Originally Posted by
csadn
Well, consider that the PM at the time, upon hearing of Ulm and Austerlitz, pointed to a map of Continental Europe and said "Put that way -- we shall not be needing it for another ten years".... (He reckoned without Napoleon's ham-handedness in Spain two years later; but it did take ten years to get from Trafalgar to Waterloo.) Control of the sea is important; but eventually, one has to put boots on the ground (Infantry is not so much unimportant as "the last in line").