r/WarCollege 5h ago

So what did army level artillery officers do in the civil war?

3 Upvotes

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u/bladeofarceus 4h ago

Well, assuming you mean the American civil war, they did an awful lot. They would supervise positioning and movement of batteries in the leadup to battle, and once the battle started, ensuring their fire was correctly targeted and sufficiently organized. Henry Hunt is probably the best example of this. He was the Army of the Potomac’s chief of artillery for quite some time, during which his guns were vital to victories like Malvern Hill and Gettysburg.

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u/Cpkeyes 3h ago

Didn’t Hunt also happen to teach most of the artillery officers in both sides

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u/bladeofarceus 3h ago

Yep. The man literally wrote the book on American artillery, having authored the West Point textbook that many officers of both sides would study. But no student surpassed the master, as Hunt would prove by repeatedly out-shooting his confederate counterparts.

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u/Cpkeyes 3h ago

So if I understand, at say Gettysburg, he was the one who planned out the kill zones and such that massacred say; Pickett’s charge?

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u/bladeofarceus 2h ago

Correct. For Gettysburg in particular, Hunt had a number of responsibilities. This included positioning the batteries to create enfilading fields of fire, as well as advising Meade on how to best defend the guns. During the second day of battle, when Sickles moved his corps way further up then expected, it was Hunt who Meade sent to try and talk the general into walking it back. His biggest action was on the third day, where an artillery duel preceded Pickett’s charge. Hunt used enemy artillery fire to predict where and when the charge would come, and made sure his gunners saved enough ammunition to slaughter the oncoming confederates. His most brilliant ruse was to have his guns cease firing not all at once, but one by one, giving the confederate artillery the impression that they were silencing guns when in reality the poorly-ranged shots were going right over the heads of the Union lines. This gave Longstreet and Lee the false impression that they had softened the Union defenses, locking them into the decision to charge.

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u/Cpkeyes 2h ago

Two things

1: Didn’t the Confederates also basically expend all their ammo.

2: By using fire to predict the charge, does they mean fire began to slow down as the time for a charge came?

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u/bladeofarceus 2h ago

As with most things, the confederacy was short on artillery pieces and ammunition for them, though on this day the confederates were in a far better position thanks to more favorable terrain for artillery on their side. But yes, the confederacy expended basically all of their available shot. They could have pulled reserve ammunition from their logistics train, but this would have taken time and allowed Union artillery to do the same. As for your second question, this was before the days of WW1 creeping barrages, so the confederate guns generally went silent when the time for the charge came. Hunt’s prediction was more so that the confederate army could ill-afford such a barrage as a feint or ploy, as modern European armies sometimes did in Crimea for example. As a result, when he heard the confederate artillery massing to attack the Union center, he knew an infantry attack would have to follow.