DOMINION ARTILLERY ASSOCIATION.

PRIZE ESSAY.'

ON THE SUPPLY, CARE, AND REPAIR OF ARTILLERYMATERIAL, INCLUDING SMALL ARMS AND AMMUNITION FOR CANADIAN MILITIA.

By Captain and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. MONTIZAMBERT, "B" Battery, Canadian Artillery, School of Gunnery, Quebec.

Extract from General Orders, 23rd March, 1877.

DOMINION ARTILLERY ASSOCIATION.

MEDAL FOR ESSAY.

His Excellency the Earl of Dufferin, K.P., &c., Governor-General of Canada, has been graciously pleased to express his intention of offering a medal for the best essay on the supply, care, and repair of artillery-material, including small arms and ammunition for Canadian Militia, to be competed for by Officers of the Canadian Militia Artillery, being members of, or belonging to, corps affiliated with the Dominion Artillery Association. Officers or others who have served in the Royal or Royal Marine Artillery to be excluded from competition.

The essays to be distinguished only by a motto, not that of any Artillery corps, and the manuscript not to be in the handwriting of the competitors.

The essays to be sent to the President of Council, Dominion Artillery Association, Quebec, before the last day of July, 1877.

The judges to be Officers of the Royal Artillery, viz. :

The Inspectors of Artillery and the Professor of Artillery, Military College, Kingston.

The essays may be in English or French; subject matter will be considered of more importance than style. Quotations and extracts from works bearing on the subject may be freely made use of, but the names of the authors so quoted must be given in foot or marginal note.

The best essay will be printed at the expense of the Dominion Artillery Association, and distributed to members.

"Potz blitz! Das ist ya von Gustle aus Blaserwitz!"-Schiller.

ON the withdrawal from the Canadian Dominion of the Imperial Legions in the fall of 1871, a transfer was made of a considerable amount of warlike stores and material from the British to the Canadian Government, of which the late Sir George Cartier was then

1 Reprinted at the suggestion of the President of the Association.

Premier and Minister of Militia and Defence; Lt.-Col. Robertson Ross (late 25th King's Own Borderers), being Adjt.-General, and Col. Powell, Dep.-Adjt.-General of Militia, Lt.-Col. Wily, Dom. Mil. Storekeeper, took over the material transferred, and was assisted by Lt.-Col. French, R.A., C.M.G., then Lt. French, R. A., and Firemaster of the R.A. Brigade, then stationed at Quebec), in matters connected with the Artillery branch.

After the march out from the Citadel of Quebec of three batteries of the 3rd Brigade Royal Artillery, three companies Royal Engineers, and the 1st Battalion 60th Royal Rifles, under Col. Gordon, the last British troops quartered in the Canadas, the keys of the strong old Keep were handed over by General Hamilton, R.E., Commandant, to Lt.-Col. Strange, R.A., who, with an incipient battery of Canadian gunners, undertook the important duties of the garrison of Quebec, and has ever since kept flying over the Citadel that glorious flag the Union Jack, which for so many years has, without interruption, floated proudly on the grand old fortress.

Portions of the then existing armaments at the military posts, St. John, Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto, came to us as a free gift, and the roll-books, imposing enough as far as the number of pieces of ordnance is concerned.

With the exception, however, of ten 7" Armstrong B.L.R. guns at Quebec, these consisted of old S.B. cast iron pieces, guns, carronades, howitzers, and mortars.

Garrison Artillery.

The guns, 68, 56, 32, and 24 prs., are of little use where now mounted, and are to be replaced in the principal fortresses by more modern weapons; those S.B. guns would be useful for the armament of gunboats on the lakes, nothing much heavier being likely to be brought against them on those inland waters.

Predominance on the upper lakes, especially on Lake Ontario, is of the first importance. On this subject, Col. Fletcher, Scots Fusilier Guards, late Military Secretary to his Excellency the GovernorGeneral, says in a very able lecture on Canadian Defence:

"Coûte qui coûte, the command of Lake Ontario must be secured "and maintained, and, above all, Kingston would have "to be placed beyond the possibility of capture."

