up in line on the verge of the hill, with a small village ( Gomecha?) in it's rear."

All the above are from Oman Vol VI.

The last examples are from The Waterloo Letters by H.T. Siborne.A & AP 1983. Here the maps show quite clearly that the battalions awaited the French onslaughts in columns, and maneouvred in them before deploying into square or line, whichever was appropriate.