230 
Question of 
effect versus 
mobility. 
Changes in 
artillery 
tactics. 
THE ROLE OF HORSE ARTILLERY 
IN A CAMPAIGN: 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY OF 1878. 
BY 
Lieutenant T, S. HOWIE, R.A. 
“The strength of field artillery is not to be estimated by the number 
of guns, but by their efficiency of movement, and by the skill of 
the men who work them.” 
The question of effect versus mobility is an old one which has con¬ 
stantly occupied the attention of the field artillerist with varying results. 
Whilst at one time it has been maintained that “the primary condition 
to be obtained in artillery must ever remain effect,” and at another the 
cry has been for a “maximum mobility combined with only necessary 
effect, ”t at the present day it is decided that both qualifications are 
necessary, a decision which is carried out in every modern system in 
the only practicable manner, viz., by the adoption of two calibres. 
Still the true value of mobility is hardly yet appreciated, a fact which 
is shown by the absence of manoeuvre from artillery tactics. 
This state of affairs is no doubt due, in great measure, to the suc¬ 
cess achieved by an unwieldy system in the late Franco-German war. 
But that war was remarkable throughout for the absence of manoeuvre, 
there was none of “that higher manoeuvring which aims at an advantage 
by deceiving and perplexing the enemy.” All was “ sheer straight¬ 
forward fighting.’’^ 
But we have stood quite long enough gaping at that success. There 
is ample room to carry the science of fighting far beyond the limits 
then reached, and higher tactics will play an important part in the 
future. 
Constant changes in materiel necessitate constant changes in the 
theories advanced for its employment in the field. 
We must, then, be prepared, when considering such a rapidly 
developing arm as artillery undoubtedly is, to see old theories over¬ 
thrown, and new ones replacing them. We have seen the same in the 
| “ Development of the Materiel, &c., of Field Artillery from 1815 to 1870.” Captain Cooke. 
X Hamley, 1872, 
