"Routing the enemy skirmish screen" Topic

The rules I have used since the year dot allow (in the sense that they don't discuss or rule out) skirmisher screens to engage each other as discrete units. Skirmishers engage each other if they are there, and can engage whoever if not opposed by other skirmishers.

So one side advances behind a skirmisher screen against an opponent who has his own screen. If one screen is say 15 riflemen and the other is 12 voltigeurs, there is a good chance the riflemen will slot so many voltigeurs that they rout. This leaves the riflemen free to fire on the formed-up infantry behind where the screen was.This skirmisher-on-skirmisher action takes place independent of whatever the formed battalions they are screening may be doing.

My question is whether this ever actually happened, and if not, what should. I have read of skirmishers bugging out when cavalry approached and falling back when menaced by formed infantry, but did they ever melee each other or rout each other in this way so as to leave an unscreened line or attack formation?

Relatedly, most rules say you can move or fire, but not do all of both in the same turn. In the above scenario, the attacking skirmishers can't fire as they go forward, so they take losses without return. Equally, if one screen falls back and the other stands, the former take fire they don't get to return. Depending on who's shooting at them, either can be enough to rout them. Should they be allowed to move a short distance and fire at normal effect? Could a skirmisher really not move at all while loading, aiming and picking his target?

My skirmishers can fire always, unless there are cavalry in front of him. But regimental guns, whose fire together with skirmishers, may shoot toward cavalry too.
The thing, that prevent movement and other actions, is line musketry, not skirmishing.

When I researched 1808 Russo-Swedish War for our club's 200th anniversary project I ran across writings telling about "feeding the skirmish screens" with more men.

So, to my understanding, not all eligible skirmished were iniatially committed and skirmish line was bolstered when casualties started to mount up (/when enemy resistance became stiffer).

link

First, I would dispute "most rules say you can move or fire, but not do all of both in the same turn." Most rule sets I know in fact allow just that.

Curious: what rule set are you using where you track individual skirmishers?

Since you use the term "rifles", I assume you are talking about British vs. French. The French had a couple of skirmish options available to them. Each battalion could send forward their light companies, an entire battalion might go into open order and act as a skirmish screen or light companies from various battalions might be converged into a separate unit for the particular battle. I would think each option would present a gamer with a different level of cohesion so in a game sense have different odds of being beaten back. The British often employed converged battalions of light companies as well as using light battalions to form a skirmish screen. It did not take long for them to also realize that best use of rifle battalions was to attach them by company to various brigades to support it's skirmish capability. How does your rule set support these concepts?

Very often "feeding the skirmish screen" is exactly what happened if the screen became depleted. The French and Prussians certainly did this a lot – using men from the non-elite companies if necessary. The problem was you then undermine the strength of the main body.
But note that if there is to be a serious clash of skirmishers the main body must halt to let it play out. Otherwise there is just no time for skirmish fire to have much effect. We rarely do this in wargames.

At Bussaco, Neys French forward brigades were all in skirmish order according to Pelet and pushed the British and Portuguese skirmishers 'back on their supports.'

The Russians and Spanish skirmishers were known to charge opposing skirmishers with the bayonet. The Spanish did this at Albuera. I have seen several accounts of Russians doing this.

At Vimeiro, The French skirmishers, backed by columns, pushed back the British rifles and light infantry onto the British line [Ferguson was one of the brigades IIRC] and more skirmishers had to be called out to cover their retreat around the formed line's flanks.

Skirmishing is a very fluid form of warfare. There should be firing and moving at the same time.

From Wheeler, 51st Foot, in 7th Division. Journal entry dated 2 Sep 1813, referring to the French attack across the Bidassoa in late August to relieve San Sebastian.

[p.125] "They outnumbered us greatly, the nature of the ground prevented us from bringing many men into action, only a few companies could engage. I was in reserve the first two hours and witness to many noble achievements performed by private soldiers….. [p.126] The enemy kept reinforcing their skirmishers, so that the fire that was at first slack now began to be very brisk, and in a short time they began to advance on our line, but not with that firmness one should expect from their superiority of numbers. Our skirmishers stood firm, but the fire being too hot for their liking they rushed forward on the enemy, who gave way—and in a few minutes our line had possession of their ground. This charge drove the enemy into a forest on their reserve."

The skirmish goes on and back and forth, but I was intrigued at the clues to enemy capability that Wheeler shares, as well as the sense of feeding into the skirmish.

