ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
655 
able at first to reach the heights, and their anxiously waited-for appear¬ 
ance was greeted, we are told, by a loud cheer from their hard pressed 
comrades of the infantry. Soon after the rest of the light battery was 
got up, but only one division of the heavy one could reach the position 
they were striving for. 
Although these eight guns lost nearly half their gunners, fighting as 
they were within 800 yards of a line of French skirmishers in shelter- 
trenches, the effect of their shells compelled the enemy by degrees to 
abandon the field, and the remaining four guns of the heavy battery 
were able then to come into action too, and added their force to the 
fire which was overpowering the foe. The action of these two 
batteries can hardly be said to have been absolutely decisive of 
the fate of the day; it remains, however, none the less true that their 
timely and bold advance up a road that was considered impracticable 
for Field Artillery, and the glorious struggle maintained by them had 
a most marked effect on this particular phase of the engagement, and 
but for their opportune appearance the Germans might have lost the 
Eotherberg. As it was, the possession of the hill was assured to the 
ultimate victors by this brave effort on the part of their artillery. 
During the battle of Borny, or Colombey-Nouilly as it is also called, 
where the Prussians with 64,000 men and 32 batteries opposed the 
French with 88,000 and 38 batteries, the German artillery showed the 
same enterprise in coming into action which had distinguished their 
conduct at Woerth. Like many of the other actions of this campaign, 
this battle grew out of an impetuously venturesome reconnaissance in 
force made by the advanced guard of the 7th Corps, commanded by Von 
der Goltz, and the artillery at the head of the columns of march were 
hurried on fearlessly ahead to support the two batteries which had at 
first engaged the enemy. Prompt assistance was required ; the 
German guns were ready and able to move when called for, and pressed 
to the front to come into action as quickly as possible, even if they 
were thus compelled to detach themselves temporarily from the bodies 
of troops to which they were attached. 
At 4.30 p.m., that is about an hour after the first shots were ex¬ 
changed with the enemy, 30 guns of the 8th Corps were in action, an 
hour and a-half later double that number were in position, the guns 
belonging to the main bodies of the 13th and 1st Divisions having 
trotted ou in front of the infantry. Yery soon afterwards the whole of 
the artillery of the 1st Corps, hurrying on in generous rivalry, were on 
the scene, and thus in the very openiug of the battle the greater part 
of the German artillery was employed, everywhere they prepared the 
way for the advance of their infantry, and moved forward with it as 
the attack progressed. Where all did well it is almost invidious to 
select some for special approbation, but the action of the five batteries, 
two light and two heavy Field Batteries of the 1st Corps, and one heavy 
Field Battery of the 7th, which, between the defiles of Montoy and 
Coincy, pressed on across the defile of La Planchette in front of them 
to the aid of the 55th and 43rd regiments of infantry, which had made 
a brilliant onset on the enemy’s position in front, but which had now 
run short of ammunition, certainly claims our attention. 
