Jean-Charles, chevalier de Folard

Jean-Charles, chevalier de Folard (born Feb. 13, 1669, Avignon, Fr.—died March 23, 1752, Avignon) was a French soldier and military theorist who championed the use of infantry columns instead of battle lines in warfare. Although he had a small but influential following during his lifetime, his concepts were not generally accepted by Europe’s military establishment. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the increasing firepower and accuracy of cannons and rifles finally made his ideas increasingly impractical.

Serving in the French army during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) and from 1714 under Charles XII of Sweden, Folard developed his tactical ideas, which he published as Nouvelles Découvertes sur la guerre . . . (1724; “New Discoveries on War”). A second treatise followed a few years later. Folard believed that firepower alone was not sufficient to bring victory. He suggested the shock of a deep mass of troops in the form of infantry columns used in conjunction with battle lines as the answer. Part of Folard’s justification was the small range of contemporary firearms. France’s marshal Maurice de Saxe and Austria’s Guido von Starhemberg approved his tactics; but most other authorities disagreed, and Folard died in obscurity. Though French armies during the early 1790s won several victories using infantry columns, advances in military technology eventually proved his ideas untenable.