History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery Vol. 2: Compiled from the Original RecordsDuncan, Francis
History
History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery Vol. 2: Compiled from the Original Records
Duncan, Francis
Great Britain. Army. Royal Regiment of Artillery
3rd. “The turning over only rejected horses from the Dragoons to the
Artillery services was not so well judged as might be expected. It would
have been fortunate (the best of theirs bearing no comparison with the
French cavalry) to have rendered the movement of the Ordnance more
effectual; as it was, both corps remained insufficient; the effects of
which were fully experienced in the action of the 13th March, when, had
only a part of the number of pieces then in the field been very well
horsed, the fate of Alexandria (it is more than probable) might have
been decided on that day. The French, on the other hand, _constantly
applied the very prime of their strong horses (those belonging to the
officers not excepted) to the draught of their ordnance_, which were
chiefly on the Horse Artillery establishment, with 8-pounder guns and
6-inch howitzers, opposed to light 6-pounders and royals only.”
4th. “The disembarking of ordnance, unless in the instance of
field-pieces let down into the boats ready mounted from ships of war,
however regularly performed, is always liable to some confusion. This
principally arises from the parts of the same natures of carriages not
corresponding so correctly as they might do, particularly in the
diameters of the wheels and arms of the axletrees, which should likewise
be as general throughout the whole as possible. The waggons and carts
being frequently made by contract, are very defective in these points,
even to the fitting of their head and tail-boards; and, trifling as this
may appear to a workman at home, it often occasions delays of
consequence to the service, or credit of those concerned in it abroad.
No nation, in point of economy alone, requires so much attention to the
construction and solid stowage of its military carriages and stores as
Great Britain does, on account of their frequent embarkations, the
expenses of which in the course of a war are prodigiously great.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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