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must be still further simplified, rendered more uniform, and reduced till it 
becomes perfectly simple." 
Horse artillery was introduced into the British service by the Duke of 
Bichmond in 1793, and has generally been kept in a state of efficiency, but 
the field batteries were still in a lamentable condition when the Duke of 
York's army landed in the Low Countries. The tactics of artillery were quite 
misunderstood, its value was unknown, and to save trouble the guns were 
told off by twos to battalions of infantry. 1 The result of this was that in 
case a battalion was hard pressed and forced to retire, its guns had to retire 
also. In an ordinarily fair country this might have been effected with ease, 
but in Holland, with its dikes and ditches and canals, it was a matter of no 
common difficulty for even a first rate field artillery, and how was it to be 
compassed by guns drawn by hired horses driven by Dutch wagoners (in 
smock-frocks), who walked by the horses with long whips ? 
As might have been expected many guns were lost, in spite of 
prodigies of valour performed by the artillery officers and gunners. But, 
as has been before remarked, no value was set on the artillery then. After 
the battle of Mouveaux, 2 1794, in which a number of guns were lost, the 
disaster was communicated to the army in the following words :— 
“Head Quarters, Tournay, 
19th. May, 1794. 
& * % * $ 
“ In fact the enemy has little to boast of, but the acquisition of some pieces 
of British artillery.” 
This has been only surpassed by another commander, who 19 years after¬ 
wards lost his guns at Tarragona. 
“ They were of small value, old iron ! he attached little importance to the 
sacrifice of artillery, it was his principle.” “ Strange indeed! ” says Napier, 
“ Great commanders have risked their own lives, and sacrificed their bravest men, 
charging desperately in person to retrieve even a single piece of cannon. 
Sir John Murray’s argument would have been more pungent, more complete, if he 
had lost his colours and pleaded that they were only wooden staves bearing old 
pieces of silk.” 3 
But the misfortunes in Holland seem to have made no impression on 
even the artillery authorities at home, for we find Quarter-master Tate, of 
1 This system is said to have been originated by Charles XII. of Sweden. 
The battalion guns in the British service remained sometimes attached to the infantry in times 
of peace. Major Fry, r.f.p. R.A. told me that when a subaltern he was attached with a division of 
his battery to the 79 th Highlanders for the last three years of the last century. 
The inconveniences of battalion guns are fully dwelt on in the Emperor Napoleon Ill’s* 
“ Etudes sur le passe et l’avenir de rArtillerie,” Vol. IV. p. 183. 
3 Although the Duke of York claimed this victory, yet Sonham writing to Pichegru, 19th May, 
1794, says,—“ Le due d’York doit a ses chevaux le bonheur de nous avoir echappe,”—From MSS« 
in the French War Office. 
8 “Peninsular War,” Vol. V. p. 159. 
