Volunteer Artillery

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Engels wrote this article at the request of Alfred Walmsley, one of the editors of The Volunteer Journal. His letter to Engels survives, as follows: “My dear Engels,— I enclose you a few remarks, I think from the Times, in reference to Volunteer Artillery.—We very much desire a few lines on the subject, and as I find the Volunteer Artillery officers in Manchester have no very great literary abilities, I shall have to venture to ask you to give us a paragraph on the subject. As you are aware the Artillery in Manchester is progressing but slowly. And an article on the subject may do great good; though my opinion is that inland artillery corps are not so very much required. I am, dear Sir, Yours truly, Alfred Walmsley.”

Engels included the article in the collection Essays Addressed to Volunteers, abridging and changing the first paragraph. p. 429

The subject of volunteer artillery is one of great importance, and ought to be widely discussed; the more so, as the part which the volunteer artillery is to take in the defence of the country does not appear to have been, as yet, very clearly defined.

Now, it is evident that the first question to be settled is the proper sphere of action of the volunteer artillery. Unless this be done, there will never be any uniform system of training in the different corps; and as the science of artillery comprises the most multifarious subjects, the whole of which it would be difficult indeed, theoretically and practically, to teach to all the volunteer officers and privates, the different corps, when wanted for action, would arrive with very different qualifications for the duties to be performed by them; and many a company, on being put to a particular task, would be found to be very little qualified to carry it out.

In the following observations we do not by any means profess to say what volunteer artillery ought, or ought not to be; we merely wish to point out some of the conditions under which volunteer, as well as any other artillery, has to be formed, to open the field for that discussion which we invite, and from which, ultimately, an understanding must arise, as to the proper sphere of action of volunteer artillery corps.

All artillery is divided into field artillery which has to operate with the infantry and cavalry in the field, and is provided with horsed guns; and into siege or fortress artillery which works heavy guns in stationary and protected batteries, for the attack or defence of fortified places. If in a regular army, the length of service of the men, and the special scientific education of the officers, renders it possible to train the whole body to both branches of the service, so far, at least, that on an emergency every company can be put to any duty; this is not the case with volunteers, who, officers as well as men, can devote but a portion of their time to their military duties. In France, in Austria, in Prussia, field artillery is kept quite distinct from garrison or siege artillery. If this is the case in regular standing armies, surely there must be some reason for it which will operate far stronger in an army of volunteers.

The fact is this: the mere handling of a field gun is not so different from that of a heavy gun in battery that the privates of a volunteer company could not easily learn both. But the nature of the duties of the officers in either case is so very different, that nothing less than a professional education and long practice could qualify a man to do both equally well. In an officer of field artillery, a rapid military glance, a thorough judgment of ground and of distances, a perfect knowledge of the effect of his guns, enabling him to hold out against an attack to the last moment without losing any guns, a long experience of what horses can do, and of the way to treat them in a campaign; and, finally, a good deal of dash combined with prudence, are the chief qualities. In an officer of garrison or siege artillery, scientific acquirements, theoretical knowledge of artillery in all its branches, of fortification, mathematics, and mechanics, an ability of turning everything into use, a patient and strict attention to the erection and repair of earthworks, and to the effects of a concentrated fire, and a courage more tenacious than dashing will be required. Give the command of a bastion to a captain of a 9-pounder battery, and it will take the best man a deal of training before he is up to the work; put an officer who has attended for a couple of years to nothing but siege guns, at the head of a battery of horse artillery, and it will take a long while before he has worn off his methodical slowness and recovered the dash required for his new arm. With Volunteer non-commissioned officers lacking the scientific education of their superiors, the difficulty will be still greater.

Of the two, the garrison artillerist seems to be the easiest formed. Civil engineers possess all the preliminary scientific knowledge required for the business, and will very soon learn the application to artillery of the scientific principles with which they are conversant. They will easily learn the handling of the different machines used in moving heavy ordnance, the construction of batteries, and the rules of fortification. They will, therefore, form the class from which volunteer artillery officers should be chiefly selected, and will be especially adapted for garrison artillery. It will be the same with the non-commissioned officers and gunners. All men who have had much to do with machinery, such as engineers, mechanics, blacksmiths, will form the best material, and on this ground the great manufacturing centres ought to form the best corps. Practice with heavy guns may be an impossibility in the interior of the country, but the sea is not so very far from our Lancashire and Yorkshire inland towns that occasional trips to the sea-side might not be organised for the purpose; besides, with heavy guns in battery, where the first graze of every shot can be seen, and the men can correct themselves, actual target practice is not of such paramount importance.

There is another thing against the attempt at getting up volunteer field artillery—the expense of the guns and the horsing of them. A few companies combining amongst themselves may, indeed, be able to raise the expense of horsing a couple of guns for the summer months, and drill with them in turns, but neither men nor officers will thereby be formed into efficient field artillerists. The expense of equipping a field-battery of six guns is generally reckoned about equal to that of getting up a whole battalion of infantry; no company of volunteer artillery could afford such an outlay; and considering the disgrace attached to the loss of a gun on the battle-field, it may well be doubted whether any government would ever be inclined, in case of invasion, to entrust volunteer artillery with field guns, horses and drivers, on the terms on which rifle volunteers are supplied with small arms.

On these and other grounds, we cannot but come to the conclusion that the proper sphere for the volunteer artillery is the manning of heavy guns in stationary batteries on the coast. An attempt at field artillery may be inevitable in inland towns, to keep up the interest in the movement, and it will certainly do no harm to either officers or men to be made acquainted, as far as possible, with the handling of horsed light guns; but we confess we have, from our own personal experience in the arm, our great doubts as to their eventual proficiency in field service. Still, they will have learned a great many things which will be quite as useful to them in the use of heavy guns, and they will soon be up to the mark when placed in charge of them.

There is another point we wish to allude to. Artillery, far more than infantry and cavalry, is an essentially scientific arm, and as such its efficiency will chiefly depend upon the theoretical and practical knowledge of the officers. We have no doubt that by this time Major Griffiths’ Artillerist’s Manual will be in the hands of every officer of volunteer artillery. The contents of that book show with what a variety of subjects an artillery officer, and even a non-commissioned officer, has to make himself familiar before he can lay claim to any proficiency in his arm; yet that book is merely a short abstract of what an efficient artillerist ought to know. Besides the regular company and battalion drill, common to infantry and artillery, there is the knowledge of the many different calibres of ordnance, their carriages and platforms, charges, ranges, and various projectiles; there is the construction of batteries, and the science of sieges; permanent and field fortification; the manufacture of ammunition and fireworks; and, finally, that science of gunnery which, at the present moment, is receiving such wonderful and new additions by the introduction of rifled guns. All these things have to be learnt both theoretically and practically, and they are all of equal importance; for whenever the volunteer artillery are embodied for active service, they will come to a dead lock unless all these branches have been attended to. Of all volunteer corps, therefore, the artillery is the one in which the efficiency of the officers is of the greatest importance; and we do hope and trust that they will exert themselves to the utmost to attain that practical experience and theoretical knowledge without which they must be found wanting on the day of trial.