When did companies become tactical units?

[vtsaogames]

I believe that during the War of the Spanish Succession and earlier, infantry companies were administrative units, not tactical units. Battalions in the field were divided into 4 "divisions" regardless of the number of companies and the battalion marched and fought that way. By the Napoleonic wars most armies were using companies as tactical units, with a pair of companies serving as a "division".

Does anyone know just when companies became tactical units, rather than just administrative?

[zerostate]

It was codified in The Exercise of the Horse, Dragoon, and Foot Forces the drill book ordered by George II in 1728. It was likely that it had been a common enough practice in some regiments (especially those on colonial duty with many detached companies) for a few years beforehand though. Obviously, this only applies to the British army of the time (and possibly Hanoverian).

[olicana]

Without meaning to sound obtuse, I think the question is largely mute. 'Companies' (or similar sub-divisions) have always been tactical units but, because the building block of the battle line, in the horse and musket period, was the battalion, they were very rarely called upon to be so.

[jon_1066]

My understanding is that a Company was always an administrative unit.  Such that a soldier would be paid and on the roles of a company but he may not actually fight in that company.  In France for instance the Company was purely administrative I believe.  The Battalion would fight in Platoons which would be equalised before a battle.  Ditto Russia and Austria where the Zug was the tactical unit and the Company was nominally made up of two Zugs.  So a Russian battalion would have 4 Companies for administration but they would generally fight as 8 zugs.

[Cubs]

Without meaning to sound obtuse, I think the question is largely mute. 'Companies' (or similar sub-divisions) have always been tactical units but, because the building block of the battle line, in the horse and musket period, was the battalion, they were very rarely called upon to be so.

This. It's actually something of a classic psychological phenomenon, that humans gather together to operate in groups of roughly 100 in times of conflict. There seems to be something about this approx number of soldiers that combines strength in numbers with ease of control. Certainly during medieval times, a company of troops commanded by a 'captain' was an easy body to move about for various detached duties, whether it be sentry work, raiding, escort duties or whatever. Going further back, you could think about a Roman century and how often they must have been split off for detached duty from the rest of the cohort. I suppose it's then down to your level of tactical flexibility or definition of what constitutes a separate unit.

[vtsaogames]

Without meaning to sound obtuse, I think the question is largely mute. 'Companies' (or similar sub-divisions) have always been tactical units but, because the building block of the battle line, in the horse and musket period, was the battalion, they were very rarely called upon to be so.

I understand that companies were rarely used as independent units during this period. However, early battalions might march in column of divisions until it was time to deploy into line. Thus the battalion would be in a column 1 division wide, 4 divisions one behind the other regardless of the number of companies in the battalion. At some point this changed so that a British battalion formed in column of divisions would be 2 companies (a division) wide and 5 divisions one behind the other. An 1809 or later French battalion in column of divisions would be 2 companies wide and 3 divisions deep. That's what I mean by tactical unit, rather than an independently operating unit. Perhaps the proper term would be battalion element of maneuver.

I believe the use of the term division for larger formations comes from the Duc de Broglie splitting the infantry in his army into 4 divisions, rather like the 4 divisions in a battalion. He did this to speed up deploying into line by having 4 deployments at the same time, rather than trying to match the speed of the Prussians by increased drill. I hope that last sentence makes sense.