Book: Elements of Military Art and Science

H >> Henry Wager Halleck >> Elements of Military Art and Science




Artillery, on the field of battle, is very liable to allow its fire to
be drawn, and its projectiles wasted, while the enemy is at too great a
distance to be reached. It is a very common thing in a battle, to employ
two or three pieces of heavy calibre at the beginning of the fight, in
order to provoke the opposing batteries to open their fire before the
proper time. The waste of material is not the only loss attending this
error; the troops are fatigued and disheartened, while the courage and
confidence of their opponents are always revived by a weak and
inaccurate fire. To avoid such an error the commanding officer of a
battery of artillery should be perfectly familiar with the effective
ranges of his pieces, and accustomed to form a correct estimate of
distances. For this purpose the eye should be frequently practised in
time of peace in estimating the ranges for different calibres.

The effective range of a 12-pounder field-piece

is about . . . . . . 1000 yds.
" " " " 6 " " 800 "
" " " " 24 " howitzer, 600 "
" " " " 12 " " 500 "
" " " " grape and case shot is
from . . . . . . 300 to 500 "

Even at these distances the aim is usually so inaccurate that a large
portion of the projectiles are lost. In the attack on Spires, a whole
column of artillery expended its fire while at a distance of 900 yards
from the enemy, who, of course, received little or no injury. In firing
from fortifications, the aim is far more accurate, and the artillery may
therefore be employed to advantage as soon as the enemy comes within the
longest range.

II. As an arm of succor, the artillery serves, 1st, to give impulsive
force to the attacking columns; 2d, to assist in arresting, or at least
in retarding, the offensive movements of an enemy; 3d, to protect the
avenues of approach, and to defend obstacles that cover a position; and,
4th, to cover a retrograde movement.

Mounted artillery is, like cavalry, much the most effective in attack;
but batteries of foot are better calculated for defence. The cannoniers
are so armed as to be capable of defending their pieces to the last
extremity; they therefore cannot be easily captured by opposing columns
of infantry. "As to pretending to rush upon the guns," says Napoleon,
"and carry them by the bayonet, or to pick off the gunners by musketry,
these are chimerical ideas. Such things do sometimes happen; but have we
not examples of still more extraordinary captures by a _coup de main?_
As a general rule, there is no infantry, however intrepid it may be,
that can, without artillery, march with impunity the distance of five or
six hundred toises, against two well-placed batteries (16 pieces) of
cannon, served by good gunners; before they could pass over two-thirds
of the way, the men would be killed, wounded, or dispersed. * * * * A
good infantry forms, no doubt, the sinews of an army; but if it were
required to fight for a long time against a very superior artillery, its
good quality would be exhausted, and its efficiency destroyed. In the
first campaigns of the wars of the Revolution, what France had in the
greatest perfection was artillery; we know not a single instance in
which twenty pieces of cannon, judiciously placed, and in battery, were
ever carried by the bayonet. In the affair at Valmy, at the battles of
Jemmapes, Nordlingen, and Fleurus, the French had an artillery superior
to that of the enemy, although they had often only two guns to one
thousand men; but that was because their armies were very numerous. It
may happen that a general, more skilful in manoeuvring, more expert than
his adversary, and commanding a better infantry, may obtain successes
during a part of a campaign, although his artillery may be far inferior
to that of his opponent; but on the critical day of a general
engagement, his inferiority in point of metal will be severely felt."

History furnishes us numerous examples of the use of artillery in
protecting avenues of approach:--such as the defile of Koeesen at the
battle of Auerstedt; the avenues between the redoubts of Pultowa, &c.,
&c.

When an army is forced to retreat, it covers its rear by that portion of
its cavalry and mounted artillery which has suffered least during the
battle. By placing the squadrons of horse and the light batteries in
echelon, the retiring column may be well protected. The artillery, by
using the prolonge, may also continue its retreat while in battery and
firing. It was in this way that at the battle of Albuera, in 1811, the
French artillery on the left wing held in check the right and centre of
the Anglo-Spaniards till the army effected its retreat; the artillery
then retired in echelons, by batteries and fractions of batteries, under
the protection of the cavalry.

We have already discussed, under the general head of tactics, the
position and use of artillery on the battle-field a few additional
remarks must suffice.

