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

Introduction

By Arnold Blumberg

With the French army dissolving in flight before his eyes, Captain Cavalié Mercer, G Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, turned to assess the damage his battery had sustained during the last two hours of the Battle of Waterloo. Positioned toward the Anglo-Allied right and supported by two black-uniformed squares of Brunswick infantry, Mercer's battery presented a sad picture. Years later he would recall that:

"Our situation was indeed terrible: of 200 fine horses with which we had entered the battle, upwards of 140 lay dead, dying, or severely wounded. Of the men, scarcely two-thirds of those necessary for four guns remained, and those so completely exhausted as to be totally incapable of further exertion. Lieutenant Breton had three horses killed under him; Lieutenant Hincks was wounded in the breast by a spent ball; Lieutenant Leathes on the hip by a splinter; and although untouched myself, my horse has no less than eight wounds, one of which – a graze on the fetlock joint – lamed him for ever. Our guns and carriages were, as before mentioned, altogether in a confused heap, intermingled with dead and wounded horses, which it had not been possible to disengage from them. My poor men, such at least were untouched, fairly worn out, their clothes, faces, etc., blackened by the smoke and spattered over with mud and blood...."

Thus, G Troop ended the last battle of the Napoleonic Wars barely a functioning unit. As in many other campaigns, stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the battlefields of France and Belgium, the British Royal Horse Artillery served gallantly on 18 June, 1815.

Frederick the Great's Secret Weapon

"...the light [horse] artillery...properly used, is of the greatest value. Strong horses are required for teams to draw this artillery. The gunners are all mounted on Polish horses, led by a captain and two subalterns. The light artillery is quick as the wind and can be moved to the place designated in less than a minute. If this invention were to be used every day then the enemy would imitate it and develop horse artillery of its own, but if kept secret and used only occasionally at the most important and decisive moments..., then no doubt we will derive great advantage from it."

– Frederick the Great

In the fourth year of the Seven Year's War, Prussia introduced to the battlefield the first independent horse artillery. The idea for this technique of artillery employment came during the period of 1757-1758. During these two campaigning seasons Prussian cavalry on a number of occasions encountered Russian cavalry supported by light artillery in the form of 2- to 4-pounder guns. These contacts convinced the Prussian generals of two things: first, that the enemy cavalry was being aided by guns whose crews were either mounted on horses or riding in wagons.

This, they reasoned, was the only way the enemy artillery could keep up with the Russian troopers. Secondly, if the first assumption was correct, it was an idea that should be incorporated for Prussian use. Frederick the Great readily endorsed the concept of guns which could keep pace with the cavalry. He authorized the first Prussian horse artillery to be organized, equipped and trained at Landeshut in May, 1759. The Prussian monarch understood that his dictate to his cavalry – to use shock action at all times – denied them the use of firearms which could, at times, put them at a disadvantage. As a result, Frederick seized upon the idea of highly maneuverable horse artillery as a way to provide fire support to his cavalry.

Frederick chose the light 6-pounder howitzer (later the 7-pounder) as the best gun for his new horse artillery. The advantages of this howitzer included its lighter weight, lower powder consumption, and its superior performance firing canister.

The Prussian horse artillery crews were composed of picked men – seven per gun – and paired with the best horses, usually six for each piece, that could be found in the country. Each crewman was mounted on his own stead so as to reduce the weight for the horses pulling the guns. Frederick so strongly believed in his secret weapon that he was prepared to keep it in the field regardless of the losses it might sustain in combat. Unfortunately for him, he had more than one opportunity to make good on his resolve. His first horse artillery battery, under a Lieutenant Schwebs, was lost to the Russians at the battle of Kunersdorf, 12 August, 1759.

As a result, a replacement battery of ten guns was raised at Fürstenwalde that same month. It met the same fate as Schwebs's unit when it was captured by the Austrians at the battle of Maxen on 23 November, 1759. Frustrated, but undeterred, the King created yet a third battery in the spring of 1760. This one, along with a similar unit raised at Landsberg in 1759 by Prince Henry, Frederick's brother, performed good service and survived the war.

