Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

64 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of field arTillery
three attached horse artillery batteries. A lieutenant colonel (or sometimes a major)
commanded each battalion, and brigadier generals or colonels served as corps
artillery chiefs. 43
The tactical battalion organizational structure was slow in evolving in the western
Confederate armies. Ordnance at the beginning of the war was nearly nonexistent in
the West; most was concentrated in the eastern theater. What artillery that was available
could be found in batteries attached to infantry brigades. The nature of the terrain,
the inexperience of the officers, and a doctrine that gave artillery a counter-battery 44
primary mission militated in favor of decentralization. As elsewhere, commanders
feared that concentrated, unlimbered batteries presented a far more vulnerable target
than an infantry line. As late as 1863, batteries were thus still being assigned to infantry
brigades. However, in April of that year, a new structure based on the organization of
artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia went into effect. Artillery battalions (generally
four batteries each) were assigned to divisions, and the division artillery chiefs
received increased executive and administrative authority. Receiving orders directly
from division and corps commanders, they could control the tactical maneuver of the
batteries. In the Army of the Tennessee, efforts were made to organize an artillery
reserve as well as a horse artillery organization. 45
The creation of the Artillery Reserve in the Army of the Potomac was a significant
breakthrough in organization and tactics. Major Barry had established the
principle that when divisions were serving together in a corps, at least half of the
divisional artillery was to be withdrawn to form a corps reserve. In addition, the
artillery reserve of an army was to consist of one hundred pieces and comprise,
besides “light mounted batteries,” all the horse artillery until the cavalry massed. In
1862, the Army of the Potomac’s Artillery Reserve consisted of eighteen batteries
of one hundred guns in fourteen regular and four volunteer units. All the regular
batteries had six guns each, of which about half were Napoleons, the remainder
being rifles. Three volunteer batteries were armed with 20-pounder Parrott rifles
and the other with six old 32-pounder bronze howitzers. The eighteen batteries
were formed into four battalion-size brigades, one with four horse batteries, one
with four volunteer batteries, and the other two with the remaining ten batteries.
The senior captain commanded each of the four brigades, and the whole reserve
was under General Hunt’s command. A staff of an adjutant, a quartermaster, an
ordnance officer (an artillery officer on ordnance duty), a chief medical officer, and
a commissary officer assisted Hunt. The quartermaster was in charge of the trains,
consisting of its own wagons as well as others carrying supplies and ammunition.
Each of the batteries had two (or three for the horse batteries) wagons for forage,
rations, and baggage. 46
43 War Department, War of the Rebellion, 1/25(pt.2):850–51 and 1/27(pt.2):338–56. Al though six-gun
batteries were the “ideal,” there were not enough guns to provide six to all batteries.
44 Counterbattery fire is fire specifically directed against enemy artillery or control stations.
45 Daniel, Cannoneers in Gray, pp. 25, 32, 87–88, 134.
46 Tidball, “Remarks Upon Field Artillery,” pp. 2 (quoted words), 8–10, FA School files; War
Department, War of the Rebellion, 1/5:19 and 1/11(pt.3):184.