ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

transferring to these pages the headings of twenty chapters from an extremely interesting and valuable work, the Aide-Mémoire à l'Usage des Officiers d'Artillerie.

"Chap. 1.-Cannon :-Their names; their principal Dimensions and Weights; their Verification; the Examination of new Pieces; their Proof; Rebushing; the Repairs of Cannon; the Spiking and Unspiking of Cannon; the Manner of rendering Cannon unserviceable; the Preservation of Ordnance; Composition of Brass Guns.

"Chap. 2.-Projectiles :-Their Names, Dimensions, and Weights; the Mode of examining them; their Manufacture; the Furnaces; Mode of Preservation of Projectiles.

"Chap. 3.-Gun-Carriages, Waggons, Equipage: -Names and Varieties; principal Dimensions, Weights, and various Data regarding them; Portions formed of Wood and of Iron; Painting; Preservation of Carriages.

"Chap. 4.-Tools and Instruments: -Names; principal Dimensions and Weights; Mode of Stowage in the Magazines. "Chap. 5.-Gunpowder:-Constituents; Manufacture; Packing; Proof; Analysis; Re-storing; Preservation; Powder Magazines; Transport of Gunpowder.

"Chap. 6.-Ammunition and Laboratory Compositions : — Laboratories; Raw Materials; Small-Arm Ammunition; Gun Ammunition; Matches; Compositions for giving Light and for causing Conflagrations; Percussion Caps; Preservation in the Magazines; breaking up Cartridges; emptying loaded Shells.

"Chap. 7.-Raw Materials, and various articles required for Constructions and as Stores: - Wood, Selections of, Preservation of; Wrought Iron, Examination of; Cast Iron, Kinds of; Steel; Sheet Iron; Tin; Files; Preservation of Metals in the Magazines; Charcoal; Coal and Coke; Cordage; Tar.

66

Chap. 8.-Packing Ammunition, Stores, Tools, &c. : Weights of Gun Carriages and Waggons loaded; Ammunition of Field-pieces; Tools; Stores; Spare Articles: Siege Carriages.

"Chap. 9.-The Horse: -Purchase; Feeding; Care; Shoeing; Harness for Horses, for Mules; Storing of Harness; Disinfection of Stables and of Harness.

"Chap. 10.-Composition of a Field-Equipment: -Armament of Fortresses and of Coast Batteries.

[ocr errors]

'Chap. 11.-March of Field Batteries; Parks and Con

voys.

"Chap. 12.-Manœuvres de Force (Repository Exercises): With Field Guns; with Siege and Garrison Guns; Use of the Gun; Cordage used in these Operations.

"Chap. 13.-Construction of Batteries:-Materials employed; Siege Batteries; Batteries of Guns and Howitzers of the First Parallel; Mortar and Stone-Mortar Batteries; Breaching and Counter Batteries; Armament and Supply of the Batteries; Difficulties to be overcome in the Construction of Batteries; Batteries in Fortresses; Coast Batteries; Batteries in the Field; principal Dimensions of a Fortification; Data relative to the chief Operations of the Attack.

66

Chap. 14.-Notes on the Service in time of War; Service in the Field; Service in a Siege; Service in a Fortress; SerIvice in Coast Defences.

66

'Chap. 15.-Tables of Practice, and Notes on the Effects of -Gunpowder and of Projectiles :- Field Guns; Siege and Garrison Guns; Coast Guns: Relation between the Charge, the Velocity, &c.; Penetration of Projectiles; Fire with Redhot Shot; Mines.

"Chap. 16.-Military Bridges:- Names and principal Dimensions; Equipment of a Bridge of Thirty Pontoons; Launching; Management; Passage of Troops; Operations; Modes of anchoring; casting and heaving Anchors; Reconnaissance of Places to cross; Pontoon Bridges; Bridge of ordinary Boats;

Raft Bridges; Trestle Bridges; Flying Bridges; Pile Bridges; Rope Bridges; Floating Fenders; Preservation, Repair, Destruction of Bridges.

"Chap. 17.-Small Arms: -Names of the most recent Arms; Tables relative to the Arms actually in use; Differences between the various Models hitherto used; Examination, Repairs, and Preservation of Arms; Preservation of the Arms in the Magazines (in charge of the Artillery); Packing of Arms; Results of Experiments; Notes on different Systems of Arms; Armament of different Corps of the Army; Table of the Principal Dimensions of Small Arms.

"Chap. 18.-Field Fortification.

"Chap. 19.-Military Reconnaissances. "Chap. 20.-Useful Data."

If such a course as this be not sufficient of itself to fill up two years of a tolerably studious life, we must acknowledge ourselves unable to take the measure of a common man's capacity. That it has so much in common with the pursuits of an engineer, as to justify the attempt to educate, even in part, the artillerist and the engineer together, appears to us to be a very untenable opinion. We are, therefore, strong advocates for a separate Engineer College, which, as well as the Artillery College, we should, as much as possible, feed from the preliminary school - encouraging youths to enter it who had exhibited special tastes for architecture, the application of steam-power, drawing, mechanics, geodesy, and topography. The school

itself might advantageously be placed at Chatham, or
wherever else the headquarters of the regiment of
Royal Engineers are established, and the instruc-
tion should be as practical as the nature of the
service seems to require. Besides plan-drawing
and surveying, geology, hydrostatics, and astro-
nomy, the young engineer should be instructed in
drawing and levelling lands, in the construction of
viaducts, bridges, and docks, in the steam-engine,
in civil architecture, as well as in permanent and
field fortification; in carpentry and mason's work;
in mining and sapping; in metallurgy and projec-
tiles. In a word, no art, the application of which
is likely to be called for by armies in the field, or
by the progress of civilisation at home, ought to be
altogether a sealed book to him.

We do not see any necessity for carrying engineers
into the arcana of high mathematics; but besides
being rendered eminently practical, ready at every
pinch with a remedy for the evil, they should be
trained to command and manage men, a sort of
lore which they will never learn, unless, after quit-
ting school, they be attached at intervals to com-
panies and battalions, and called upon to do duty
with them. All young men making choice of the
artillery and engineer services, whether passed out

of the primary school or admitted after examination into the school of application from civil life, should enter as lieutenants with local rank such rank to be confirmed and full time allowed after they have completed their course of training, and been appointed to do duty with their respective corps.

The course of the engineer school, like that of the artillery, should extend over two years, and there should be periodical examinations in both. We would assign the same limits to the staff school, the examination for admission into which ought to be strictly competitive; and in order to qualify officers for this, arrangements must be made for affording to them opportunities of study, while doing duty with their regiments, as well in the colonies as at home. Mr. Sidney Herbert, in his speech of June, 1856, has sufficiently explained how this is to be done. At the headquarters of every division, or at convenient places at home and abroad, officers of instruction should be stationed, who, by lectures and otherwise, may guide their comrades in their endeavours to render themselves accomplished soldiers. For it forms part of our plan that promotion shall not take place, from the junior to the senior ranks, without an examination;

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »