3 
8-gun battery is too small for this purpose, and the 6-battery brigade is too large, 
but we find even now in our artillery the foundation for such a tactical unit. In 
all probability the artillery regiments, the introduction of which is expected from 
day to day, will satisfy in their organisation the present day conditions of an 
artillery unit. Under the name of regiment will be understood a group of three 
6 or 8-gun batteries. As artillery fights only in connection with the other arms 
the drill regulations of Field Artillery must always bear this fact in view as a 
guiding principle * * * * 
In all artillery columns the flexibility of the whole depends solely on the flexibility 
of the leading portions. The remainder can always very easily adapt their move¬ 
ments to those of the guns or sections in front of them. The regulations must 
lay down as a guiding principle, conformation to the pace and direction of the 
commander in all changes of direction and pace without special orders or words 
of command from him. This principle must be formulated thus : the commander 
of any body is the guide of that body. If the head of a body has a front of 
several guns or sections it is necessary that they should all be able to easily see 
the commander of the body. Hence follows a second principle the place of the 
commander is in front of his command. If several units have to assimilate their 
movements for the preservation of a broad front then the flexibility of the whole 
requires that the constituent elements of them should be connected with the 
corresponding elements of the neighbouring unit only by means of the correspond¬ 
ing commanders or leaders. Every battery in a group constituting a regiment, every 
section in a battery, must move as if it were acting independently. This prin¬ 
ciple of the independence of corresponding units, borrowed from the French 
artillery regulations, must find a place also in our drill regulations : it is the 
condition which renders it possible for batteries to adapt themselves to the con¬ 
ditions of ground. And acting on this principle the numerous obstacles will 
temporarily only delay that unit in front of which they occur : on his own 
initiative the commander of this unit will change its direction and pace in order to 
circumvent or pass over the obstacle, and then by the shortest road will regain 
his place in the general alignment. The order to dress by the centre of a broad 
front, or by one of its flanks, is only permissible in exceptional cases on perfectly 
open and level ground for the sake of preserving the symmetry of the general 
front for appearance sake when this is obtainable without loss of flexibility. In 
order not to deprive, by the laying down of such a principle, the commander of a 
body of his independence of movement and freedom of action (for instance, for 
purposes of instruction), the regulation must give him the right, if he wishes, of 
assigning his duties as guide of his command to one of liis subordinate officers. 
The commander of a body when fulfilling his duty as its guide cannot with due 
attention see to the carrying out of his own orders. To obviate this inconvenience 
the French Field Artillery have introduced “section lockers,” who are the senior 
of the gun “Nos. 1,” and whose duty it is to see to the carrying out in the sections 
of all orders and words of command. In a Field Battery the “No. 1 ” of the gun 
of alignment is answerable for keeping the direction, and all the other “Nos. 1 ” 
for dressing, intervals, and distances. Under such conditions all flexibility of the 
front disappears, and the least mistake in the direction of movement of long 
lines immediately affects the pace of their flanks. On broken ground such a 
want of flexibility of the front is quite inadmissible. In circumstances where 
there can be no idea of accurate dressing of a more or less prolonged front, as, 
for example, when manoeuvring over broken ground, Battery and Section Com¬ 
manders will be quite able to see to the carrying out of their orders and words 
of command in their commands, and the same may be said of the gun “ Nos. 1 ” 
as regards their duty of seeing to the carrying out of orders from the front 
relating to their own guns. On the other hand, on perfectly open and level 
18b 