The skirmish continued in cycles:

"The fire was now tremendous and our line fell back to draw them out on open ground. The hill now swarmed again with the enemy, and a stationary fire was kept up a long time." A general wanders into harm's way, prompting a charge by two companies to rescue him. "In a moment they were mixed with the enemy and down the hill they went together, pel mel, into the wood. The General was rescued.

"Our company was now ordered to the front, we soon got into action but as the enemy had joined their reserves and the large trees completely covered them, we fell back on our reserves. This soon drew them out from cover and brought us all together by the ears. I never remember to be under so sharp a fire in an affair of this kind before… We were now obliged to give way to superior force. By dusk we had lost nearly a league of ground, without allowing the enemy to gain any other advantage. I think it was the dearest league they had ever purchased."

It cycles like déjà vu all over again!

I wonder if the Curaissier didn't mean phase instead of turn?

Though, that said, I wouldn't allow the loading of smoothbore muskets on the move. And most rules, where the skirmisher is the subject, require that they take a whole turn to reload.

Though, that said, I wouldn't allow the loading of smoothbore muskets on the move. And most rules, where the skirmisher is the subject, require that they take a whole turn to reload.

So you have 30 second turns? Also remember that most skirmishers were in pairs, one loaded at all times. And yes, they could load on the move [al beit slowly], particularly if they were practiced at loading, just as cavalry loaded pistols and carbines mounted.

We play Empire rules and occasionally have skirmishers moving up and firing on the oposition's skirmishers. If British rifles have the initiative, usually they halt 4" from the enemy skirmishers and fire because the enemy muskets are less effective at that range while the rifles retain full effect.

Usually, the line formations close to within 3" of one another and firefight, causing the skirmish line to fall back behind the formed troops.

I may be wrong, but I get the impression that most wargamers playing battles from the horse and musket era have a pretty distorted idea of how skirmishers normally operated. There certainly were occasions when entire battalions went into skirmish order, but that required that they have friendly formed units nearby. When operating well to the front, a battalion of light infantry normally only had one or two companies actually skirmishing at any given time. Another company or two would deploy in line of battle behind the skirmishers as a close support, to provide security against any sudden enemy cavalry attack, as well as to feed replacements into the skirmish line as necessary. Further yet to the rear, the rest of the battalion would serve as a reserve, often drawn up in column. Periodically, the skirmishers would be relieved by fresh companies from the reserve. This is what Wheeler of the 51st was talking about in the quote supplied above by McLaddie. Voltigeur and light infantry companies of ordinary line battalions probably normally followed the same procedures on a reduced scale with sections or squads. This can certainly be replicated in rules designed for small scale actions, but is pretty impossible to reflect in any detail in rules intended for gaming large battles.

"but is pretty impossible to reflect in any detail in rules intended for gaming large battles."

Nobody told me that this is impossible, so I just did this. ;)

@ davenbak

Since you use the term "rifles", I assume you are talking about British vs. French. Not necessarily, I just gave that as an example where it was pretty clear who'd "win" in the sense of inflicting losses fastest.

@attile

Further yet to the rear, the rest of the battalion would serve as a reserve

That is how I understand it too. So thinking about it, when considering %age losses suffered so far, these should probably be %age of the whole unit, not just of those in the actual skirmish line.

@Sho Boki,

It will be interesting to see if you have put detailed skirmishing in a large battle game and it still remains playable. IIRC you intended to have clarity of units to individual battalion level too.

Question was not about "detailed skirmishing" but about "impossible to reflect in any detail".

My skirmishing phase is here.. in process of translation.
boki.ee/Wargame/EMPEROR/EMPEROR/EMPEROR330.htm
Quick procedure in large battles but cover the subject background exhaustively.

So if the formed reserve unit gets routed what happens to the skirmishers? Eg a Prussian battalion has pulled away its third rank and pushed them into woods in the flank. The parent unit then gets surprised from the other flank and routed. Do the skirmishers run away too or continue to function?

My understanding of Napoleonic skirmishers was that they were there to primarily harass the enemies main body and/or keep their skirmishes away from own main body. Generally one man reserved his fire whilst his colleague reloaded, just in case of unexpected trouble.

If the skirmish screen is pushed in by a superior force or from depleted numbers then the skirmishes would fall back to their parent unit if possible.

This would then expose the main body to enemy skirmishing fire and the results from then on will depend on what happens next. ie the main body retires, advances etc.

My rules allow musket armed skirmishers to either fire twice a move if stationary or once if moving at half rate. Otherwise if using a full move distance no shooting is allowed. Rifle armed troops once a move if stationary.

