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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
And first as regards the liorse artillery. The bronze gun lately 
adopted for both horse artillery and field batteries in India has a calibre 
of 3 ins. and fires a projectile 9 lbs. in weight, while the iron gun of 
the same weight and calibre (as previously stated) will fire efficiently a 
12-pr. shell, having been designed in 1867 as a 12-pr. It has been 
decided to give the horse artillery an 8 cwt. gun of 3 in. calibre: let us 
see then whether it be possible also to give them 12-pr. ammunition, 
and what advantages would be gained thereby. Of course we must 
not increase the weight of the equipment above what it is at present, 
viz., 33^ cwt., neither must we put too much strain upon our carriage. 
124 rounds of 9-pr. ammunition are now carried in the limber and 
wagon, and we can only carry about 100 of 12-pr. without raising 
the weight. Taking into consideration the advantages of the increased 
weight of projectile, can this number of rounds (100) be considered 
sufficient for the expenditure in modern warfare ? 
Unfortunately we have no reliable information of the expenditure of 
ammunition, or of any artillery details, in the campaign now going on, 
as until lately we have had no artillery officers attached to either army, 
as was the case in 1866 in Bohemia, and now that we have sent some 
able men, their hands seem tied, and those who are not made prisoners 
tell us little or nothing of scientific interest. We can therefore only 
take the war of 1866 as our guide, and extract the information required 
for our purpose from Colonel Reilly's valuable report. 
Now this report shews that on one occasion only, at the battle of 
Pressburg, did a battery expend more than 100 rounds per gun, viz., 
110 rounds; and in the same action two other batteries fired 100 each 
per gun. 
At the four engagements of Nachod, Skalitz, Schweinschadel and 
Gradlitz, which preceded the decisive battle of Koeniggratz, no single 
gun of the artillery of the Prussian 5th Corps fired .more than 89 
rounds altogether, that is, an average of about 22 rounds per action. 
Having been thus engaged four times, this corps was, as might be 
expected, put into the reserves at Koeniggratz and did not, I believe, 
fire a shot. 
Again, in the last-mentioned general action of about ten hours* 
duration, Colonel Reilly states that the greater number of rounds 
fired by any individual battery was about 81 per gun ; the next greatest 
expenditure of a battery was 37 rounds per gun, while the rest of the 
artillery engaged fired considerably less. He also informs us that the 
average expenditure of the whole of the artillery engaged throughout 
the campaign was only 11 rounds per gun per action ! 
Remembering then that we would be able, in the interval between 
one action and another, to refill our limber and wagon from the spare 
wagons of the second line and the reserves, 100 rounds appear suffi¬ 
cient to be carried with the gun, as they would more than cover the 
average expenditure in a general action such as that of Koeniggratz. 
As then we can only carry 100 rounds of 12-pr. ammunition as com¬ 
pared with 124 rounds of 9-pr., and keep the weight of our equipment 
within the required limits, what advantages would we gain, by the 
substitution of the heavier shell, to compensate for the reduction in 
number? 