Of the 68-prs. there are two mounted in coast batteries at St. John, N.B.

The 56-pr. class is represented by one gun in Fort Henry, at Kingston, where it would doubtless give a good account of anything

likely to be brought against it; not so with the heavier 68-prs. at St. John, that port being open to the attack of armoured cruizers.

The carronades and howitzers, firing charges of case and grape, would answer very well for the flank defence of ditches and curtains, and those in artillery charge are, most of them at present, mounted in positions for that purpose. In more modern armaments the caponnières would be armed with Gatlings, probably of a calibre sufficiently large (say 65) to allow of the bullets breaking scaling-ladders.1

The mortars given over were 13", 10", and 8", land and sea service. There are also 12 and 18 pr. siege guns, one battery of the latter, with carriages and waggons complete, at Quebec, and another at Montreal.

Formerly, the Royal Artillery had 40-pr. wedge Armstrong R. siege guns; these are about the same weight as the old 18-pr. S.B., and are, of course, an infinitely superior arm for the purpose for which they are intended; none of them, however, were left in the country on Dominion charge.

Of the ten 7" B.L.R. ordnance, four are mounted en barbette on the salient bastions of the Citadel of Quebec: three with their stores, carriages, platforms, and racers, are lying, one in each of the splendid forts at Point Levis, opposite Quebec, but as yet the necessary concrete platforms have not been laid down.

The caponnières of these forts are armed with sixteen 32-pr. carronades; a poor substitute for the complete armament of rifled guns offered as a free gift by the Imperial Government, which was as follows:

One of these guns is lying in the park of the old Artillery Barracks at Quebec, intended to be mounted in an angle of the works commanding the head of Dorchester Bridge-the only approach to the city from across the St. Charles River. Before leaving, the Royal Engineers laid down the racers for this gun, but the concrete has never been filled in. The remaining two were sent, in 1874, to Kingston, where they now remain in charge of "A" Battery School of Gunnery.

This class of gun is almost obsolete in the British service. It is a good gun for land defence, is extremely accurate, and from the comparatively large capacity of its common shell, which weighs, filled, 98 lbs., bursting charge 7 lbs. 10 oz., would be very effective against

1 An exhaustive pamphlet on "Mitrailleuses or Machine Guns," has been written by Capt. J. F. Owen, R.A., Capt. Inst. Royal Gun Factories, and their tactical use treated of in a lecture, entitled "The Gatling Gun: its Place in Tactics," by Capt. E. Rodgers, F.R.G.S., Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, No. LXXXII.

earthworks. The other projectiles used with this gun are segment and shrapnel shell and case shot. We have no 7-inch shrapnel in the country. Large quantities of this projectile are, or were lately, lying piled in Woolwich Arsenal, and probably might be obtained at a low cost. The complicated and delicate breech mechanism is against the gun, and has been known, in the severe winters of this climate, to become immovable, from the oil or drifting snow freezing between the bearings. An Armstrong armourer and peculiar tools are needed to keep it in order; the vent-piece requires constant attention, and the special stores and fittings used with it are many and varied.

Some years ago, two 64 32-pr. Palliser converted, and three S.B. 32-prs., with their carriages and stores complete, were handed over by the Imperial authorities at Halifax as a free gift to the Dominion. They have been mounted for drill purposes by the Artillery, and form an addition to the heavy ordnance on Canadian charge.

There are also three 32-prs. and an old iron 6-pr. mounted on an earthwork commanding the entrance of the bay of Charlotte Town, Prince Edward Island.

Field Artillery.

