system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why were wars like the American Civil War and the American Revolution fought using Volley Fire and not guerilla warfare? Wouldn't it have resulted in less casualties if all soldiers weren't lined up like sitting ducks?

I've always had a hard time grasping why exactly volley fire is even a thing. You're pretty much a sitting duck and if someone was to ambush you, you'd be dead.
gpt
I can't believe the answers you're getting.  It's all in the physics, not about honor at all.

Up until the civil war most soldiers used muskets. Muskets were smoothbore guns which had a practical range of a hundred yards at most.  Most of the time they were fired at a range of fifty yards because they were so inaccurate.  They were not designed to be aimed.  It took massed ranked fire to produce real effects from that kind of weapon. So soldiers lined up shoulder to shoulder, and everybody aimed in the general direction of the enemy and fired upon command.  It was considered more important to fire all at once than to fire with accuracy with muskets for the shock effect.  Add to that the generally short range of voice and musical instruments used to command soldiers back then and you wanted tightly grouped ranks of men.  Add to that the fact that most musket volleys were backed up by the bayonet charge to break the enemy, again by massed ranks of men, and you wanted your guys held together for mutual cohesion and support. Some troops were issued rifles but they were specialists. And some troops shook out into open formation but they were a tiny part of the formation known as skirmishers who were intended to prevent the enemy quickly overrunning your main formation.  When lines of battle formed they quickly moved into the main line as regular troops.  There are other reasons but within the scope of ELI5 this is good enough.  Basically, the guns used demanded close rank formations.


It wasn't until the civil war when the rifle was adopted by rank and file that formations opened up, and even then it took a while to adopt new ways of command and movement that allowed troops to work in open file as a general thing. Pretty much all the way through the Civil War rifles were still used in large massed formations to blast away at each other at close range.  Mostly it wasn't until the Indian Wars that troops adopted open ranks with their repeating cartridge rifles.


You are right, by the way, that guys hiding behind trees and rocks and sniping at ranked units (or attacking from the woods) could be deadly.  The militia in the American War for Independence hammered British troops in formation by fighting this way, until the British could stand in the open and blast away at them.  Fighting in formation like this has distinct advantages, but also distinct weaknesses.  In the fRench and Indian Wars, the French and Indians favorite technique was the catch British columns in the woods and bushwhack them.