I am a little at a loss to explain further what seems clear to me in Ney's words.

At the risk of making things worse through a poor translation, allow me to do so:

"With four regiments to be deployed when the commanding general wants to form two lines, to put the odd battalions in the first one and the even battalions in second, he will form the closed columns by regiment, right in front; on the 4th division of the odd battalions, he will bring up the masses to battalion distance on the 2nd regiment, and then deploy on the division with the colour of every battalion. But if the commaning general wanted the even battalions to be first and the odd ones in the second line, the closed columns by regiment would form on the 1st division of the even battalions, the left in front; one would them up to battalion distance on the masses of the 3rd regiment, and deployment would also take place on the division of the colour of every battalion."

This starts out with four regimental columns side-by-side and each regiment (of the time) being of two battalions this means, to take another perspective, four battalions in the front "line" (row) and four battalions in the second "line" (row). Then they deploy into line.

My point earlier was that context (and care) are necessary to understand what is being described and to understand the intended level of reference for "serrée" and "par . . ." each time they are used (as well as "division" for that matter). - R

Division (of two brigades of two regiments of two battalions) or a series of regimental columns (colonnes serrées par régiment)

= = = =
= = = =

Formed into two lines:
__ __ __ __
__ __ __ __

Regiment

In column with battalions in column (see below)
=
=

Formed into line
__
__

Battalion

Formed in closed battalion columns (colonne serrée)

=

Formed into line
__

To be clear, the point was not to say this was used at Albuera. Further, I do not believe Ney is opining on the wisdom of this formation. It may be better to have the first "line" (row) of units of four battalions from two regiments and the second "line" (row) of units of four battalions from two regiments. Ney is simply desribing how to do what the general wants. I used Ney's words as they used forms of language under discussion and he gave enough other comments to clarify what he meant. - R