438 
R.A.I. PRIZE ESSAY,, 1876 . 
by “some squadrons/* supported by the infantry of the advanced 
guard; and half-an-hour's march (at a moderate average) in advance 
of the main body—is this the best disposition for effecting the purpose* 
required; viz. the covering the deployment of the main body; and pre¬ 
paring the way for its action; by shattering the dispositions of the 
enemy and establishing an artillery superiority from the commence¬ 
ment ? I would say decided^ no; for all that it told so successfully 
against the ill-prepared and overmatched armies of France; because it 
involves great peril; and does not afford the greatest effect. The peril 
is that an enterprising enemy; prepared for such tactics, with pre¬ 
sumably better acquaintance with the ground, will be liable to make 
himself, by energetic attack on the small covering forces and on the 
flanks of the line of guns, suddenly master of the greater part of his 
assailant's artillery, and thereupon to carry out his succeeding measures 
with much convenience and success. Even supposing the tactical con¬ 
nection with the main body to be so well provided for as to. preclude 
the possibility of such enterprises by the adversary, he may, at any 
rate, by engaging a portion of the grand line of guns with careful 
skirmishers, by menacing its manoeuvres with cavalry, and by con¬ 
centrating the effect of his own smaller and handier batteries on a part 
-—probably a flank—of the line, succeed in wresting to himself that 
superiority which the precipitation of the whole of its artillery was 
intended to establish for the other side. And here the examination 
passes gradually from the question of security into that of effectiveness; 
from the defensive to the offensive capabilities of the new method. It 
becomes expedient to reconsider broadly the nature of modern field 
artillery fire—which appears to have been somewhat overlooked in the 
recent popular proclamations of the virtue of overwhelming mass. 
After the establishment of its leading principles, their application to 
the various circumstances of our theme will be simple and short. 
The action of artillery projectiles is typically exhibited under two 
distinct principal forms :— 
In the simplest and most commonly applied, the projectiles arrive 
perpendicularly to the front of the formation which may be under 
treatment: in the most scientific and most decisively effective, they 
travel along that front. 
In the former, it may happen that but meagre objects offer them¬ 
selves in the path of a large proportion of the missiles. Exactness of 
gunnery (including not only the general service of the piece and the 
correctness and reliability of its various material appurtenances, but, 
moreover, the estimation of varying distances, true elevation, and cor¬ 
rection of errors—tasks the importance of which practical artillery 
officers will recognise as hardly to be exaggerated), will be of vital 
necessity; and the practice is liable to be met, on even terms, by the 
fire of the whole front assailed. 
In the latter, sure plentiful work awaits the whole course of every 
shot. The gunnery—since the depth of the object accommodates it 
to the reception of all projectiles, high and low—can hardly be amiss; 
and the practice, undisturbed by the fire of the front upon which it is 
employed, may exhibit the most effective achievements of which the 
