Napoleon's Influence

Napoleon, thoroughly trained by the du Teil’s, embraced their common sense approach wholeheartedly. His employment of cannon during the empire grew with experience, and the artillery arm became a dominating force on the battlefield.

He was scathing, however, regarding the top-heavy and somewhat pedantic artillery staff that the army had as early as 1796. As commander of the Armée d'Italie in 1796 he wrote the following to the Directory:

'The Corps of Engineers and the Artillery are full of the most ridiculous fiddle-faddle. They never consider the good of the service…. The junior officers in the ministry sprinkle holy water [make empty promises] and our country suffers…I have received only forty horse artillerymen, who have not seen combat and are without horses. Send me therefore six companies, and do not trust the execution of that measure to the officers of the [artillery section], since it takes them ten days to expedite and order, and they probably would be stupid enough to draw them from Holland, with the result that they would not arrive until October.'

  Things changed when Napoleon became First Consul, and the artillery and engineer staffs became much more efficient, although they continued to be somewhat large, as they were not only responsible for accompanying the Grande Armée in the field, but to staff the depots and to supervise the manufacture of ammunition, both for the artillery and the infantry, the construction of carriages and other vehicles, and the artillery in the fortresses, which was considerable.

  What Napoleon did accomplish after accession to power as First Consul and later as Emperor, was to ensure that each corps of the Grande Armée had a general officer as its artillery chief, as there was an artillery chief at army level, something that was not practiced in the allied armies until much later, giving the artillery an equal voice on the corps commander's staff. This ensured the artillery would not be parcelled out piecemeal and could be used en masse on the battlefield. Perhaps this was epitomized and best manifested by Senarmont with his wild and very effective artillery chevauchee at Friedland in 1807.

Napoleon's view of artillery in general and of the artillery officer in particular are singularly interesting:

'The organization of the artillery is the most urgent, because of all the combat arms it always requires much more time to get ready. It is always the artillery that holds up the formation of armies.

'Great battles are won with artillery. It may be true that good infantry is the nerve of the army, but if it has to fight for long against superior artillery it would become demoralized and be destroyed…

'The formation and function of artillery…profoundly influences our modern tactics for success in battle, and almost exclusively it dominates the capture and defence of modern fortresses. In siege warfare, as in the field, artillery plays the principal role: it has wrought a complete revolution.

'My system of regular war requires a large quantity of artillery. Everywhere a regiment goes you need artillery. You must have as much artillery as your enemy, based upon four guns per 1,000 infantry and cavalry. The better the infantry, the greater need to be careful of it and support it with good batteries. The greatest part of the artillery should be with the infantry and cavalry divisions, the smallest portion in reserve. Each gun should have 300 rounds with it, not counting the small chest. That is the normal expenditure for two battles.'

'It is necessary to be familiar with artillery…I believe that every officer ought to serve in the artillery, which is the arm that can produce most of the good generals…To be a good general you must know mathematics; it serves to direct your thinking in a thousand circumstances.'

'The artillery staff must serve with greater activity on the battlefield. It is up to the artillery commander and staff officers to place the guns in position and to withdraw them, to anticipate the expenditure of ammunition, to correct poor sites that the company officers select, and finally to have artillery perform the duty that is has always done with such distinction.'

'The best generals will be those who move up from the field artillery. It is the duty of an artillery general to understand all of the operations of the army, insofar as he is forced to provide the different divisions with arms and ammunition. His contacts with the individual battery commander in each division enable him to know everything that is going on.'

The Emperor further stated, looking back at the lost battle of Leipzig in 1813:

'If you have only six guns for each division that is not enough. You need a dozen. One wages war with artillery.'

'Every day convinces me of the great damage that has been done to our armies by removing the regimental guns. I desire therefore that in the organization, each regiment will have two 3-pounders; but, during the time that we should have only guns and ammunition for 4-pounders, you will give them 4-pounders. T

he gunners, horses, and men of the train will be supplied by the regiments.

'Never forget that in war all artillery must be with the army and not in the park. Had I possessed 30,000 artillery rounds at Leipzig on the evening of 18 October, today I would be master of the world.'

  Field artillery ammunition was generally of three types: roundshot, exploding shell, and anti-personnel. Roundshot was effective against fortifications and troop formations. Generally speaking, the planning range for artillery, regardless of calibre was eleven hundred yards. Range for roundshot could be doubled by ricochet fire, which was best accomplished with a low trajectory and hard ground. The round would hit the ground and bounce into the enemy formation. This could be seen by the targeted opposing infantry and had to be unnerving. The round also was very destructive, even when rolling slowly. It was something akin to a shot-put projectile, and Coignet is very convincing with his description of it hitting the Guard infantry in 1809 at Essling. Shell was effective even on the ground, as a hissing shell rolling around could really be unnerving to even veteran troops. Anti-personnel ammunition came in two types: grapeshot and canister. Grapeshot was over sized musket balls wrapped around a wooden spigot and covered with cloth or canvas. Canister was a can full of musket balls. Both came apart upon the discharge of the piece, converting the gun into a giant shotgun. At close range, gunners would load two rounds of canister into the gun for greater effect. The results could be ruinous to men and horses.

(back to homepage)