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Line infantry mainly used three formations in its battles: the line, the square, and the column. With the universal adoption of small arms (firearms that could be carried by hand, as opposed to cannon) in infantry units from the mid-17th century, the battlefield was dominated by linear tactics, according to which the infantry was aligned into long thin lines, shoulder to shoulder, and fired ...
French Gendarmes. The line formation was also used by certain types of cavalry. The Sassanid Persians, the Mamluks, and Muslim cavalry in India often used the tactics named "shower shooting". It involved a line of fairly well-armoured cavalrymen (often on armoured horses) standing in a massed static line or advancing in an ordered formation at the walk while loosing their arrows as quickly as ...
Deployment of a 10-company infantry regiment in line formation. The core of these tactics was organizing soldiers into ranks and files in order to form a regiment into a line of battle or column. [21] The line was the primary formation of combat as it allowed the soldiers to fire a full volley at the enemy.
Infantry tactics are the combination of military concepts and methods used by infantry to achieve tactical objectives during combat. The role of the infantry on the battlefield is, typically, to close with and engage the enemy, and hold territorial objectives; infantry tactics are the means by which this is achieved.
His 1792 Rules and regulations for the formations, field-exercise, and movements, of His Majesty's forces became the standard drill book for the infantry. As the wars progressed line infantry tactics were developed to allow more flexibility for command and control, placing more reliance upon the officers on the spot for quick reactions.
Line infantry was armed with smooth-bore muskets with bayonets. Prussian line infantry attack at the 1745 Battle of Hohenfriedberg. In the 18th century light infantry appeared. A skirmish force screening the main body of infantry became so important to any army in the field that eventually all the major European powers developed specialised ...
Infantry squares were used in the siege of the nomads' mountain settlements near the Gobi region, where Han forces repelled nomad lancer attacks. [citation needed] The Byzantine Empire in the 9th to the 11th centuries used highly sophisticated combined arms tactics, based around hollow infantry square formation.
Infantry could be described as line infantry, guards, grenadiers, light infantry or skirmishers, but the roles and arms employed often overlapped between these. Line infantry Infantry of the line were so named for the dominant line combat formation used to deliver a volume of musket fire. Forming the bulk of the Napoleonic armies it was the ...