637 
hr>i 1 1893 
Or^^k 
FIRE DISCIPLINE; ITS NECESSITY IN A BATTERY OF 
HORSE OR FIELD ARTILLERY, AND THE BEST MEANS OF 
SECURING IT. 
BY 
CAPTAIN F. J. A. TRENCH, R.H.A, 
UNHASTING YET UNRESTING WORK. 
COMMENDED ESSAY, 1892. 
Introductory. 
Upon the very threshold of the subject of Fire Discipline the unwary 
intruder is greeted, not, indeed, by ceacl mille failthe , but by two serious 
difficulties. What is the exact meaning of the term, and why is it 
that what it denotes should be now-a-days so much to be desired ? 
the expression itself is of but recent naturalisation (or evolution), and 
certainly our old wars had none of it. 
The most satisfactory solution of these problems would seem to be 
found in the study of the development of the arm. The history of 
artillery divides itself into two very strongly marked periods : the five- 
hundred years which separate Crecy from the Crimea, and the few 
decades which have elapsed since then. At first sight this division 
would seem to be fanciful, but a closer examination fully justifies it. 
If we take any battle of the big wars at the beginning of the century 
we find little change, either in the materiel or the handling, from what 
obtained when artillery was first introduced. The commander brought 
his battery into action within a few furlongs of the enemy, and then, 
handing his guns over to the “ numbers one,” let the fire wander at its 
own sweet will. And, indeed, it could scarcely stray far : there was 
no mistaking the position of the enemy, and the error of a hundred 
yards in the estimation of the range was nearly impossible. The 
materiel was so simple that it hardly afforded any scope for instruction, 
the most important duty of the gunner seeming to have been—to 
13. VOL. XIX. 85 
