black powder crimean war cossack artillery and crewThe artillery was the premier arm of the Russian military. The artillery was seen to be, in many ways, the battle winner and large numbers of guns were deployed to every battle in the Crimean theatre. Massed artillery fire had been a central tenet of Russian military doctrine since Napoleonic times with the cannon expected to make up for the lack of infantry firepower. In theory, the cannon should soften up the enemy before the infantry charge them