The Essentials of Good Skirmishing

Charles M. Lefferts Light Infantry Company of the 40th Foot, 1776 (1912)

In days of yore, when The Tactical Notebook depended upon ink, paper, and postage, we often reprinted items that our readers could not otherwise obtain. In keeping with the spirit of that tradition, the series that begins with this post will provide links to digital copies of the sort of materials we used to republish. As these items often come to my attention while I am doing research on a different subject, articles of this sort will bear the subtitle of ‘Found while Looking for Something Else’.

The series begins The Essentials of Good Skirmishing. Written by Lieutenant Colonel George G. Gawler, a British veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, this short book rolled off the press on two separate occasions. In 1837, it made its debut as a stand-alone work. In 1852, it returned to the book shops in the company of treatises that discussed ways of adapting the time-honored methods of musket-armed light infantry to battlefields dominated by Minié rifles.