The Artillerist’s Manual
And British Soldier’s
Compendium
Seventh Edition
By Major F. A. Griffiths, 1856
345
pages, Illustrated, Searchable
Bonus #1 –
Andrews’
Mounted Artillery Drill
(C.S.A.)
Includes Musical Notations
For Bugle Signals
By R. Snowden Andrews, 1863
230 pages, Illustrated, Searchable
Bonus #2 –
Instruction For
Heavy Artillery
U.S. Army
By Board of Officers, 1851
270 pages, Illustrated, Searchable
Bonus #2 –
Handbook of
Field Fortifications and Artillery
Also Manual For
Light and Heavy Artillery
By Egbert Viele, 1861
150 pages, Illustrated, Searchable
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Originally applied to
any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has
over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that
operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons.
These engines comprise specialised devices which use some form of stored energy
to operate, whether mechanical, chemical, or electromagnetic. Originally
designed to breach fortifications, they have evolved from nearly static
installations intended to reduce a single obstacle to highly mobile weapons of
great flexibility in which now reposes the greater portion of a modern army's
offensive capabilities.
In common speech the word artillery is often used to refer to individual devices, together with their
accessories and fittings, although these assemblages are more properly referred
to as equipments. By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of
service that customarily operates such engines.
Artillery may also refer
to a system of applied scientific research relating to the design, manufacture
and employment of artillery weapon systems although, in general, the terms
ballistics and ordnance are more commonly employed in this sense.
Artillery is by far the
deadliest and most effective form of land-based armament; in the Napoleonic
Wars, World War I and World War II the vast majority of combat deaths were
caused by artillery. In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery
was "the God of War". The most famous artillery officer in history
is probably Napoleon; artillery officers in many European armies were
distinguished by their excellent education, compared to their colleagues in the
Infantry and Cavalry.