Were "friendly fire" casualties common in wars fought hand-to-hand?

by Capntallon
Searocksandtrees

Sorry, we don't allow throughout history questions. These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a region or culture, please feel free to re-compose your question and submit it again.

Meanwhile, you may find the examples in the FAQ useful: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/war#wiki_identifying_sides_in_battle.2C_and_avoidance.2Ffrequency_of_.22friendly_fire.22