Painted in 1819, when memories of Napoleon's wars would still be reasonably fresh. But born in 1789 into an arty family in Paris, it seems unlikely that the artist had any direct experience of battles, although this did not stop him making a successful speciality of paintings of them. Perhaps he hired out of work soldiers to pose in full kit for him in his studio.
It seemed a bit unlikely that one would be fussing about a dog in the circumstances illustrated, but what struck me was the need for the officer to stand behind the line looking cool and collected. A bit like Nelson walking calmly up and down his quarterdeck at Trafalgar in order to keep his crew steady. Even harder perhaps than being in the firing line, where at least you had something to do, something repetitive and fiddly which might have been absorbing enough to take one's mind off the dangers out front.
I associate to Michael Caine doing much the same sort of thing behind his thin red line in 'Zulu'.
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