Quote Originally Posted by Baiae
Yeah, sorry. I didn't mean Napoleonic tactically but the concept that you could march your troops across an open field into the teeth of the enemy was outdated by the 1860's and belonged to the Napoleonic era, when range and accuracy of weapons, especially infantry weapons, was much more limited.
The problem was of course that tactical doctrine and training had not evolved any alternatives.

Certainly much more use was made of line and extended line in the ACW than during the Napoleonic wars but lets face it men were still being ordered to advance over open ground into the teeth of the enemy fire in WW1. the only thing that began to break the mould was the invention of the tank and even then things reverted to norm whenever the tank was not available.

Japanese Banzai charges and the Chinese assaults in the Korean war to give just two examples.