Artillery

Inhaber
Unknown

Unit History
The artillery of the army of the Electorate of Hanover was perhaps held in even higher esteem than the cavalry. The foundations of its reputation were principally laid by two men, the first being General Brückmann, who virtually created the artillery in the 1730's and 40's; the second being Scharnhorst sixty years later. In 1735, during von Brückmann's command, experiments were carried out with a breech-loading gun which had a wedge-shaped breech-block.
At the beginning of the SYW in 1757 the actual pieces in the army were very ponderous and had an old-fashioned construction. Most were loaded with loose powder rather than cartridges with many untrained gunners. These problems were tellingly displayed when a powder barrel exploded during an artillery duel during the battle of Hastenbeck that caused chaos. As the war progressed, many of the cumbersome pieces were replaced by British or captured French guns. In addition, gunners became highly trained and experienced.
The ranks of the artillery were filled, like the rest of the army, by voluntary recruitment. The artillery had the character of a craft-guild, as there was an indentured apprenticeship which had to be signed by those wishing to learn the science of gunnery. Artillery recruits received no bounty, but instead had to pay the sum of 6 Talers for instruction in the arts of gunnery and pyrotechnics.

Comments
I used Front Rank British gunners who have a similar uniform only in blue instead of the steel grey. Unit painted in 2004.

Sources
Text: Pengel & Hurt, German States in the Seven Years War 1740 to 1762, Imperial Press
http://vial.jean.free.fr/new_npi/courrier.htm

2 comments:

Robert said...

Excellent stuff, Kris- keep it coming!

And do send one of those dragoon regiments to flense those pesky spammers...

Bluebear Jeff said...

I will be painting up a Hanoverian army later this year (although with more infantry and less cavalry than yours -- at least as shown here).

Anyway I do appreciate the chance to see your army all nicely painted.


-- Jeff