Bavarian "Horse Artillery" and Train

 

"Bavarian Horse Artillery" is somewhat of a misnomer. The first thing approaching this was a 2 gun section composed of the of Reitende Artillerie Kompanie in 1800. The horse battery was separated from the Artillerie-Regiment in May 1801, and the following year was reformed as an independent, 8 gun company. In March of 1804, the Horse company was disbanded and incorporated in to the Foot Artillery battalions. 

    From W. J. Rawkins, The Army of The Kingdom of Bavaria, 1792 – 1814  "Following the French occupation of Vienna Napoleon invited Maximillian Josef to accompany him to the Vienna Arsenal and presented him with Austrian guns, limbers, caissons and ancillary wagons and harnesses to fully equip two complete 6pdr horse artillery companies (Artillerie zu Pferd). This equipment with ‘wurst seats’ fitted to the gun trails was issued to two of the existing foot artillery battery converting them to horse artillery. The gunners rode on the wurst seats and the limber and the non-commissioned-officers were mounted on horse obtained fully trained from the cavalry who also provided to trained trumpeters for each company. 

    These new companies were initially organized in the same manner as the Austrian ‘wurst artillery’ but this was found unsatisfactory to Manson (the chief of the Bavarian Artillery arm), who disliked the weight that the wurst seat added to the light 6 pdr field guns which prevented the gun being laid by a single gunner. In 1806 the horse batteries were re-organised and began to be issued with new equipment specially designed by Manson and the companies ceased to be known as Artillerie zu

Pferd and were styled as ‘Leichte-Artillerie’, or ‘Mobile-Artillerie’.  

    The wurst seats were removed from the cannon trails in 1807 and replaced with Manson’s design for ammunition and tool caissons with a wurst seat on which the light artillery crews could ride. This system remained in use with the light companies until 1817."

The uniforms of these troops were the same as the foot artillery, except with a white plume on the Raupenhelm in place of the red of the Foot Artillery. 

Gunner's shabraques were dark blue with a deep yellow border, piped red. Officers shabraques were red with a broad gold border, piped red. A spare Bavarian Dragoon figure has been pressed into service as a mounted artillerist. These figures are all by Lucas Luber and Piano Wargames.  

In September 1806 the Bavsrian Artillery Train came under full military control as the ‘Führwesen-Bataillon’’. The new battalion was composed of eight companies, each divided into two "half-companies,  with one such assigned to each of the field artillery companies.

The limber and crew are by Lancashire Games, one of the few manufacturers I know of who do Bavarian limbers and train figures. I have no idea if the unusual seat atop the limber is correct; I am inclined to doubt it! 

As of 1806, the train uniform was a light grey jacket with cornflower blue collar, cuffs, and lapels, and grey facings piped light blue. White metal buttons and shoulder scales were worn. The breeches were light grey.  An artillery Raupenhelm was worn without a plume. 

As with the artillery carriages, the Bavarian limbers, caissons, and wagons were painted light blue with the metal fittings painted black.