British rifle company question

[OB]

It is years since I read The Recollections of Rifleman Harris but it might be of interest to contributors to this thread.  I cannot recollect if it answers Olicana's question but it might shed some light.  Full text here.

https://archive.org/details/recollectionsofr00harr/page/n3/mode/2up

[olicana]

Thanks to all, including Cubs (sorry, for getting umphy), for your input. I rather fear it is one of those questions that can't be answered because circumstances (of battle) would undoubtedly change any 'prescibed doctrine' for what were, for the most part, elite and very specialised units.

As it goes, I will spread my riflemen along the line. My figures are more readily based for that, if for no other reason.

[Baron von Wreckedoften]

I'm not sure if this helps or not, as I have not had time to read it myself, but it cropped up in a discussion on British manuals for "skirmishing" type troops, so you never know:-

Britain, G., & Army. (1803). Regulations for the exercise of riflemen and light infantry, and instruction for their conduct in the field.

https://books.google.pt/books?id=QZ8ZAAAAYAAJ

Having now had a chance to "speed-read" it, I would suggest the most relevant part is Chapter V from page 26 onwards, which details how a company of riflemen should head an advance guard.  Now whilst this is NOT the same as how they would perform on the battlefield, it is IMO indicative - namely the company forms four half-platoons, which would presuably be commanded by officers and senior sergeants, and operates in these sub-units.  In a typical brigade skirmish line, there would be a company of riflemen and probably at least three companies of light infantry; I would suggest that one half-platoon would marry up with/support each company, with the fourth half-platoon in reserve under the company commander to provide a close order reserve on which to rally (see previous sections of the book).  As others have said, this is not "chapter and verse" on how a detached company of riflemen integrated into the brigade skirmish screen, but it is strongly indicative of how they would probably have done so.

Hope that helps.

[olicana]

Nice info, thanks

[Baron von Wreckedoften]

This also surfaced on the Napoleonic Forum; the PDF is a "book" containing a series of writings by Johann Elias Olfermann, the guy who later took command of the Brunswick Corps on the death of Duke Wilhelm at Quatre Bras, but who was at the time serving with the 97th Foot (aka The Minorca Regiment and The Queen's Germans) and was a brigade major, so would have been intimately involved in the sort of actions he was describing (he started with the regiment as a bandsman, by the way!):-

https://www.thenapoleonicwars.net/forum/general-discussions/the-field-day-brigade-manoeuvres-in-the-peninsula

If you consider only the excerpts headed "The Field Day" you will see references to how a brigade is handled in the field in relation to certain "missions".  Each section includes a special reference to what the "ad hoc" light battalion formed by the brigade should be doing as part of each manoeuvre.  Sadly, there is no reference to a rifle company, just the light companies of the three line battalions that form the brigade, but it does at least give a better framework for "educated guesses" as to how the rifle company would fit into the picture.