The Skirmishers

Eighteenth-century battle tactics, developed during the Napoleonic Wars from 1799 to 1815, relied on lines of men standing shoulder to shoulder and firing smoothbore muskets accurate only to about 50 yards until superior firepower or a bayonet charge drove one side from the field. By 1862 these methods were largely outdated because rifled muskets were accurate at 400 yards, nearly one-quarter mile. Civil War armies instead used skirmishers, soldiers deployed ahead of the main army in a loose, open formation to protect flanks, secure outposts, deceive the enemy, scout ahead, and use the terrain while firing slowly and carefully. At the Battle of Richmond, both sides employed skirmishers. Mahlon Manson used them to harass and drive away Confederate artillery near Pleasant View. Patrick Cleburne made skirmishers an important part of his strategy in the battle's first phase, as they continually engaged Union infantry and created the illusion of a Confederate flanking move on the east. Using rolling ground and a wooded area to conceal their numbers, they drew the Union line farther and farther east, a mistake that led to its undoing.

Kentucky · United States