89 
COMPOSITION AND STRENGTH OF A SIEGE TRAIN 
REQUIRED FOR 
THE ATTACK OF A MODERN FORTRESS. 
The It. A. Institution Prise Essay of 1877, 
BY MAJOR W. KEMMIS, R.A. 
“ L’Artillerie est tout dans les sieges et presque tout dans la guerre de compagne.”— 
Montalembert. 
Under the head, “ Siege Train/* are included men, horses, carriages, 
ammunition and stores; in fact all personnel and materiel necessary, 
so far as artillery is concerned, for undertaking and prosecuting a siege. 
It is our province to treat of the materiel, in doing which it is con¬ 
venient to consider each component by itself, commencing with the 
ordnance, as that lies, so to speak, at the base of all, and its nature and 
number being fixed determine in a great measure the remainder. 
I. ORDNANCE. 
Though it is very certain that, due to the increased effect of ordnance 
in range and destructive capacity, the method of siege hitherto in force is 
no longer, in the present day, applicable, yet the role of the artillery 
of the siege train, in an attack made en regie, remains as before, namely: 
primarily, to disable the armament, to render the terrepleins uninhabit¬ 
able, to destroy the defences and to open a breach; secondarily, to assist 
in driving back the enemy within his works, in repulsing sorties, and in 
making good lodgements on captured works. 
The necessity of disabling the armament, or, in other words, of 
subduing the fire of the defence, is the main point to be kept in view; 
Sir J. Jones, in his Note on the Siege of San Sebastian, thus insists 
upon it: To silence the fire of the place is the principal aim of all 
operations of a regular siege and is the spirit of the mode of attack 
adopted by Yauban. In a regular attack, where every point is gained 
inch by inch, it is impossible to succeed without overpowering the 
defensive artillery.—It is useless to attempt to sap near a place till its 
artillery fire is subdued.** And this was proved at the Siege of Sebas¬ 
topol, as General Niel, speaking of the construction of the sixth 
parallel on the glacis of the Malakoff bastion, tells us, The work of 
one night was generally but the re-establishment of that of the 
preceding—we must be content to wait the finishing of the parallel 
# Note 32 Journal of Sieges in Spain, by Sir J, Jones, 
f Siege de Sevastapol, par Le General Niel. 
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