Handbook for Light ArtilleryDyer, A. B. (Alexander Brydie)
History
Handbook for Light Artillery
Dyer, A. B. (Alexander Brydie)
Artillery, Field and mountain
=To Disable a Field-gun.=--Open the breech-block and then break it with
a heavy hammer; or load the piece, close the breech without locking it,
and fire the piece; or place two or three blank cartridges in the gun,
close and lock the breech-block, ram in from the muzzle a ball of clay
or sod; then unlock the breech-block and fire; or fire a shotted gun
with its muzzle against the chase of another.
Guns of the Krupp system may be temporarily disabled by carrying off
the breech-block, or breaking off its handle.
ASCENTS.
After pulling up a short, steep hill the horses should be halted to
recover their wind. When this cannot be done, they will move very
slowly.
In going up a difficult hill the carriages may be halted to rest the
horses by bringing them across the declivity and locking the limbers or
chocking the wheels, or by putting on the brake to the rear; for this
purpose it may be expedient to start the sections or platoons from the
bottom in succession, leaving a distance of 20 or 30 yards between the
different portions of the column.
If the draught be so difficult that the teams are liable to stall, the
carriages in rear are halted, and the lead-and swing-horses of the rear
half of the carriages can be taken out and hitched to the leading half;
when these have been taken through, all the horses, except the wheel,
will be taken back, and the rear carriages brought up. As it is very
hard to make the horses pull together, not more than five pairs can be
hitched with effect to a single carriage.
DESCENTS.
The drivers never dismount going down hill; the wheel-driver holds his
near horse well in hand, and his off horse very short. Two cannoneers
may be mounted on each gun-carriage and caisson to apply the brakes. In
the absence of instructions from higher authority the chief of carriage
directs whether the brakes are to be applied to a particular wheel or
to both. The brakes are easily applied and removed, and a judicious use
of them will save the horse much fatigue and prevent sore necks and
shoulders. If the descent be very steep, the sectional picket-line may
be used by the cannoneers to hold back; in this case the wheel-horses
only remain hitched to the carriage, the others being led in rear.
MOVING ALONG DECLIVITIES.
If a carriage have to move along a declivity so steep that a slight
jolt may overturn it, the wheels are locked, the sectional picket-line
fastened to the top of the upper wheel and held by two or three
cannoneers, who march on the upper side of the slope.
DITCHES.
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