Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

CHAPTER 4
Diverging Missions
Between the Civil War and the turn of the century, the gap widened between
mobile and position artil lery. The Army placed most of its emphasis during those
years on coastal defense, relegating field artillery to a relatively minor position.
Although technological advances in seacoast artillery eventually had a beneficial
impact on field artillery, they simultaneously underscored the distinct differ ences in
the respective weaponry, which in turn gave rise to more special ization. Developments
in field artillery achieved greater mobility, their use forging more integration
with infantry and cavalry; in contrast, seacoast weapons became increas ingly large
and immobile and concentrated on defense. The performance of field artillery during
the War With Spain was disappointing, but the formal separation of coast and field
artillery forces in 1901 reflected a desire to increase the efficiency of the former
rather than improve the latter. Thereafter, the two new branches evolved separately,
with coast artil lery concentrating on the defense of harbors and cities and with field
artillery operating with maneuver forces in the Army. 1
Era of Slow Progress
At the end of the Civil War, the artillery retained the five Regular Army regiments
that had been organized by 1861. Except for two batteries in each artillery
regiment that were retained as mounted field units, the batteries that had served as
field artillery during the war were dismounted to serve at posts along the Atlantic
and Pacific coastlines. One of the two remaining field batteries in each regiment
was to be equipped with four 3-inch Ordnance rifled guns and the other with four
12-pounder Napoleons. 2
The act of 28 July 1866 set the peacetime military establishment at five artillery,
ten cavalry, and forty-five infantry regiments. Out of an authorized Army
strength of 54,302, about 10 percent were artil lerymen. The act stipulated that all
artillery regiments would have the same organization as that of the 5th Regiment of
Artillery in 1861, although subse quent organizational changes caused the authorized
1 From 1901, the evolution of coast artillery into the Air Defense Artillery branch will be covered in
Air Defense Artillery, a future volume in the Army Lineage Series.
2 WD GO 126, 20 Jul 1865; WD GO 139, 28 Sep 1865; WD GO 144, 9 Oct 1865; WD GO 151,
16 Oct 1865.