The Cannon’s Breath
Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval
and the Development of the French
Artillery Arm:
1763-1789
by Kevin Kiley, USA
 |
Introduction [1]
‘General de bataille, commandant
en chef du genie, de l’artillerie et des
mineurs’ ‘’[The artillery officer] is devoted
to perfecting his art in order to make
himself better able to render the most
notable services during war, which make
him known for good reason as the most
solid support of the state'. -Lombard
‘no subordinate, no matter what
seniority he possesses, may be promoted
without a demonstration of intelligence
and his capacity to perform the functions
required by the artillery.’ - Valliere pere
‘Leave the artillerymen alone. They
are an obstinate lot.’ ‘Cannon his name, Cannon his voice, he came.’ Down the long, rutted road of the
history of warfare stride the gunners,
some famous, some not so
famous, who have fought their guns beside the
captains they served. Most of these children of
St. Barbara were masters of their art. Others,
were innovators and developers of systems.
Their names are associated with a string of
hard-fought victories, desperate stands, and
the smoke and rumble of the guns they served.
Gustavus Adolphus, Lennart Tortensen, the
great Turenne, Phillips, Frederick the Great,
Prince Lichtenstein fought their guns, swore at
them stuck in mud-encrusted country roads,
and fought desperately in their defense.
The greatest gunner of them all, Napoleon, general
and Emperor, commanded ‘as expert a lot of
artillerists as ever rode together under the
same banner’: Drouot, Senarmont, Eble, Marmont,
Foy, and Lauriston. The artillerymen of
many nations who faced him were equally as
skilled: Smola, Dickson, Frazer, Kutusaiv and
others who belonged to the ‘traditional brotherhood
of Stone Hurlers, Archers, catapulteers,
Racketeers, and Gunners’.
One of the greatest artillerymen in history,
whose innovative approach to artillery
development has had the system he developed
hailed as ‘perhaps the most important innovation
in the history of artillery’ [3] ,
pioneered an artillery system that ushered in an era and
eventually enabled the artillery arm to become
a decisive combat arm on the battlefield.
That gunner’s name is Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de
Frechencourt de Gribeauval, and the artillery
system that bears his name was a key development
in both tactics and technology that
greatly helped enable the armies of the French
Republic and Empire to advance against the
armies of the kings in sweeping campaigns
that ‘put fear into the souls of Europe’s kings
and foreign generations’. [4]
Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Frechenmont
de Gribeauval, French artilleryman and innovator,
and inventor of the artillery system that
bears his name, was born in 1715 at Amiens
of a family that had contributed both military
men and magistrates to the nation and had
been ennobled for service to the state.
As a strange omen to what he would later become,
he was baptised on 4 December, the feast day
of Saint Barbara, the patron of artillery. His
father was a lawyer and the Mayor of Amiens.
Gribeauval entered the army as a volunteer
in 1732, entered the artillery school at La
Fere as a cadet in 1733, and was commissioned
as an ‘officer pointeur’ [5]
upon successful
completion of the course in 1735.
One of his instructors at La Fere was the famous
Bernard Forest de Belidor, who had figured
out that the powder charge for artillery pieces
could be reduced to half what it had been and
not affect the range of the piece.
By 1743 Gribeauval was appointed a ‘commissaire extraordinaire’
in the artillery, and four years later a ‘commissaire ordinaire.’ [6]
Gribeauval quickly attained a reputation in the French
service for technical ability and ordnance construction.
In 1748, after combat service during
the War of the Austrian Succession in both
Flanders and Germany, he designed a fortress
gun carriage that was later copied throughout
Europe. He also recognised, as did other
French artillerymen and senior officers that
the Valliere System of artillery was too large
and heavy for use as field artillery and was
completely unsuitable for a war of manoeuvre.
In 1752 he was promoted to captain of miners. That same year he undertook an inspection
trip to Prussia to study their light
artillery that had given the Austrians so much
trouble in the late war. It should be noted that
at this period, the French engineer arm was
part of the artillery. While miners were specialists
in the underground war of mine and
countermine during sieges, they were normally
commanded by artillerymen, and this
was a usual assignment for artillery officers. [7]
The French engineers didn’t become a separate
branch of the service until 1758 and the
new Royal Corps of Engineers was small and
composed entirely of officers, none higher
than the rank of colonel. [8] Artillery officers
were also taught siege tactics and the engineering
processes that went along with those
operations in the excellent French artillery schools.
In many ways, French artillerymen of
this period were just as familiar with engineer
and infantry tactics as the officers of those two branches.
The outstanding Prussian artilleryman,
Lieutenant Colonel Ernst Friedrich von Holtzman,
had developed a light, very mobile field
artillery which Gribeauval was able to observe
first-hand. [9] He obtained plans for some of the
Prussian pieces and had one constructed and
test-fired when he returned to France. In 1757
he was again promoted, this time to lieutenant
colonel of infantry, and that same year he and
other French artillery officers were seconded
to the Austrian army for service with their
artillery and engineers, based on a request by
the Austrian Empress Maria-Theresa because
of a shortage of qualified artillery officers in
Austria.
