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ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
PART III. -Chapter I. 
The Transition Period. 
After the downfall of Napoleon the peace of Europe remained 
unbroken for many years, and when nations had recovered from the 
strain of the continual wars of his period, and became vigorous enough 
once more to pick up the sword, many of the lessons of the great battle¬ 
fields had been forgotten. Men disgusted with fighting had been 
ready enough to turn their thoughts away from the study of war, and 
gave their best energies to subjects which there had been no time to 
attend to during the late turmoils, and amongst other branches of 
military science the art of handling guns, and an appreciation of their 
value, seemed to have died with the great master who understood so 
well how to turn them to account. 
A few examples of great artillery strokes deliberately planned do 
however stand out at intervals during the forty years of comparative 
peace which succeeded Waterloo. The Russians, during the war when 
they finally crushed Poland in 1831, true to their traditions, relied much 
on a numerous artillery, and employed their guns in masses to strike 
decisive blows. At Grochow, on the 20th of February, a battery of 40 
guns was brought up towards the close of the engagement, and mainly 
decided the fate of the day. “ Et surtoutune batterie de 40 bouches a feu 
prit en echarpe toutes les colonnes en arriere de bois; la 'position ne fut 
plus tenable .” 1 
In the autumn of the same year, at the capture of Warsaw, the final 
act of the war, the part played by the Russian artillery was especially 
conspicuous, and has attracted the attention of all writers on the arm. 
Major-General Owen, in his “Modern Artillery,” has brought forward 
this battle as furnishing an instance of the correct handling of artillery, 
and quotes the opinion of Jomini that it was one of the “most splendid 
operations of this kind.” 2 Taubert also dwells on this example of the 
use of a mass of guns in the attack of entrenchments. 
The Russian force, which on the 6th of September was in front of 
the Poles entrenched at Warsaw, consisted of 118 battalions, 120 
squadrons, and 386 guns. On that day a great battery of 120 guns 
was concentrated so as to bring an overwhelming fire to bear on the 
Polish works, and after a two hours' cannonade the columns of assault, 
accompanied by Horse Artillery, advanced and captured four strong 
detached redoubts (Nos. 54, 56, 57, and 59). On the following day a 
truce was declared till 1 o'clock, but then the attack recommenced, and 
the Russian artillery divided into two great batteries, or, according to 
Brzozowski, one battery of 200 guns, advanced to within 800 paces of 
the entrenchments. Only a portion of the Polish artillery on the 
ramparts could reply, the greater number not bearing on the field of 
combat; but the Field Artillery, 30 guns, were deployed, and 23 
pieces in the works took the Russian lines obliquely and caused great 
havoc amongst them. The Polish artillery was, however, completely 
silenced at 5 o'clock, and two Russian heavy columns of infantry 
advancing in the centre pierced the line of their opponents, and after- 
1 “La Guerre de Pologne en 1831.” Par Lieut. Brzozowski. 
2 Summary of art of war. 
