Mistakes

Napoleon was said to ask of prospective Generals: "Is he lucky?" That serves as a good indication of the fact that it is often said that battles, and indeed wars, are won by the side that makes the fewest mistakes.

Consider the battle of "The Cowpens" during the American Revolutionary War. The action had reached a climax with the British Regulars commanded by Banastre Tarelton engaged in a stand-up knock down fight with Daniel Morgan's last line of defense, Continental Regulars. Suddenly, the Continentals turned their backs to the British and began to march off. Seeing this movement, the British thought the Colonists were beaten, and broke ranks to pursue the retreating troops. The reality was that a mistake had occurred, and order to adjust their position had been mistakenly understood as to require a displacement of the whole line further to the rear. The continentals, as Regulars with firm discipline, were executing the command even though under fire. They were not fleeing the fight. When ordered to halt, turn about and recommence firing on the British troops, they did so, unleashing a devastating close range volley on the pursuing the English troops. This threw the English troops into confusion, and worse, with their own ranks broken in order to purse the retreating troops, they could not respond to the volleys now being leveled at them by the Continentals. It was at this critical moment that the reformed Colonial militia charged their flank, and the Continentals themselves were ordered to fix bayonets and charge.

Had the British ranks not been broken, they might well have been able to refuse a flank to the Militia and continued the firefight with the continentals through to a successful conclusion (numbers of troops on both sides were about even with a slight edge going to the British). The battle, quite literally, may have turned on the mistaken order for the Continentals to displace to the rear, for it was this movement that disrupted the British line and laid them open to destruction.

This is hardly the only case of a battle being decided by a mistake.

At Chickamagua during the American Civil War, the Confederates under Braxton Bragg achieved a staggering success in breaking through the Union Line of General Rosecrans. While it is possible that charging Confederate Column (Commanded by General Longstreet) might have achieved a breakthrough on its own, its great success was due to Rosecrans being advised that there was a "gap" in his line. Rosecrans chose to cover this reported gap by having a division change its position. The reality was that there was no "gap", until Rosecrans created one by ordering the division's displacement, creating a gap directly in front of where Longstreet's corps (on loan from Lee's Army of Northern Virginia) would attack.

While the two examples are both rooted in American History, there are many others. All nations have won and lost battles based on a mistake. Even the Battle of Hastings hinged to a great extent on Harold's militia breaking ranks to pursue what they thought was William's defeated troops, only to find themselves in perfect position to be ridden down by William's cavalry. The thinning of Harold's defensive wall by these local actions ultimately created the weakness that allowed William to break Harold's defenses.