Horse Artillery - History

History

Essentially a hybrid of cavalry and artillery, irregular horse artillery units were first used in the 17th century during the Thirty Years' War by Lennart Torstenson. Torstenson was the artillery expert of Gustavus Adolphus, and used them to provide cavalry with the fire support it needed to deal with massed infantry formations without sacrificing their speed and mobility. Gustavus Adolphus had previously tried intermixing infantry units with cavalry, and this was somewhat successful since the cavalry at that time did not charge the enemy at full gallop.

Others tried to combine firepower with mobility by using novel cavalry tactics such as the caracole, but these slowed the cavalry down and proved largely ineffective. The best solutions involved creating hybrid units of mounted infantry, most notably dragoons. Although they proved highly useful and versatile troops, whether they fired mounted or dismounted, they still had to slow down or stop at least temporarily, thereby losing their main advantages as cavalry.

In the early 18th century the Russian army began equipping cavalry formations with small units of light horse artillery equipped with 2-pound cannons, and portable 3-pound mortars which were transported on horseback (the weights refer to the size of the projectiles, not the artillery pieces.) Though not decisive by themselves, these units inflicted losses on Prussian troops and influenced Frederick the Great to form the first regular horse artillery unit in 1759.