Napoleon
Table of Contents
No. 12


Units and Uniforms

CANNONS AT A RAPID GAIT: 1793-1815

Popularly referred to as "flying artillery," Britain's Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was a virtually autonomous arm of service under the Board of Ordnance. This caused no end of disputes with field commanders, including Wellington, over who controlled assignments and promotions. Initially armed with 4pdr cannon, the RHA bateries, called "troops" became standardized in 1809 with five 6pdr guns and one 5.5-inch howitzer. At its height, the RHA consisted of 14 troops, including two with rockets--the first battlefield use of this weapon in Europe. Better powder and a superior exploding shell called "shrapnel" gave the British gunners a distinct advantage in combat. By 1815, an improved 9pdr gun with an innovative single block trail carriage equipped four of the troops at Waterloo. Although often used as a "fire brigade" and rushed from reserve to critical points in the battle, the RHA never lost a gun to the enemy. By Arnold Blumberg.




Cover: Keith Rocco's painting shows the narrow escape of Ramsay's guns at Fuentes de Onoro in 1811 and emphasizes the risks taken by the RHA.
Large Cover (221K)

Featured Scholar

A MAVERICK TALKS "HORSE SENSE"

    Owen "Mike" Connelly is a former US Army Ranger who served in Korea, but is better known as a leading professor of history at the University of South Carolina since 1970 and a respected author of several major books on the French Revolution and Napoleon. Perhaps his most widely known book is Blundering to Glory which argued that Napoleon's success was due to his ability to improvise during a battle rather than work from a set plan. An avid equstrian, Connelly's personal experience with horses has provided him with special insight and opinions about cavalry, which he shares in Napoleon magazine's sixth interview by correspondence, conducted by Dr. June Burton.

Cuture and Politics

NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS

    Was Napoleon was an enlightened ruler in a bigoted era, or did he emancipate the Jews of Europe for cynical, self-serving purposes? Historian Ben Weider enters this debate using primary sources that may indicate what Jews at that time thought about Napoleon. Weider is convinced that had Napoleon's campaign in Egypt been successful, the state of Israel would have come into existence 150 years before the UN mandated the partition of Palestine in 1948.

Departments

Napoleonic Library: Reviews of selected books

Napoleonic Calendar: Letters, News, and Events

Travel:

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