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.