Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/825

ARTILLERY 789 had been greatly neglected, and was far behind that of other nations. There was no reserve artillery, each regiment having two guns, whose horses and drivers were hired. As late as 1799 there were only two 6-pdrs. to a bri- gade of infantry, each piece drawn by three horses in single file, the driver on foot with a long wagoner's whip. Horse artillery was however introduced in 1793, and a drivers' corps established the following year. In 1802 the battalion guns were abandoned, and were replaced by field brigades (mounted batteries) and troops (horse batteries). Each field bri- gade had five guns (12, 9, and heavy or light 6-pdrs.) and one 5^-inch howitzer, while the troops were armed with 9 or light 6-pdr. guns and the howitzer. The detachment of drivers with a field brigade was an independent organization under its own lieutenant, who had no authority over the cannoneers and took rank after all the artillery officers proper. In 1803 Gen. Shrapnel devised a case shot, the first projectile of the kind since the German Hagel- kugel of the 16th century. It was first used at the battle of Vimieira in 1808, but, not proving very successful on account of the imperfection of the fuse, was not adopted by other nations. We have now come to the period extending from the peace of 1815 to 1859, when rifled guns were for the first time successfully em- ployed in war. In France Gen. Paixhans pro- posed in 1822 that large heavy shells should be fired from long-chambered guns, resembling those already invented by Bomford in Ameri- ca; and he proved, in spite of the greatest op- position, that it was as practicable and almost as easy to throw shells to a great distance with slight elevations as to throw shot. Designed originally for the naval service, his chambered pieces, known as Paixhans guns, were felt to be of equal importance for seacoast defence. Their adoption into almost every service, with the consequent development of horizontal shell fire, was beyond question the most important event in the history of artillery since Gribeau- val's time, and eventually led to the adoption of iron armor as a protection for vessels of war. The first instance of the employment of this kind of fire on a large scale was at the siege of Antwerp by the French in 1832, where it proved so formidable that the defence were able to make but a feeble resistance. At Si- nope, where the whole Turkish fleet was de- molished in about an hour by the Russian shells, at Sebastopol, as well as in the more recent naval combat between the Kearsarge and Alabama, Paixhans's predictions as to the destructive effects of heavy shells have been completely verified. The French field materiel was modified in 1827 by the substitution of 32 and 24-pdr. howitzers, lengthened to corre- spond with 12 and 8-pdr. guns, for the 6-inch howitzer and 4-pdr. gun, which were abol- ished ; the limber of the gun carriage was sub- sequently lightened and provided with an am- munition chest, its wheels being made of the same size as those of the carriage ; the mode of connecting the limber with the carriage was also simplified, so as to greatly facilitate tie ma- noeuvres of limbering and unlimbering ; while the two flasks which formed the trail were re- placed by a single piece called the stock, which permitted the carriage to turn in a smaller cir- cle than before. In 1850 a light 12-pdr. gun devised by Louis Napoleon, and known as the gun-howitzer or Napoleon gun, was experi- mented upon in France. The object chiefly aimed at in its construction was the substitu- tion of a single gun of medium weight and cal- ibre, firing both shot and shell, for the 12 and 8-pdr. guns and 32 and 24-pdr. howitzers. The new piece, giving very favorable results, was issued in 1853 to the divisional batteries, taking the place of the 8-pdr. gun and 24-pdr. howit- zer, the heavy 12-pdr. gun and 32-pdr. howit- zer being temporarily retained in the reserve artillery. It was most successfully used by the French during the Crimean war, and was adopted into various European services as well as into that of the United States. In England the drivers' corps was abolished in 1822, and men were enlisted for the royal artillery botli as cannoneers and drivers; the troops of FIG. 5. Diagram of Gun Carriage. 1, 1. Foot Boards. 2. Pintle Hook. 8. Pole. 4. Prolonge. 5. Trace Hooks. 6. Ammunition Chest. 7. Elevating Screw.