THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
455 
ON THE 
CONSTRUCTION OF BATTERIES. 
BY 
MAJOR GRIFFITH WILLIAMS, R.A., 
(Circa 1780 ). 
[BEING A CONTRIBUTION TO REGIMENTAL HISTORY BY MAJOR-GENERAL LEEROY, R.A.] 
The discussion in the preceding paper on the batteries of the present day, 
will give additional interest to a paper hitherto unpublished, by an old soldier 
of the last century, on batteries as known to him; and there will be found 
in many of his remarks, that shrewd sense and military experience which is 
of no age, but belongs to all periods and all occasions. Griffith Williams, 
No. 131 of the recent edition of “Kane's List/' some time Commandant 
of the Garrison of Woolwich, entered the Train of Artillery as a private in 
1743, became cadet gunner in the following year, and obtained his commis¬ 
sion in 1745. He served, as this paper testifies, at the siege of Munster, in 
Hanover, under Count de la Lippe, in 1759; at the siege of Belleisle, in 
1761, and in the American War, 1777. The present paper is therefore, to 
some extent, a contribution to Regimental History, as I have ventured to 
call it: the old spelling has been preserved. 
Major Griffith Williams was maternal grandfather to the late Major-General 
Lewis, R.E. 
J. H. L. 
MAJOR WILLIAMS'S METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING BATTERIES, 
WITH REMARKS ON PART OE THE ARTILLERY SERVICE. 
“ The following remarks may be found usefull to such officers who have 
not had an opportunity of experience and practice:— 
“Whenever the nature of the ground will admit of the water's being carried 
off by a small channel clear of your works, it is best to sink your platform 
by throwing the earth in front* in order to form your battery; but should it 
so happen that water cannot be carried off by a drain from your platform, 
you are to make a ditch of 12 feet wide in front of your intended battery, 
and throw the eartb back. N.B.—All batteries should have a ditch of 12 feet 
wide before them, whenever the nature of the ground will admit of it, and 
