Cannons at a Rapid Gait
British Royal Horse Artillery
1793-1815

Early Organization and Evolution

By Arnold Blumberg

Five years after its creation, the Royal Horse Artillery remained a small force manning a number of provisional batteries (or, in the parlance of cavalry, "troops"). The horse artillery received a boost in morale and prestige when in 1798 it participated in a joint exercise in Essex as part of an experimental corps composed of light infantry, light cavalry and light artillery. Impressed with the mounted gunners's performance during the Essex maneuvers, and concerned over reports of the growing effectiveness of French horse artillery units on the continent, London decided to accelerate the growth and expansion of its own horse artillery. But this effort lagged over the next few years due to a combination of inadequate funding and a reduction in military tensions with France after the truce of 1801.

Two years later, with the prospect of war against Napoleon a virtual certainty, the increase of the British mobile artillery arm resumed in earnest. In 1801, seven troops of horse artillery existed, half of which were mere cadres. By comparison, the French had six regiments of horse artillery – thirty-six batteries.

By 1803 the manpower and material deficiencies had been corrected and these troops, lettered A through G, began a rigorous training program. Administratively, changes in 1802 reduced troop size from twelve guns to six. By 1806, five additional troops – H, I, K, L, and M – were raised, no J Troop ever entering service. In the same year a parent headquarters organization was created, known as the Royal Horse Artillery Brigade, which controlled all English horse artillery during the Napoleonic Wars. Much later in the Napoleonic Wars, in 1813, two rocket troops, the First and Second, were added to the Horse Artillery Brigade. The Brigade was composed of fourteen English and two King's German Legion (Hanoverian) troops. Rounding out the brigade was a "Riding Horse Troop" which acted as a non-combatant instruction unit. (By comparison, in 1814 the French had 55 horse artillery batteries.)

Comparison of Artillery Pieces
Weight with Carriage
British
6pdr		French
4pdr		British
9pdr		 French
8pdr		British
5.5" howitzer		French
6" howitzer

By 1809, each 6-pounder horse artillery troop carried on it rolls 168 men: five officers, five sergeants, three corporals, one surgeon, six bombardiers, eighty gunners, sixty drivers, and eight other ranks who performed blacksmithing, carriage repair, and other maintenance work. A troop sporting 9-pounders (only in 1815) would have thirty-two additional gunners and drivers.

For mobility, a horse artillery troop required 182 horses or mules for 6-pounders, and 194 horses and mules for 9-pounders. On campaign each 6-pounder gun or howitzer would be pulled by a six-horse team; the 9-pounders by a team of eight. Ammunition caissons, battery forges, and spare wheel carriages were pulled by teams of six, while other troop vehicles were serviced by teams of four animals. (Mules, used primarily in the Peninsula, only drew the troop wagons and never the guns or caissons).

During active operations it was not unusual to find troops with more than the authorized number of draught animals. Wastage, especially in Spain, induced any troop commander or sergeant worth his salt to obtain extra horses or mules to replace the inevitable losses of that invaluable commodity. Officers were allowed two horses each at government expense. The troops's sergeants and surgeon were allowed one a piece.

Throughout the years of struggle against Napoleonic France, the British started each campaign using horses transported from England. Bred and raised in Great Britain, these mounts came from superior Arabian breeds. As a result, the English hunter and carriage horses used in the artillery tended to be strong and fast, able to endure the bleak Spanish winters and intense summers fairly well. On the other hand, most of the horses used by the French in the Peninsula were those found in the region. These animals were smaller and weaker than their British counterparts, less accustomed to the strains of military demands, and thus the British obtained a sharp edge in horse flesh, at least at the start of operations.

Each gun in the troop was manned by a number of men known as a "detachment". This consisted of two non-commissioned officers (sergeants and corporals), eight mounted gunners, two drivers who rode horses in the gun team, and two gunners who rode on the gun limber. Other gunners rode on the caissons and the ammunition wagons.

Upon coming into action, nine gunners would serve the piece, while three others acted as horse holders. As soon as the gun caisson arrived on the scene with its extra shot and shell, all the men that could be spared, namely the gunners and horse holders, would start to deliver ammunition to the firing piece. Every British horse artillery troop, except one, possessed five cannon and one 5.5" howitzer, including six troops at Waterloo. Even Captain Edward C. Whinyates's 2nd Rocket Troop had five 6-pounder guns complementing the rockets it brought to the fight. Bull's Troop I represented the exception; it consisted of six 5.5" howitzers only.

The British 6- and 9-pounders fired an assortment of munitions: round shot, canister, common shell, and spherical case shot known as Shrapnel. Invented by a Royal Horse Artillery officer, Henry Shrapnel, in 1804, it can make a serious claim to being the nastiest projectile used by any nation's artillery during the period. Packaged in a thin metal container filled with musket balls, and if the fuse were properly trimmed, the Shrapnel shell could be made to explode over a target, a lethal rain falling upon the unfortunate victims. Shrapnel gave the British a sharp edge in artillery duels (counter-battery fire), as no French munitions could match its effectiveness in that type of encounter. By 1809, fifteen per cent of the Royal Horse Artillery ammunition was Shrapnel shell, compared with fifty per cent of its howitzer ammunition.

More British Royal Horse Artillery

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