SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1892. 
541 
The Sergeant-Major, —Is in charge of the limbers, under the direction 
of the Captain, unless that officer is otherwise employed. If the services 
of the Captain are not available in the battery, then the Sergeant- 
Major, having placed his limbers in safety, will assume those duties in 
and about the battery ordinarily performed by the Captain, which 
cannot be attended to by the Battery Commander, whose attention is 
taken up by watching the effect of his fire, or by the Section Officers, 
whose attention is taken up by the care of the guns and gun- 
detachments of their sections. 
The Quarter-Master-Sergeant. —In charge of the 2nd line of wagons, 
under the direction of the Captain, will find sufficient work to do in 
forwarding filled wagons to the front on the demand of that officer, 
empty ones to the rear to the Divisional Reserves and in attending to 
re-packing of ammunition in partially expended wagons and of the 
kits, &c., of dead and wounded men. 
N.-C. Officers and Ranh and File. —In the thorough training of the 
rank and file for the performance of their duties in respect of Fire 
Discipline, which it is needless to recapitulate here, lies the solution of 
almost every difficulty, with the exception of those of observation of 
fire, with which Battery Commanders have to contend. To this object 
then should our concentrated energies be turned while there is time. 
Our first duty to the recruit is to make him a soldier, our second to 
make him a gunner. On his being a soldier depends his discipline 
under fire, on his being a gunner depends a large portion of the other 
items which go to constitute Fire Discipline. 
By rigid drill the recruit tends to become an automaton and its chief 
object is to make the movement of the moment absorb so much of his 
attention that the predominating emotions of fear or rage may be, for 
the time being, in abeyance. But we do not want altogether an auto¬ 
maton, we want a living being, capable of handling a somewhat com¬ 
plex equipment with intelligence. Therefore, as soon as our recruit 
has learnt to subordinate his will to that of others, the cultivation of 
his intelligence must advance pari passu with the training of his body. 
Indeed, the latter will advance the more rapidly if frequent breaks are 
made during which the mind may be stimulated while the body rests. 
It is a great mistake in the early instruction of the rank and file to 
attempt to impose upon what is too often a fallow memory the burden of 
remembering dimensions, manufacturing details, &c., or, for the matter 
of that, terms of theoretical gunnery. It must be remembered that 
but few men in a battery bear any responsibility involving an accurate 
knowledge of the theory of flight; and here we are at an advantage 
over our comrades in the infantry, where each man is responsible for 
the shooting of his own weapon and some such knowledge is necessary. 
But, while deprecating the forcing of unseasonable food upon minds 
unfitted to receive it, too great importance cannot be attached to the 
careful and complete education of gun-layers and non-commissioned 
officers. 
We have, at present, much progress to make in the education of our 
gun-layers, although a vast improvement has followed upon the recent 
change in the nature of the competitive practice. Owing to a good 
