| Terry37 | 10 Mar 2015 7:24 a.m. PST |
I'm working on a Mitrailleuse unit for my 1870 French army but am not sure who provided the crew for this weapon. Wast it part of the artillery and thus should have an artillery crew or was it considered part of the infantry so should have an infantry crew? Any help is greatly appreciated. |
| GurKhan | 10 Mar 2015 7:47 a.m. PST |
The 215 pieces built and stored … were thus delivered to the artillery regiments. 30 batteries were set up but the manpower was taken from the artillery regiments to equip 23 batteries intended to form the artillery of the Imperial Guard. link |
| Terry37 | 10 Mar 2015 8:03 a.m. PST |
EXCELLENT!!! Thank you very much. Terry |
| rmaker | 10 Mar 2015 9:25 a.m. PST |
They were artillery weapons. The original concept was that a pair would replace two of the cannon in each battery to cover for the fact that canister from rifled cannon was not all that effective. But, in the end, they were grouped in separate batteries. |
 Nashville  | 10 Mar 2015 9:53 a.m. PST |
link cursor down and see the video |
| Mark Strachan | 23 Mar 2015 3:32 p.m. PST |
|
 DWilliams | 05 May 2015 5:43 p.m. PST |
I ran across this painting on-line that shows a Mitrailleuse in action. Not sure if it is being manned by infantry, guard mobile, or artillery. Given the urban setting, my guess it's from the siege of Paris.
[/URL] |
| mashrewba | 06 May 2015 12:07 p.m. PST |
That looks more like a gatling – some of which were used by Republican forces. |
| Ramming | 07 May 2015 4:44 a.m. PST |
Well its certainly not a Mitrailleuse, maybe a gatling as suggested above. What's interesting is the dead Bavarian in the left foreground and what looks like brass cartridges falling from his pouch. This would suggest he must have been one of the very few armed with the excellent Bavarian Werder rifle. God I'm such an anorak.
For what its worth I think its supposed to be Bazeilles and the artist didn't know what a mitrailleuse looked like. |
| mashrewba | 07 May 2015 10:50 a.m. PST |
I think it a later action due to the Garde Mobile although they could be artillerymen.
Of course it's not a photograph so who knows. |
| Ramming | 08 May 2015 2:40 a.m. PST |
Or Marines, or Chasseurs ? |
| Old Contemptibles | 08 May 2015 9:59 p.m. PST |
They had their own crews and were trained in secret. They were assigned to the artillery. They would have been much more effective assigned to the infantry. I believe Engineers could operate them in a pinch. The program was so secret no one knew how to properly deploy them. Even the inventor insisted they should be deployed with the artillery. I usually have them up front with my infantry. It required special training, infantry and other artillery crews were not trained. You have to know what your doing. |
