tI'1{1l1JOC 'Branch !J{istory Series KING OF BATTLE A BRANCH HISTORY OF THE U.S. ARMY'S FIELD ARTILLERY By Boyd L. Dastrup Office of the Command 9iistorian runited States !Jl.rmy rrraining and tIJoctrine Command ASS!STANT COMMANDANT US/\F/\S 11 MAR. 1992 ATTIN' II,., ..." (' '. 1\iIO.tIS ,")\,'/2tt Tech!lical librar fort SII), OK ~3503'031~ ..~ TRADOC Branch History Series KING OF BATTLE A BRANCH HISTORY OF THE U.S. ARMY'S FIELD ARTILLERY I t+ j f I by f f Boyd L. Dastrup Morris Swett T. n1 Property of' '1 seCh cal Library, USAFAS U.l• .1:ruy Office of the Command Historian United States Army Training and Doctrine Command Fort Monroe, Virginia 1992 u.s. ARMY TRAINING AND DOCTRINE COMMAND General Frederick M. Franks, Jr.. Commander M~or General Donald M. Lionetti Chief of Staff Dr. Henry O. Malone, Jr. Chief Historian Mr. John L. Romjue Chief, Historical Studies and Publication TRADOC BRANCH HISTORY SERIES Henry O. Malone and John L. Romjue, General Editors TRADOC Branch Histories are historical studies that treat the Army branches for which TRADOC has Armywide proponent responsibility. They are intended to promote professional development of Army leaders and serve a wider audience as a reference source for information on the various branches. The series presents documented, con- cise narratives on the evolution of doctrine, organization, materiel, and training in the individual Army branches to support the Command's mission of preparing the army for war and charting its future. iii Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dastrup, Boyd L. King of battle : a branch history of the U.S. Army's field artillery / by Boyd L. Dastrup. P. em"- (TRADOC branch history series) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 1. United States. Army. Field Artillery- History. 2. Artillery, Field and mountain - United States - History - 20th century. I. Title. II. Series. UA32.D37 1991 91-34992 358.1' 2' 0973- dc20 CIP iv Table Of Contents Foreword .ix Author's Preface xi Chapter I- Birth Pains: 1775-1783 1 European and Colonial Background 1 The American Revolution: The Opening Campaigns, 1775-1776 12 Building an Artillery: 1776-1777 18 From Valley Forge to yorktown 25 Chapter II- Field Artillery and the New Nation: 1784-1815 .35 Years of Peace 35 The War of 1812 51 Chapter III- Developing a Field Artillery System: 1815-1861 61 Fighting Complacency: 1815-1845 61 The Mexican War 71 Years of Peace: 1848-1861 81 Chapter IV- Field Artillery in the Civil War: 1861-1865 89 Failure of the Old Ways 89 A Time of Transition: 1861-1862 92 The Last Years: 1863-1865 107 Chapter V- Towards a New Field Artillery: 1865-1898 123 Years of Frustration: 1865-1898 123 The Spanish-American War 138 Chapter VI - More Modernization: 1898-1918 145 Time of Rapid Change: 1898-1914 145 War Years: 1914-1918 160 Chapter VII- The Interwar Years: 1919-1939 179 Unfulfilled Hopes 179 A Change of Direction 192 Chapter VIII- Field Artillery in World War II: 1939-1945 203 War in Europe 203 War in the Pacific 226 v Chapter IX . Cold War Years: 1945.1954 241 Early Goals 241 The Korean War and After 252 Chapter X. From the Pentomic to the Heavy Division: 1955.1980 265 Building a Nuclear Artillery 265 The Vietnam Years 278 Back to Europe 290 Epilogue: Field Artillery of the 1980s .305 Appendix A: Major Field Artillery Weapons in 1988 .313 Appendix B: List of Field Artillery School Commandants .315 Glossary ~ 317 Bibliography 319 Index 357 Tables Table 1. Select List of Cannons in the Sixteenth Century 32 Table 2. Valliere and Gribeauval Systems of Field Artillery 33 Table 3. Capabilities of Select American Field Pieces in the Late 19th Century 144 Table 4. American Field Artillery Capabilities- 1913 176 Table 5. Select American Field Artillery in 1938 202 Table 6. Major American Field Artillery Pieces in 1942 237 Table 7. Major American Field Artillery Weapons in 1946 263 Table 8. Major American Field Artillery Weapons in 1950 .263 Illustrations 1. 6-pounder field gun, Model MI841 120 2. 12-pounder Napoleon, Model 1857, Civil War 120 3. Model M1861 3.67-inch Parrott Rifle with gun crew, ca. 1861 -: 121 4. Whitworth 12-pounder breech-loading rifle, ca. 1861 121 5. 20-pounder Parrott rifled guns of the 1st New York Battery, June 1862 122 6. A section of the famous Utah battery in action at Coloocan, Philippines, 1898, armed with Model M1885 3.2-inch field pieces 177 7. 5th Field Artillery, M1902 3-inch section going into battery, 1913, Fort Sill, Okla 177 8. The M1897 75-mm. gun which fired the first American shot in World War I in its original position, 1917 178 vi 9. The 6th Field Artillery in its old and new uniform battle dress, with M2A3 7S-mm. gun, 1942 238 10. An American M7 10S-mm. self-propelled howitzer fires on German positions, France, 1944 238 11. Model M12 lSS-mm. self-propelled gun in action in Germany 239 12. M2 155-mm. "Long Toms" firing on Carigara, Leyte, November 1944 :..239 13. American M2 105-mm. howitzers in action in Korea, July 1950 264 14. Honest John rocket, ca. 1960 .301 15. 