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MINUTES 03? PROCEEDINGS OE 
position which the general has determined to hold to the last. In this 
case, let the distance of the enemy be what it may, the gunners must 
stand by their guns, and, if so be, die by them. 
6. How to move . 
In dealing with the movements of field artillery, three questions 
must be settled: first, the pace ; secondly, the number ; and thirdly, 
the direction of the movements that should be -made. The third ques¬ 
tion belongs rather to grand than to minor tactics, and is a function of 
three variables—the position and spirit of our own troops, the nature of 
the ground, and the position and spirit of the enemy’s troops. With it 
I have but little to do. It is a problem which lies beyond the sphere 
of artillery commanders, and must be dealt with by the generals of our 
own force. Were artillery officers ever called upon to take command 
of brigades and divisions in the English army, it might be interesting 
to touch briefly on this subject; but under existing circumstances it 
would be a waste of time and thought to discuss a question in theory 
which we shall never be permitted to solve in practice. 
The axiom that guns are useless when limbered-up, underlies the 
whole theory of the movements of field artillery, as far as their rapidity 
and number are concerned. 
From this axiom it follows, in the first place, that all the movements 
of a battery ought to be executed at as rapid a pace as the nature of 
its equipment will permit; for the slower the pace of manoeuvre the 
longer the guns will remain limbered-up. It is therefore evident that 
the French and English field batteries fail to fulfil one of the primary 
conditions of a good field artillery. In both systems the guns are 
capable of moving at a brisk trot; in neither system would a trot be 
practicable in actual warfare. For in the present state of tactics, as 
everybody knows, artillery wagons dare not accompany their guns 
under fire; and if the wagons do not accompany the guns, the gunners 
must be dismounted, and it is a physical impossibility for men on foot 
to keep pace with horses moving at a trot. There is no alternative, 
therefore, between bringing field battery guns into action at a walk, and 
bringing them into action without their gunners. If a walk be a suffi¬ 
ciently rapid pace for field batteries to move at, then 12-prs. should be at 
once withdrawn, and 40-prs., or some such gun, should be given to them. 
On the other hand, if 12-prs. are indeed the fit guns for this branch 
of the field artillery service, then let the gun-carriage be fitted with 
seats for the conveyance of the gunners, so as to confer upon the 
system the mobility which 12-prs. are capable of attaining. This is 
not a question which is now raised for the first time, nor is it one 
which involves either experiment or expense. We have only to cast 
our eyes around us and imitate the Prussian, the Austrian, the Swedish, 
the Belgian, or the Italian system, or to reproduce that used for half a 
century by the Bengal Artillery. We have, indeed, to look no further 
than our own volunteer artillery, among whose carriages the latest 
continental improvements may be found. 1 
1 I refer to the 1st Middlesex Artillery Volunteers.. 
