O.C., R.A., IN THE FIELD. 
359 
subalterns the advantage of a distinct charge and a responsible duty. 
The efficiency of the batteries is well maintained by the battery officers. 
Nevertheless, it is better that there should be one commanding officer 
of the artillery and not several; and it is not well that there should 
be a commanding officer who cannot feel firmly maintained in his 
authority. A brigadier of cavalry or infantry, on taking the field, 
marches, bivouacs or camps, and fights with his brigade ; he is always 
in their presence; and a complete understanding is soon established 
between him and his command, even if he has never seen them before. 
An artillery commander, taking the field with battery commanders and 
batteries he had never seen before, would never get hold of them : it 
would not be for the good of the service, at the beginning of a 
campaign, when it is very advisable to do everything as pleasantly as 
possible, that he should make any remarkable effort for himself. An 
artillery commander, taking the field with battery commanders whom 
he knows, or with batteries he has commanded in quarters, begins with 
a great advantage; but his absence on the staff, and his inferiority in 
rank to the brigadiers of cavalry and infantry, soon produce an effect 
unfavourable to him, and constantly tend to lessen his authority. The 
artillery know their own importance and see that they are inadequately 
represented by their commanding officer. The artillery commander is 
allowed to have his own courts-martial ; and the commissariat take his 
signature for the signature of a general officer: these are concessions 
made in courtesy. The batteries are sometimes attached to other 
brigades for supply and transport. A battery goes on an expedition 
with some other brigade: the brigadier likes to have guns under his 
command, and the battery commander is treated with charming 
attention; returned to Head-Quarters, both brigadier and battery 
commander would like the battery to be attached permanently to the 
brigade. Whether it is that battery commanders would prefer to 
be artillery commanders, each in his own smaller sphere, or that they 
incline to where there is more authority, and especially more authorita¬ 
tive dealing with the commissariat, there is certainly a tendency of 
batteries towards the other brigades. The artillery commander has 
ever before him the ungrateful task of maintaining his own authority. 
Our system is unfavourable to the full development of artillery 
power in battle, because there is no unity of command in the artillery. 
This want of unity is entirely attributable to the inferior rank of the 
artillery commander, and to his being with the Head-Quarter Staff. 
All command is united in the division general; but there is unity of 
command in the infantry and cavalry brigades, and there is no unity 
of command in the artillery. Granted, that the most cordial under¬ 
standing between the division general and his artillery commander 
