85 
NOTES OF TWO LECTURES 
ON 
FIELD FORTIFICATION, 
Delivered at the School of Gunnery, Shoehuryness. 
BY 
MAJOR RABAN, 
(Continued from No. 2, Vol. XIX. —. 
Obstacles. 
After providing for cover and communications, the next point to 
consider is the use of obstacles. There is much difference of opinion 
as to the necessity for any extensive use of obstacles at the present 
time, and there are some who assert that, provided there is a clear field 
of fire to a moderate range in front of good troops armed with modern 
rifles, no obstacles are necessary. This is no doubt true under certain 
conditions, but it is all a matter of conditions. Let me give two 
instances and see what may be deduced from them :—• 
Battle op Fredericksburg, December 1862. 
Right Attach .—“ Fifteen minutes passed and another division, 
Hancock’s, rushed forward from the town. Zooke’s brigade led the 
way, but quickly recoiled, beaten back by that terrible artillery. Not so 
its successor. Under cover of the further bank of the ravine the Irish 
Brigade, under General Meagher, threw off their haversacks and 
blankets and deployed into line. Resolutely the 1200, for they were 
no more^ breasted the slope and faced the death dealing storm; swiftly 
they passed the limit marked by the three solitary colours, and shoulder 
to shoulder their own green flag, and the blue and scarlet of.the Union 
standard waving above them, swept forward against the low wall which 
skirts the base of Marye’s Hill. **.**■******* 
One hundred and fifty paces from the hill the brigade halted and fired 
a volley, while the round shot tore freely through the ordered line. 
Still no sign from the wall looming grim and silent through the battle 
smoke, and again the battalions moved swiftly forward. They were 
but a hundred yards from their goal, unbroken and unfaltering : still 
they had reached a point where Walton’s gunners, unable to depress 
their pieces further, could no longer harass them. Victory seemed 
within their grasp, and a shout went up from the shattered ranks. 
Suddenly a sheet of flame leaped from the parapet, and 1200 rifles, 
3. VOL. XIX. 13 
