Columns vs. lines at Sorauren 1813

[vtsaogames]

Recently read The Spanish Ulcer and purchased a reprint of Omna's ATlas and got the Osprey Peninsular War Atlas, all very good.

Two French divisional generals briefly solved the column attack against British and Portuguese lines. Taupin and Vandermaessen both came on in columns but sent their voltigeurs and grenadiers, fully 1/3 of their forces, forward in the skirmish line. These climbed the steep slope and drove in the Allied skirmishers. They then worked over the Allied lines, backed by columns. Ross' British and Campbell's Portuguese brigades were broken after a firefight. Stubbs' Portuguese filled the gap but were broken in their turn. Just left of this attack Maucune and his smaller division came on with just his voltigeurs in front, 1/6 of his force. His skirmishers were stopped by the British skirmishers, The columns pushed through the skirmishers and were defeated by Anson's British line. Anson and Byng then wheeled both brigades to their left and rolled up both of the French division that had broken the line.

But it seems that attacked by columns with a heavy enough skirmish screen, the vaunted 2-deep line on a steep hill could be defeated. The French should have figured this out sooner. As it was, no one noted what had worked since the battle was a defeat. Vandermaessen was killed soon after in a small fight. I have not read of this being done again.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Other factors hindered columns against the line,  namely visibility and steadiness.  The whole column vs line approach always had skirmisher leading the way forward but advancing in column was always more of a psychological game of chicken to see who would break first.sometimes it worked, but if the column balked for any reason the line had a distinct advantage.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

Actually, I think it was used before... but against British forces that also presented a heavy skirmish screen, which compensated the strengthened French one. At Sorauren Ross's and Campbell's were caught with their proverbial pants down.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Also I don't think that this particular use of the column was a continuation of universal French column use as it has been over simplified by gamers over the years.  The constricted terrain demanded a column to advance, but French practice was just as quick to deploy into line before assaulting.  There was certainly a propensity to order the use the column with certain generals out of bias from revolution period practice, good experiences with it against less-steady infantry, and it's utility in controlling green troops but it was just as likely battalions deployed into lines when ever they could and they always used thick skirmish screens for either.

[vtsaogames]

All true, but note that the two successful divisions used fully one third of their forces as skirmishers instead of the usual 1/6. Winning the skirmisher fight gave them the tactical room to do more than just bull into the enemy lines.

In other cases, the Allied skirmish line was so thick the columns thought they had broken the enemy line, only to discover the real enemy line behind.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

That's the point: reinforcing the skirmish screen with as many troops as needed was the general idea. The goal was to "feel" the enemy line and find the weak spot; then, once located, you sent forward your columns to exploit the weakness. That was, at least, the theory. Against foes with little to none dedicated skirmishers, it worked. Proficient skirmishers were difficult to train. One of the weaknesses of the Spanish armies in the wars was their lack of trained skirmishers, which allowed the French to run circles around them again and again (well, that and their poor cavalry, of course). Wellington took pains to have his Brigade's skirmisher screens as dense as possible; he used the specialist battalions to reinforce those parts in his lines where he thought the French would attack. At Bussacco, for instance, the French had a strong skirmish front, but the Anglo-Portuguese was even stronger, which forced the French commanders -pressed to break as fast as possible- to send their columns into the attack before having a good picture of the Allied deployment.

My point is that at Sorauren it wasn't as much that the French had a particularly strong skirmish screen, as that the Allies had a very weak one. Probably they had grown complacent and didn't believe the French able to organize a counterattack.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Too many skirmishers presents another set of problems, namely an unwillingness/inability to close or assault.  Plenty of brigades found themselves drawn into protracted skirmish affairs that paralyzed the unit from  further decisive action, one of the disadvantageous practices of a veteran units, leery of taking too many casualties, easily succumbed to.  Timid commanders might even use it as an excuse and overfeed the skirmish line.  Directives from high to prevent this were common on both sides. Skirmishers required excellent discipline and aggressiveness or command control for any advance was lost.   It was not simply a numbers game to beat the opponents skirmishers that worked, too many other factors to keep it out of general use as a SOP but certainly the tendency to dispersied skirmish linesthat followed the Napoleonics wars is seen to start here.