From Flintlock to Rifle: Infantry Tactics, 1740-1866 / Edition 1

by Steven T. Ross

Overview

This is a comprehensive study of the major changes in infantry tacticts from the time of Frederick the Great to the beginning of what many see as the era of modern war, in the 1860s. Ross lays social and political change side by side with technical change. He argues that the French revolution, due to the fervour and loyalty it inspired in its participants, led to huge citizen armies of devolved command which were able to make use of new tactics that swept the poorly paid and poorly treated professional armies of their enemies from the field. Shortly after the Napoleonic wars other European countries experienced similar social change and by the middle of the Nineteenth Century these massive conscript armies were equipped with breech-loading rifles and more powerful artillery. The battlefield of the late 1860's had become a place where close infantry formations could not survive for long in the linear formations of the past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780714641935
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/29/1996
Pages:	218
Sales rank:	711,889
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Military Review - "...an excellent new introduction...well written and very informative,"



The War Correspondent - "..a most useful companion to study of the wars of the period...I recommend this book..

Editorial Reviews

Focusing on the experience of the French, traces the social, technological, and military shift of infantry tactics from mass volleys in rigid linear formulations to aimed shooting while advancing in open order. The revolutionary army, drawing from a larger social base than had the royal army, substituted flexibility and individual innovation for blind obedience; but it was not until the availability of cheap rifled weapons that accuracy improved to the degree that mass volleys were no longer necessary. First published in 1979; a new introduction surveys recent books on the subject. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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