Clausewitz

Karl Von Clauswitz was a general in the Prussian army after the Napoleonic Wars. He wrote a famous treatise on warfare, "On War." One of his observations was that a body of troops could engage an enemy having a frontage up to 50% greater than its own.

Illustration of Clausewitz's observation

Even though the number of men engaged was significantly different, both sides would suffer the same casualty rate. His reasoning was that a unit presenting less frontage also presents a smaller target area. The unit presenting more frontage also presents a greater target area, yielding more hits from the unit with a smaller frontage. His premise was that one should deploy fewer troops on the line and hold back the rest in reserve. I have never seen a set of rules (other than my own) that takes into account the frontage of the target in the casualty calculations.

Most battalions engaged in firefight at a range of 100 yards. A battalion's front was about 200 yards. Based on these one can infer the approximate scatter angle for a smoothbore musket is about 22-1/2 degrees. Another corollary for wargame rules is that a unit firing at a larger target gets a "to hit" bonus that is roughly equal to 50% for a target(s) covered within its full arc of fire.

After the Napoleonic Wars, the next major innovation for the smoothbore musket was the invention of the percussion cap. The percussion cap eliminated the use of the flint. This invention further reduced misfires due to the flint failing. It also improved reliability in high winds, because there was no need for a flash pan containing loose powder. It also decreased the reload time. Percussion muskets were also known as caplocks.

The percussion cap smoothbore musket was the ultimate infantry weapon before the invention of the rifled musket. The adoption of the greased patch and the rifling of the musket barrel in the 1850s ended the span of four centuries of the domination of the smoothbore musket in warfare.

The smoothbore musket was a firearm that dominated the battlefield from the 16^th until 19^th centuries. Wargame rules writers should look carefully at historical data to account for certain factors that influenced tactics on the battlefield. There is certainly hard evidence to give British Napoleonic infantry bonuses for their fire discipline due to greater rate of fire and aimed shooting. There is also evidence both from observation and mathematical analysis to support a bonus for shooting at a larger frontage target. Depending on the time scale of the ruleset, a bonus for the initial volley is appropriate. The first volley bonus tends to cause players to withhold the fire of their battalions until within effective range. However, the general effectiveness of musket fire is about 3 to 5 percent at ranges of 100 to 200 yards, which is far less than the theoretical maximum.

Bibliography

Duffy, Christopher. The Army of Frederick the Great, Hippocrene Books, Inc. 1974.
Duffy, Christopher. The Army of Maria Theresa, Hippocrene Books, Inc. 1977.
Duffy, Christopher. Russia's Military Way to the West, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1981.
Dupuy, R. Ernest, and Dupuy, Trevor N. The Encyclopedia of Military History 1977
Greener, W. W. The Gun and its Developments, 1881.
Gush, George. Renaissance Armies, Patrick Stephens, Ltd. 1975.
Gush, George, and Windrow, Martin. The English Civil War, Patrick Stephens, Ltd. 1978
Haythornwaite, Philip. The English Civil War 1642-1651, Blandford Press 1983
Held, Robert. The Age of Firearms, Gun Digest Company 1970
Hughes, Major-General B. P.. Firepower, Arms and Armour Press 1974
Laurema, Matti. L'artillerie de campagne francais pendant les guerres de la revolution 1956
Mueller, William. Elements of the Science of War 1811
Nosworthy, Brent. The Anatomy of Victory, Hippocrene Books 1990
Parker, Geoffrey and Angela. European Soldiers, Cambridge University Press 1977
Von Clausewitz, Karl. On War 1832
Von Pivka, Otto. Armies of the Napoleonic Era, Taplinger Publishing Company 1979
Von Reisswitz, B. Kriegspiel, Netherwood Dalton & Co., Ltd. 1824
Wagner, Eduard. European Weapons and Warfare 1618-1648, Octopus Books Limited 1979

Smoothbore Musketry

Introduction
Accuracy
Clausewitz and Improvements