As a general rule, batteries should be placed in positions from which
they can employ their fire to advantage, and also be free to move in any
direction that the progress of the battle may require. Advantage should
always be taken of natural or artificial obstacles, such as hedges,
clumps of trees, logs, mounds of earth, &c., to cover and conceal the
guns till the moment they open their fire. Elevated positions are,
contrary to the common opinion, generally unfavorable, for artillery
cannot fire to advantage at any considerable angle of depression. The
slopes in front should be of considerable length, otherwise the balls
would do very little execution upon that portion of the column of attack
which occupied the valley. The ground should also be smooth, for if
rough the balls will either bury themselves in the earth, or ricochet at
a high angle of deflection, thus destroying a considerable part of the
effect of the fire. The counterforts or spurs of hills are favorable for
artillery, as they enable it to see, with an enfilading fire, the slopes
of the principal range. Batteries should seldom be placed so as to fire
over other troops, for they will not only be intimidated by this fire,
but also exposed to the opposing fire of the enemy's artillery. A large
number of pieces should never be crowded into the same place, but an
interval should be left between the guns of forty or fifty feet,
according to the locality. The most favorable position for this arm in
ordinary ground, is in the intervals between the regiments or brigades
of the line, and far enough in advance of this line not to draw upon the
other troops the fire of the enemy's artillery. The flanks of the line
are also favorable for the action of this arm.

Sometimes artillery has been employed to form a part of the line of
battle; but such instances are exceptions, and can never be comprised in
general rules. Whenever this disposition has been made, it has resulted
from the defective character of the other arms, or from some peculiar
circumstance in the battle which enabled a bold and skilful commander to
deviate from the ordinary rules of tactics. Such was the case with
Napoleon at Wagram. In Saxony, in 1813, he was several times obliged to
substitute his artillery to supply the want of other arms.

In the defence and attack of field-works, and in the passage of rivers,
artillery plays an important and indispensable part; but it here becomes
an auxiliary to the dispositions of the engineers, or at least acts in
concert with that arm.

The troops of artillery, in all well-regulated army organizations,
should equal about two-thirds of the cavalry, or one-seventh of the
infantry.[36]

[Footnote 36: To qualify himself for the duties connected with his arm
of service, the artillery officer must make himself thoroughly
acquainted with--.

_The Instruction for United States Field Artillery, horse and foot;

Capt. Anderson's Instruction for Garrison Artillery;

Kinsley's Notes on Pyrotechny;

Knowlton's Notes on Gunpowder_,&c.; and

The writings of Thiroux and Piobert on theoretical and practical
instruction, and the writings of Jomini, Decker, and Okotmeff, on the
use of this arm on the field of battle.

The following list of books of reference may be of use to those who wish
to make themselves perfectly familiar with all the branches of
artillery.

_Histoire general de l'artillerie_. Brunet.

_L'artillerie a cheval dans les combats de cavalerie_. Par un officier
de l'artillerie Prussienne.

_Considerations et experiences sur le tir des obus a bulles_. Bormann.
_Essai sur les obusiers_. Dusaert.

_Essai sur l'organisation de l'artillerie_. Le Bourg.

_Traite sur l'artillerie_, (traduit de l'Allemand.) Rouvroy.

_Bombardier Francais_. Belidor.

_Memoires d'artillerie_. St. Remy.

_Essai sur l'usage de l'artillerie dans la guerre de campagne et celle
de siege_. Dupuget.

_Memoires sur les nouveaux systemes d'artillerie_. St. Aubin.

_Treatise on Artillery_. Mueller.

_Artificial Fire-Works_. Jones.

_Table de tir les canons et obusiers_. Lombard.

_On Gunpowder_. Antoni.

_Recherches sur l'artillerie en general_. Texier de Norbec.

_Description de l'art de fabriquer les canons_. Monge.

_Procedes de la fabrication des armes blanches_. Vandermonde.

_Manuel de l'artilleur_. Durtubie.

_Traite du mouvement des projectiles_. Lombard.

_Treatise on Artillery_. Scheel. (Translated from the German.)

_Traite pratique des feux d'artifice_. Morel.

_Manuel du canonnier marin_. Cornibert.

_New Principles of Gunnery_. Robins.

_Memoires sur la fabrication des armes portatives_. Cotty.

_Recherches sur la poudre_. Cossigny.

_Supplement_. Cossigny.

_Fabrication de la poudre_. Renaud.

_American Artillerist's Companion_. Toussard.

_Tables des portees des canons et canonades de la marine_. Cornilwert.

_Traite d'artifices de guerre_. Bigot.

_Traite elementaire de la fabrication des bouches a feu_. Dartein.

_Traite de l'art de fabriquer la poudre a canon_. Bottee et Riffault.

_L'art du salpetrier_. Bottee et Riffault.

_Dictionary of Artillery_. Hoyer. (German.)

_New Experiments on Gunnery_. Hutton--(Hutton's Tracts.)

