SYNOPTICAL CHARTS. 479 
find the iron 24-pr. is still the backbone of Wellington’s “ Battering- 
train ” as it was of Lord Raglan’s in the Crimea. 
The effective range was, however, not nearly so great. This, I take 
it, was probably chiefly due to the great improvements in the manu¬ 
facture of gun-powder introduced by Sir William Congreve in 1815.— 
(Hime. Stray Military Papers, p. 169). Anyhow 800 yards seems to 
have been an outside range. 
During the second siege of Badajos, on the night between the 31st 
May and 1st June, 1811, a battery of fourteen 24-prs., four 8-inch 
howitzers, and two 10-inch howitzers was picketted out at a distance 
of 800 yards from the Castle. 
The following extract from Jones’ “ Journals of Sieges in Spain ” 
(edition of 1827, Vol. I., p. 51) is descriptive of the action of this 
battery: — 
“ 3rd June. 
“ At half-past nine a.m. the batteries opened against the Castle, and 
their fire was vigorously kept up till night. 
“From the excessive windage of the guns and distance from the point 
to be breached (800 yards), the practice was at first very inaccurate, 
but by great care and attention in elevating and pointing each piece, 
the fire gradually became more certain and produced considerable 
effect, as before evening the outer face or wall of the castle had been 
beaten down, and a perpendicular bank of earth or clay appeared to 
be the only obstacle to a breach.” A note is added (No. 4 in the 
appendix of the same volume) to account for “ the great distance of 
th» breaching battery from the Castle.” 
The reason—want of time to carry the approaches nearer—is one 
that acounts for a great many of Wellington’s siege methods. 
The original intention was to trace this battery at a distance of 500 
yards only from the Castle. 
Relying on Jones’ evidence, I have marked 800 yards as the effec¬ 
tive breaching range of a typical siege piece—the iron 24-pr.—at the 
commencement of the present century. 
Jones, in his preliminary observations, lays down that the first 
parallel should be opened at a distance of six or seven hundred yards 
from the ramparts.—(Jones’ “ Sieges in Spain,' Vol. I., p. 11). 
In Vaubau’s time at the close of the seventeenth century it was ruled 
that the first parallel should be traced at 600 yards from the enemy’s 
works.—(Hamley’s “ War in the Crimea,” p. 95). 
The effective breaching range at this period is, therefore, shown as 
being between 600 and 700 yards. 
The increase in the effective breaching range during the eighteenth 
century is thus seen to have been very small. 
No great improvements either in the manufacture of powder or of 
ordnance appear to mark this epoch. 
Going back another century— i.e., to the close of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury—we find the following performances of a 20-pr. “ culverin ” recor¬ 
ded on p. 9 of Tartaglia’s “Colloquies,” published in 1588. Point blank 
range 20d paces. Range at 45 degrees elevation 800 paces.” Com¬ 
paring this with Peninsular performances, it will be seen at once that 