There are in Canada sixteen batteries in all. Until 1871, these corps, with one exception, were armed with S.B.M.L. bronze pieces, three guns and one howitzer to each battery. Since then, however, they have nearly all been provided with the latest 9-pr. M.L.R. gun of 8 cwt., and the most modern wrought iron carriages with Madras wheels from the Woolwich Royal Gun and Carriage Factories.

There are sixty of these guns now in use by the Canadian Militia. The 9-pr. of 6 cwt. would perhaps have suited our purpose better.

The Halifax Field Battery alone was then, and still is, served out six of the B.L.R. 6-pr. guns of 3 cwt. (Colonial Service).

Waggons were not imported with the 9-prs., with the exception of four which were given to the London Field Battery.

The two Schools of Gunnery have also these guns, and there are four at Red River, in possession of the Winnepeg Field Battery.

The North-West Mounted Police have in charge four 7-pr. M.L.R. mountain guns, 200 lbs. weight, and two 9-pr. 8 cwt. M.L.R. guns. There are no other pieces in the north-west belonging to the Dominion except a few S.B. bronze field guns and some Coehorn mortars at Fort Garry, Manitoba.

During a late discussion before the members of the Royal Colonial Institute, on Capt. Colomb's paper on "Imperial and Colonial Re"sponsibilities in War," "Capt. Bedford Pim, M.P., expressed indig"nation at the supineness of successive Governments with reference to "the defenceless state of Vancouver's Island, the depôt for all the stores "for our naval forces in the Pacific. If Russia within the next few "months were to declare war against us, Vancouver's Island, with all "the stores, would be at her mercy. As to our fleet, Russia having a "larger force and means of telegraphic communication with them, "which were not at our disposal, would be able, long before our ships

on the Pacific station could hear of the declaration of war, to dispose of them in detail."

Our fellow-countrymen in British Columbia generally are alive to the fact of their having no adequate supplies of material wherewith to defend themselves, and several articles have of late appeared in the papers on the subject.

At St. John's, Quebec, and Montreal, points liable to be attacked by armoured ships, some of the heavier guns should be mounted, such as those at Halifax, 12, 18, and 25-ton guns; notably on the formidable fortress of Quebec, the key of Canada, where there is a battery of Canadian Artillery to take care of and, if necessary, use them.

The fifteen 64 32-pr. R.M.L. Palliser converted guns of 58 cwt., now arriving, will be a great accession to the Canadian armament; but they are now used as shell guns only in the English service, and no Palliser projectiles have been sent out with them. With the Palliser chilled shot and a battering charge they could pierce, at short ranges, the weaker ironclads.

From the high command of the Citadel of Quebec, projectiles from these guns aimed at the decks of ironclads would tell with good effect. A vessel's deck, when approaching bow on, offers a favourable parallelogram of error, elevation being a far more difficult matter than direction.

The fact that the present supply of 32-pr. carriages and side-arms would answer also for these guns was an economical inducement for their purchase.

Some guns of a heavy nature mounted à fleur d'eau, at Indian Cove, or at the head of the Island of Orleans, would command the channel.

It is to be hoped that the 64 32-prs. are but the avant-garde of some of their larger brethren, and that the eastern cities of the Dominion may be put in a position to reply in a sterner tone if called upon to speak at all-an event in these warlike times perhaps not wholly improbable.

L'Aisné in his "Aide-mémoire portatif du génie" (Paris, 1861), lays down the formula for the whole number of guns to defend a bastion fort, as follows:-No. of guns 146+5 (M.-2), M. being the number of bastions. Taking the fortress of the Citadel of Quebec with five bastions we would have 146 + 5 (5-2) = 161 guns.

=

It is to be presumed that this formula would still hold good unless there existed a great difference in weight of metal between the guns of the besiegers and besieged. The stronghold just alluded to is armed, at present, with nine of the weakest class of garrison rifled guns in the service and a few obsolete smooth-bores.

The armament proposed for this fortress by the Imperial Government was as follows:

For Quebec Citadel and works facing the river, as approved 9/5/68, Canada,