_Des bois propres au service des Arsenaux_. Herbin de Halles.

_Instruction sur le service de l'artillerie_. Hulot.

_Manoeuvres de force_. Bigot.

_Balistique_. Obenheim.

_Treatise on Artillery_. German. Scharnhorst. (Translated into French,
1840.)

_Essai sur l'art de pointer_. Poumet.

_Reflexions sur la fabrication des bouches a feu_. Lamartilliere.

_Memoire sur la planchette du canonnier_. Obenheim.

_Aide-Memoire_. Gassendi.

_Observations on the use of Artillery at the sieges of Badajos, St.
Sebastian, &c_.

_Treatise on Artillery_. Lallemand.

_Elemens de pyrotechnie_. Ruggieri.

_Nouvelle force maritime_. Paixhans.

_Dictionnaire d'artillerie_. Cotty.

_Recherches balistiques_. Coste.

_Poudres fulminantes_. Vergnaud.

_Manuel de la metallurgie du fer_. Culman.

_Pyrotechnic militaire,_ (traduit de l'Allemand, par R. de Peretsdorff.)

_Journal des Sciences Militaires_.

_Pyrotechny_. Cutbush.

_Traite elementaire d'artillerie_. Decker.

_Fusees de guerre_. Montgery.

_Documens sur la matiere a canons_. Herve.

_Observations sur le nouveau systeme d'artillerie_. Allix.

_Systeme d'artillerie de campagne_. Allix.

_Pocket Gunner_. Adye.

_On the Rocket System_. Congreve.

_Essai sur l'art des fontes_. Serres.

_Receuil de Memoires sur la poudre a canon_. Proust.

_Memorial de l'artilleur marin_. Michel.

_Observations sur le nouveau systeme de l'artillerie_. Poumet.

_Memorial d'artillerie_.

_British Gunner_. Spearman.

_Regles de pointage a bord des vaisseaux_. Montgery.

_Manuel du maitre de forges_. Landrin.

_Naval Gunnery_. Douglass.

_Metallurgie du fer_ (traduit de l'Allemand, par Culman.) Karsten.

_Aide-Memoire a l'usage des officers d'artillerie_. (Strasbourg.)

_Traite de l'organisation et de la tactique de l'artillerie,_ (traduit
de l'Allemand par Peretsdorff.) Grewenitz.

_Supplement au dictionnaire d'artillerie_. Cotty.

_Memoir on Gunpowder_. Braddock.

_Manuel de l'armurier_. Paulin-Desormeaux.

_Journal des armes speciales_.

_Cours sur le service des officiers dans les fonderies_. Serres.

_Experiences sur la fabrication et la duree des bouches a feu en fer et
bronze,_ (traduit de l'Allemand par Peretsdorff.) Meyer.

_Applications du fer aux constructions de l'artillerie_. Thierry.

_Aide-Memoire d'art militaire_. Lebas.

_Memorial a l'usage de l'armee Belge_.

_Instructions and Regulations for the service and management of heavy
ordnance in the British service_.

_Experiences sur les principes du tir,_ faites a Metz, en 1834.

_Traite d'artillerie theorique et pratique_. Piobert.

_Aide-Memoire a l'usage des officiers d'artillerie,_ (avec approbation
du comite d'artillerie.)

_Manuel d'artillerie a l'usage des officiers de la Republique
Helvetique._ Bonaparte, (Napoleon Louis.)

_Experiences comparatives entre des bouches a feu en fonte de fer,
d'origine Franzaise, Anglaise et Suedoise,_ faites a Gavres, en 1836.

_Experiences faites a Brest en_ 1831, _sur les canons._ Paixhans.

_Essai sur l'organisation de l'artillerie._ Le Bourg.

_Experiences sur des projectiles creux,_ faites en 1829, '30, '31.

_Instruction pratique sur l'emploi des projectiles,_ (traduit de
l'Allemand par Peretsdorff.) Decker.

_Effects of heavy ordnance as applied to ships of war._ Simmons.

_Experiences sur les poudres de guerre,_ faites a Esquerdes, en 1832,
'33, '34, and '35. Maguin.

_Cours d'artillerie a l'usage des sous-officiers._ De Crepy.

_Instruction theorique et pratique d'artillerie,_ a l'usage des eleves
de St. Cyr. Thiroux.

_Cours sur le service des officiers d'artillerie dans les forges._

_Manuel historique de la technologie des armes a feu,_ (traduit de
l'Allemand par M. Rieffel.) Meyer.

_Formules relatives aux effets du tir sur affut._ Poisson.

