The Artillery:
The third branch was the artillery; specifically field artillery consisting of guns from three to twelve pounders in size (guns sizes were identified by the weight of their shot). Artillery was formed in batteries of from four to fourteen pieces, depending on the country and the availability of draft horses.
In the mid 18th Century, the artillery branch was the poor sister of an army, looked down on by the aristocrats who populated the officer ranks of the infantry and artillery. Following the Seven Years War (1755--1763), France introduced the Gribeauval system. This standardized the carriages and the wheels for all guns limbers and caissons, as well size. During the same period, most other European countries similarly modernized their artillery arms. Besides these technical advances, a major change in the artillery during the wars was the elimination of civilian artillery drivers, which gave the batteries greater battlefield mobility. Horse artillery, first instituted by Prussia's Frederick the Great, was greatly expanded.
Artillery could throw a round shot to a range of about a mile with a maximum effective range of from 800 to 1200 yards, depending on the size gun. At closer range a battery could fire grapeshot or cannister. Unlike modern artillery, the pieces of this era were mainly direct fire weapons. One of the least effective actions a gunner could take was to elevate a piece to increase its range to over 1200 yards. This would cause the ball to fall at such an angle as to bury itself in the ground and lose much of its effectiveness. To understand the principals of period artillery, think back to your childhood when you skipped stones across a pond. The same idea applied to firing roundshot; fire a ball horizontal to the ground no higher than a man, then, depending on the caliber of the gun, the ball would hit the ground, or first graze, then skip across the ground out to ranges of 1200 yards or so. Experienced gunners would aim for first graze to occur just in front of a target, allowing the ball to go careering through the target at shoulder height or less. Casualties were not only caused by direct hits, but also by bones, sinew, rocks, etc. flying into nearby soldiers at hundreds of miles an hour. If all went well, a roundshot would then continue bouncing into formations further back, causing still more damage.
Grape and cannister are nothing more than huge shotgun shells fired from rather large guns. Well aimed and delivered at the proper range, cannister, which is a can filled with numerous musket balls or shot, can rip apart the front rank of advancing infantry and cavalry. Grape, which was given its name for its appearance, was a smaller number of larger balls fired at ranges up to about 500 yards.
Any field battery would take as much frontage as it could get away with, and would often deploy with its guns 30 or more yards apart, with an eight-gun battery occupying up to 300 yards of front. This was done for two reasons; to allow a greater play for the individual guns, and to keep the guns far enough apart to protect them from adjacent explosions and direct hits, thus making the battery less of a target. Conversely, guns could be jammed into about a 15 yard frontage each (14 yards was about the minimum that allowed space for the gunners to efficiently move between the wheels of adjacent pieces), with an eight gun front of from 120 to 150 yards, with the additional benefits of massed firepower, and the dangers of crowding. A battery in line, incidently, was not in a straight line, but, rather, the guns were staggered along the front. This reduced the vulnerability of a battery from flank attack, and also made additional room between the pieces.
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In most armies, medium artillery, usually 6 to 9 pound guns, was scattered and detailed to provide direct support to the infantry, under the control of the brigade commanders, with one or two batteries attached to each division. Corps and army reserves consisted of 12 pound heavy batteries and 3 to 9 pound horse batteries. The placement of these batteries would be the concern of upper echelon of ficers. Throughout the era, the number of guns increased, especially those of the reserve batteries. By 1813, when the quality of the soldiers of most armies had declined, artillery deployed in great numbers became the great killer on the battlefield, causing as much as 70 to 80 percent of the total casualties.
As a general rule, artillery doctrine mandated that targets be confined to infantry and cavalry, as it was very difficult to suppress an artillery battery. When massed guns were deployed in grand batteries, they often could be used to destroy opposing guns by sheer weight of fire. In attack, the heavy batteries of the reserve would be placed in front of the army to bombard or soften up the enemy prior to launching an attack. The placement of batteries was important, because the guns should be placed to allow them to continue to fire as long as possible, before being masked by the advancing infantry and cavalry. Ideally, reserve horse batteries would use their mobility to accompany advancing troops. In defense, the heavy and horse guns were often either held in reserve until needed or assigned to buttress the medium guns supporting the infantry divisions.
Army Organization:
Prior to the French Revolution, armies did not have a permanent organization higher than the regiment, with brigade
and higher commanders being appointed as needed. To move an army or to array it for battle, an army commander had to do no less than issue orders to every regiment in the army. During this era, armies eventually instituted permanent divisions commanded by a divisional general consisting of a number of brigades made up of regiments or battalions. Initially, the divisions organized were
rather large and composed of "all arms"; that is, they had units of infantry, cavalry and artillery in each division. This was a step in the
right direction, but these organizations proved too large and awkward to command. A number of these divisions might also be temporarily placed under the command of a senior officer as a ternporary corps.
After 1800, Napoleon instituted the perrnanent army corps system, which enabled him to move and control much larger armies with a greater efficiency than ever before dreamed. It was only necessary for Napoleon to issue orders to his corps commanders, rather than to every regiment, brigade, or division in the army. Additionally, Napoleon could transfer divisions from corps to corps, changing their size as needed while confusing the enemy as to the size and location of his units. Each Corps was a miniature army consisting of all three arms; infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and was capable of fighting independently. A permanent corps would have two or more infantry divisions (generally smaller than an all arms division), a cavalry brigade or division, at least one medium foot artillery battery per infantry division, and one or more reserve heavy and horse artillery batteries. A corps headquarters with a permanent staff including, among others, a chief of staff, an artillery commander, and an engineer officer, completed and controlled
the entire organization. Later, and for similar reasons, much smaller cavalry corps were organized to ease control of the large number of reserve cavalry divisions.
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