According to NAPOLEON AND THE GRAND ARMY IN RUSSIA, page 109, a book published by General Gourgaud in 182S, the artillery of the French Army before Smolensk, i.e the artillery of the Ist, 3d, 4th, Sth and 8th Corps and also the Reserve of cavalry had a train composed of the following: 12-pounders 57 6-pounders 267 4-pounders 32 3-pounders 2 6.5 howitzers 16 5.6 howitzers 122 Total 490 In addition they were 2477 caissons which formed a total of 2967 carriages not comprising the travelling forges, pontoons and spare gun carriages. It should be noted that General Gourgaud was first military secretary and aide de camp to Napoleon in Russia. The above book is most interesting, because of its second title: "A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF COUNT PHILIP DE SEGURIS WORK". I was fortunate enough to find a copy of that rare book published in Philadelphia in 1825. It is quite interesting to compare it to controversial and often misleading work of de Segur. Please also note the large proportion of 5.6 howitzers of the Year IX type. The original 6.54 inch Gribeauval howitzers are represented by a modest 16. Also of importance is the complete replacement of the powerful 8-pounders by the lighter 6-pounders of the Year IX type. The availability of the 6 pounders to the French army, beside the captured types, is often ignored. If Gourgaud is right then realistic wargaming in the Russian campaign of 1812 should completely eliminate the 8-pounders in the French artillery. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 18 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1977 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com