314 
ROLE OF HORSE ARTILLERY* 
separation* from that “bastard growth,”f the field batteries, which 
were at bottom infantry, X and which had little more in common with 
the horse artillery than a metal tube and the doctrine of the trajec¬ 
tory. § Did the unitiated venture to doubt the existence of these 
profound differences between a battery of six guns, each drawn by 
six horses, with the gunners mounted on horses, and another battery of 
six guns, each drawn by six horses, with the gunners on foot, or 
mounted on the carriages; or attempt to institute a comparison 
between the horse artillery and the light and active frigate on the one 
hand, and the field battery and the slow and majestic ship of the line 
on the other, such rash persons were warned that the internal and 
essential differences between the two were far greater and more 
weighty than the external and superficial resemblances by which they 
had permitted themselves to be carried away. || 
In order to illustrate the tactics of horse artillery, a number of 
books were written by the Deckers, Monhaupt, &c., which afford a 
melancholy example of the absurdities to which soldiers can lend 
themselves in defence of a preconceived theory. The evolutions they 
proposed never were practised, so far at least as the history of tactics 
can be trusted, and probably never could have been practised, because, 
instead of being founded upon facts deduced from the actual experience 
of war, they were based upon certain assumptions, which, judged by 
the light of modern experience, can be safely written down as un¬ 
reasonable and absurd. 
It will be profitable to inquire what have been the uses of horse artil¬ 
lery in the past. This arm was created by Frederick the Great, for 
the double purpose of supplying the army at large with a mobile field 
artillery, and the cavalry with a suitable support, capable of following 
its movements without hampering them. 
During the latter part of the Seven Years’ War, the horse artillery did 
little or nothing in the field. It is said to have been destroyed at 
Kunersdorf and Maxen; but there is absolutely no proof that such was 
the case. It was during the earlier wars of the French Revolution 
that this arm first came into notice through its “ canister tactics.” The 
movements of infantry were then slow and complicated, and the effective 
range of the ordinary musket was certainly not over 300 yards, while 
canister was effective to at least 500 yards. Under these circumstances, 
a brilliant role was possible for the horse artillery, and the French, 
driven to bay, turned its powers of rapid movement to the best account. 
Whilst the lumbering field batteries were toiling after their divisions far 
in the distance, the flying artillery was “ hurrying from point to point 
of the battlefield with the speed of lightning ; now protecting the hard- 
pressed infantry, now supporting the wavering cavalry. At one 
moment the horse artillery galloped up to canister range, and annihilated 
^ Decker 267 
f “ Zwittergeburt.” Decker, “ Taktik der drei Waffen,” p. 120. 
t Monhaupt, ibid., p. 13. 
§ C. Decker, “Geschichte des Geschutzwesens,” p. 154. 
|| Monhaupt, ibid., pp. 24, 25. 
