Note 62 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
A column or columns advancing to an attack, although steady as on parade, on nearing the line of a cool determined enemy, must be quickly shattered by the converging fire, which would drop their leading and flank files, the only men that can really use their muskets; confused by different words of command from various officers, often enveloped in smoke and crowded together, the pressure is such, that every movement augments disorder and confusion. The imposing advance of large masses has often intimidated an enemy, notwithstanding they are only really formidable in the imagination, until deployed into line, during which evolution, a good volley, resolutely followed up by the application of the cold steel, would overthrow the best troops that ever pulled a trigger.
The Duke says, “Napoleon did not manœuvre at all; he just moved forward in the old style, in columns, and was driven off in the old style.” (Letter to Lord Beresford, July 2d, 1815, in the Appendix, No. II, p. 218.)
I will not go so far as to say that moving forward in any other formation would have gained them the battle, but I do think the old style of advancing in columns did not give them a chance.