It is not a practical proposition to reload a musket or a rifle on the move, despite the antics of Hawkeye from the otherwise excellent film, 'The last of the Mohicans'.

I like to use the Charles Grant theory of inherent military probability. Whilst light companies were expected to be fairly automonous due to their role I would expect them to stick with their parent unit if it were to move off for any reason.

Chris

@C M Dodson,

While you are correct that it would not be practicable for the average soldier to reload while actually marching, I must point out that highly skilled frontiersmen were capable of doing more than that. Daniel Boone and another man (I think his name was Wenzel, but I don't have the work where I read about him to hand) were noted as having trained themselves to load a long rifle within one minute while at a dead run.

During the 18th century the Prussian army fired while advancing in line by the following procedure. The front rank would halt and fire a volley. The following two ranks moved through the front line while it began reloading. Then the second rank halted and fired, and the third rank moved forward. Meanwhile the original front rank finished reloading and moved forward at the double to take position behind the third rank as it halted and fired. The procedure continued until the battalion either broke the enemy or was itself defeated.

Hi,

There are always exceptions to rules and the names you mentioned were I believed skilled mountain men, not mainly illiterate conscripts.

Indeed the light infantry 'trick' of banging the musket butt on the floor instead of using the ram rod is another. However, again this is an emergency procedure resulting in a poorer performance. The flintlock musket was an unreliable weapon at times, hang fire, misfire, flash in the pan etc and to try to load it whilst moving is not a practical proposition.

The movement you describe is exactly what I stated in my post, allowing one round to be fired with a reduced movement rate, as opposed to two if stationary.

"During the 18th century the Prussian army fired while advancing in line by the following procedure. The front rank would halt and fire a volley. The following two ranks moved through the front line while it began reloading. Then the second rank halted and fired, and the third rank moved forward. Meanwhile the original front rank finished reloading and moved forward at the double to take position behind the third rank as it halted and fired. The procedure continued until the battalion either broke the enemy or was itself defeated."

Do you have any source / quote on this?

How can you move through a rank or line and not braking it up?

As to skirmishers loading while moving, this was standard procedure – you could just stop for a moment to inserte the ramrod into the barrel and bring it back into the stock and then continue to advance, Prussiana and Saxons had even self priming pans, which would make loading on the advance easier.

Hi,just to close my participation on loading muskets whilst moving.

My re enactment friends have also confirmed that that this is not a practical proposition. Having 'played' with their muskets myself, especially with a bayonet attached it is easy to see why.

Chris

These articles on skirmishing in the Napoleonic Wars may be of interest:
Infantry Skirmishing in the Napoleonic Wars by Peter Hofschröer.
Napoleonic Skirmishing In Practice by Peter Hofschröer.

Druzhina
19th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

I wouldn't care to rely on anything by Hofschroer. There is no knowing what his sources actually say.

So if the formed reserve unit gets routed what happens to the skirmishers? Eg a Prussian battalion has pulled away its third rank and pushed them into woods in the flank. The parent unit then gets surprised from the other flank and routed. Do the skirmishers run away too or continue to function?

4th Cuirassier:
Does the parent unit continue to rout or reform? Do the French reorganize or pursue? Of course, it all depends.
At Jena, the Fusiliers and Schutzen on the Left near Closewitz continued to fight in the woods long after the main Prussian line had retreated. Napoleon detached an entire brigade to deal with them. So, it did happen.

Hi,just to close my participation on loading muskets whilst moving.

My re enactment friends have also confirmed that that this is not a practical proposition. Having 'played' with their muskets myself, especially with a bayonet attached it is easy to see why.

Chris:

I got the idea from reading Costello's memoirs. He was a Rifleman with the 95th, so had a shorter weapon and usually no bayonet, but he described loading on the move without making any statements about difficulties or it being unusual.

@von Winterfeldt,

Sorry, I did some searching, but could not find the source for the Prussian procedure for firing while maintaining an advance. Maybe it came from something not in my own library. I will continue to keep an eye out for it, and post is as a new thread if I relocate it. Anyway, I am pretty positive about what it said, the question is, was the source trustworthy? Cheers.

Regulation for Hessian Light infantry 1805

§ 40

The light infantry man must be able to load and fire on the walk, kneeling and sitting (…)

page 20

After that passage it is described how to load a musket on the move.

So it was trained, and in my view done when circumstances demanded it.

I could do it as well in re – enactment with bayonets fixed.

Then of course you had the firing on the advance – acting in teams of two, one would advance and fire and the load (stationary) while the other man would advance and wait till the his team mate would have finished loading and then fire, while his team mate would advance.