ABSTRACT
Infantry in the mid -eighteenth century fought in rigid linear formations. Armed with smoothbore muskets, soldiers advanced in line and traded volleys at point-blank range. Paradeground drill and battlefield tactics were virtually identical. But by the second half of the nineteenth century, infantrymen, armed with rifled weapons, were learning to advance in open order and to use aimed fire. The introduction of breech· loading rifles increased the importance of skirmishing techniques and precision fire.
