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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7022678" data-attributes="member: 16814">History quibble:  formations were not ended because of gatling guns.  The end of the US Civil War saw formation warfare effectively ended and the beginning of trench warfare.  The real death of formation warfare was the professionalization and decentralization of military command.  When lower unit commanders were trained and trusted to control their units independently in pursuit of broad general tactics or strategy decided at the flag level, that's what ended line formation warfare.  It had previously been weakened by the advent of gunpowder weapons, and then the deployment of battlefield cannons, but the real death of formations was the reduction on reliance of strong, central command direction.In medieval and antiquity combats, formations provided the ability of a battlefield commander to direct tactics precisely, and also offered the strength of concentrated numbers.  With the advent of gunpowder, the formation remained because it the inaccuracy of the gunpowder weapons was so poor that it required massed coordinated fire to be effective.  That the formation also provided fantastic targets for such fire was a wash.  Battlefield control by the commanders was still paramount due to the nature of the weapons and prevailing military doctrine.  Also, the poor individual quality of training for soldiers, who were taught only how to operate their weapons and respond to drill commands.  The advent of effective battlefield cannon didn't really change this structure much until it became ubiquitous and numerous.  The later battles of the Civil War showed this effect, as formations were abandoned in favor of massed charges and trench warfare.  Standing in a formation was suicide against a cannon emplacement firing grape, for instance.  The Civil War also marked a doctrinal change in warfare as the size and power of armies caused a break down of battlefield control and war started to moderize.  The sides had a number of officers that had been professionally trained at West Point, and the decentralization of command during battles became a key new feature of Civil War era battles.  The formations were abandoned because they were no longer necessary to provided effective combat power and the need for strict battlefield control by a single commander was abandoned in favor of a general strategy pursued by sub-commanders independently.The advent of the gatling gun wasn't part of these changes.  While developed during the same span as the Civil War (and for the purpose of showing how futile war was, ironically), it was not deployed during the war until the last years, and then they were deployed to defend the trenchlines  It was a new, rare weapon, but the changes away from formation battles were already moving and the gatling gun had little impact on them.</blockquote>

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