Randy,

I was a CW artillery reenactor in my teens. Our "battery" included a bronze 1841 Model 6-pdr and a Napoleon, antique guns, not repros. That was a long time ago; early 70's. I'm also a wargamer. Many, many years ago, I actually produced a board game named, "The Battle of Stones River; First Step to Atlanta".

I didn't remember a command from my old reenactor days for "retreat by recoil", but did remember and executed, "retire by prolonge". I recalled the "retreat by recoil" command in Sid Meier's "Gettysburg" game and so I brought that up.

I have discovered, with some searching that there is a print by Don Troiani named "Retreat By Recoil" http://www.historicalartprints.com/hap/cmd?CMD=DETAIL&parent=17&prodid=16 , which commemorates an heroic defense of the Trostle Farm at Gettysburg against the attack of Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade. Mr. Troiani must have gotten the title of the painting from somewhere.

I've looked through Gibbon's "Artillerist's Manual" and French's "The 1864 Field Artillery Tactics: Instruction for Field Artillery" and find no command for retire or retreat by recoil. I'll be interested, if this thread continues to find out where the term came from.

Jim