"Sardinia-Piedmont Artillery" Topic

Hello everyone, I was hoping to get some assistance with the Sardinian-Piedmont artillery for 1796 (eg. Mondovi etc.). What I have read so far is that their artillery seems to have enjoyed a good reputation, and was roughly 2,000 or so in strength for the military as a whole. Also, they apparently were issued 4lb regimental guns at some point, those interesting breech loaders.

My questions now are how many guns per regiment? And did they maintain a separate force at army or wing level, and if so in what quantity and gun type? All of the OOB's I have found so far only list an overall gun count at best. Any help would be much appreciated!

you might find something here

link

Good article on the quick-fire guns in the Smoothbore Ordnance Journal Issue 6 PDF link

Theme Two: Saxon and Piedmont Quick Fire Guns
Section 3: Saxon and Piedmont Quick Fire Guns
SOJ-6(11) Saxon Geschwindstück ["Quick Fire Guns"]
by Christian Rogge and Stephen Summerfield
SOJ-6(12) Piedmont 4-pdr "Cannone alla Sassone"
by Giovanni Cerino-Badone, Christian Rogge and Stephen Summerfield
SOJ-6(13) M1766 Quick-Fire Guns
by Stephen Summerfield

"La Regie Truppe Sarde (1773-1814)" by Stefano Ales & illustrated by M Brandani. published in Roma 1989 by Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito – Ufficio Storico – page 11 says that in 1774 the infantry and cavalry were organised into 4 large units called "Dipartimenti" – the equivalent of modern divisions – three of infantry and one of cavalry.

Each infantry Dipartimenti was organised into 2 wings. Each wing comprised two brigades.
Each brigade was formed by a Regiment of Ordinance of three battalions and a provincial battalion

A battalion of grenadiers, was formed in wartime by bringing together the six companies of the regiments (four Ordinance and 2 Provincial).

Every infantry Departimenti had ten battalions (6 Ordinance, 2 Provincial & 2 Grenadier) and 32 pieces of artillery (text is not crystal clear if all were 4pdrs but that appears to be the implication). There is a diagram on page 93 showing 8 cannon deployed in pairs across a brigade frontage – which I assume is just the Ordinance troops as the same page also has the Provincial battalion shown in battle order with no cannon attached.

The 1786 reforms (page 13) resulted in 2 lines each of 2 Departimento.
Each Departimento had:
1 Division of Ordinance infantry (2 brigades of 2 regiments);
1 Division of Provincial infantry (2 brigades of 2 regiments);
3 companies of light troops;
1 battalion (legione degli accampamenti);
1 battalion of artillery;
1 brigade of cavalry (2 regiments of cavalry or dragoons).
The following only existed in a state of war:
4 battalions of grenadiers – 1 per each brigade of infantry (4 companies per battalion);
2 battalions of chasseurs (4 companies per battalion).

The battalion artillery when first formed consisted of:
1 sergente di squadra;
1 primo caporale di camerata;
1 secondo caporale di camerata;
2 appuntati;
20 soldiers (taken from the fusilier companies).

Uniform of the regimental artillery can be found at the excellent site on the uniforms and standards of the Sardinian Army (lower portion of the page):
link

I apologize for the delay in response gentlemen.

Dave, thank you for that link, it has some good info!

Prince of Essling, thank you for all of that information and wonderful sources! I truly appreciate the time and effort to compile and type all of that out. It is helpful in the extreme, and I believe I now have enough data to move forward with my project.

My sincere thanks to you both!