Alekseevtsy Artillery

The Alekseev artillery operated alongside its infantry regiment throughout the civil war.

Most of the uniform detail comes from "The RCW 1917-1922: White Armies", by A. Deryabin, (AST), which is a Russian equivalent of the Osprey Men-At-Arms series.

Artillery Uniforms

Colours were the usual for artillery of black with red trim.

	Colonel: General Alekseev Artillery Battery	Private: General Alekseev Artillery Battery

The result is that the uniform is basically identical to that of the Markov artillery.

Deryabin in the text states that the hat is piped red, but his picture shows black, which the usual pattern (cap piping being shoulder-board field colour).

The shoulder-boards were black, piped red, with crossed cannons in gold/yellow. The 1st Battery had the same stylised "A" as the infantry.

Flags

This flag is based on the known badge for the Alekseev artillery (silver wreath over gold cannons to form an "A"), very similar to the infantry flag, with a number for the battery. The field colour is based on the infantry colour.

Brief History

The first formal Alekseev artillery unit made its first appearance in mid-December 1918, while the regiment was reorganising in Novorossiysk. The previous 2nd Battery of the 2nd Light Artillery Divizion was renamed the 1st General Alekseev Battery. The Alekseev artillery then slowly grew over time but was always less numerous than that of the other coloured regiments.

When the Alekseev regiment was expanded to a division, the artillery was to form a brigade of three divizions: the 1st (1st Light and 2nd Batteries), 2nd (3rd and 4th Batteries) and 4th (7th and 8th Batteries).

Upon arrival in Crimea, on 16 April 1920 the 4th Divizion was incorporated into the 4th Divizion of the Kornilov Artillery Brigade, while the 2nd and 3rd Divizions went into the 2nd Divizion of the Markov Artillery Brigade. The surviving 1st Divizion was incorporated into the 13th Artillery Brigade on 9 May 1920.

On 20 July the 1st Divizion was taken out of the 13th Brigade and re-formed into the Independent Alekseev Artillery Divizion. As part of the Composite Division it participated in the landing in the Kuban alongside the Alekseev Regiment.

After the Kuban, in September 1920 it went with the Alekseev Regiment to take part in the Trans-Dnepr Operation as the Alekseev Divizion of the 7th Artillery Brigade, operating with the 7th Infantry Division.