513 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
BY 
MAJOR E. S. MAY, R.A. 
Chapter I.—PART II. 
The Era op Napoleon. 
With the advent of the Nineteenth Century the position of artillery as 
an arm became immensely improved, and the divisional system of 
organization introduced by the young French Republic was to a large 
degree responsible for the change. Mobility and flexibility were the 
characteristic of their armies, and their guns having to keep pace with 
the other arms, increased and successful efforts were made to render 
them equal to the new demands. Not only this, but the necessities of 
the Republic obliged it to adopt a different method of conducting oper¬ 
ations to what was in vogue with States better endowed in all the 
paraphernalia and equipment required by the old methodical system of 
fighting. Armies were split up into units, each complete in itself, able 
to move independently, and, above all, able to forage for themselves. 
The pedantic and formal methods which looked for supply from maga¬ 
zines and depots, and regarded the safety of communications as a first 
consideration, were gradually swept away, and with them many of the 
old traditions and prejudices which had crystalized round them. 
Battalion guns disappeared with the rest, and artillery assumed its 
proper place, looking to a chief of its own for direction, and forming an 
integral portion of an army on an equal footing with the other arms. 
As we have hinted already, even Frederick had viewed artillery, at the 
commencement of his career at any rate, with more suspicion than 
regard, and probably to the end of his life looked upon the arm rather 
as a necessary evil than a gift of providence. 
In the early days of Napoleon, although as an artillery officer 
he naturally ever appreciated its powers, economical considerations 
equipped him but sparsely with artillery, and probably hampered its 
action in his hands. Artillerymen cannot be trained in a hurry, nor 
are losses of guns and horses easily replaced. As, however, he grew in 
power, until eventually the whole resources of the State were at his 
disposal, such considerations no longer restrained the full exercise of 
his judgement, and the General who set so high a store on fire effect, 
was not slow to develop the arm which offered the richest result in 
that respect. 
To quote his own words —“ C’est Vartillerie de ma garde qui decide la 
plupart des bat allies > parce que V ay ant tonjours sous la main , Je puis la 
10, YOL, XIX, 
