In reading Issue 118 I found a letter from Mr. Stef Klauber (reproduced above , JAL). He stated that he had a "hard time accepting Jean Lochet's articles stating ....(the Grand Armee) ... was able to find enough year XI system guns to reequip its practically brand new grand army..."I can understand his skepticism, but unfortunately, the facts speak differently. In 1990, I spent a week at Chateau Vincennes happily xeroxing everything I could get my hands on, including all the corps bi-weekly state reports for 1813. I have also recently taken possession of a number of biweekly states from the files at the Archives nationales, in downtown Paris and can, with the help of this, put Mr. Klauber'squestion to rest. The following 1813 Grand Armee is a distillation of 40 pages of OB available from the Nafziger Collection of orders of battle. I say distillation, because I have deleted all strength figures, corps/divisional/brigade assignment, commanding officers, etc., etc., from the original OB. It lists the specific types and numbers of guns for every armed battery in the Grande Armee on 1 August 1813, including the allied equipment. I selected this date as it represents the end of the rearmament of the Grand Armee. Consultations with files for the spring of1813 indicate no batteries were equipped with 8pdrs and later reequipped with the System of the Year XI. Guard Artillery On 1 August 1813 the Guard artillery was equipped as follows: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th Old Guard Foot Batteries all had: (6-6pdrs & 2- 5.7" howitzers) 2nd Old Guard Foot Battery had: (6-12pdrs & 2-6" howitzers) 1st thru 6th Old Guard Horse Battery and the Berg Horse Battery had: (4-6pdrs & 2-5.7" howitzers) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Young Guard Foot Batteries had: (6-6pdrs & 2-5.7" howitzers) 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th Young Guard Foot Batteries had: (4-6pdrs & 2-5.7" howitzers) Line Foot Artillery The following were equipped with 6-12pdrs & 2-6" howitzers: 16/1st 17/1st 9/2nd 13/2nd 24/2nd 26/2nd 25/4th 15/5th 22/5th 26/5th 28/5th 5/6th 10/6th 6/7th 10/7th 9/8th Note 1. Please read the numbers 16/1st as the 16th Company, 1st Foot Artillery Regiment. The following were equipped with 6-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers: 1/1st 3/1st 4/1st 5/1st 6/1st 18/1st 22/1st 1/2nd 3/2nd 5/2nd 7/2nd 8/2nd 10/2nd 12/2nd 19/2nd 21/2nd 23/3rd 24/3rd 25/3rd 26/3rd 2/4th 4/4th 5/4th 10/4th 11/4th 14/4th 20/4th 21/4th 1/5th 11/5th 12/5th 13/5th 16/5th 17/5th 18/5th 20/5th 21/5th 4/6th 1/7th 2/7th 3/7th 4/7th 7/7th 9/7th 15/7th 17/7th 19/7th 27/7th 1/8th 3/8th 10/8th 12/8th 17/8th 18/8th 20/8th 2/9th 5/9th 11/9th 15/9th 18/9th 21/9th 22/9th There were four odd companies that were equipped as follows: 8/4th and 21/7th (6-12pdr & 2-24pdr howitzers) 12/1st (6-6pdrs & 2 unknown howitzers) 13/8th (6-6pdrs & 2 unknown howitzers) Line Horse Artillery The line horse artillery was universally organized with 4-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers. Those units specifically identified with the Grande Armee on 1 August 1813 were: 1/1st 2/1st 3/1st 5/1st 6/1st 7/1st 1/2nd 5/2nd 1/3rd 4/3rd 5/3rd 6/3rd 7/3rd 1/4th 2/4th 3/4th 7/4th 8/4th 1/5th 2/5th 4/5th 5/5th 6/5th 1/6th 3/6th 4/6th 6/6th 7/6th 8/6th Allied Artillery A review of allied artillery on 1 August 1813 reveals the following equipment distribution: 1st Saxon Foot Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-8pdr howitzers) 2nd Saxon Foot Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-8prd howitzers) 3rd Saxon Foot Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-8pdr howitzers) 4th Saxon Foot Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-8pdr howitzers) 1st Saxon Horse Battery (4-6pdrs & 2-8pdr howitzers) 2nd Saxon Horse Battery (4-6pdrs & 2-8pdr howitzers) 3rd Saxon Horse Battery (4-6pdrs & 2-8pdr howitzers) Saxon 12pdr Foot Battery (6-12pdrs & 2-8pdr howitzers) 1st Polish Horse Battery (4-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) 5th Polish Foot Artillery (4-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) 7th Polish Foot Artillery (4-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) 18th Polish Foot Artillery (4-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) 11th Polish Foot Artillery (4-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) Polish Horse Artillery (4-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) 1st Bavarian Foot Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-7pdr howitzers) 2nd Bavarian Foot Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-7pdr howitzers) Bavarian Reserve Foot Battery (6-12pdrs & 2-7pdr howitzers) 1st Baden Foot Battery (5-6pdrs & 1-24prd howitzer) 1st Hessian Foot Battery (5-6pdrs & 1-24pdr howitzer) 1st Wurttemberg Foot Battery (4-6pdrs & 2-7pdr howitzers) 1st Wurttemburg Horse Battery (4-6pdrs & 2-7pdr howitzers) 3rd Wurttemburg Horse battery (4-6pdrs & 2-7pdr howitzers) 13th Italian Foot Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) 1st Italian Foot Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) 3rd Italian Horse Battery (6-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) 4th Italian Horse Artillery (6-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) Neapolitan Horse Battery (4-6pdrs & 2-24pdr howitzers) As can be seen, there was no Gribeauval equipment in the Grande Armee in Germany, it was all System XI. However, to answer Mr. Klauber's question, "where was the Gribeauval equipment", let me provide the following from various armies in Spain: Army of Aragon and Valencia: 1 January 1813 6-12pdrs , 6-8pdrs , 26-4pdrs Army of the North : 1 January 1813 2-8pdrs, 14-4pdrs 3rd Government: 15 January 1813 23-12pdrs , 53-8pdrs, 81-4pdrs 4th Government : 15 January 1813 8-6pdrs , 25-8pdrs , 12-4pdrs 5th Government: 1 January 1813 24-8pdrs, 31-4pdrs French Army of Portugal 1 January 1813 14/1st Foot Artillery (2-8pdrs, 1-4prd & 1-6" howitzer) 9/3rd Foot Artillery (1-8pdr, 2-4pdrs & 1-6" howitzer) 15/3rd Foot Artillery (2-4pdrs & 1-6" howitzer) 11/8th Foot Artillery (2-8pdrs, 1-4pdr & 1-6" howitzer) 3/2nd Horse Artillery (3-8pdrs, 2-4pdrs & 1-6" howitzer) 5/5th Horse Artillery (4-6pdrs & 2-6" howitzers) There were also some guns assigned to 3 reserve batteries in the Army of Portugal. The Archives Nationales documents did not identify their assignment, but lists them as follows: 3-12pdrs, 10-8pdrs, 2-4pdrs I used the January Spanish states as a source for no particular reason, other than it was readily at hand. All that material has yet to be processed, but there was no change in the equipment through July 1813 in any of the armies in Spain, so any suggestions that it might have been drawn out in the Spring for the northern armies is not supported by the archival documents. I should also add, that those documents very clearly list all movements of troops, specifically cadres, back to France and I have seen no comment whatsoever, until very late, i,e, June, of any artillery moving back to France. The only such comments that I did notice were around the time of Vittoria when the Armies of Spain underwent a massive reorganization. I also did not select a spring state for the Grande Armee even though I have the same material for April-May time frame because : (1) there is no Gribeauval equipment present, (2) the reorganization was not complete, and (3) I did not want to produce a 10 page response to Mr. Klauber's question. The material presented above is a very, very sharp and heavy handed distillation of the 1813 material I hold. Even the Spanish listings have had non-related artillery equipment eliminated, i.e., 2pdrs, 3pdrs, 16pdrs and 24pdrs, which appear to have abounded in various garrisons. Should anyone be interested obtaining complete transcriptions of this material, in its original state and with all other OB details present, please send me an self addressed envelop, $1.00, and a note requesting a complete listing of the Napoleonic orders of battle I hold: 8801 Tammy Dr., West Chester, oh 45069. Sources consulted for the data presented were: French Army Archives, Chateau Vincennes, Cartons C2-537, C2-538, C2-539, C2- 540, C2-541, C2-542, C2-543, C2-544, and C2-708 and Carton XP2, which consists of notes by the author A. Martinien and the French National Archives, AF IV* 1558-1559 and 1564-1565 Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 1 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com