as I have discussed this topic with my fellow beta tester Hook, he made some calculations...
I said that the teams sent out as skirmishers (no matter how many) were grouped in two, positioned in a distance of 10-15 metres apart...Hook considered Nafziger on my statement and found the number of 8-15 there....
there was always a considerable reserve kept in the rear to both, substitute losses and reinforce where necessary - no commander would ever use up all the skirmishers up front...he would always try to keep a reserve...and maybe wait until further reinforcements for him arrive (either ther rest of the light companies of his regiment's bataillons - unit's getting mixed would have tried to be avoided - or maybe even a line company, never the Grenadier company, if it had sufficient training...in 1805 this would have been the case for most of the French units, in 1807 or 1809 even, the losses of the previous campaigns, which could never be compensared in the future, as they made it necessary to recruit many unexperienced young men, who didn't have that training, and never had the time to properly gain it!)
the voltigeurs of the light companies were always selected from the smaller men, due to an obvious reason!
taking the number of 10 metres of intervalls inbetween of the teams of two and a number of 500 men in the skirmish formation you'd have 2500 m of a skirmisher line (HOOK - please correct me on this if I am totally wrong, I can't quite remember the numbers, and I always HATED MATH!!!
)
Skirmishers were supposed to have a mind of their own, and the ability to act and decide indepentently as it was almost impossible to control them once sent out...basic commands could of course be given, but they didn't always reach them, once engaged...
Those teams of two were meant to act like one: while one shot, the other one was reloading...basically one protected the other...special tactics for defending against cavalry were employed - for example how to defend yourself against a lancer...and so on...
CvC
PS: my knowledge on the revolutionary wars is not extensive enough to answer the statement of skirmishers being largely used there, but as I know, the training of these people was very low, so I wonder if it wasn't just a huge mass that was sent forward, a mass from which the "attack column" emerged...but I really can't comment on this, as this is not my area...but I'll be sure to get some reading done on this, as soon as possible!