Digby,

I presume that you are referring to the diagrams on pages 184 to 187 of "Imperial Bayonets", which show that British and Prussian squadrons only had the squadron leader in front, whereas the French show 5 officers in front, squardon leader and 4 subalterns.

The British diagram actually shows only one Captain, which is wrong because each of the two Troops in the squadron had a Captain, the senior one acting as squadron leader and the other as his second-in command, The diagram also shows a subaltern at each end of the front rank plus four more in the centre and two more in the serre-file behind the second rank (a total of eight). There were actually only 2 subalterns per Troop (one Lieutenant and one Cornet) so the total was four. In theory Troops of 100 R&F had two Lieutenants, rather than one, but only two Cavalry Regiments were ever established for Troops of this size (both in India).

I would mention that the British diagram on page 187 of Imperial Bayonets shows two corporal coverers in the second rank of the squadron, with the annotation "Corporal in Light Dragoons only. There was in fact absolutely no difference whatsoever in the establishments of British Dragoons Guards, Dragoons, Light Dragoons and Hussars, apart from variations in size of squadrons or number of squadrons in a regiment which at different dates could apply to all types of cavalry. The only regiments which were actually different were 1st and 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards, all of which had various "Household" oddities. 3rd Dragoons had one extra post, a kettle drummer, in recognition of the one they captured at Dettingen.

The Instructions and Regulations for the Formations and Movements of the Cavalry 1796 contains just one diagram (the first one) showing a Regiment of four squadrons in line. All of the other diagrams show various evolutions. The diagram shows the commanding officer in front of the entire regiment and a squadron commander in front of each squadron, with other officers and NCOs behind the second rank. There is a description of the position of the various key officers and NCOs of the squadron (on page 7 in my 1801 fourth edition), placing the squadron commander advanced one horses length before the standard, one officer on each flank of the front rank, covered by a corporal in the second rank, one officer in the centre of the front rank carrying the standard, covered by a corporal in the second rank, plus three sergeants, one on the right of the front rank of each division (quarter squadron) except the right one (which would of course have an officer there as already stated), each sergeant being covered by a corporal (or private, if not enough corporals) in the second rank. The description states that all other officers, NCOs and trumpeters are in the rear, two horses distance behind the second rank. It also says that if anyone is absent sergeants replace officer, corporals replace sergeants and intelligent men replace corporals.

The Elucidation of Several Parts of His Majesty's Regulations for the Formation and Movements of Cavalry 1798 has a diagram (Plate III facing page 12) showing a squadron "told off" (ie numbered) with the same positioning of officers, sergeants and corporals. Part II of this book (bound up with it in a single volume) is titled Movements and Attacks with references to the Appendix in His Majesty's Regulations for Cavalry. Plate I, facing page 35 (the pages are numbered throughout the book, but as noted in an earlier post my hard copy 1822 fifth edition has three extra pages at the end of Part I, covering Movements in Ranks by Threes) shows the formation of a regiment for exercise and this is indentical to that in the first diagram of Formations and Movements of the Cavalry 1796.

The conclusion seems to be that the British did operate with only one officer in front of each squadron, whereas the French had five. George Nafziger argues, on page 188 of Imperial Bayonets, that this gave the French better "forward control". It may also have led to more French officer casualties, but George does not mention that.

I do have a reprint of the Prussian 1812 regulations so I will have a look at that as well.

I am not sure where George got his Russian information from. He states (page 86) that he used their 1837 Infantry Regulations, since he could not find a contemporary Napoleonic document, although he cites the 1798 Russian infantry regulations in his bibligraphy. Since he wrote that, Alexander and Yurii Zhmodikov produced their outstanding "Tactics of the Russian Army in the Napoleonic Wars (and Alexander was also incredibly kind to send me photocopies of all the Russian regualtions of the era). George did not have acces to any of this when he wrote "Imperial Bayonets" so his Russian analysis may well be flawed.

By the way if anyone wants to know what a British cavalry squadron looks like then watch a recoding of the annual Trooping of the Colour in which a composite squardon of Household Cavalry takes part, two divisions (quarter squadrons) of Life Guards and two divisions of Blues and Royals.

Rod