Battery

Battery, in the British army, the term for the smallest independent unit of an artillery force. In the siege artillery of foreign armies this is called a company. A field battery has six guns in all modern armies except the Russian, in which it has eight; a mountain battery consists of four seven-pounder guns carried on the backs of mules. Siege batteries are groups of guns protected by a bank of earth in front, and provided with platforms, magazines, etc., so that the guns may be conveniently worked.