Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

34 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of field arTillery
Also included in the reorganization of 1821 was the provision that “the ordnance
department shall be merged with the artil lery.” 48 Although the Ordnance Department
still existed as a separate entity, its head was an artillery officer, as were all
officers on ordnance duty. Ordnance officers as such were eliminated, and the ordnance
enlisted ranks were reduced to fifty-six men. The measure greatly weakened
the Ordnance Department but had little real effect on the artillery. Not until 1832
was ordnance once again established as a separate branch with ordnance officers.
At the same time, the provision for an ordnance captain in each artillery regiment
was abolished. 49
Because the troops remained widely scattered in small detachments, Calhoun
felt that they would become undisciplined and would not train and drill as effectively
as when stationed as part of larger organizations. 50 In April 1824, as a result
of a proposal by Calhoun, the Army’s first specialist school—the Artillery School
of Practice—was established at Fortress (later Fort) Monroe, Virginia. Ten artillery
companies were to be drawn from the four regiments and assembled as the
Artillery Corps for Instruction. The faculty was to be selected from the artillery at
large. Through a plan of rotation, all artillery companies were eventually to pass
through the school. Cadets assigned to the artillery after graduating from West Point
were to receive a year’s instruction at the school before joining their regiments. The
goal of the school was to provide technical training in gunnery, artillery tactics, and
various other artillery duties. 51 In a letter to Secretary Cal houn on 20 November 1824,
Commanding General of the Army Jacob Brown wrote: “. . . an important accession
of scientific and experimental knowledge is to be expected from the school of
practice at Fortress Monroe.” 52 The school continued in operation for the following
ten years when it closed because of the increasing demand for artillerists to man
the fortifications on the seacoast. 53 The last of the artillery companies stationed at
Fort Monroe as part of the Artillery School departed for Florida in 1835 when the
Second Seminole War threatened. 54
During the next six years of hostilities, the Army maintained an average of
3,000 regulars in Florida, about one-fourth of whom were artillerymen. For the most
part, the artillerists were limited in employment to manning the numerous stockades
erected to confine the Indians to the Everglades. 55 Pressured by the war, Congress in
1838 increased the number of artillery companies from nine to ten and the number of
privates in each company from forty-two to fifty-eight. At the same time, however,
48 Callan, comp., Military Laws, pp. 306–09 (quoted words, p. 307).
49 Ibid., pp. 322–23.
50 American State Papers, Class 5, Military Affairs, 3:603–05.
51 Ibid., 2:699; WD GO 10, 13 Jul 1814; WD GO 11, 8 Feb 1832; WD GO 18, 5 Apr 1824; General
Regulations for the Army . . . (Washington, D.C.: Davis and Force, 1825), pp. 398–402.
52 American State Papers, Class 5, Military Affairs, 2:701.
53 Robert Arthur, History of Fort Monroe (Fort Monroe, Va.: Printing Plant, Coast Artillery
School, 1930), p. 154; WD GO 31, 19 Apr 1834.
54 WD GO 5, 14 Feb 1835.
55 John T. Sprague, The Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War (1848; reprint,
Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1964), pp. 104–05.