This is probably false to some extent because I get this perception mainly from movies and other media, but did soldiers in old wars line up in formations exposing themselves and take turns to fire? If so, why?
Edit: Ty for all the detailed responses guys! I had one more question- wouldn’t it make more sense for them to spread out or take cover while fighting?
In: 2518
Because it worked and was the best tactic for the era
People like to rag on the accuracy of muskets but they’re good out to about 100 meters which is plenty. Even now most combat is <300 meters and that’s with much much faster firing weaponry.
Muskets are slow to reload, a fast group could fire a volley every 15 seconds but if your army isn’t super well trained you’re looking at more like 20 seconds. Putting soldiers in rows with 3 being able to shoot would mean a well trained army could be firing a volley every 5 seconds and keep up the pressure on the enemy. Constant fire means that there’s decent sized groups of people going down every few seconds, this is more effective than one here, two there, another one here, even if the total casualties are the same, the big volleys had a bigger impact on morale. If your line held you would win, if morale faltered and your line broke you lost the battle and took heavy casualties because now your soldiers were out of formation.
The groups also provided protection against the other common unit of the day – cavalry.
A single soldier or even a small group can be easily taken out by a few horsemen with swords, if they miss their first shot they cannot possible reload before the horse reaches them. Small pockets of foot soldiers would get steadily picked off by the faster horsemen and the army would be defeated in detail.
A large group of soldiers with muskets that have bayonets are effectively pikemen and can switch to either a spear wall or a square formation to defend against horses. The squares have multiple rows of soldiers bracing each other with their pointy sticks pointed outwards and their friends in the middle can still be reloading and firing at the enemies nearby
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