"Bavarian infantry 1809 - two/three ranks" Topic

I understand from Gill's "With Eagles To Glory" and a previous thread

TMP link

that the Bavarians used two ranks from 1801 to early 1809, but reverted to three for the Danube and Tyrolean campaigns. Now, Gill says they did this using the schutzen detachments as the third rank, but this doesn't quite feel right since there were only 36 schutzen per company of 180 (paper) rank-and-file and they would only have been 50-60% of the third rank.

This made me wonder if the companies reformed into three ranks of 48 files once the schutzen had been detached, or if they just carried on with an "incomplete" third rank retaining the gaps where the schutzen had been?

Did the schutzen form up in three ranks, or two? Did they split in half with one part retained as a formed reserve, to replace losses and/or provide a rallying point, or did the entire detachment spread out across the front of the battalion?

Finally, did the Bavarians form in divisions (pairs of companies) or only in companies, and what did the grenadier company do?

I think what Gill was probably referring to was an instruction for the schutzen to form as a (partial) 3rd rank in formed fire battle combat when their role as schutzen was not required.
In this case all the infantry would have carried on as 2 ranks but would have the schutzen beef up the line in close combat.

No definitives on the skirmishers having a reserve, but the practice of having a formed reserve when more than a couple of hundred meters from the main parent battalion seems to have been universal practice across the continent.

Like the Prussians and Russian the companies were large, and formed into more than one zug, so tactically they were more akin to a division than a platoon.

Lastly good question, I wish someone published the answer.

(…)At the 9th of March (1809) the Schützen were increased to a fith of company strength(that is 36) but are not fully armed with rifles and "Haubajonett". They are placed in the re-introduced 3rd rank and their task is in close rank firing to load mainly the guns."(…)

Geschichte des K. Bayerischen 10. Infanterie – Regiments Prinzregiment Ludwig von 1664 bis 1907. 2. Teil, Ingolstadt 1901, p 219