Was there something like light infantry during the 30 years war/17th century?I know that light companies became standard "flank" companies of infantry regiments during the 18th century but was this already a "unit type" a century prior?For example at the Battle of Lützen in 1632 Wallenstein hinged his right flank on the village and a grove in front of it, in which he positioned musketeers. And this seems like the stereotypical deployment situation for light infantry.
Additionally I could find out that there was a single formation of jaegers (literally hunters and gamekeepers previously employed by the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel) armed with rifles, which was established in 1631.But there is little information about this formation or others like them.
I know that most of these formations were mustered from the scout corps the respective armies already employed. They wanted people with a good understanding of the land as well as endurance for what we'd call long range patrols today. They'd often use them as raiders because they were uniquely well suited to this task, but as far as when exactly these formations became known as light infantry I couldn't say. It's more that over time what was understood as more or less standard practice became codified in the light corps
>>62879276>scout corpsCould you elaborate on those? From what I've read, reconnaissance and raiding was done by harquebusiers or "irregular" - like the famous croat horseman that were employed by the imperials during the 30 years war.
>>62879168I have a feeling a lot of those roles were covered by harquebusiers/early dragoons and the like at the time, in that mobility tends to be rather important there and that in turn means you really want horses involved instead of just straight up infantry.
>>62879501Seems to be the case as far as I could find out as well. And iirc the first french carabinier of the 17th century were armed with rifled carbines in order to give them a greater effect for firefights.
weren't the finns used in that capacity?
Bump
>>62879168Not an expert, but this feels like something done by either Dragoons or ethnic infantry from the frontiers (like Croats, Finns, Cossacks, etc.). At this time, infantry was primarily either musketeers or pikemen.
