It is an essential element in all army organization.
In our army we have four regiments of artillery, forming the basis of forty batteries.

In the French service there are fourteen regiments, forming the basis of two hundred and six field batteries.
The term _battery_, when applied to artillery as an arm of service, refers to a permanent organization of a certain number of cannon, with the men and other accessaries required to serve them.

This is the unit of force in this arm.

The regimental organization is a mere nominal arrangement, for in actual service artillery acts by batteries, and never by regiments.

Its strength is therefore invariably estimated by the number of its batteries.
A battery is ordinarily composed of six pieces, two of them being howitzers.