GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1880 . 
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of the ground on which the infantry will deploy, as well as to the 
position having command over the entrenchments, which latter, as 
already stated, is to be desired for other reasons; the second, to the 
necessity for change of position from that first taken up to one at 
short range, a condition already mentioned as necessary for decisive 
effect—on occasions, to within even less than 1300 yds. of the entrench¬ 
ments, for full moral support. 
The position for the divisional artillery having been thus determined, 
officers commanding batteries receive their instructions from their 
divisional commander, as fully as may be, not only as to position, 
attack, &c., but as to the ends in view. In general the batteries should 
not be brought into the position sooner than necessary for opening fire 
at the time ordered, but should remain near wherever they can best be 
covered and any time available employed in preparing the position by 
digging gun-pits, &c., if it can be done without attracting the enemy's 
attention. 
In telling off the batteries to their respective posts in the position, 
the light battery should be placed upon the more exposed flank, so 
that, if required,* it could change front to resist a flank attack while 
the heavy batteries continued their fire against the entrenchment. This 
battery should also, if possible, have a weaker, or a less extensive part 
of the entrenchment than either of the latter apportioned to it as its 
object of fire. In appointing the latter the divisional artillery com¬ 
mander must regulate the concentration of fire as he thinks advisable, 
but each battery should have its own individual object, or part of the 
entrenchment, to prevent confusion in observation of effect and conse¬ 
quent difficulty in obtaining accurate fire; the amount of concentration 
being arranged by the degree of closeness of the separate objects or 
portions. 
The batteries of the division should open fire simultaneously, in 
order to secure superiority of fire; and having opened fire, the ordering 
of it should remain in the hands of their respective commanding officers, 
until a change of object, or position, is ordered. 
We may here note that, as in the case of the divisions or half¬ 
batteries of a single battery, no advantage is gained by crossing the 
fire of a division in line against an entrenchment in the view of 
obtaining an oblique line, though, of course, the obliquity obtainable 
will be greater than in the case of the single battery. 
From the successful manner of employment of the German artillery 
in the war of 1870-1, it has come to be generally accepted that “the 
entire artillery of the main body ought to be brought up at the very 
commencement of an attack and all the guns brought into action at 
once;" the object assigned for this procedure being to prevent the 
enemy destroying the attacking artillery in detail as it comes up and 
also, by numbers and concentration of fire, to obtain superiority of fire 
as early as possible. 
We agree with the desirability of the latter and that all proper 
* Part of the reserve would, in general, ward off such flank attack. 
