Railway Oggler: Napoleonic War Craze

I have fallen in love with 18th century warfare!

Yes, you might disagree with me when it comes to having an army of men lining up to face each other at a certain distance and fire pot shots at each other.

"Stupid" or "ridiculous" you say?

...This was the way how men fought from ancient times up till the end of the 19th century, even for those American Civil war buffs out there might be familiar with that.

People at war in those days fought in line formations and soldiers or what were known collectively as battalions marched in unison and moved with utmost precision to ensure an effective push towards the enemy.

Enemies are dealt with blows from the might of volley fire coming from muskets. Battalions had to stop at a certain distance and fire at point blank range as musket balls are not effective after a certain distance and almost always miss their target.

This is where artillery comes into play with the use of cannons to "break enemy lines". Cannons range from the weight of cannon balls to the range and distance of fire, which includes those that have to be pulled by 5 armed men or drawn by a cart. Among them which we sometimes hear are 6 pounders, 12 pound howitzers, and 3" ordnance rifles.

Artillery is pivotal in breaking enemy lines as once an enemy battle line is broken, its very easy for the advancing army to "pierce through" the defence lines and "take the field".

Taking the field would mean to conquer the space much like a chess board and once an army has ran over enemy grounds, the enemy would have to retreat or suffer the slaughter of the victorious battalion.

Calvary is used with great effect when doing sweeping attacks and is
particularly powerful in attacking the flanks

or the "corner" or "side" of battalion lines.

Calvary is also used to kill off broken enemy lines and is particularly powerful when it comes to causing fear in enemy morale. In many movies or literature, you would have come across Calvary being sometimes known as Dragoons. The name originated from soldiers who were originally trained to fight as infantry on foot but deployed by horse, and was considered separate from the original calvary unit.

However over time, as "Dragoons" name came from the French term "dragon" or a type of firearm carried by French Dragoons;

eventually merged with the calvary unit as one, thus the calvary unit was also known as Dragoons in many European armies during the Napoleaonic wars.

Dragoons are also used to destroy or eliminate artillery as cannons are heavy and taking them out significantly hampers their advance.

We have mentioned about armies moving in lines. There are also several other battle formations which were employed during this period, one of the famous ones is the square formation. This is a defensive position employed normally when threathened or cornered at different points at battle.

However, square formations are vulnerable to calvary attacks eventhough they open fire on all 4 sides.

Pictures above show some sample battle formations once employed in the past. First picture on left hand are sample Chinese formations whereas the on the right is the formation used at the Battle of Blenheim in 1635. The bottom picture is that of Battle of Luzen.

You'll notice in every battle line, there will be an officer busy swinging his sword and calling the shots by his continuous screaming throughout the battle to unleash the armies fury at its front lines.

Armies in those days also moved and operated totally uniformed and only react upon command, so precise and formidable were they that other European nations decided to adopt the code and formations throughout much of that period and perfected it.

WHO IS THIS PRUSSIA?

The Prussian army is known to be a model army who's fame and fury was much feared and admired by many throughout Europe. The American revolutionary army even adopted Prussian army standards when they fought the Independence war with the British.

The British in turn, got the help from the Prussian army to fight

against the American colonists.

You might be wondering "Where is modern Prussia right now?"

Prussia was a mighty European nation that was around for 422 years (1525-1947) that became powerful in the 18th-19th century during the reign of Frederick the Great.

The empire territory of the Kingdom of Prussia included "Prussia proper" (West and East Prussia), Brandenburg, the Province of Saxony (including most of the present-day state of Saxony-Anhalt and parts of the state of Thuringia in Germany)

It doesn't stop there. Pomerania, Rhineland, Westphalia, Silesia (without Austrian Silesia), Lusatia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-Nassau, and a small detached area in the south Hohenzollern, the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling family are the other areas that covered much of modern day Russia, Germany and parts of Eastern Europe.

HOW WAS FIRING A MUSKET LIKE IN THOSE DAYS?

Firing a musket during its hey day was an ardous task for the soldier and drills are constantly needed to ensure perfect precession in order to deliver a significant blow to the enemy.

The video below describes how muskets are fired as demonstrated by a professional.

Interesting huh? Though as you would seen, reloading, and firing takes a whole lot of time and in the middle of all the thick white smoke, the boom of cannons, people howling and screaming and not to forget the enemy aiming his musket right at you must have been quite something.

This sort of war if compared to modern day standards was an absolute waste of human life as victories were measured by the number of dead and how much ground you manage to conquer or cover.

The commands when giving fire normally were given as can be seen (in English) typical from the British as follows:

Make ready........Present.........FIRE!!

Or the American equivalent:

Make ready.........Take Aim.........FIRE!!

(Priming or pouring gunpowder on the pan....)

So there you have it...my review and comments on my latest "fandom"...

Some of the shows that I have watched that feature fantastic reenactments (if you are a fan of this war period) they are:

1. The Patriot

2. Gods and General

3. All reenactment films from Lion Heart Filmworks (http://www.lionheart-filmworks.com)

4. Gettysburg

5. Waterloo

6. Red Badge of Courage

...and many more films out there that feature period reenactments from the time of Napolean to the American Civil War.

Here's a youtube video I found online which I hope you'll enjoy which features dramatised war scenes of how these wars were carried out at the thick of battle. (Redcoats is a name given to the British army due to the red coats that they wear that symbolises blood and courage)