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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
that the disastrous results of the campaign to the French were in some 
measure to be attributed. Besides this, the men were handicapped, so to 
speak, by having to carry their packs and carbines, and hampered to such 
a degree that he had seen them fall off the wagons. In reference to the 
study of tactics in the British army, he should like to ask Colonel Chesney 
whether he thought it was practicable to learn it until a law was passed 
permitting troops to go across country ? 
Colonel Chesney said other nations had the same difficulty to contend 
with; and for want of all the opportunities they would like for practice, they 
must be content to use discussions such as this, and instruct one another 
and the public mind, which was generally perfectly indifferent about such 
things until a time came when the subject was forced upon it by the 
course of events. Those who had studied the matter should strive to teach 
the country what was needed, and he would encourage them by referring to 
Belgium, where, chiefly by the efforts of one able and energetic man, the 
army of the country had been put upon an excellent footing. (Applause.) 
Major-General Sib Lintorn Simmons said he had hesitated to speak 
on the subject of the very able lecture they had heard; but, encouraged by 
the discussion, and by the very favourable reception of his brother officer, 
Colonel Chesney, he would venture to say a few words. The term “ column,” 
unless explained, was, he thought, liable to be misunderstood. In the 
French and most other armies, a column, as generally formed, consisted of 
several lines of men behind each other, in all twenty or more deep; but the 
Prussian company column was a different thing altogether, more approximating 
to a line, and one, moreover, of extreme flexibility. The Prussian formation 
is in three ranks; the company column, therefore, is either six or twelve 
deep—more generally the former, when, if the third rank is skirmishing, as is 
the custom with the troops in immediate contact with the enemy, the 
column is in reality only four deep. In this formation, if he understood the 
matter, they might either deliver their fire, the two front ranks kneeling, or 
they might deploy into line, the movement being so simple and rapid as to 
be capable of being executed in close proximity to the enemy. In the 
Bussian war the enemy used columns so deep that the men could not make 
use of their arms. As an instance he would mention the attack on Kars, 
when the Bussian columns were completely crushed by the fire of musketry, 
aided by a very feeble artillery; their loss in killed and. wounded, as since 
given to him by the Chief of the Bussian Staff, was equal to the whole force 
opposed to them. He regarded the advance of a line of Prussian company 
columns as that of a very powerful though flexible line, and reminded the 
meeting that our own troops fought in line against the first Napoleon with 
admirable success. Now, however, when it has become necessary to give 
up the deep column formation, and deploy out of the range of rifled artillery 
at some 1400 or 1500 yds. from the enemy, he feared that an advance in 
line as practiced by us—which is perhaps the most difficult movement an army 
can be called upon to perform—will be found almost impossible of execution; 
whereas the Prussian line was so broken up into a number of short lines that 
the advance was much less difficult, and therefore he thought these small 
pliable columns were better than any other formation for an advance. (Hear, 
hear.) There was one thing, however, above all others tha't the present war 
was teaching us, and that was the necessity of a thorough education of the 
officers of the army. (Applause.) The Prussians were educated to the 
