Grande Batterie!

This is coolbert:

From the previous blog entry:

"NOT only having better artillery on hand but in addition

used in a manner to maximize the use thereof.

This usage called the Grande Batterie. A massing of

all available artillery assets with concentrated fire

upon the enemy at a location as deemed vulnerable by

Napoleon. Blast the enemy to smithereens at a critical point

and moment during a battle. Eviscerate the 'vitals so to speak!"

And here an instance from the American Civil War of the grande batterie in action.

The Battle of Shiloh. Confederate army not able to overcome by direct infantry assault a position - - The Hornet's Nest - - occupied by grossly outnumbered Union troops. The solution a grande batterie as would have been found fifty years earlier during the Napoleonic Era. A quick massing of artillery [Confederate] the intention of which was to blast to smithereens the defenders [Union], clearing a path for the attacker. A critical position the capture of which could be attained not other than with brute force!!

"Hornet's Nest - - On the main Union defensive line . . . [Union troops] established and held a position nicknamed the Hornet's Nest . . . The Confederates assaulted the position for several hours rather than simply bypassing it, and they suffered heavy casualties during these assaults—historians' estimates of the number of separate charges range from 8 to 14 . . . it was not until the Confederates assembled over 50 cannons to blast the line at close range that they were able to surround the position, and the Hornet's Nest fell after holding out for seven hours . . . A large portion of the Union survivors, numbering from 2,200 to 2,400 men, were captured, but their sacrifice bought time for Grant to establish a final defense line near Pittsburg Landing"

Eleven batteries [of five guns each?] of artillery simultaneously brought to bear on a single position, a grande batterie as would have been appreciated by Napoleon!

I am sure this is disputed but those Union troops occupying and defending what became known as the Hornet's Nest saved the career of Grant and the Union cause, for all that means! A defeat at Shiloh would have severely disheartened and discouraged Northerners to the point where they would have seriously considered a negotiated settlement to Southern secession? World history might have turned out significantly different if not for Shiloh and Union eventual victory?

coolbert.