Infantry in Battle 1733-1783

Infantry in Battle rewrites the story of combat in the eighteenth century by placing enlisted infantrymen and their experiences at centre stage. While popular memory and film portray these men as robotic automata they fought in flexible and adaptable ways, and they left their mark on eighteenth-century warfare. In Infantry in Battle, Dr Alexander S. Burns provides a new understanding of combat during the mid-eighteenth century: the pivotal period between 1733 and 1783. Professor Burns argues that eighteenth-century soldiers informally negotiated authority with their officers on the battlefield by firing without orders, firing at longer ranges than their officers preferred, and by taking cover on the battlefield. In this process, these enlisted men played an important role by asserting tactical reforms from below. Infantry in Battle is grounded in archival research on the American, British, and Prussian armies. However, it also covers the armies of military Europe more broadly, and