The Probert Encyclopaedia of Warfare

BATTERY

In military terms,battery applies to any number of guns grouped in position for action; the term is also applied to any work constructed as a position for such guns; and to the tactical unit of field-artillery or horse-artillery, which in 1900 consisted in the British service (and most others) of six guns with all necessary appurtenances and equipment, such as ammunition and other wagons; while the term battery also included the men and horses, the most numerous of the former being the gunners and drivers. In the Royal Field Artillery of 1900 there were 151 batteries, each being commanded by a major; in the Horse Artillery of the same period there were 28 batteries, similarly commanded. Among batteries of position, elevated batteries have the gun-platforms on the ground-level or above it; sunken batteries are excavated so that the gun itself ranges just above the ground. Cross batteries are batteries which play athwart each other; an en echarpe battery, a battery which plays obliquely on the enemy's lines; an enfilade battery, a battery which scours or sweeps a whole line or length.
Research Battery