584 
NOTES ON ARTILLERY. 
Minister decided (19th. Dec. 1764) that the only guns which in future 
should accompany an army in the field should be 12, 8 and 4prs. and 
a few 6-in. howitzers of a new construction. The other guns were 
reserved for sieges and for the armament of fortified places. Also 
tables of dimensions determined and made uniform for the whole 
Kingdom the mode of construction of gun and other carriages. 
In 1774 it was ordered that the arsenals should contain always ready 
all that was necessary to form 8 field equipments and 8 complete 
siege equipments. This material was in existence in 1792 when war 
broke out; it was soon found to be insufficiont and, notwithstanding 
the somewhat irregular activity which covered the national territory 
with factories, foundries and improvised arsenals, the French armies 
depended on prizes taken from the enemy as their principal resource. 
Thus the army which crossed the Alps in April 1796 only possessed 30 
guns; a few months later it had nearly 1200, of which 600 were field 
pieces. Now the calibres used in foreign armies, other than the 
Spanish army, were 3, 6 and 12 prs.; the French 4 and 8 prs. could 
not therefore utilise the ammunition found in conquered places. Also, 
peace concluded, a commission of artillery officers was ordered to study 
the improvements of which GribeanvaFs material was susceptible. 
Under the energetic impulse of the First Consul and thanks to the 
activity of General Marmont, then President of the Artillery Committee, 
the work of this Commission ended in the adoption in year XI. of a 
much simplified material, the construction of which began forthwith. 
There were to be only 3 calibres, 6, 12 and 24 prs.; all the others were 
relegated to the service of the defence of places. The short and the 
long 24 pr. were allocated to siege work; the 24 pr. (5^-in.) howitzer, 
the 6 and 12 pr. guns should alone accompany armies in the field. 
In consequence of circumstances, both complex and numerous, the 
new material was only partially sent on service during the campaigns 
in Austria, Prussia and Poland ; it was only for the campaigns in 
Russia (1812) and in Germany (1813) that the Grand Army could be 
completely provided with the material of which the Emperor here 
speaks, and which was almost entirely lost. In 1814 they had to 
glean all that remained in the national stores : the 8 pr. and 4pr. re¬ 
appeared and were finally retained in the Service—chiefly for reasons 
of national economy. 
Note B. 
On the origin of howitzers. 
The idea of placing on a wheeled carriage a short piece firing almost 
horizontally hollow bombs or projectiles appears to have had its birth 
in England or in Holland. The piece received the name of “howitzer, 
haubitze, obus.” It had been adopted by nearly all European armies 
before the French paid them any attention, altho* they had taken two 
of them at the battle of Fleurus. In 1740 Field Marshal de Belle-Isle, 
then Governor of Metz, caused experiments to be made with this in¬ 
vention which had been presented to him as absolutely new. For the 
campaign in Bohemia Bavaria supplied the French army with some of 