_Manuel de l'artificer._ Vergnaud.

_Etat actuel de l'artillerie de campagne de toutes les puissances de
l'Europe,_ (traduit par Maze; Ire partie, Artillerie Anglaise.) Jacobi.
(Six other parts have been published in German, containing descriptions
of the French, Belgian, Hessian, Wirtemburg, Nassau, and Swedish
systems.)

_Introduction a l'etude de l'artillerie._ Madelaine.

_Cours sur le service des officiers d'artillerie dans les fonderies.
Description de la fabrication des bouches u feu a la fonderie royale de
Liege._ Huguenin.

_Poudre u canon._ Timmerhans.

_Procedes de fabrication dans les forges,_ (extrait du cours sur le
service des officiers dans les forges.)

_Renseignements sur le materiel de l'artillerie navale de la Grande
Bretagne._ Zeni et des Hays.

_Theorie des affuts et des voitures de l'artillerie._ Migout et Bergery

_Artillerist's Manual._ Griffith.

_Handbuch fuer die K.K. Oesterreichische Artillerie Offiziere,_ (manual
for the Austrian artillery officers.)

_Sammlung von Steindruckzeichnungen der Preussischen Artillerie,_ _mit
Erlaeuterungen_, (collection of plates of the Prussian artillery, with
explanatory text.)

_Histoire des fusees de guerre._

_Ordnance Manual_, for the use of the officers of the United States
Army.

_Experiments on Gunpowder_. Capt. Mordecai.

_Pyrotechny_, for the use of the Cadets at the United States Military
Academy. Kinsley.

_Notes on Gunpowder, Percussion Powder, Cannon, and Projectiles_. Lt.
Knowlton.]




CHAPTER XII.

ARMY ORGANIZATION--ENGINEERS.



_Engineers_.--The term _engineer_ is derived from the unclassical Latin
word _ingenium_, which was applied both to a _machine_ and the _mind_ or
_skill_ of the person who devised or constructed it.

It was Philip Augustus, say the French writers, who first introduced
engineers (_engigneurs_, or _engignours_, as they were called) into
France, and restored the art of sieges. The engineers of that age were
seldom charged with the construction of works of military defence, but,
like Archimedes at Syracuse, and Longinus at Palmyra, they directed
their attention principally to devising implements of war and the most
effective manner of using them. Engines of war were at that time divided
between the _engigneurs_ and the _artilliers_; the former being charged
with the heavier machines, and the latter with the smaller weapons used
for throwing projectiles. After the invention of gunpowder, the old
battering-rams, cranes, helipoles, &c., disappeared, and with them the
_engigneurs_, or masters of engines. The new inventions were united with
the few old projectile machines that remained in the artillery, and the
engineers were for a time left almost without employment. The revival of
the art of fortification was very slow, and the modern system scarcely
began to be developed till near the sixteenth century.

We must omit for the present giving even an outline of the history of
military engineering, and pass to the troops of this arm, as
constituting an essential element of an army organization. The subject
of fortification, and the history of its various changes, will be
examined in the next chapter.

The engineers, in modern army organization, constitute the fourth arm of
service, as, compared with artillery, their relative numbers are about
as two to three. They are divided in the same manner as the artillery,
viz.:--1st, the staff; 2d, guards, or fort-keepers; 3d, artificers; and
4th, the troops.

I. The officers constituting the staff of this corps are charged in time
of peace with planning, constructing, and repairing all fortifications
and other defensive works; the construction and preparation of all
military materials, and stores connected with this arm; and (in our
service) with the disbursements of money connected with these
operations: in time of war they are charged with the attack and defence
of military works, the laying out and construction of field defences,
redoubts, intrenchments, roads, &c.; in the attack they form a part of
the vanguard, to remove obstructions; and in retreat they form a part
of the rear-guard, to erect obstacles, destroy roads, bridges, &c., so
as to retard an enemy's pursuit.

