Any information about Austrian Artillery OoB for 1805?

David,

Many thanks - that is what I feared. Below is what I have found from available resources - some slight variance.

"Erzherzog Carl von Österreich als Feldherr und Heeresorganisator Band 3 – im kriege 1805" has the OoB for his Italian Army along with the numbers of artillery pieces https://books.google.com/books/download/Erzherzog_Carl_von_%C3%96sterreich_als_Feldh.pdf?id=_JEJAAAAIAAJ&output=pdf

From pages 88 & 89 in "1805 Der Feldzug zum Ulm" by Krauss translated as roughly:

"Each infantry regiment was assigned six field guns, specifically three-pounders (Italy) or six-pounders (Army in Germany) or three-pounders and twelve-pounders (with the corps in Tyrol), commanded by an artillery officer and supported by several gunners and labourers from the regiment for operation. The border regiments operated 4 field guns with 3 battalions and 2 field guns with 2 battalions. Since one artillery non-commissioned officer was assigned for every two guns, the guns had to be used in pairs. The close connection of the guns with the infantry, which naturally lasted until the last moments of battle, hindered their effective placement, unification, and impact, and often drew them into the turmoil of infantry close combat, which was the main cause of the heavy combat losses of the Austrians in regard to their guns.

Each corps and army was assigned an artillery reserve (six and twelve-pound cannons and howitzers). The ammunition park was attached to this reserve. At the beginning of January 1805, not a single battery was equipped. All horses intended for artillery transport had been sold off for savings years ago. Prince Schwarzenberg states: 'The entire transport system and the artillery transport were almost completely dissolved, and the horses, as naturally, were squandered.' Therefore, the training of the artillery could not be war-like."

Page 448 in "Geschichte der Österreichischen Artillerie, von den Frühesten Zeiten bis zur Gegenwart" by Anton Dolleczek says:

"Eintheilung im Jahre 1805.Der Feldzug 1805 brachte eine theilweise neue Armee-Eintheilung. Nach der Ordre de bataille vom 18. October erscheinen bei jeder Infanterie-Brigade eine dreipfündige Batterie, während die Cavallerie-Batterien aufgelassen wurden. Insofern als die Cavallerie-Brigaden keine solchen erhielten . Ausserdem waren sämmtliche Regimenter mit Liniengeschützen betheilt und die ArtillerieReserve erhielt eine bedeutende Verstärkung an Munitions -Fuhrwerken . Im Manövriren der Truppen zeigte sich viel weniger Pedanterie und das neue Exercir-Reglement von 1805 hatte die meisten complicirten Bewegungen desjenigen von 1769 abgeschafft. Auch die Artillerie suchte ihre Geschütze natürlicher zu verwenden, sah weniger wie bisher auf Intervalle und gleiche Richtung bei den einzelnen Geschützen , sondern mehr auf geschickte Placirung und Terrainbenützung."

which roughly translates as:

"Reorganization in the year 1805.

The campaign of 1805 brought a partially new army organization. According to the order of battle from October 18, each infantry brigade had a three-pound battery, while the cavalry batteries were discontinued, as the cavalry brigades did not receive any. Furthermore, all regiments were equipped with line guns, and the artillery reserve received a significant reinforcement of ammunition wagons. In the manoeuvring of the troops, there was much less pedantry, and the new exercise regulations of 1805 had abolished most of the complicated movements of those from 1769. The artillery also sought to use its guns in a more natural way, looking less than before at intervals and uniform direction among the individual guns, but more at clever placement and terrain usage."

Ian

That is probably a job for the Kriegsarchiv. Austrian OBs rarely list much of the artillery prior to the 1808 reforms. That is because of the battalion guns allocation and the reserve guns being under the staff's immediate direction. I looked through the KA documents for Second Caldiero, but it is probably not exact.