280-mm. gun, "Atomic Annie," ca. 1960 301 16. M55 8-inch self-propelled howitzer, ca. 1960 .302 17. M102 10S-mm. howitzer being transported by CH-47 helicopter 302 18. Gunners of C Battery, 1st Battalion, 83d Field Artillery firing M107 17S-mm. gun, Vietnam : .30.3 19. A M101105-mm. howitzer ready to fire near Tan An twenty-two miles southwest of Saigon, 1968 .303 20. M110 8-inch self-propelled howitzer in act of firing, Lie-Ky Base Camp', Vietnam, 1969 304 21. The Pershing I-A missile being readied for test firing 304 Cover Photo: Gun crew of the 25th Infantry Division fire a 105-mm. howitzer on North Korean positions, near Uirson, Korea, August 1950. (All photographs courtesy Field Artillery and Fort Sill Museum) vii Foreword In an initiative taken in 1983 to promote and record the history of the arms and services in the United States Army, the commander of the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), General William R. Richardson, directed the establishment of professional historical programs in TRADOC's Army branch schools by creation of Army historian positions on the staffs of the school commandants. A compelling need of most Army branches was for an accessible, docu- mented history of their origins and evolution, a need which the Army's Chief of Military History recognized in a 1986 letter to branch chiefs. It has been difficult, given the limited resources for the historical program, to balance the need for branch histories against other pressing require- ments- production of annual command histories, teaching military history, historical support to commanders and their staffs, and other demands on the historian's time. Nevertheless, the strong desire of the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center for a branch history led to early inauguration of a project at Fort Sill, Okla. to accomplish that aim. Written by Dr. Boyd L. Dastrup, Field Artillery Branch Historian, King of Battle: A Branch History of the U.S. Army's Field Artillery, is the first volume in the TRADOC Branch History Series. Based on primary sources and a wide study of secondary literature, the volume provides a comprehensive historical summary of the development of field artillery in the U.S. Army since colonial times. The study focuses on the tactical, organizational, materiel, and train- ing lessons learned- both those of wartime action and those of peacetime planning- in the larger framework of American military policy and strategy from the origins of the branch in European warfare to the modern artillery of the 1980s. Dr. Dastrup deserves praise for the magni- tude of his achievement, which was not done without untold long hours of weekend and evening work over a period of many years. The volume was skillfully edited for publication by Dr. Susan Canedy, Archivist in the TRADOC Office of the Command Historian. Mr. John Romjue, Chief of Historical Studies and Publication, also played a key role in guiding the volume through the publication process. And thanks are due to the panel of scholars, noted in the preface, that made suggestions to the author. This examination of the development of a major element of the Army fighting force provides an important contribution to the study of combined arms warfare and to the institutional history of the U.S. Army. HENRY O. MALONE, JR., Ph.D. Chief Historian Training and Doctrine Command ix Author's Preface As a combat arm, the US Army's field artillery has played a critical role on the battle- field. Beginning with the American Revolution, the field artillery has furnished the other com- bat arms with fire support to allow them to maneuver. However, the history of the field artillery is more than recounting accomplishments during battle. It also involves peacetime activities. During years of peace, foundations were laid that contributed to the successes or failures in combat. Between 1775 and 1980 the US Army's field artillery experienced profound technolog- ical, tactical, doctrinal, and organizational progress during times of potential or actual hostili- ties. At the same time, improvements lagged when a threat to national security did not exist even though field artillery officers of vision tried to maintain steady progress. As a result, peri- ods of rapid and slow advancement alternated over the years. This field artillery branch history discusses the evolution of technology, tactics, doctrine, and organizations with training and operations examined where appr.opriate.