"foot gun crew -vs- horse gun crew" Topic

Hello,

Were there any differences between the two ?
Did the horse gun require more men than the foot gun ?
(horse holders etc.)

Large difference in the amount of horses, countries differed a bit from every artillerist had his own horse to some were riders on cassions or limbers. Foot artillerists were just that. And some countries had lighter artillery pieces compared to their foot counterparts.

If the horse artillery company/battery had its gunners individually mounted, there would be one or two per piece designated as horse holders.

French horse artillery companies were smaller than their foot artillery companies because they manned only six pieces to the foot artillery's eight per company.

French horse artillery companies pieces were drawn by six horses regardless of caliber, while the foot artillery pieces were drawn by four, with the exception of 12-pounder companies whose pieces were also drawn by six horses.

At the risk of hijacking the topic, how many horses were needed for the average battery (foot and horse)? With ammunition, etc., the number must be huge.

Some horse artillery pieces had large teams, I've read of up to ten horses pulling some guns. I always thought the point was that the horse artillery had to be able to keep up with the cavalry.

Red Jacket I don't know but if we assume a foot battery of eight pieces pulled by four horses, then add three caissons per gun that adds another 96 horses. Then there are spare horses plus all those used for the support vehicles for the farriers, the field forges etc the numbers must have been staggering, as you write. It must have been truly horrendous seeing so many animals suffer in that environment.

A Russian line Heavy Battery of 12 guns had 59 non-combatant personnel, and 340 total, by the book. Russian line Horse Battery had 44 non-combatants and 281 total personnel. Corresponding numbers for horses: 179 and 132. Source: Aracheev's Artillery by A. Smirnov.

Horse Artillery usually got even sillier hats

Back to the original question, in the French Army at least there was also a difference in quality. At Auerstadt in 1806 someone in III Corps HQ, either Davout himself or probably his artillery commander swapped the gunners around to have the best crews on the best pieces.