Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

48 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of field arTillery
and 4th Regiments of Artillery deployed to Florida to hold the Seminoles in check
and to the Rio Grande to patrol the Mexican border. Most of the companies from
the 3d Regiment of Artillery went to scattered posts along the Pacific coast; the 2d
Regiment of Artillery and the remaining elements of the 1st and 3d moved to posts
on the Atlantic. The majority were armed and equipped as infantry, and rarely did
their duties extend beyond policing fortifications and firing a few rounds of artillery
at targets two or three times a year. 3
Only three light batteries of the former eight remained at the end of the
Mexican War, but in September 1848, the Adjutant General’s Office directed that
one company in each regiment be equipped as light artillery, and the four original
companies of 1838 were so organized. Four additional companies were authorized
to be equipped as light batteries the following year, each battery to receive four field
pieces and forty-four horses. 4 In 1851, all the light batteries except two were ordered
dismounted. Referring to this action in his annual report for that year, Secretary
of War Charles Conrad noted that although light artillery was extremely effective
“in a regular war,” it was utterly useless in the kind of service in which the Army
was then en gaged. 5 Despite this, two additional light batteries were organized the
following year, and in 1853, three more batteries were authorized. 6
Of the eight batteries authorized during the Mexican War, only Company I,
1st Regiment of Artillery, remained without horses or proper equipment. Three of
the mounted batteries went to the frontier, where they did not prove effective. In
October 1856, they were dismounted and, along with the above company, ordered
to Fort Monroe, Virginia, to reconstitute the Artillery School of Practice as seacoast,
garrison, and siege artillery. Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott objected, and within
a year, three of the batteries were remounted, leaving only G of the 4th Regiment
without light artillery equipment. In June 1855, that company had been reorganized
as cavalry and served as such in actions against the Sioux Indians. It was not again
equipped as field artillery until the Civil War. 7
During the years between the Mexican and Civil Wars, the Army focused on
protecting the nation’s borders and improving the effectiveness of heavy rather
than field artillery. Drill regulations issued in 1851 covered the service of heavy
howitzers, mortars, and guns. In the same year, new drill regulations were also issued
for mountain artillery, which consisted of a 12-pounder mountain howitzer
that had been added for service against the Indians. The adoption of the stock-trail
3 Benét, Collection of Annual Reports, 2:422, 435. Some of the companies on the frontier also served
as cavalry.
4 WD Cir 30, 30 Sep 1848; WD GO 22, 21 Apr 1849; WD GO 19, 12 May 1849.
5 Message From the President to the Two Houses of Congress . . . , 31st Cong., 3d sess., 1851, H.
Doc. 2, p. 111 (quoted words); WD GO 18, 31 Mar 1852.
6 WD GO 15, 26 May 1853.
7 HQ Army GO 9, 30 Oct 1856; Ltr, Scott to SecWar John B. Floyd, 22 May 1857, quoted in
Birkhimer, Historical Sketch, pp. 66–67; WD GO 6, 29 May 1857; Troops Serving in Kansas SO 70, 18
Sep 1857; HQ Army GO 15, 29 Dec 1857; WD GO 5, 18 May 1858; HQ Army SO 52, 10 Apr 1858.