Napoleon's Imperial Guard: Artillery 

Even captain Mercer at Waterloo was very surprised how the horse guard artillery men shoot and reload fast. The best artillery unit of the napoleonic wars

Riding forward, unlimbering and loading the guns, and firing in 60 seconds is an impressive feat of arms. I can only imagine the devastating effect that this had on the massed ranks of infantry facing the Imperial Guard horse artillery.

This is an arm of the Imperial guard That EVEN WIKIPEDIA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT

In the British Army of the time the artillery was organised into battalions and companies (troops in the horse artillery). A company (or troop) had 150-200 men. It became a battery when it was issued guns from the central pool and sent on active service. I believe the same was the case in the French Army.

Have you considered doing a program about the famous commanders of the Guard? You have addressed this tangentially with the individual units, but it would be interesting to see your take on Bessieres, Dorsenne, Lepic, Dahlman and others!

Excellent! Wonderfully evocative as always.

These are excellent, very enjoyable

30:00 - At Waterloo: There were three foot batteries of the Guard in the Grand Battery at the very start of its deployment. And as you mentioned in your earlier Old Guard infantry video, there were horse artillery Guard guns that moved up during the Imperial Guard Middle Guard attack. One Guard horse battery was embedded with Lobau's VI Corps and was in action on the east flank area. Several squadrons of Napoleon's Guard (Chasseurs) Cavalry faced the British cavalry in a clash that went bad for them during John Moore's fighting retreat in northern Spain when Napoleon pursued them. 33:00 - I'm never one to be shy tweaking wargames rules when they don't seem quite right; sometimes rules are published with unintended errors in them.

Isn’t it strange that the busbies and bearskins of French Guard artillery look so very different when produced by different figure manufacturers? The Guard Foot arty should have a bearskin that looks much like that of the Grenadiers of the Old Guard, yet it’s often modelled as slim and little bigger than a British ‘Belgic’ shako. Meanwhile, the Guard Horse arty had a very broad and fluffy busby, very similar to that of the Guard Chasseurs à Cheval and yet it’s often shown as tall and narrow, barely wider than the soldier’s head. Odd that.

Thank you. Greetings from Saipan

Yay artillery!

Nice narrative, very interesting

keep up the good work!

First off, congratulations on another very fine historical video, although, once again, I miss seeing more minis to depict the subjects involved. Now then, as a former artilleryman, I'll admit my bias but I don't think the artillery in Black Powder are nearly powerful enough. This holds true for other rule sets & games as well. In the reading I've done the force of artillery fire isn't the deciding arm of combat, only because it cannot take ground. It is however, often the primary force that prepares that ground to be taken and then it is also the main weapon necessary to hold that same ground. Additionally, it is the most highly prized loot of a battlefield & symbol of victory, pointed out by every description of any battle of the time. I vividly remember reading a book on the Crimean War, written in part by physicians, one of whom was also an artist who made drawings of many of the assorted wounds (which were ghastly). These doctors noted that the vast majority of the dead were caused by artillery. I realize this was several decades after Napoleon's era but technology & tactics hadn't moved on that far. I believe all artillery ought to get an extra dice at all ranges, so 4,3, 2 for a complete battery & 3,2,1 for a half battery.. Maybe then we'd see more batteries on the table and more tactics & troops to take them out of action.

I found out something new to share with you, related to this video-story - it's in Andrew Field's book 'Waterloo: French Perspectives' which incorporates many French veterans accounts of the battle of Waterloo. One of the recollections is by a French gunner of the Horse Guard artillery; he states that two Horse Batteries of the Guard - one of which he was in, were the French artillery that made it to Wellington's center on and west of the crossroads after the French cavalry attacks. They were blasting Wellington's center, but there was no French infantry at that time - he estimates for about 2 hours - to exploit the crisis being wreaked.

Great video!Good information thank you!

This series is great, will you be continuing it? I know you said in one of these videos that this is a war gaming channel not a history channel, still the history adds so much depth and emotion to reenacting/simulations.

Great video as usual. Very interesting.

Have you done a video on the Sailors of the Imperial Guard?

Great video again keep it up :)

Bonus.

At Waterloo Ney correctly sensed weakness in the British centre, and launched a massive cavalry assault, either through poor communication or over caution, no french general gave the order for infantry to follow the charge, this would have smashed the British squares had the imperial gunners and infantry followed Ney, if Napoleon was on the field at this time he should have supported neys attack, but no one did, and it became a bloody mess.

Does it matter the size of the cannon in black powder? I inherited more than a few horse artillery of the imperial guard mainly 6 pounders?

There's a game on Roblox I play called Marque of War, and I am in the Artillerie À Pied de la Garde. I really like the artillery in the Napoleonic wars.

So im confused, is this just to reference to a game or is it a documentary such as the stats like "guns able to fire within a little over a minute"?

Hello Napoleonic wargaming I need your help, im a new black powder player but not new to the hobby I've seen many terrain tables and they look amazing and I've looked through warlordgames gallery and i have no clue how they do it i bought a pvc 6 by 4 Matt and it feels off I cant enjoy a game because the battle field just doesn't work for me can you please if you have time explain how you make those look very pretty and realistic please help thank you

I found this awesome clip of young Napoleon in an artillery engagement ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AOEG9JIZNjo.html I’m also curious what the training/drill was for artillery units that were overran by the enemy? They were prime target for cavalry and artillery men were issued heavy short swords to be able to combat cavalry weighted blades.

Don’t diss monks - back in the day they could be some of the most bad-ass fighters around!

NON! La meilleure infanterie du monde était l'infanterie française et elle l'a prouvé à Austerlitz. Mais nous avions également la meilleure cavalerie du monde et la meilleure artillerie du monde! Sinon nous n'aurions pas occupé la quasi totalité de l'Europe! VIVE L'EMPEREUR!

In French artillery organization "Company" and "Battery" mean the same thing but a Battery isn't always a battery. Administratively the company sized artillery unit was usually referred to as a company until they deployed then it just became a battery. However in battle (or shortly before) several batteries could be brigaded together into a battery. Because they HATE military historians. Kiley's "Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars" is a great resource for especially French formations.