Duties of the brigade commanders

On 18 November 1878 the Russian Imperial Commissar prince Dondukov-Korsakov approved the “Temporary status of the rights and duties of the artillery brigade commander of the Bulgarian Territorial Army”. According with this document the brigade commander was the immediate head of the batteries assigned to him and was fully subordinated to the head of the artillery of the Territorial Army. He had the same rights of the commander of the artillery brigade of the Russian Army. His staff was composed by 1 senior officer as adjutant, 2 clerks, 2 orderlies and 1 soldier assigned to the transports.

The brigade commander took care of the effective establishment of his units and made a report to the head of the artillery about the replenishment of the losses of men and horses. If the losses were high, he sought their cause and took the measures required to lower them, with the aid of the doctor and, if necessary, of the head of the military district or of the governor of the Sandjak.

He watched the line instruction of the brigade, the correct training of the lower ranks and the accurate execution of the orders of the head of the artillery. He arranged a detailed program of the activity of the batteries according with the orders of the head of the artillery, verified that the program was performed properly, and, if necessary, changed its dispositions to obtain better result from the troops. He directed the activity of his batteries during the encampment training sessions, assigning the batteries selected for the common drills, according with the request of the head of the encampment, and commanding directly the brigade when it was employed as a whole.

He watched the morale and the discipline of the troops, concurring with his orders to bring them to the best condition. He took care of the convenient arrangement of the batteries, the proper allowance of men and horses, the expenditure of the sums released to the brigade and their correct accounts. He determined the need of his units, controlled that the materiel of the batteries was in working order and authorized the necessary repairs, deciding what damages should be repaired in the Arsenal.

Besides the ordinary reviews to the troops of the batteries, he should inspect them in every detail at least three times a year, or even more, if he considered it necessary, without warning the battery commanders before. After every inspection he made a detailed report to the head of the artillery.

Composition of the artillery brigades on September 1878
cpt. Hamilton	1^st artillery brigade	Guard horse artillery brigade
cpt. Chudanov	2^nd artillery brigade	30^th artillery brigade
cpt. Grigorev	1^st artillery battery	1^st artillery brigade
cpt. Kehli	2^nd artillery battery	18^th artillery battery
maj. Protasevich	3^rd artillery battery	26^th artillery brigade
staff maj. Leonov	4^th artillery battery	19^th artillery battery
cpt. Essen-Stenbok-Fermor	5^th artillery battery	Adjutant in the artillery department
staff cpt. Zhabyko	6^th artillery battery	14^th artillery brigade