Being an elite unit imbued the Prussian horse artillery with a spirit of recklessness that often seems to affect such units. The Prussian horse gunners continually outpaced the friendly forces they were intended to support, thus exposing themselves to enemy fire which killed their horses and crews, and made them vulnerable to easy capture.

With the onset of peace in 1763, a general European disarmament saw the interest in the expensive and experimental horse artillery wane. Only Prussia continued to sustain horse artillery from 1763 to 1789. Not until the advent of the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic Empire would the need for such a weapon manifest itself once more.

The Independent British Artillery

Although the artillery is often thought of as a supporting combat arm, the peculiarities of the 18th Century British military bureaucracy in fact established the artillery as a unique and virtually autonomous arm of service. This came about due to the establishment of a cabinet level post, the Master General of Ordnance, who supervised the Board of Ordnance which presided over the administration of the British artillery.

The Board of Ordnance was tasked with the development of all military weapons, not only small arms and munitions but also the manufacture and purchase of gun carriages, limbers, caissons, and artillery pieces. The long reach of the Board did not stop with the mere materials required by the artillery arm, but extended to control over that service's personnel. Promotions, assignments, transfers, etc., were within the exclusive purview of the Board. This created a situation whereby all these artillerists and support personnel slipped beyond the control of regular army authorities, and became the exclusive property of the politically powerful Board. The Board soon began dictating how British field and siege guns would be used, and by whom, with the upshot of this unorthodox and ill-conceived relationship being an endless series of disputes between frustrated army commanders and their overly empowered artillery officers.

Charles Lennox, Father of the RHA

Out of this convoluted and divided system of military control, the Royal Horse Artillery was born. Popularly referred to as the "Flying Artillery", the establishment of the RHA can be credited to Charles Lennox, Third Duke of Richmond, perhaps the most efficient man ever to run the Board of Ordnance. A clear-headed, outspoken soldier, the Duke of Richmond was always open to innovation and scientific solutions to aid in the advancement of the British military.

In creating the British horse artillery, the Duke drew on two contemporary models. The first came from India, where two light 6-pounders – known as "gallopers" – regularly supported each British cavalry regiment raised by the British East India Company, a practice which had been followed there since 1780. On the open plains of India, these horse-drawn cannons, with crews riding on horse teams or battery limbers, managed to move nearly as fast as the friendly cavalry they were supporting.

The other model that inspired the Duke were the ancestors of Frederick's secret weapon, the Prussian horse guns. Few military men outside of Prussia knew the particulars of these units, such as the exact training methods, the nature of the guns and carriages, or the best uses of horse artillery in combat. Consequently, Richmond could not take the Prussian method and steal it outright. But he divined enough about the Prussian horse artillery to start development of his own horse gun units.

Activated in 1793 (two years before the Duke of Richmond left the Board of Ordnance and one year after the French introduced their first two horse artillery companies), Britain's first horse artillery came armed with 4-pounder cannon. The crewmen rode on the horse teams or on the battery vehicles. All the officers assigned to the new batteries, as well as a good number of the senior NCOs, had studied at the artillery academy at Woolwich (established in 1741). The curriculum there included mathematics, practical gunnery, drawing and some engineering. The Academy turned out skilled artillery officers while also serving as the primary proving ground for research and development of all weapons and supporting services connected with the artillery. In this environment, the horse artillery found fertile ground for development.

In his last two years as head of the Board of Ordnance, Lennox carefully scrutinized the progress of his pet project. He even laid down early in its formation what he deemed to be the primary mission of this new weapon. He decreed that the horse artillery was to use its mobility to keep pace with the cavalry; to support the horsemen in all circumstances when the cavalry was acting independently from friendly infantry; to always be prepared to pursue a beaten foe; and to be ready to act as a rearguard if needed.

The Master General also advised the officers who were to lead the horse artillery that the conditions of terrain would never be accepted as an excuse for failure to carry out the basic responsibilities of the service. Lennox felt that the "Flying Artillery" could go anywhere, or at the very least, its leaders should attempt to move it where it was needed, regardless of natural obstacles.

More British Royal Horse Artillery

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