Alice,

Flying Artillery tended to be all horse mounted so that it could move with greater speed on a battlefield than foot artillery.

For horse artillery, especially batteries attached to cavalry brigades and division, all of the men rode horses as the battery moved or rode with the battery wagons. This was total mobility. Foot artillery had horses for the wagons and guns, etc. but the men, other than officers, walked everywhere. Much slower.

The genesis of the flying batteries/horse artillery came with Frederick the Great in the 18th Century. Napoleon picked it up and really ran with it - even writing a maxim covering the importance and use of the horse artillery. French artillery under Napoleon - a trained gunner - was the finest of the 19th Century and had a profound influence on US Army artillery which copied much of its organization and doctrine from the French.

The first real use of this doctrine was the Mexican War, where our artillery saved us far more than people think with its fire power and mobility. Napoleon was a master of moving guns on the battlefield, far more than his European foes and most Civil War armies would do. Mexican regular army soldiers were very good and well trained. They had "activo" battalions, basically trained militia units raised for a war, and "permanente" battalions - the regular army. The Mexican Army was patterned on Napoleon's with lancer regiments in the cavalry and artillery. Our cavalry was the two dragoon regiments and the Regiment of Mounted Rifles and our superior artillery. The Ringgold Flying Battery was one of the famous US artillery units from the Mexican War and the influence of our guns in that conflict stayed over into the Civil War.

Hope this helps.

Greg Biggs