From the important character of these duties as connected with the means
essential to a national defence, and the vast amount of money expended
in these operations, it is evident that a high order of acquirements
should be deemed necessary to qualify one to perform the duties of a
military engineer. This officer requires a knowledge of chemistry, to
guide his choice of materials for mortars, cements, and mastics; of
mineralogy and geology, for selecting stone; of botany, for timber and
the means of preventing its decay; of mathematics, in laying out his
work and calculating the thickness and stability of his walls,
embankments, &c.; of mechanical philosophy, in constructing his
machinery; of military engineering, in his plans of fortifications; and
of all the higher branches of military science, in selecting positions
for these works, such that they shall have the proper relations to the
means of national defence, and to the grand operations of armies in the
field. The avenues to appointment to this corps are guarded, in most
European armies, with special care, to prevent the influence of money,
politics, or family connections; and in our own army it is now specified
by law of Congress, that the vacancies shall be filled only from the
most distinguished graduates of the military academy. Formerly our
service suffered most severely from the employment of incompetent
persons, introduced through political influence from civil life, and
foreign charlatans, the refuse of European armies. Many of our earlier
military works (as will be mentioned hereafter) were modelled upon
systems for a long time discarded by the profession in Europe, and even
some of those which have been constructed within the last thirty years
are made of such wretched materials and workmanship, that they are
already crumbling into ruins. While the existing laws and regulations
seem well calculated to prevent the recurrence of similar abuses and
errors, it nevertheless can be shown that the organization of this arm
of our service requires modifications and extensions to give it the
requisite degree of efficiency, and to economize the public
expenditures.

The wars of Louis XIV. first led to a regular military organization, and
a regular system of defence. In these wars the engineers received great
development, and have ever since occupied a prominent position as parts
of an army organization. We therefore find in all the great sieges and
battles of this era a large and continually increasing number of
engineers and engineer troops, this force being gradually augmented as
the true principles of war became better understood, and as the wants of
the service required. Even in the earliest of these battles we find the
engineers taking a prominent and distinguished part. In the war of 1688,
twenty-four engineers were killed and wounded at the siege of
Philipsbourg, eighteen at Namur, eight at Huy, ten at Charleroi, eight
at Ath, thirty at Barcelona, &c. Such losses were good proofs of the
usefulness of these officers, and before this war was closed, their
number was increased to six hundred; and in 1706 the army contained
eight brigades of engineers and four companies of miners.

The engineer corps being partially disbanded in the early part of the
French Revolution, great difficulty was experienced in reorganizing it
and in finding competent men to supply the places of those who had been
driven into exile or sacrificed during the reign of terror. Energy and
activity, combined with republican zeal, could supply the place of skill
in the other arms, but the science of the engineer could not be acquired
in a day.

In 1799, the staff of the engineer corps consisted of four hundred and
forty-nine officers, without including the general officers, commanding
departments, or those connected with the engineer troops. The same
organization was continued in 1804. The engineer staff of the French
army now numbers four hundred and thirty-two officers. We have in our
service forty-three engineer officers, for staff duty, who are now
engaged in the construction and repairs of some sixty or seventy
fortifications, and other works of a civil and military character.

II. _Engineer Guards_, or _Fort-Keepers_, are a class of men charged
with the general care of forts, and all public property deposited in the
several engineer depots and garrisons, and in the public works during
their construction.

There are five hundred and fifty of these "_gardes du Genie_" in the
French army, who rank next the sub-lieutenants of engineers, and are
assimilated with the sub-lieutenants of infantry in the hospitals,
marches, &c. _In our service we have no engineer guards or
fort-keepers._

This defect in our organization has been the cause of serious
inconvenience, and the consequent waste of public property. The expense
of hiring civil agents for this purpose has more than trebled the cost
of supporting a suitable number of non-commissioned guards to maintain
the good order and efficiency of our forts, in the absence of engineer
officers, and to preserve and keep in repair the military implements and
stores connected with this department of the army. It has already been
shown that we have fifty-eight of these guards for the artillery
service, and it really seems somewhat singular that the engineers, with
a much greater amount of public property in their charge, are allowed no
assistants of this kind.

III. _Engineer artificers_ are a class of men employed in the practical
operations of constructing forts and other military defences, and in
making and repairing all the implements used by the engineer troops in
the operations of sapping and mining, in crossing rivers, in
constructing field-defences, and in the attack and defence of
fieldworks.

As very few new fortifications are now required in France, the services
of engineer artificers are less necessary and important than in our
service, where large sums of money are annually expended upon military
defences, There are, however, in the French army a corps of engineer
artificers, consisting of eight officers and a cadre of fifty-four
non-commissioned officers, with a variable number of privates, organized
into two companies. _But in our army we have no regular engineer
artificers!_ In our artillery service we have three hundred and thirty
enlisted artillery artificers. If these are useful and necessary to the
artillery service, which no one doubts, for still stronger reasons would
it be advantageous to the public service to employ at least an equal
number of enlisted engineer artificers on our fortifications; for the
annual expenditure of public money is here much greater than in the
corresponding branch of the artillery service.

IV. _Engineer troops_ are divided into three classes--1st, _sappers and
pioneers_; 2d, _miners_; and 3d, _pontoniers_.

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