I've always heard about how great Napoleon was at utilizing artillery but I've never heard specifics. How would he use them in battles? What was so great about what he was doing?
Napoleon added several innovations to artillery, especially how it was used.
While Sweden had invented light field artillery and continued to pioneer its usage (through the innovations and reforms of Gustavus Adolphus, Lennart Torstensson and Carl Cronstedt), Napoleon brought its usage to a new level.
Napoleon introduced much lighter carriages and lavettes as well as guns. He also increased the number of artillerymen and their support in the form of ammunition supply, horses, carriages and carts and so on. This meant that Napoleon's artillery was lighter and much more mobile than most other nations' field artillery at this time.
While artillery had come far from the stationary Imperial artillery of Breitenfeld 1631, it was still slow and cumbersome to move. Napoleon changed this - an often quoted sentiment is that of Wellington at Waterloo - "He is moving his guns around like they were a pair of pistols!"
Napoleon also standardised his guns - the 12pdr foot artillery became standard of his army. This was heavier than earlier light field artillery (which often was 3 or 6pdr) and had a longer range than them, while still being mobile like light field artillery. This meant that cannonballs were usually interchangable and that guncrews could be moved from one gun to the other, as they were almost completely similar.
Often, Napoleon's guns had a longer range, bigger punch and were more mobile than those of his enemies, allowing him to move them up with his infantry in battle, but also move them with his innovative corps organisation (where each separate corps had infantry, artillery and cavalry to fight even if alone). Napoleon's artillery was not only tactically mobile, it was also strategically mobile, allowing him and his generals and marshals to conduct manouvre warfare with their artillery accompanying them.
However, the greatest new innovation of Napoleon was the grand battery. Swedish light artillery had always been placed in between infantry battalions to add to the firepower of the infantry line. However, the mobiity and standardised calibers of Napoleon's artillery as well as excellent supply both in powder, shot and trained artillerymen allowed Napoleon to create grand batteries. Massive amounts of guns would be quickly moved up to a dominant position on the battlefield, and from their concentrate fire to silence enemy artillery and prevent enemy movement - earlier military doctrine emphased taking and holding the high ground, as it gave your force a distinct advantage. Napoleon's grand battery changed this. Placing up to 200 guns in a single battery, he could dominate the battlefield, making the enemy unable to manouvre, bring up reserve, change position and so on, out of fear of ending up under the devastating fire of the grand battery. Napoleon's own men could then manouvre at leisure to hit any exposed part of the enemy line.
It was not until Wellington started deploying his men behind rather than on ridges and hills from the Battle of Talavera 1809 (he did the same at Waterloo 1815) that the Napoleonic grand battery lost a bit of its edge.
Interesting discussion. While the battlefield stuff is super interesting, isn't there a part before Napoleon goes off to Egypt where he defends the consulate with artillery in the streets using grapeshot? Was he the first to use this and what exactly is grapeshot? Is it just as the name implies?