428 
INFANTRY FIRE IN FORTRESS WARFARE. 
annoyance to stop the movements of the garrison on the rampart, and 
taking in reverse the defenders of the opposite face, even over the 
traverses of the capital, when such exist. 
At the debut of the attack of large places with entrenched camps, the 
role of infantry will be still more considerable. The detached forts 
which surround them must be joined, in time of need, by lines of field 
fortification and batteries of position. The besieger, by appearing 
rapidly before the place, and by seconding the fire of his first siege 
batteries by a violent infantry fire, will be so able to command the 
ground between two or three forts, that it will be impossible for the 
besieged to establish or to strengthen his intermediate lines. Under 
these conditions, the besieger will perhaps be able to penetrate by 
main force across the line of exterior defences, and completely surround 
one of the forts. It is in this attack of intermediate lines that the 
employment of combined artillery and infantry fire at long ranges 
seems to be an innovation both fortunate and practical. It is, so to 
speak, on a larger scale, the reproduction of the ordinary conditions of 
war in the field, a violent fire disorganizing the defence and preceding 
the assault. 
It is true that this long range fire will not have the efficacy of rapid 
fire at a short distance on the field of battle; but it is a sufficient 
compensation that the besieger is disposing of far superior forces. 
Under these circumstances, the passive obstacle presented by field 
works being very small, the lines which the long range fire will have 
caused to be more or less evacuated may very possibly fall before a 
rapidly conducted attack. 
In front of the forts themselves the results to be hoped for do not 
appear quite so distinct. The long-range infantry fire will certainly 
harass the defenders; but this fire will not be able sufficiently to 
prepare an attack which, even supposing the parapets are completely 
evacuated, would probably break down before the obstacles left 
uninjured by the artillery, and would only bring the attacking party 
under the flanking fire of the ditches. 
Lieut.-Col. Boguslawski dwells upon the necessity of instructing 
both officers and rank and file in this new employment of fire, and 
proposes to create a special fortress infantry, just as there is a fortress 
artillery. In fact, he believes that the part assigned to infantry at the 
commencement of a siege will undergo considerable transformation and 
extension in the future. Up to the present time it had not gone 
beyond investing and protecting the establishment of the first bat¬ 
teries ; henceforth, from passive it will become active, thanks to the 
highly improved armament which it possesses. 
ACTUAL STATE OF FIELD ARTILLERY IN ENGLAND. 
The final conclusion of the 'Revue on our field artillery is, that 
England is far behind the other powers of Europe in point of materiel , 
and that whilst of late years other nations have been making real 
progress in their gun manufacture, England alone has remained 
stationary. 
