Short answers, pulled from the story.
Napoleonic tactics are battlefield principles used by national armies from the late 18th century until the adoption of the rifled musket in the mid-19th century. They are characterised by intensive troop drilling, combined arms operations between infantry, cavalry, and artillery, short-range musket fire, and bayonet charges. French Emperor Napoleon I is considered by military historians to have been a master of this form of warfare.
The smoothbore flintlock musket had an effective range against a man-sized target of 50 to 70 yards. The French musket of 1777 could fire to about 100 yards but suffered roughly one misfire in every six rounds. A highly trained soldier could fire once approximately every 15 to 20 seconds before black powder fouling required the weapon to be cleaned.
Napoleonic infantry used three primary formations: the column, suited for quick movement but a large target; the line, two or three ranks deep for maximum firepower; and the infantry square, using 4 to 6 ranks in depth with bayonets pointing outward to repel cavalry charges. A fourth formation, l'ordre mixte, blended column and line but was rarely used as it was considered an unnecessary compromise.
Cavalry performed screening duties, gathering intelligence on enemy forces while denying the same to the enemy. They also delivered shock attacks against infantry, exploiting the musket's slow reload time to close before concentrated fire could stop them. Cavalry also protected generals on the battlefield, though they were poorly suited for holding ground and vulnerable to artillery fire.
Napoleonic artillery used round shot, solid cannonballs that bounced through packed formations; canister shot, tin cans of small projectiles that acted like a giant shotgun at close range; grapeshot, a cloth bag of larger ammunition named for its resemblance to a bunch of grapes; and explosive shells fired by howitzers, which were considered unreliable but devastating when they functioned correctly. The British also used what became known as the shrapnel shell.
Military powers continued to use Napoleonic tactics long after the rifled musket extended infantry fire well beyond the effective range that made column assaults, cavalry charges, and bayonet rushes viable. The American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, and World War I each produced devastating casualties because armies were applying a tactical system calibrated for the smoothbore musket against weapons of far greater range and accuracy.