BritainUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

During the era of the French Revolution and Napoleon, the British Army remained an anachronism. As it was never defeated by the French, it saw no reason to change its drill or upper command structure. Throughout the era it remained primarily a divisional army, although corps were finally organized late in the campaigns in Spain. While its allies on the continent were adapting their organizations to imitate the French, the British soldiered on with a unique command system which meshed perfectly with the talent and personality of its dominant general Arthur Wellesey, the Duke of Wellington. Fortunately, the Spanish Peninsula presented special circumstances which conspired to make it an infantry war, and infantry was the British army’s strong suit.

As with all armies, the basic infantry tactical element was the battalion. In the British army, however, the battalion was often also the entire regiment, and even in multi-battalion regiments it was unusual for more than one battalion to serve in the same theater of war. A British battalion consisted of ten companies, including one grenadier and one light company. As a rule, battalions ranged from 400 to over 900 men. When battalion strength fell below 400, it was common practice to join it with another depleted battalion and form a provisional battalion or transfer the privates to other units and send the cadre (officers and noncommissioned officers) home to recruit a new battalion.

Without a real regimental organization, the next level of command was the brigade. Brigades contained two to four battalions and from 1,600 to 3,000 infantry and were the building blocks for the infantry divisions. In the Peninsula, each brigade normally had additional individual companies of light infantry and/or rifles attached. These buttressed the brigades’ skirmish screens and gave them an advantage over their French counterparts. Three to four brigades, depending on their size, normally made up an infantry division, the largest grand tactical unit in the British Army.

Either from experience gained in the American Revolution, or due to the lack of replacements early in the 19th Century, the British adopted a two-rank rather than a three-rank line. The British regularly placed not only the light company in skirmish formation, but also the grenadier company. To this screen was added the rifle units whose battalions were broken into companies and parceled out to the various brigades. This gave the British army, which was habitually short of guns, a formidable screen with which to place fire on the advancing French. The British cavalry was unusual in many respects. The best-mounted cavalry in Europe, they failed to live up to their potential on many occasions. The old saw has it that individually or by squadron the British cavalry was better, but by regiment or brigade the French were better. The fact was that once launched on a charge, no British commander could be sure that his cavalry would ever come back. Wellington’s lack of trust in his cavalry was either predicated on fact; he had no real appreciation for its use, or he fully appreciated its quality and was afraid to use it. Whatever the truth, in the Peninsula there was never enough cavalry, and what there was was more often than not outperformed by die French, who were often mounted on inferior horses.

The British artillery was excellent, especially the Royal Horse Artillery. Like the cavalry, there was never enough of it and there often were not enough horses for what was present. Due to the poor roads in the Iberian Peninsula, the British were able to do without a heavy 12 pounder fieldpiece there with no adverse effects because it was impractical for the French to use their heavy guns in that same theater of operations. The medium foot guns were generally parceled out to the infantry divisions and were often broken down into two-gun sections to cover a division’s front. The horse artillery was more often held in reserve or committed as a battery and at any rate was not normally assigned to the direct support of infantry.

A feature of the British army that cannot be overlooked after 1805 is the presence of large numbers of King’s German Legion (KGL) troops from Hanover. This force numbered some ten infantry battalions, five cavalry regiments, and five artillery batteries. The infantry was as good as the native Britons, and their cavalry, being more controllable, was probably a bit better.

Gaming The British Army: In NAPOLEON’S BATTLES, British infantry in line can be a very difficult proposition for the French, especially if protected from cavalry and artillery fire. Wellington solved this problem by taking up defensive positions which were often unassailable by cavalry, and by hiding his infantry on reverse slopes as a protection against artillery fire. On a wargames tabletop, few places are unassailable by cavalry. The infantry in the front line can be buttressed with what artillery is available, and the player should not be afraid to counterattack.