ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
573 
spicuous as the artillery has ever proved itself, never was its superiority 
over that of the enemy, its irresistible and annihilating power, more 
truthfully shown than in this battle. The heavy batteries manoeuvred 
with the celerity of light guns; and the rapid advance, the scientific 
and judicious selection of points of attack, the effective and well directed 
fire of the troops of Horse Artillery and light Field 'Batteries merit 
my warmest praise.” 
To have played so prominent a part in a battle in which 00,000 
Sikhs, supported by 59 guns, were thus defeated, and their power 
finally broken, is a feat of which the artillery, as the Governor-General 
in his General Order 1 has recorded, “may justly be proud.” And 
surely never were services more generously appreciated in the words 
of an official despatch than were theirs, nor would it be possible for the 
keenest partisan to add anything to praise so outspoken. 
When war again broke out in Europe, most of the actors in the 
great struggles of the early part of the century had passed away, or 
were too old again to take the field. In the Austrian army, however, 
a really great soldier survived to show a later generation something of 
the grandeur of the earlier time. Badtzky’s two victorious campaigns 
in 1848-49 were, however, fought in a level and closely- cultivated 
country little favourable to the employment of guns, and, in any case, 
his superior strategy made the task of his artillery an easy one, and 
demanded no great efforts from them. 
The spell of the long peace was, now however, finally ruptured, and 
five later years the Crimean War broke out, and the opening experiences 
of that struggle gave unmistakeable proof how much had been forgotten 
since the days of the Peninsula and Waterloo, and how completely 
the first necessities of an army had been lost sight of. Something more, 
however, than what may be attributed to the neglect which it experi¬ 
enced in common with other departments of the army lay at the root 
of the feeling with which Field Artillery in the middle of this century 
was regarded. The balance between the arms of the gunner and the 
foot soldier had been disturbed by the partial manner in which as yet 
the favours of science had been distributed. The principle of rifling 
had at first only been applied to the infantry musket, and the relative 
advantage guns had hitherto possessed in range was greatly reduced, 
while they became endowed as yet with no corresponding advantages 
in other directions such as might compensate for the loss sustained. 
The infantry fire-arm of the Crimean era was as effective at 750 yards 
as its predecessor had been at 250. The small-arm had therefore 
become almost trebly as efficient as regards range as heretofore, while 
the guns at the Alma and Inkerman remained much the same as those 
which stood at Friedland and Waterloo. The new impulse given to 
infantry fire naturally drew attention away from guns, and their 
importance on the battle-field seemed likely to diminish. 
Moreover, in our battles in the Crimea there appears a general 
tendency to allow the struggleto take care of itself on the part of the chief 
commanders. From one cause or another our leader appears not to 
have preserved a sustained control of the fight, and the records of our 
1 General Order by the Governor-General, March 1st, 1849. 
