STUDIES ON THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 019
A Fair Fight Between Column and Line
3. The Battle of Maida (6)
A Fair Fight Between Column and Line
The whole fate of the battle turned on the first clash of arms between Kempt and the 1st Léger. It was the fairest fight between column and line that had been seen since the Napoleonic wars began—on the one side two heavy columns of 800 men each, drawn up in column of companies, i.e. with a front of some sixty men each, and a depth of fourteen (each battalion having seven companies present). The front of each was not more than sixty yards. Kempt, on the other hand, had his battalion in line, two men deep only, so that, even deducting officers, sergeants, etc., he had a front of 350 yards, only 120 yards of which had Frenchmen directly in front of it. The two battalions of the 1st Léger being a little way apart, the 1st battalion faced the 35th flankers, the 2nd the light companies of the 81st and de Watteville. Be it noted that every man in the British line was a picked marksman (all being light company men), and that every one of them could use his musket against either the front or the flank of one of the two French columns. Of the 1st Léger, on the other hand, only 240 were in first or second line and therefore able to fire.
But of course Compère, who was riding between his battalions with his Staff, had no notion whatever of winning by fire; he was, in his own estimation, about to break through the British line by sheer impact, as he had broken through Austrians many a time in the old wars of Lombardy. His columns came down, a formidable sight from their depth and their rapid pace, looking like rolling boulders which must inevitably crash through the thin red wall in front of them. For Compère had put on full speed, knowing that the shorter time he was within musketry range the less would be his losses. The trumpets were all blaring and the men shouting, “Vive l’Empereur! À la baïonnette”.
Kempt, on the other hand, halted as the enemy drew near: “Steady light infantry. Wait for the word. Let them come close.” And then, when the columns were within half musket shot only: “Now fire!” What followed was a puzzle to Compère and Reynier, a surprise even to the British themselves. The French received three volleys, at 150 yards, 80 yards, and 20 yards. The first laid low almost the whole first line, but the mass still came on. The second tore well into the heart of the disordered crowd, whose impetus was still carrying it forward. The third turned the whole to flight. Reynier, who was watching from the rear, writes in his dispatch: “The English remained with ported arms till the 1st Léger came within half musket shot; they then opened a tremendous fire, which did not at first stop the charge, but when the columns were only fifteen paces from the hostile line and could have broken it by one more thrust, the soldiers of the 1st turned their backs and ran to the rear all together.” He thought that he had been beaten because his men had flinched at the last moment. So did Compère, who actually rode into the British line, with one bullet in his shoulder and another in his left arm, “and was captured, menacing with the action of his other arm, and cursing and swearing with the most voluble bitterness”.
Reynier ought to have known better what to expect; he had seen the battles in front of Alexandria, but evidently had not learnt the lesson which they might have taught him; there, indeed, line and column had not been pitted against each other with the beautiful simplicity that was witnessed at Maida. What is odd is that even Maida did not teach him the truth. Three years later he tried the same old tactics at Bussaco, with equally disastrous results, so that Bonaparte exclaimed: “Ney and Masséna had never seen the English before; but that Reynier, whom they have already thrashed twice, should have attacked in this way is simply astounding.” Even after his Calabrian experiences he remained with the comforting belief that a courageous column could smash any line, and that if the experiment did not come off it was the fault of faint hearts in the rank and file.
Of the purely physical aspect of the attack of column on line I have already spoken. Eight hundred men in line cover more than twice the front of 1,600 in column, and can put in 700 shots per volley against 240, and that at a target which even with Brown Bess it was hard to miss at 100 yards.
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