On the 150th anniversary of the disruptions in British India, scholars have still not reconciled themselves to an appropriate terminology for them, while politicians hijack the events for their own agenda. In order to examine this controversial episode in the development of modern India, two influential early histories of 1857 are looked into, as well as a recent historical work which has taken a different approach.                    

In this article I show how the tactical concept of light infantry skirmish-line fighting style was introduced into the Swedish line infantry regiments during the reign of Gustav IV Adolf (1792-1809). Up until the end of the 18th century a handful of Jaeger battalions represented the only light infantry units in the Swedish-Finnish army. At this point critical discussions in the general staff identified the demand for a larger proportion of light infantry. The crowns financial strains didn't allow for additional regiments to be organized. The solution chosen was a project to reshape and modernize the existing units to a new flexible standard. Through three sequential infantry reforms ca 1797-1806, skirmish line fighting was introduced as a universal tactical concept in all Swedish infantry regiments. Henceforth the whole infantry was trained to fight as flexible units capable of switching entire battalions (or parts of) from closed order to skirmish lines on the battlefield. This concept even applied to the quickly formed Landwehr battalions of 1808-1809. Success in this respect depended on frequent training and competence both among privates and officers. In this article I both study the discussions leading up to the decisions, the reforms as such reflected in the printed infantry exercise manuals, and to what extent they were applied in the subsequent campaigns, especially in Finland 1808 where they proved decisive in several of David's defensive victories against the Russian Goliath. This reform seem to be the modern threshold of tactical infantry doctrine prevailing up until the introduction of industrial warfare, although additional research on the post-Napoleonic 19th century still needs to be done to secure this claim.