THE 
DEVELOPMENT OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
Freds of the ivorfc “ Development of the Materiel, Organisation, and Tactics of Field Artillery, 
from 1815 to 1870.” 
BY 
CAPTAIN COOKE, R.E., 
TOPOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT. 
[COMMUNICATED BY THE DIRECTOR OF ARTILLERY.] 
Every person who is in any way conversant with the principal features 
which characterised the field artillery at the commencement and close of the 
period referred to, and the treatment of which is attempted in the present 
work, will appreciate the extent, importance, and difficulties attending the 
solution of the task. The transition from the system of smooth-bore to rifled 
guns may be regarded more especially as one of the most interesting, im¬ 
portant, and instructive periods in the development of field artillery. It must 
by no means be imagined that this development has reached its climax, or that 
a stop should be given to its progress. 
The present stage, however, appears to be particularly suited to the casting 
of a retrospective glance. During the period which has elapsed since the 
general introduction of rifled guns, the system has been tested in two great 
wars, and its strong as well as weak points have become well known. We 
are therefore thoroughly able to decide where improvement is needed, where 
improvement is possible, and how far the perfecting of the system is 
practicable. 
The author, from whose work the following pages are taken, subdivides 
his comprehensive materiel into five periods, which we will here deal with 
seriatim , according as they are more or less closely connected with the 
present. 
Period I. Development.—Erom 1815 to 1850. 
The close of that period of warfare which culminated at Waterloo marked 
an era at which it was universally admitted to be necessary to provide for 
the acknowledged deficiencies (short-coinings) in the materiel of the period 
passed through. The Austrian system of field artillery was, however, so 
deeply rooted, that it still remained much on the same basis as in 1753, 
when established by Prince Lichtenstein. It was not till after the successive 
[vol. ix.] 1 
