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possible from the fortress ; next, to render it difficult for the besiegers 
to construct and arm their batteries; and lastly, to keep down the fire 
of those batteries as long as possible. They have, moreover, to harass 
the troops covering the working parties, and to prevent the enemy from 
attempting a coup de main. 
Common shell or shrapnel would be used to attain the first two 
objects, according to circumstances; shell being the most effective 
against earthworks that can be seen, and shrapnel against troops or 
working parties, in the open or behind partial cover. 
When the enemy has succeeded in establishing his batteries and 
arming" them, and has opened fire, the artillery of the place will 
endeavour to destroy his batteries and silence his guns. For this 
purpose common shells will generally be the most efficient projectiles. 
With large bursting charges, and a percussion or concussion fuze 
sufficiently sensitive to explode in newly turned earth, they will make 
large craters and holes in the parapets of the batteries, block up the 
embrasures, and dismount the guns. It must be remembered, however, 
that the besieger will not unmask his batteries and open fire until he 
has as many guns in position as he thinks will be sufficient to overpower 
the artillery fire of the place. The guns of the fortress must therefore 
be protected, as far as possible, by being mounted on Moncrieff carriages, 
or by iron shields to the embrasures, so that by their artificially pro¬ 
vided advantages they may be made a match for the superior numbers 
of the besieger. The guns of the latter will labour under the dis¬ 
advantage that they will not be able to be protected by iron, and 
that in all probability Moncrieff carriages will be unavailable, on 
account of the extra transport that their weight would render necessary. 
They would therefore have to be mounted either en barbette , or in 
embrasures unprotected by iron, or on high carriages with shallow 
embrasures; and in any of these cases they would be more exposed than 
the guns of the fortress. These should endeavour—by being ready to 
open fire as soon as the besiegers J batteries are unmasked, and having 
the advantage of the ranges being already accurately known—to prevent 
the fire of the besiegers from ever becoming superior to that of the 
defence; for if it ever does become so, the defenders can never regain a 
superiority, or even an equality, but they will gradually become more 
and more inferior, until their fire is so weakened that the besiegers can 
push forward their works, and tbe Ml of the place becomes inevitable. 
Should the guns of the besiegers be muzzle-loaders, the gun detach¬ 
ments will be considerably exposed, whether the guns be mounted 
en barbette or in embrasures, and shrapnel may be fired at them with 
effect; which will enlist another element in favour of the defence, as 
their gunners would be less liable to loss in this way, even if their guns 
were also muzzle-loaders, as the opening of their embrasures might be 
made much smaller than those of the attack if a system of muzzle- 
pivoting were employed. 
It is noteworthy that at the siege of Belfort some French guns firing 
at high angles without embrasures, and laid like mortars by means of 
pointing rods, caused more trouble to the Germans than any others, 
and were never silenced; whereas those firing through embrasures, 
whether protected by iron or not, were soon silenced. 
