348 
GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1894 . 
to artillery 
oncers for 
watching 
progress of 
a light. 
Difficulties 
of estimating 
the effect 
of artillery at 
manoeuvres. 
Proposed 
plan for re- 
cording 
. probable 
work per¬ 
formed by 
guns. 
tlie turning to account of these opportunities in peace will be of assis¬ 
tance in rendering them more capable of forming a correct judgment 
of how to act in war, few will deny. 
The officer who possesses a knowledge of the tactics and formations 
of cavalry and infantry will have no difficulty in deducing from the 
movements he sees, combined with his knowledge of the ground, 
the main objects of his General’s plan, and of understanding thoroughly 
the part his arm is playing in support of it. As things progress, 
he will be able to see what steps the enemy intend taking to 
meet these dispositions, and where the important conflicts are likely to 
occur. He sees before him the actual targets he will have to shoot at, 
and may learn how most successfully to attack them. The development 
of the fight shows what is taking place, and enables him to forsee cer¬ 
tain coming situations, and so be ready to render the utmost support 
to his side without waiting for orders, which in many cases he will not 
receive. Whether his deductions, judged by the event as it takes 
place, are correct or not, matters little. Providing his reasoning is 
based on sound principles, profit of some sort will result. 
For various reasons there is more difficulty in tracing the action of 
artillery through the course of a sham-fight, and forming a reliable esti¬ 
mate of the effect it would probably have produced, than either of the 
other arms. With infantry and cavalry we can see every move, and 
can form some opinion of the result; while the action of a force which 
remains stationary and apparently inactive is liable to have its services 
underrated, or for the time forgotten. Most gunners who have taken 
part in field-days and manoeuvres must own to having often experienced, 
at the end of the day, a certain amount of haziness as to the precise 
doings of their arm, not with regard to the actual positions which the 
guns have occupied, but with regard to the probable effect which their 
guns would have produced; and it is only by a very careful examin¬ 
ation of the reports of both sides, that an opinion of any value on this 
point can be formed. A great improvement in this direction has been 
made by the introduction of the canvas screen, which indicates the 
target at which the guns are for the moment firing; but the results at 
present reached are not on the whole, we venture to think, as satisfac¬ 
tory as they ought to be, and as the question is one in which we 
ourselves are chiefly concerned, it is for us to find a solution of the 
difficulty. Given the rate of fire, and the time in action, of a battery 
which has declared by raising its screen the target at which it is firing, 
the number of rounds expended at that particular target can be easily 
computed. Were this system pursued throughout the day, the total 
number of rounds estimated to have been fired in the whole course of 
the action, and also, those at each particular target would be on record. 
And thus a complete account would be preserved of the doings of the 
battery. By working on these lines artillery would be represented in 
the combat by shell, instead of sabres or bayonets, at the decisive 
point; and it would greatly assist an umpire in arriving at a decision 
if he could be informed of the probable number of shell fired by the 
batteries instead of being told : “ My batteries have been firing at that 
infantry for the last half-hour.” 
