No, Columns were useful only for road and off-road movement, and battles were fought in open order by both armies.
It's a mistake to think of wars and how they were fought by "periods" as that suggests they are all more or less alike. As is, too many people think of the MAW as being fought like that of 1812 (largely fooled by the grossly misleading lithographs of the conflict). Since the "Horse and Musket Period" covers everything between at least 1700 and 1870, it's clearly a useless description when applied to each and every conflict in between.
That "Horses" were the main means of carrying some soldiers, and towing the rest, and that "Muskets" (muzzle loading, flint or percussion) firearms were the principal weapon systems, does relate the wars in that period. But concluding by extension they were also fought the same way is a leap into emptiness.
Not even the armies of the Napoleonic Era fought in same formations and practices from war to war, experience always honing the edge of practice.
Better to read some basic sources (not general histories) for any specific war first.
Thus endeth the uninvited rant.
TVAG
finally dips his toe into the world of Aeronef.
