The British Army during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars experienced a time of rapid change. At the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, the army was a small, awkwardly administered force of barely 40,000 men. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the numbers had vastly increased. At its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men.
The British infantry was "the only military force not to suffer a major reverse at the hands of Napoleonic France." Unlike most French cavalry troopers who after 1805 received a bare 2 to 3 weeks of training, being prosperous if they were taught basic horsemanship and drill, the British trooper received a minimum of 6 months' training. Because the French could not withdraw from continental conflict as easily as the British (due to the latter's geographic location) and were forced to wage one war after another, they often did not have time to properly train their recruits. The British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, along with the , was considered one of the most modernized of its time and was among the finest in military history, thanks to a large number of volunteers (who were more effective than recruits), good training, strong weaponry (such as the Baker rifle or the Congreve rocket), many skilled commanders, and appropriate tactics. The army did not fight a major clash directly with the formation, which was resolutely involved only in the wars of the Third, Fourth, Sixth coalitions and in the invasion of Russia.
Despite all the advantages, the quality of this army sacrificed its quantity: the army was not large enough to stand against France alone, even at the peak. It preferred to operate en masse only on secondary fronts such as the Netherlands (i.e., the 1799 invasion and Walcheren) and the Iberian Peninsula (the Peninsular War). During the Flanders campaign, the Netherlands front was the main one, however; both Prussia and Austria assisted Britain. At the Battle of Waterloo, there were 26 infantry brigades with only 9 were British. The Battle of Trafalgar demonstrated to the highest degree the Royal Navy's technological superiority over the Spanish and French navies, cementing its naval dominance a century ahead; hence, in the Peninsular War in which the British Army of that period had the strongest impact, the Royal Navy also played a major role in the victory, providing an advantage over the French Imperial Army in logistics and strategic planning for conducting operations by the army; under threat of landing on the coast, the French Army allocated the necessary forces to patrol it. On Iberia, the British Army was aided by guerrilla warfare as well, exacerbating French supply shipment and requiring French patrols to protect convoys. All these advantages also had an impact on military combat operations.
Command, control and organization High Command Throughout the conflict with Napoleon, the British military high command remained largely what it had been under Queen Anne. The only major innovation was introduced by William Pitt the Younger in 1794, when he created a fully-fledged ministry with responsibility for military affairs. However, the Secretary of War was also Home Secretary, Treasurer of the Royal Navy and President of the Indian Board of Control. Thus the Secretary of State for War remained the supreme head of the military administration. His department, the War Office, controlled troop movements, facilities and pay rates, while he was accountable to Parliament for the costs of the army and had to settle disputes arising from the clash of civilian and military interests (e.g. billeting). Irrespective of this, the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers continued to be under the command of the Master-General of the Ordnance. The Master-General was himself a military officer, but sat as a civilian minister in Parliament, where he was responsible for the Ordnance Department. His area of responsibility was in turn divided into a civilian part, which supplied both the army and the navy with supplies and ammunition, and a military part, that of the artillery and the Engineers, which he commanded as a soldier. Infantry
By 1792, the infantry of the British army had grown to 135 regiments. In addition, numerous French émigrés and foreign regiments were serving in Britain, so that the militia and volunteer forces were also increased accordingly. The regular militia forces were recruited by ballot, and each county had to provide its own contingent. The militia entered active service when they formed into fixed units and were called up for active service, although they could even be combined into regular line regiments. The local militias (as opposed to the regular militias) functioned as reserve forces with scattered and irregularly distributed units that could be called up in times of national emergency. The volunteer units were privately raised units, usually supported by a wealthy patron or organization. They grew into a large force — in 1806 they comprised almost 329,000 people. During the course of the wars against Napoleon, the British armed forces were expanded by subsequent Acts of Parliament, often by raising additional battalions for existing regiments, so that the effective strength of the infantry increased threefold between 1793 and 1801. By 1803, the strength of the entire British infantry totalled 126,677 men. Although the names of the colonels still took precedence in official usage until 1803, from 1792 all numbered infantry regiments were named after counties. Each regiment commanded by a colonel could have two or more battalions. However, as two battalions of the same regiment were rarely deployed together, the most important tactical formation was the battalion. It was commanded by a lieutenant-colonel and consisted of ten companies, each of which was commanded by a captain. Riflemen and light infantry
A number of infantry regiments were newly formed as, or converted into, dedicated regular light infantry regiments. During the early war against the French, the British Army was bolstered by light infantry mercenaries from Germany and the Low Countries, but the British light infantry companies proved inadequate against the experienced and far more numerous French during the Flanders campaign, and in the 1799 Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, and light infantry development became urgent. The first rifle-armed unit, the 5th Battalion of the 60th Regiment, was formed mainly from German émigrés before 1795. An Experimental Corps of Riflemen, armed with the British Infantry Rifle, more commonly known as the Baker rifle, was formed in 1800, and was brought into the line as the 95th Regiment of Foot (Rifles) in 1802. Some of the light units of the King's German Legion were also armed with the same weapon. The rifle-armed units saw extensive service, most prominently in the Peninsular War where the mountainous terrain saw them in their element.
