As an ex-artillery man, there is one recommendation in use by the Fire and Fury rules that I hate. This is their favored use of two-horse limbers. In this article, I hope to convince players of the inadequacies of such a system and endeavor to convert them to using four-horse limbers.

Historical Background

Both in the past as in the present, the number of guns in an artillery battery will vary, dependent on its categorization. As a rule of thumb, the larger the ordnance, the lesser the number of guns. For example, in the American army, prior to the start of the American Civil War, a field battery of 12-pounders could have six guns; but a siege battery of 30-pound Parrott rifled muzzle-loaders could have as few as two guns.

There was another factor that was to dictate the size of batteries during the American Civil War, and that was the number of guns available to form a battery. In the South, the artillery was usually short of equipment. The average number of guns in a field battery was four. Whereas, the North was well-supplied with guns and a field battery could range from six to eight guns, but there could be as few as four.

So if we take an average Southern field battery of four 12-pound guns, when unlimbered and ready for use, the guns and the crew would occupy an area of 50 by 25 yards (Griffith, 1986, page 25.)

In addition to the gun and its crew of nine men (Griffith, 1986, page 26), each gun (both North and South) was serviced by an additional sixteen men, one limber with a six-horse team, and two caissons, each with a six-horse team. (Harding, 1980, page 171.) The battery would also have supply wagons, a vet, and a forge, so the battery could consist of "4 guns, 15 vehicles, 90 men, [and] 90 horses" (Griffith, 1986, page 26.) As can be seen, even a small four-gun field battery could consist of a large number of men and animals, on the move or stationary.

Rules

In the Fire and Fury rules, an artillery stand is mounted on a base 1 inch by 1.5 inches. On average, this will represent "6 to 8" (Hasenauer, 1990, page 5) 12 pounder guns and their crews. However, to represent 6 to 8 limbers and 12 to 16 caissons, the rules use a stand 1 inch by 1.75 inches with a limber and two horses. I believe that is totally inadequate to represent the area that the remainder of the battery would occupy.

Now I have been told that the reason that two-horse limbers are used is to show the difference between field artillery and horse artillery, as horse artillery used more horses per limber to keep up with the cavalry. This is incorrect. A larger calibre gun may use more horses per limber, but a 12-pounder limber in a horse artillery battery still used the same number of horses to pull the limber as a field artillery battery, which is six. The difference between a field artillery battery and a horse artillery battery was the number of riding horses available to the unit.

Conclusion

To give a more appropriate sense of space occupied by the train of a field or horse artillery unit, I base my limbers on a base 1 inch by 3 inches. I do not make any visual difference between horse and field artillery. For batteries of heavy artillery, I use a six-horse limber on a base measuring 1 inch by 4 inches.

My references include Battle in the Civil War (1986) by P. Griffith, Field Books; The Complete Encyclopedia of Weapons (1980) edited by D. Harding, MacMillan; and Fire and Fury: The American Civil War (1990), by R. Hasenauer, Dave Waxtel and Quantum Publishing.

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