518 
NOTE 
OK THE 
SERVICE OF THE ARTILLERY AT MAIWAND, 
27 th July, 1880, 
BY 
CAPT. N. P. POWELL, R.A. 
The principal things I observed connected with the artillery were— 
(1) The great difficulty of keeping a supply of ammunition at the 
guns, on account of the labour involved in transferring it from the 
wagon bodies to the limbers, keeping the drivers hard at work as well 
as the Sergt.-Major, who is always of great service with the guns, 
especially if there are casualties among the officers. I would strongly 
advocate the system of limbers without bodies for carrying ammunition. 
(2) The guns became so hot from rapid firing that we were unable 
to serve the vent without a protection for our thumbs. We had to 
pick up and use pieces of cartridge cases for this purpose. A conical 
plug of leather would obviate this, and also save one man when a 
detachment becomes shorthanded in action. 
(3) I did not see nor hear of any driver making use of the pistol 
supplied to drivers in India. Had they stayed to use them, the 
guns might not have been brought out of action at all. 
Many people think that Maclaine's guns were taken through his own 
fault in advancing so far to the front, but on the contrary, he had been 
recalled and had rejoined the rest of the battery long before; and if 
the battery had been ever so little in rear, instead of slightly in 
advance and in the centre of the line of infantry, I believe the line 
would never have been broken. But the guns were in action first, and 
then the infantry were brought up and placed in line rather in rear of us. 
