MOUNTED INSTRUCTION 163 



mit, the battery should be halted at the foot of the hill and carriages or 

 sections sent up at about one minute intervals. This gives opportunity 

 for the teams to be halted to rest and blow at the top, or, if the hill be 

 a long one, to be halted a number of times during the ascent. Each car- 

 riage or section, after such a halt, moves out in time for the carriage or 

 section which follows to halt on the same ground. Cannoneers instruct- 

 ed to follow and watch a carriage in difficult draft, may, by applying 

 their strength at the moment a stop seems imminent, prevent the car- 

 riage from stalling. 



When a carriage has been stalled it may, in some cases, be found best 

 to have cannoneers first back it for a few feet, in order to put both 

 horses and carriage on more advantageous ground from which to make 

 a start. 



Cannoneers should be instructed and regularly practiced in assisting 

 the horses by working at the wheel and along ropes attached to the car- 

 riages. Much delay and confusion on the march may be avoided by 

 such training. To avoid interference and to insure teamwork, attention 

 should be given to the spacing of the men along the rope. Ropes may 

 be attached in the following ways : 



(a) For ordinary pulls by running a bowline or a clove hitch 

 around the trail of the carriage, well back near the breech of the gun. 



(b) For a short, hard pull, as in lifting a carriage out of a ditch, by 

 a wheel purchase. To use a rope as a wheel purchase : With one end a 

 turn is taken around the felloe as near as possible to the ground ; the 

 rope is placed over the short end so as to hold it against the tire, and is 

 then laid on the tire and passed over the wheel to the front. The rope 

 should be so placed around the felloe that it may be pulled clear of the 

 wheel when the short end is released by the turning of the wheel. 

 Should the wheel slip, a rope may be wound around the felloe and tire, 

 with turns about a foot apart to enable the wheel to get a grip. 



(c) For use without teams or when it is desired to use the team in 

 advance of its regular place, by passing the hook end of one rope and 

 the ring end of another under the doubletree on opposite sides of the 

 pole and hooking together above the pole in rear of the doubletree. 

 With each rope a half hitch is taken around the pole near its end. 

 These ropes may be extended to any desired length by others, and 

 either attached to a limber, in case it is desired to use a team, or used 

 with cannoneers. This method is useful in crossing dangerous bridges 

 and on steep slopes where horses can not get good footing or can not 

 maintain uniform draft. 



When a carriage is mired it may be pulled out by attaching it with 

 ropes to the middle point of a log or balk. Each end of this balk is 

 attached to the pintle of a limber. A full or extended team is hitched 

 to each limber. The balk acts as a giant doubletree between two lim- 

 bers, and with careful driving the draft will be very even. 



The start of a stalled carriage may at time be facilitated by turning 

 the pole either to one side or the other as far as it will go and 

 straightening the team in that direction. In this way the first effort of 

 draft serves only to turn the mass of the weight about a vertical axis. 



