Bill,
Please, give references to those British accounts from the battle of Albuera.

I know one account from the battle of Salamanca, where the French first rank knelt. Andrew Leith Hay, an ADC to General James Leith, described advance of the British infantry division towards the French infantry division of General Maucune:

The confident presence of the enemy was now exchanged for the quiet formation proceeding in his ranks, as preparatives for resisting the evidently approaching shock. His columns, retired from the crest of the height, were formed in squares, about fifty yards removed from the ground, on which, when arrived, the British regiments would become visible. The French artillery, although placed more to the rear, still poured its fire on the advancing troops....

... We were now near the summit of the ridge. The men marched with the same orderly steadiness as at first: no advance in line at a review was ever more correctly executed: the dressing was admirable, and spaces were no sooner formed by casualties than closed up with the most perfect regularity, and without the slightest deviation from the order of march.

General Leith, and the officers of his staff, being on horseback, first perceived the enemy, and had time to observe his formation, previous to the infantry line becoming so visible, as to induce him to commence firing. He was drawn up in contiguous columns, the front rank kneeling, and prepared to fire when the drum beat for its commencement. All was still and quiet in these columns; – not a musket was discharged until the whole opened.

Leith Hay, A., A Narrative of the Peninsular War. London, 4th edition, 1850, p. 258-260.

Best wishes,
Alexander