Cavalry At the beginning of the war, the cavalry consisted of 27 regiments organised into ten troops, each of which theoretically had 63 men. The troops were labelled with letters (A, B, C etc.) and the squadrons with numbers. As the cavalry regiments did not have a second battalion, two of these troops, known as regimental depots, were left permanently at home for recruitment and training purposes. The fighting units were grouped into escadrons: usually the smallest tactical unit that could operate independently. Heavy and medium cavalry regiments such as dragoons or cuirassiers consisted of four escadrons until the number was reduced to three by 1811. The light cavalry Hussars not only retained their four squadrons, but were even expanded by a fifth in September 1813.
Artillery The artillery was divided into battalion artillery, mounted artillery and park artillery. The battalion artillery usually consisted of three-pounders or light six-pounders, and was normally subordinate to an infantry battalion. Mounted artillery was formed in 1793 to create a type of mobile artillery unit that would follow the cavalry to give it more firepower or to move quickly to where more firepower was needed. Park artillery was the name given to the heavier guns such as the 12 pounders. These guns were less mobile and were used to take up certain advantageous positions from which their greater penetrating power could be brought to bear. From 1800 onwards, the distribution of pairs of guns among infantry regiments was a thing of the past; artillery had become far more centralised. Normally, foot artillery was divided into "brigades" with six to 12 guns; the term "battery", which is now associated with an artillery unit of this size, is a later invention. The unit could be further divided into sub-units, so-called "divisions", which consisted of two guns. A single crew with gun and carriage was known as a sub-division. In the Royal Horse Artillery, the tactical unit corresponding to the brigade was the "troop" with six guns. The strengths of the brigade and the troop varied depending on the campaign and they were often less than the official strength.
Recruitment and Training
During the later part of the 18th century Britain was divided into three recruiting areas—with England and Wales generally called South Britain—which were further divided into Districts with their own Headquarters. Ireland had separate Districts and organisation, and Scotland, or North Britain, was one administrative area. Home defence, enforcement of law and maintenance of order was primarily the responsibility of the Militia, the Royal Veteran Battalions, the Yeomanry and the Fencibles. Another structure of Recruiting Districts and Sub-Divisions existed alongside this.
Recruits
The British Army drew many of its raw recruits from the lowest classes of Britain. Since army life was known to be harsh, and the remuneration low, it attracted mainly those for whom civilian life was worse. The Duke of Wellington himself said that many of the men "enlist from having got bastard children – some for minor offences – some for drink". They were, he once said, "the scum of the earth; it is really wonderful that we should have made them to the fine fellows they are." In Scotland however, a number of men enlisted due to the collapse of the weaving trade and came from skilled artisan or even middle-class households. Most soldiers at the time signed on for life in exchange for a "bounty" of £23 17s 6d, a lot of which was absorbed by the cost of outfitting "necessities" but a system of 'limited service' (seven years for infantry, ten for cavalry and artillery) was introduced in 1806 to attract recruits. Soldiers began, from 1800 onward, to receive a daily beer money allowance in addition to their regular wages; the practice was started on the orders of the Duke of York. Additionally, corporal punishment was removed for a large number of petty offences.
Before 1788, the British infantry had no uniform drill system, so each commanding officer maneuvered his regiment according to his own method. When war broke out in 1793, according to historian Henry Bunbury, the British army was lax in its discipline, completely without a system and very weak in numbers. This deficiency largely persisted until Lieutenant-General John Moore began teaching his developed system of drill and maneuvers at Shorncliffe Army Camp in 1803. The foundations of the drill taught at Shorncliffe were the Rules and Regulations for the Movements of His Majesty's Infantry by General David Dundas and the Regulations for the Exercise of Riflemen by Francis de Rottenburg.