'Disorder' in the Horse and Musket Era?

Not a snowy Christmas image, but the 11th Hussars in among the Russian guns during the Battle of Balaklava, October 25th, 1854.

A question for the readership, who are better versed than I in military concepts and related terminology. For the horse and musket era, how do you understand the term 'disorder'? When do troops -- say a battalion of line infantry in a firefight, receiving (or running from) an enemy charge, or a squadron of cavalry about to engage with a unit of charging enemy cavalry -- become disordered? At the moment, I associate the term with retreat (temporary disorder) and a rout (permanent disorder). Is this in the ballpark? I'd really appreciate some clarification and related explanation, if you please. Thank you in advance.

-- Stokes

Comments

daveb said…

I think it depends on the ruleset and how the author has chosen to label various states. Some rules rout is potentially temporary and can be rallied off. Disorder may be seen as a progression of a morale state (steady, disordered, wavering, rout) or it can be seen as a organizational issue not directly mapping to morale (i.e. a rigid formation moving through tough ground/woods/fording makes the unit disordered......it lacks it's usual tight formation that makes it effective). Often in the latter case the disorder makes the unit less effective at fighting and more brittle in morale. It can be resolved with a bit of time for the 'dressing of ranks'.

Cavalry charging 'too early' or in an un organized way (too exuberant) would decrease their striking power and make them more likely to 'bounce'. Foot getting ragged lines from light casualties (i.e. not sufficient effective in the rules to remove models etc), malingerers, or troops getting a bit worried about those cavalry rolling around their flanks and clumping up instead of being in nice long lines could also represent 'real' effects of being disordered.

12:53 AM

Whiskers said…

I can give a couple of examples of disorder in 1800 mm wargaming, both from the Waterloo 2015 re-enactment.

A British line unit about 200 strong, surprised by cuiirassiers. Attempting to form square, the Light Company got themselves gut off, leaving the rear of the square open. The gap was plugged by supernumaries and a few fellows shoved into place by NCOs. It would not have held against a real enemy. It was disordered, but not retreating.

The same square was ordered to reform line, when more horsemen appeared through the smoke. Half the blokes tried to follow orders while half tried to reform the square. The approaching cavalry were our Dutch allies, in their French-style uniforms. Again, disorder without falling back.

5:24 AM

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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