Gribeauval’s service in the Seven Years’
War was distinguished. He served at the Battle
of d’Hastenbeck and at the capture of Minden.
Service at the siege of Neiss resulted in his
being created ‘general de bataille et le donna
commandant de l’artillerie, du genie, et des
mineurs’ by Maria-Theresa with the consent
and approval of his sovereign, Louis XV. He
directed the siege of Glatz, under the overall
command of Field Marshal Loudon, finally
taking the city by a daring, well planned, coup
de main. He defended Schweidnitz against the
Prussians, as commander of the artillery and
engineers, with Frederick the Great being
present, inflicted 7,000 casualties for 1,000
incurred and was ordered to surrender only
after having run out of ammunition.
Frederick was so impressed with the performance that he
tried to entice Gribeauval into his service. The
Austrian miners, which had been reorganised
and trained by Gribeauval, completely out-classed
their Prussian counterparts, one Prussian
engineer officer remarking that ‘it is only
in the French service that you can carry out
such operations with real proficiency, for in
that army the technical officer is treated with
respect and is given everything he needs. It is
not the individual who carries the burden, but
the corps as a whole.’ [10]
For his efforts, Gribeauval was promoted
first to oberstleutnant in 1759 and then to
General-Feldwachtmeister in the Austrian
service (the equivalent of French lieutenant
general) and was awarded the Grand Cross of
the Order of Maria-Theresa by a grateful Empress.
Recalled to France, he was promoted to
Marechal de Camp on 25 July 1762 and was
awarded the Order of St. Louis, grade of Commander, in 1764.
Promoted to Lieutenant General on 19 July 1765, he was later awarded
the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Louis in
1776. He was made First Inspector General
of Artillery on 1 January 1777.
While in Austria, Gribeauval was considered
by his Austrian counterparts as a
‘collaborateur’ of Prince Lichtenstein and
that he had contributed to the improvement of
the Austrian artillery while in their service. [11]
The French artillery was an ancient
and honourable arm with a well-established
organisation and tradition when Gribeauval
proposed its complete reorganisation in 1762.
The first French artillery school was unofficially
organised at Douai in 1679, becoming
‘official’ in 1720. The artillery and engineer
schools of the other powers patterned themselves
on the French artillery and engineer
school system, some sooner than others. ‘The
artillery schools of ancien regime France were
the first institutions in Europe where students
received a scientific education”. [12]
The Fusiliers du Roi was officially
formed in 1672, and while not properly artillerymen
and organised as infantry, provided
the muscle to man artillery batteries in the
field, and defended their guns alongside the
gunners in close combat. In 1693 they became
the Regiment Royal Artillery and by 1710 the
regiment was made up of five battalions (236
officers and 3,700 other ranks). By 1684 the
Regiment of Bombardiers du Roi was formed
consisting of two battalions by 1710 (90 officers
and 1,450 other ranks). They were specialists
who manned mortars and were separate from Royal Artillery. [13]
From 1679, the French operated
with two systems of artillery, that of de veille
invention, which were the ‘traditional’ pieces
with which France had usually equipped her
artillery, and de nouvelle invention which was
introduced into French usage by the Spaniard
Antonio Gonzales.
Introduced into French service in that year the guns of de nouvelle
invention gave the French army an artillery
system that was light, mobile, and a precursor
to what Gribeauval would eventually achieve.
Gonzales’ tests at Douai in 1680 were noticed
by the artilleryman, Lieutenant General Francois
de la Frezeliere, who was enthusiastic
about the light system, and employed them on
campaign with the field armies.
Gonzales’ light artillery system suffered
from three drawbacks. First, the gun tubes had
a chamber at the end of the bore that was of
greater diameter than the bore itself. This led
to problems with leftover powder residue,
which might prematurely detonate the next
rammed charge. Second, the lightness of the
pieces caused very violent recoil, which was
retarded with heavier pieces, and this damaged
gun carriages and adversely affected
recoil. Third, the vent of the piece was not at
the top, vice the rear, of the breech, which may
have been a cause of the very violent recoil of
the piece as the powder now burned differently.
The system fell into disuse after Frezeliere’s death and was formally abolished
in 1720. Still, it was a harbinger of things to come. [14]
The Valliere system of artillery
emphasised range and accuracy and there was
no distinction made between siege, garrison,
and field artillery. Also, there was no attempt
by Valliere to standardise gun carriage and
vehicle construction, and there was no central
construction tables for artillery vehicles.
Therefore, gun carriages constructed in one
part of France were not compatible with those
built elsewhere. This was actually done on
purpose by Valliere, as the guns cast in different
foundries might be of different weight
from those of the same calibre cast in another.
Gun carriages were specifically built to accommodate
a certain gun tube. This led to
much duplication of effort and there was no
standardisation of parts.
The Cannon’s Breath Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval and the Development of the French Artillery Arm: 1763-1789
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The table is a comparison
of the weight and length of the gun tubes of
the systeme la nouvelle invention, the Valliere
System, and the Gribeauval System:
In 1732 General Jean Florent deValliere
(1667-1759) brought order out of chaos in the
French artillery by limiting the calibre’s used
and standardising the casting and manufacture of gun tubes.