“They shot at the skies”: soldiers and firearms of 16th century

A harbinger of things to come in terms of issues that Napoleonic era forces would face. Despite improvements in technology the hit rates are not much better than mentioned here. Coupled to this the cut and run nature of a lot of these engagements leads me to believe that close combat often did more to rout than fire power of muskets. That and the Grand Battery were to quickly become the power tools of the end of the Classical Era of Strategy.