THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
139 
ARTILLERY LESSONS 
FROM 
THE SIEGE OP STRASBURG, 1870. 
BY 
CAPTAIN F. C. H. CLARKE, R.A. 
The more the history of the last campaign becomes known to us from 
authentic sources, the more unquestionable do the claims of the Prussians 
appear to the designation of a practical people. 
When we find that the whole arrangements for opening the recent cam¬ 
paign were sketched out by the Prussian Staff in the winter of 1868-9 in the 
most minute detail—that lines of rail were allotted to the separate army corps, 
and that time tables, showing the times of departure and arrival of each 
separate regiment, squadron, and battery at the points of concentration in 
the Bavarian palatinate, were drawn up, and which merely required the first 
day of mobilisation to be signified by the king to make them complete—and 
moreover, that these arrangements were followed, with but slight modifica¬ 
tions, in the actual campaign—with what result we know—their prepara¬ 
tions for war strike us as almost appalling in their completeness. 
As in great things, so in small, nothing is left to chance; all that is intended 
to stand the rude test of war is patiently and practically worked out in time of 
peace. 
The communications of General von Decker, who commanded the artillery 
at the siege of Strasburg, to the military journals in Prussia, with reference 
to that siege, are full of interest for artillerymen; and it is proposed in this 
paper to illustrate the effect of modern weapons on siege warfare by references 
to his remarks. With this view, a tolerably free translation of those parts 
of his communications which bear upon the application of “ curved fire 39 for 
breaching and demolition has been made. 
In the present day of long-range rifles, batteries intended for breaching 
purposes have to be opened at much greater distances from the work to be 
breached than heretofore, and the besiegers thereby labour under the 
disadvantage of being unable to see the object at which they have to aim. 
A very careful study of the plans of the fortresses, and a perfect acquaintance 
of artillerymen with the power of their guns, as deduced from the practice 
tables, must be brought to bear, to produce the best results. 
