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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
an average of 20 rounds per hour. At the battle of Bluraenau they were 
informed that one battery fired 113 rounds per gun, but that was neither an 
action of any serious importance, nor one upon which they could base any 
reliable calculation as to the total amount required; for though it began 
early in the morning, it was interrupted by the truce at mid-day. The 
number of rounds fired, however, was as great as that proposed for the 
16-pr., even if they accepted the highest estimate for the equipment of that 
gun. Reverting to our own experience, before rifled artillery was introduced, 
he found again great difficulty in getting reliable statistics. He had referred 
to several accounts of Waterloo, but looked in vain for information as to the 
number of rounds fired per gun. It was true he had an extract from a 
note-book belonging to Sir Hew Ross, which stated that the total number 
of rounds fired at Waterloo was 9467, but then he did not know to how 
many guns that applied. He believed that there were about 78 British 
guns on the field, which would give an average of about 122 rounds each. 
In General Mercer's diary, recently published by his son, it was said that 
the number of rounds fired at Waterloo in his troop averaged 700 per gun; 
but that must be an error, for it was hardly possible that every gun should keep 
on firing at the rate of 90 rounds an hour for eight hours together. (A laugh.) 
Coming a little later, he found that at Inkermann “B” Pield Battery fired an 
average of 84 rounds per gun, “G” Battery 82, and the two 18-pr. guns 
about 84 each. That battle began early in the morning, and the troops 
were out of fire by mid-day, so that the artillery combat lasted probably 
five or six hours. At Alma the expenditure was small. The total number of 
rounds fired was 880, to be divided among 54 guns, according to the number 
of batteries present, but six certainly of the guns—the battery to which he 
belonged—did not fire a shot, and he believed that there were two other batteries 
which fired very little, if at all. That battle lasted two and a half or three 
hours, and he should say the expenditure averaged about 24 rounds per gun 
for the guns actually engaged. Then at Balaclava he found that “ I” Troop 
of Royal Horse Artillery fired 43 rounds, “E” Pield Battery 33, “W” 
Battery 31, and “P” Battery 28. On the whole he thought that an 
estimate of 20 rounds per gun per hour would be a fair one for calculating 
the requisite equipment; for the greatest speed at which they were likely to 
fire would not exceed two rounds per minute, and that would be only kept 
up for a few r minutes together, to check an advance of troops or before the 
assault of a position. The presumption was that in firing regularly “from 
right to left,”, and after making allowances for change of position, one 
round per gun every three minutes or thereabouts w r as a fair average for 
well-contested encounters, and that would give the 20 rounds per gun per 
hour which he took as his basis. Of course they had to consider how long 
an action was likely to last, and he thought that, considering past experience, 
they might fairly assume five hours as the likely duration of a regular battle. 
If so, he might be asked why 100 rounds would not be sufficient to take 
with the gun; and his answer was, that the gun might be in action'for 
two or more successive days, and that they ought to consider the chance of 
the reserve wagons missing their intended direction, or being blocked up 
and detained in the road, or of their falling into the hands of the enemy, 
or, again, of arrangements being disorganised by a retreat; in any of which 
cases there was a great doubt as to their joining their guns in time. There- 
