578 
NOTES ON ARTILLERY. 
opportune moment and determine if 8 or 4 prs. should be employed, 
and even if be could, be is obliged to utilize what be has at band. A 
single calibre is therefore sufficient for field work, then there can be 
no uncertainty. 
The 12 pr. in either system remains in reserve to be employed with 
premeditation by general officers, either of the line or of the artillery. 
The 6-in. howitzer is too wasteful: it consumes as much as a 24 pr. 
shot. They have rightly replaced it by a howitzer of 5 inches 6 
lines; this slight difference of 6 lines gives a great advantage. The 
waggon holds 75 rounds, whilst that of the 6-in. only holds 50, and in 
supposing that the 5^-in. shell be inferior to the 6-in. the question 
comes to this : which would you rather have, one 6-in. howitzer or two 
5J-in. ones. But the 5|-in. shell is already preferable to the 6-in. one. 
Gribeanval’s carriage was altogether faulty. It has been altered, and 
rightly so, for there has been a gain of 100 per cent, in transport, and 
lightness given to both the carriage and the howitzer. But the latter 
still requires improvement: it should have a greater range, which 
might be obtained by lengthening it. 
There should be two sorts of howitzers, one to combine with the 
6 prs., the other with the 12 prs. The latter must have the incon¬ 
venience of greater weight, so as to obtain the greatest possible range 
from the form of the chamber, length, thickness of metal, &c. All these 
drawbacks are amply compensated in a reserve howitzer by the range 
being increased to the utmost. The field howitzers of the Boulogne 
Camp had that advantage. 
It is equally necessary that the existing 12 prs. should have an in¬ 
creased range, not that changes in the gun are necessary, but in the 
carriage, which should admit of greater elevation being given to the 
gun. 
Parks should also have 12 pr. grenades (see note C) which would 
weigh .... to be used with the 12 prs. Every waggon should 
contain some of these grenades in place of common shell. 
This is contrary to Gribeanval’s principle, which however is false. 
There are a thousand circumstances in war where it is requisite to 
open fire at a very long range, whether from one bank to the other 
of a wide river, or to hinder the enemy from encamping and occupying 
a position which can only be attacked from a distance. Finally it is a 
real disadvantage not to reply to an enemy’s fire. We look however 
to artillery officers not to fire uselessly, for we pretend in no way to 
attack the fundamental principle that to open fire at a long range 
under ordinary circumstances is to burn ammunition and to destroy its 
effect. 
Guns of higher calibre than 12 prs. are very useless. We have acted 
wisely in suppressing the 16 pr. which the Prussians and Austrians 
still drag about. 
* * * * * 
Artillery officers have differed in opinion as to whether the 8 guns 
with their limbers should march past, the waggons following behind 
the 8th gun, or whether each waggon should follow its gun. 
