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fighting, but it has been most materially aided or prepired by 
projectiles thrown from a distance. [he object of this prepara- 
tion was formerly to throw the enemy into confusion so as to 
render the task more easy for the hand to hand fight ; eg. (1) the 
British archers preparing for the pikemen; (2) Frederick the 
Great preparing by artillery for his infantry to attack in line ; (3) 
Napoleon always using artillery before attacking with massive 
columns ; now there was another and more important object, 
viz., to keep down the enemy’s fire so that the infantry may get 
within assaulting distance—and modern tactics demanded that 
the attacking artillery must be superior (1) in numbers, (2) in 
power—z.e., range and calibre, (3) in gunnery—accuracy and 
rapidity in fire. Until recently it was held that the “artillery 
preparation” must precede the infantry advance (e.g., the battles 
of Enslin and Magersfontein in the Boer war); but the latest 
developments of modern warfare demanded that the artillery 
must continue ‘the preparation,” and when about to be masked 
by their own infantry, it must move to closer ranges and 
support the infantry advance, regardless of risks. Up to the 
time of the Crimean war, artillery could be classified as follows :— 
Guns, Howitzers, mortars, with projectiles consisting of solid 
round shot, hollow shot, shrapnel, grape, case (cannister), red hot 
shot, Martin’s shell (containing molten iron), bar shot, chain 
shot (last two used against ships’ rigging). Hollow shot was 
more effective against wooden ships, its velocity being more 
quickly checked so that jagged splintered holes resulted, whereas 
solid shot made a clean hole, readily plugged. 
In the battles of Napoleon’s period the range of field guns 
was about half a mile, but they were often used at some 300 
yards. ‘‘Grape” was used at this range ; ‘‘ Case” at 100 or 200 
yards, ¢.g., Major Mercer at Waterloo, when charged by cavalry, 
loaded his guns with case and quietly awaited the charge till 
within 4o yards, when he fired and successfully checked the 
advance. 
The earliest “rifled” gun was the ‘‘ Lancaster,” in use 
during the Crimean war. It had an oval bore with a cast iron 
projectile, oval in section, but the friction generated by giving 
rotation was so great that the shot often jammed and the gun 
burst. 
Colonel Kensington then briefly stated the advantages of 
“rifled guns ” as follows :— 
(1) Accuracy owing to the shell having to issue concentric 
with the bore, instead of rebounding along it. 
(2) Accuracy owing to the shell being given a known 
rotation causing a known deviation to the right (in 
our service) instead of an unknown rotation due to 
the last rebound in the bore. 
