Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

76 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of field arTillery
strength to fluctuate over the years (see Table 7). 3 In 1869, the number of infantry
regiments was reduced to twenty-five, but the number of cavalry and artillery regiments
remained unchanged. 4
In the years immediately following the Civil War, the Army sought to improve
artillery training, and in 1866, the War Department established a permanent board
of four artillery officers, the senior member being Brevet Maj. Gen. Henry J. Hunt
who had served as the Army of the Potomac’s artillery chief. One of the Artillery
Board’s duties was to prepare a project for artillery instruction at various posts. 5 It
recommended that the Artillery School of Practice be reestablished at Fort Monroe,
Virginia, as a school of instruction for heavy or seacoast artillery, a recommendation
carried out in 1868. The board also submitted a plan for the instruction of artillery at
other posts, recommending several standard artillery manuals. A handbook issued
to noncommissioned officers and enlisted men was the first to provide theoretical
courses for the rank and file in artillery. Where there was at least one artillery unit
on a post, the battery commander, supervised by the regimental colonels, was to
direct instruction. If practical, instruction was to include maneuvers of the pieces
as well as practice firing. 6 The reestablishment of the Artillery School, however,
was the board’s chief accomplishment. After it adjourned in 1867, the board never
reconvened.
The first commandant of the Artillery School after the Civil War was now Col.
William F. Barry, who had served as artillery chief for both General McDowell
and General McClellan. Five artillery companies (one from each regiment) were
stationed at Fort Monroe at one time for a one-year course, which was lengthened to
two years in 1876. The course, both theoretical and practical, covered such subjects
as mathematics, military history, military engineering and surveying, and law. At
the outset, the school had little impact on the artillery, but it eventually became a
major focus for professionalism within the branch. 7
The publication of a new manual of infantry tactics by Emory Upton in 1867 led
to a revision of tactics throughout the Army, and in 1868, Barry convened a board
to discuss artillery tactics that would be compatible with those of the infantry. The
Barry board, however, did little more than confirm experiences gained in the Civil
War. 8 In 1869, another group of officers under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield met at
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to evaluate tactics for the infantry, cavalry, and artillery,
and in 1873, a revision of artillery and cavalry tactics was integrated with Upton’s
3 Act of 28 Jul 1866, ch. 299, 14 Stat. 322–39; WD GO 56, 1 Aug 1866; U.S. Congress, House, Annual
Report of the Secretary of War, 39th Cong., 2d sess., 1866, H. Doc. 1, pp. 6–7.
4 WD GO 16, 11 Mar 1869; WD GO 17, 15 Mar 1869.
5 WD GO 6, 30 Jan 1866; WD GO 16, 12 Mar 1866.
6 WD GO 67, 21 Aug 1866.
7 WD GO 99, 13 Nov 1867; U.S. Congress, House, Report of the Secretary of War, 42d Cong., 2d
sess., 1871, H. Doc. 1, pt. 2, 1:79–81; Nesmith, “Quiet Paradigm Change,” Ph.D. diss., pp. 76–78; WD
GO 14, 25 Feb 1876.
8 Nesmith, “Quiet Paradigm Change,” Ph.D. diss., pp. 81–83.