FIELD ARTILLERY FIRE. 
201 
leuses to pieces .... As they (the German infantry) approached 
within short range they suddenly found that the French artillery and 
mitrailleuses had by no means been disabled, about 200 pieces opening 
on themfwitli fearful effect.” 
Prince Kraft at St. Privat.—“ During our advance on St. Privat and 
during the artillery fight which followed, against the enemy’s guns on 
the hill of St. Privat, my batteries suffered considerable loss from the 
enemy’s shells. I saw some limbers blown up and many guns during 
the cannonade lying miserably on the ground f winged,’ that is with a 
broken wheel. But not one was withdrawn, the injured guns were 
always soon repaired by the aid of the wagons, which stood very near 
to them, so that, after the battle, I could not exactly tell how many 
guns (out of 84) had been put temporarily out of action. But when, 
towards evening, it was necessary to support the infantry in their at¬ 
tack, everything had been so entirely repaired during the unceasing 
cannonade that three guns only could not immediately be brought up 
and had to be left in rear . . . They remained where they were, 
refitted and followed us as soon as possible to the new position.” 
“ At Sedan one gun of mine became altogether unserviceable. The 
gun had burst.” 
From the above it may be gathered that the silencing of artillery is 
not produced by disablement of materiel but by the losses among the 
men. 
The following are the losses of the six batteries on the left of the 
artillery position of the IX German Corps on the 18th August, 1870, 
losses which resulted in the total silencing of one battery, the 4th 
heavy, and the temporary silencing of others. 
Officers. 
Men. 
Horses. 
Total strength of batteries ... 
24 
893 
839 
With 1st line, in action 
24 
384 
336 
Total losses. 
17 
187 
370 
the worst case of the above, 
the 4th heavy battery— 
Officers. 
Men. 
Horses. 
Total strength of battery ... 
4 
151 
126 
With 1st line, in action 
4 
62 
48 
Total losses. 
3 
45 
49 
This last battery brought two guns out of action, and four were 
captured by the French. 
All things considered, we may take it that our forged steel common 
shell may be regarded only as a ranging projectile. This being the 
case, what we are really concerned with in this question of effective 
fire, if we exclude the few occasions upon which case shot is used, is 
the use of shrapnel shell, which is the field artillery projectile par 
excellence . 
Shrapnel shell. The action of shrapnel shell being described in detail 
in the drill-book it is proposed in this place, merely to state briefly the 
points upon which the following chapters are based. 
