514 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
porter partout ou il est necessaire It must be noted, however, that 
these words were not intended to imply that because a mass of guns 
were held in hand they remained idle until the supreme moment 
arrived. On the contrary, afc Wagram we find them, as we shall see 
later on, actively engaged during the whole contest, and filling a breech 
in his own line as well as making one in that of his foes. The heresy 
of a reserve of artillery was never encouraged by Napoleon, although 
he took care to have a powerful force ever close to him “sous la main 
The bringing up of the artillery of the guard, a force which soon 
became invested with special terror in the eyes of his foes, to strike the 
final blow is indeed a marked feature in his later battles, but it was not 
till after the tactics of the arm had been carefully revised at the great 
camp of Boulogne in 1805, that we find any striking examples of its 
employment in that concentrated fashion which is essential to decisive 
results. At Marengo, however, that fortunate victory which made him 
first consul, he owed much to the unexpected appearance on the scene 
of twelve pieces of Boudet’s division, and the French army was indebted 
for its salvation not a little to their support. 
Taubert says of this battle—“ The twelve guns of BoudeFs division, 
which had only just arrived, checked the victorious career of the 
Austrians by their unexpected and effective fire; they became, too, the 
supporting point of all the manoeuvres which turned the fate of the 
action. It was the last barrier of the already beaten French army; by 
it the French Commander-in-Chief supported his discomfited and 
exhausted divisions; and from it and the impetuous attack of fresh 
forces, resulted the change which snatched the blood-bought victory 
from the Austrians.” 1 
Napoleon, however, had yet to learn the full power of a mass of guns 
in the bitter school of experience, and it is from his most stubborn foes 
that the first example of the effect of a great mass of guns may be 
quoted. 
It is remarkable that the Russian army has ever been especially 
strong in artillery, and has always attached great importance to the arm. 
Just as Frederick felt the weight of Russian batteries at Kunersdorf, 
so did the next great military genius who arose after him experience 
their power at Eylau. The feat of the great Russian battery of 40 
guns, which at this bloody battle destroyed the corps of Augereau, is 
justly celebrated in the annals of war, and if we do not here dwell at 
any great length upon it, it is not because we would depreciate in the 
least the deeds of the Russian gunners, but rather because the peculiar 
conditions under which their triumph was effected take it a little 
out of the realm of legitimately earned success, and stamp it rather 
with the character of a brilliant coup rendered possible, or at least 
greatly assisted, by fortuitous and exceptional circumstances. 
Napoleon, finding the Russians standing firm at Preussisch Eylau on 
the 7th February, 1807, determined to turn their left. The better to 
conceal his intentions he commenced a violent attack on their right and 
centre soon after daylight. The left, under Augereau, advanced in 
heavy columns towards Schloditten, whilst SoulFs corps preceded by 
1 The use of Field Artillery ou service. 
