SMOOTHBORE ORDNANCE JOURNAL VOL 2

1-195002

This journal covers the artillery or military engineering from the 30 Years War to the Franco-Prussian War and includes six pages of color illustrations and many b/w illust/drawings.

Theme One - Gribeauval
Jean-Baptiste Vacquette de Gribeauval (1715-89) is an interesting man who survived the Salon politics of France despite his background of being a poor non-noble birth through the patronage of a number of powerful men.

* Chronology of Gribeauval gives a timeline view of his life. [Stephen Summerfield (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(01)]

* A short biography of Gribeauval in German can be seen in Issue one of this journal translated by Digby Smith.

* The Piccard (1816) and Hennebert (1896) are both important biographies of Gribeauval that are among the supporting material for the journal.

* He had trained at the Artillery School at La Fere before serving in the French Corps- Royal de l'Artillerie then the Corps des Mineurs. [See Stephen Summerfield (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(02)]

* In 1748, he designed the Gribeauval Garrison Carriage that was tested and rejected by the French Artillery. A modified form was used by the Austrians in their defense of Schweidnitz in 1762. [See Stephen Summerfield (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(04)]

* Before he joined Austrian service in 1758, Gribeauval strongly objected to the regiment artillery. [Digby Smith, translator (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(05)]

* In 1758, he was seconded to the Corps of Engineers in the Austrian armies. [See Stephen Summerfield (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(03)]

* In March 1762, Gribeauval while still serving with the Austrian Army wrote a short report in response to the 18 questions from the French Secretary of State for War. These as can be seen in the original French [See Hennebert (1896)] and the translation by Digby Smith shows clearly that they were very general in nature. [Digby Smith, translator (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(06)]

* His work from 1763 until his death in 1789 when he returned to France will no doubt be for the future. He is best known to modern readers for overseeing the modernization of French ordnance and artillery organization from 1765. Much of his active service was in artillery administration, engineering and mining. There being no distinction made between the branches of technical services at this time.

Theme Two - Confederation of the Rhine Artillery
This is the first of a series of papers on European artillery systems that encompass the 18th to the mid 19th century. It is important to look at the extent equipment as well as the written word. The artillery of the Lesser German States that fought for Napoleon in the Confederation of the Rhine had a number of very innovative artillery systems that were derived from and often copied by the great powers of Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia. This has been mostly overlooked. The three papers presented here show the organization, equipment and some of the history of the artillery of Wurttemberg and Saxony.

* Digby Smith translation of the History of Wurttemberg Artillery 1757-1815 shows the innovation in the artillery arm by this small country. [Digby Smith (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(07)]

* We are fortunate that John Cook has provided his photographs of M1809 Wurttemberg Ordnance that illustrate the translation by Digby Smith. These photos are by permission of [John Cook and Stephen Summerfield (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(08)]

* Gerard Cronin and Stephen Summerfield outline the ordnance, uniform and the drill of the Saxon Horse Artillery. [Gerard Cronin and Stephen Summerfield (Dec 2010) SOJ 2(09)]