Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

40 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of field arTillery
instruction for field artillery for use by both the militia and regular artillery and
convened a board. Headed by Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott, the board recommended
the Manual for Artillery of the Garde Royale, translated by Lieutenant Tyler. 67
Upon the adoption of the stock-trail system, Capt. Robert Anderson translated the
French work Instruction for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot, adapting it for American
artillery. The Army officially used his translation from 1841 until 1845. 68 In the latter
year, at Major Ringgold’s suggestion, the Army adopted the publication entitled
Instruction for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot. This treatise, in effect during the
Mexican War, was based on an Anglicized-Americanized revision of the French
system. 69 Practical instruction for artillery units as field artil lery took place for the
first time in the summer of 1839, when the so-called Grand Camp of Instruction was
held at Trenton, New Jersey. The four Regular Army companies present borrowed
horses from the dragoons for combined maneuvers as light artillery. Each had four
bronze 6-pounders, forty draft horses, and twelve saddle horses. To expand expertise
to those not assigned to the light artillery batteries, the Army arranged to have all
junior artillery officers serve a tour of duty with the light units. 70
The Mexican War
Napoleonic tactics inspired the actions of the field artillery units in the Mexican
War, which began in 1846. Because of the mobility of his field pieces and because
cannon fire outranged musket fire, Napoleon was able to mass his artillery forward of
the infantry lines and fire on the enemy with direct fire. After the artillery weakened
the enemy with heavy shelling, the infantry could move through the guns and fight
with musket and bayonet. American artillerists used these same tactics with great
success against the Mexican forces that made little use of light field artillery. Many
of the Mexican artillerists were proficient gunners, but their weapons were obsolete.
The carriages were mostly of the old Gribeauval model with limited mobility. On
the other hand, American light batteries could move to where they were needed,
giving the U.S. Army the advantage in flexibility. 71
In the spring of 1844, the Army ordered Brevet Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor, then
in command at Fort Jesup, Louisiana, on the Texas frontier, to march a so-called
corps of observation to the Texas boundary. His force, later known as the Army
67 Birkhimer, Historical Sketch, pp. 303–04.
68 Ibid., pp. 59–60, 305; WD GO 46, 19 Aug 1841.
69 Birkhimer, Historical Sketch, p. 306.
70 Ibid., pp. 54–61; Ganoe, History, p. 186; WD GO 28, 20 May 1839; Army and Navy Chronicle,
23 May 1839, pp. 335, 412; Buell, “Cannoneer,” pp. 12–13; R[oswell] S. Ripley, The War With
Mexico, 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1849), 1:93. Field artillery units were still officially designated
as companies, but use of the word battery to describe a company organized as light or horse artillery
came into use in the early 1800s. The term was not officially applied to any of the units in the first
four regiments but was used in orders organizing the 5th Regiment of Artillery in 1861. Field artillery
companies were officially redesignated as batteries in 1883. From this point on, however, artillery
units will be referred to as batteries if they were organized as field artillery and as companies if they
were organized as foot artillery units.
71 Ripley, Mexico, 1:88; Justin H. Smith, The War With Mexico, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan,
1919), 1:156.