140 COLONEL HANGER TO 



a proper resistance when it is fired with 

 half the weight of the ball in powder, so 

 that it may not, in the slightest degree, 

 affect the shoulder of the man who fires it ; 

 that gun will be too heavy for a man to 

 carry on a long day's march. My rifle-gun 

 barrel, above six pounds, ball thirty to the pound, 

 complete for a ynan to carry on service, tveighs 

 only ten pounds Jive ounces. This is nothing 

 like so heavy as a soldier's musket. 



It may be said that, for service, a ball 

 weighing twenty to the pound, is better 

 than one of thirty to the pound. It may 

 be so : I will not argue that point. But 

 this I presume to say; whether you be 

 wounded by a rifle shot, either two, three, 

 four, or five hundred yards distant, the ball 

 weighing twenty, or thirty, to the pound, 

 it is immaterial ; either of them will kill 

 you, or send you to the hospital, and that 

 is sufficient ; for you are either totally put 

 hors de combat, or for a time only.* 



* It is but due justice to Mr. Baker, gun-maker, 

 Whitechapel, who made the rifles for the 95th regi- 

 ment, to state thrtt he worked to order, being directed 



