Joseph was employing the very same tactic that the Duke of Wellington had historically devised—the reverse slope + thin red line tactic.
Oh, but now it should be renamed the thin white line tactic—since the French Army's uniforms are white, and the naming rights for this strategy now belong to France.
In practice, the number of troops Joseph committed to the front didn't even exceed 14,000, and the formation they deployed couldn't truly be considered a proper battle line, at best resembling an extended line-up of horizontal columns.
Large groups of horizontal double-column formations, ranging from 100 to 150 meters deep, were staggered across the slopes at the crest.
There was a gap of about 10 meters between each group, allowing limited manpower to cover a significantly broad battlefield.
