Artillery In The Mexican-American War

During the early part of the 1800s, the United States Army’s Artillery Branch had no artillery units that could be easily moved around the battlefield because the cost of maintaining the horse and service for the support elements was too great for the newly formed United States economy to handle. During the years of 1821 through 1837 the Artillery Branch of the United States Army had very few horses and this problem made that component one of the most immobile and unreliable parts of the Army. However, when Secretary of War Joel L Poinsett took over as the Head of the War Department, he pressed Congress for the creation of the four companies of Light Artillery. The newly founded mobile artillery became known as the Flying Artillery, and effectively set the course of the United States’ victory in the Mexican-American War.

The light artillery pieces that severed with the Artillery at this time were made of bronze which was commonly called brass because it consisted of nine parts copper and one part tin. These guns that the Army used suffered less oxidation and were sturdier as well as more reliable than their

The American’s lighter artillery cannons, which were used as their primary weapon system, was the Bronze six ponder. The Bronze six pounder weighed 880 pounds and had a range of fifteen hundred yards. Using horses to transport the cannons, ammunition and the crew from the cannon, the United States also had the innovation of 18-pound cannons called the Flying Artillery, which was mounted on a light carriage and was moved by horses and accompanied with its crew, giving the U.S. a tactical advantage since it was easily