A British army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be : $b illustrated by examples during the Peninsular War; with observations upon India; the United States of America; Canada; the boundary line; the navy; steam warfare, &c.Campbell, James
History
A British army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be : $b illustrated by examples during the Peninsular War; with observations upon India; the United States of America; Canada; the boundary line; the navy; steam warfare, &c.
Campbell, James
Great Britain. Army
As I find that I have not yet touched upon some of the subjects which
I am anxious to bring under consideration. I must again beg here to
remind the reader, that having shown, in several instances, in what
manner considerable savings can be effected, I will now go on to point
out a very injudicious piece of economy, the consequences of which
have been always felt in our regiments, viz. that of never allowing
one quarter enough of ammunition for practice; and the result was,
that our soldiers, in general, I will venture to say, were probably
as bad marksmen as any in the world. Our game laws are in a certain
degree the cause that the lower orders of the people are all so
ignorant of the use of fire-arms; but this is a subject with which I
do not intend to meddle, and shall only say, that when English archers
were so formidable, the people were encouraged and even compelled
to assemble at various times of the year to practise this to them
amusing craft; and the result of this wise policy on the part of their
rulers was fully evinced in battle. I must, however, observe, that our
old-fashioned heavy muskets recoil, or kick so violently, after firing
even a few rounds, that if they then go off at all, they cause a man
to think twice, and probably to raise his eye from the object aimed
at, before he ventures to pull the trigger; but since I made a note of
this, with the intention of bringing the subject under consideration,
I find that an improvement in fire-arms, for the army in general, is
actually in contemplation.
I by no means wish to increase the quantity of blank cartridges usually
allowed to amuse grown children at mock-fights, &c. but of ball and
buckshot ammunition; for it is most desirable that the soldier should
know and be able to calculate, at what distances he ought to use both
with proper effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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