RANGES OF ORDNANCE. A PERFECT knowledge of the power of projection, peculiar to each variety of ordnance, is much required; for it cannot reasonably be expected that gunnery will ever arrive at the precision it should attain, unless practical gunners are aided by correct experimental ranges of the different pieces they may be appointed to serve. This want of information may be ascribed to the difficulty of obtaining it; since, for the purpose of determining the ranges of large ordnance, a horizontal plane of considerable extent, and of easy access, is necessary. There is not, probably, any place inland that is so available, or that affords so good a means to obtain the object in question, as some parts of the seacoast; for at low water, an extensive horizontal plane can be readily found; and should there be any obliquity in the plane, it can be easily detected by the level of the sea; which also furnishes the best guide in adjusting the elevation of the piece under trial. These matters considered, the following method is proposed for the determining of ranges of ordnance :— Let a vessel of large scantling be strongly-built, of a tonnage sufficiently great to float with the heaviest description of ordnance; the floor to be flat, upon which let a platform be fairly laid; breadth of beam and length adapted to a draft of water at 3 or 4 feet. Make choice of a part of the sea-coast that is suited to the purpose, (taking care to choose such as will afford a soft bed for the vessel to ground upon,) measure the plane at low water, and mark it at every hundred yards, or any convenient distance, by driving in iron rods, each with a distinguishing mark, so that they can be easily discerned. In some following tide, at slack water, and at the same instant of time, mark the level of the sea at the extreme and middle stations, by which the obliquity of the plane, should there be any, can be ascertained *. Thus prepared, let the vessel, with the piece for trial, be brought, at a convenient time of tide, to the spot chosen for her position; and when she grounds, bed her so as to bring the platform horizontal. The trial may then commence, and be continued till interrupted by the rising water. If the piece be correctly bored and perfectly symmetrical, having the same thickness of metal between the bore and outer surface throughout any section directly across its axis, the correct method of ascertaining the direction of the axis would perhaps be, to erect, perpendicularly, a graduated scale before the piece. The difference of the semi-diameters at the base and muzzle-rings of the piece being known, and the distance of the scale from the notch on the base-ring being also known, it will be an easy matter to point the piece horizontally, or at any angle of elevation that may be required; since it will be necessary only to compute the height on the scale at which the aim should be directed t. Horizontal lines having been already determined by the level of the sea, to which the necessary adjustments can be referred. The assistance of several persons, besides those who serve the piece, will be required to note the grazes of the projectile, time of flight, and any other incident. I. H. * Perhaps there is not any coast more convenient than that lying between Deal and Ramsgate, known by the name of the Sandwich Flats or Pegwell Bay. When the piece is pointed, the scale may be taken down till the piece be dis charged and ready again to be pointed. NEW INFANTRY EXERCISE -COMMANDING GROUND, &c. As the Infantry Exercise Regulations, just published, have with much propriety directed commanding officers to practise their young officers and non-commissioned officers in the important duties of selecting ground or positions on which they and their detachments are to defend themselves; as well as the most prudent and expeditious methods of attacking posts so chosen, &c., it may not be amiss to give young officers some idea of what, in a military point of view, may be considered as properly falling under the denomination of commanding ground. It must be very obvious, that to have our works or position overlooked from any point in possession of an enemy, however distant it may be, is a positive evil. It enables him, by seeing our measures, of either attack or defence, to shape his counter-operations accordingly. It is a maxim in war, to keep the enemy at all times in the dark. The operations carried on for our reception within the castle of Badajoz, were, during our second attack, seen from Fort La Lippe, at Elvas, by means of a powerful glass. Elvas is twelve or fourteen miles from Badajoz. Had we continued our attack of this front to completion, there cannot be a doubt that our knowledge of what we had to encounter within the place, in the shape of retrenchments, &c., would have been of the greatest advantage to us. If it be bad to be overlooked, therefore, it is evidently much more so to be both overlooked and commanded at the same time. The distinction is this:-in the former case we are merely seen into; but, in the latter, we are not only seen into, but we are also posted within the range of the enemy's shot. This is a very critical situation to be placed in. The castle of Badajoz was seen into, but it was not commanded, from Fort La Lippe. It was, however, both seen into and commanded from Fort Christoval, which was within 500 yards of it, on the other side of the Guadiana. There is not, it should be kept in mind, in any fortress or position, a point so weak as that which is overlooked within the reach of shot. "Since the time of Vauban, the battering artillery," says Sir T. May, "has been improved fourfold, and the gunpowder fully double." We have been hitherto in the habit of allowing from 250 to 300 yards as the range of a soldier's common musket in action; and 600 yards to the point-blank range of a 24-pounder, with a full charge of powder.-It has been found that a 24-pounder will not batter, with effect, at a greater distance than 800 or 1000 yards. After this, therefore, in so far as regards battering, all command, from whatever quarter, may almost be considered harmless. It is stated by Colonel Jones, however, (in his Journal of Sieges, vol. i. p. 481,) that the fire of the iron 24-pounders, in No. 11 battery, placed on a commanding height against the castle of St. Sebastian, and which took the high curtain of the land front, en écharpe, at the distance of 1500 yards, repeatedly struck the terreplein with effect. From this, then, it would appear that 1500 yards should be regarded as the maximum of the effect of shot. There exists, in fact, but little or no difference between the force of shot fired from a practicable elevation, and that fired from a field-piece on a dead level. It is well known to military men, that artillery, firing from an elevated situation on bodies of troops, is less destructive than when firing on the same level. In the former case, the shot can hardly hit more than one or two men; whereas it has been ascertained, that one single horizontal or rezant shot has killed forty-two men in a close column. Height of situation, we must notice, often affords great facilities to the operations of the miners, where the guns cannot be sufficiently depressed to see their base, and there is not any contiguous point to establish flanking works:-otherwise a fortress or position so situated is desirable, as not being liable to surprise. If not too precipitous, the enemy's movements and operations may be seen from it; and it invariably gives a most destructive U. S. JOURN., No. 61, DEC. 1833. 2 L effect to the fire of musketry on the "approaches" of an enemy. Works constructed on heights have, in a peculiar degree, also the excellent defensive property of having their scarps, palisades, and defenders more effectually covered than works that are on a plain; and when the rise of the height is rapid, it precludes the application of ricochet firing. Command is far more prejudicial to the defence of those works or positions whose prolongation it intersects than to those to which it is parallel.—Whoever is master of Mont Feron, for example, may be considered as in pos session of Ath. The effects of being commanded from high ground in our immediate vicinity, however, may be greatly counteracted by a judicious disposition of field-works, &c., and their defilement. But this cannot well be explained without a diagram. Young gentlemen should therefore TAKE ADVICE in regard to these very essential matters. WM. TAIT, Late Royal Staff Corps, and Teacher of Fortification. Egerton's Library, Charing Cross. PARABOLA FROM A CIRCLE. MR. EDITOR,-The following simple method of producing a parabola from a circle, may perhaps amuse some of your readers. I have the honour to remain, &c. &c. ALFRED BURTON, Captain R. M. On any diameter a e, describe a semicircle; and draw at any distance from each other, any number of ordinates bf, eg, d h, &c. In the present instance they may be supposed equidistant. Produce bf to i, making bi-a f. In like manner produce c g to k, making e ka g. &c. Then will a, i, k, l, m, be points in the curve of a parabola. Because as af: a g2, &c., by the circle. And as by the parabola. ab ac And b, is the focus, because a b= b i. This circle and parabola are both sections of an equilateral cone: their common vertex a, being in the centre of its side. The triangles afb, a g c, &c., are to the triangles a ib, a kc, &c., respectively, in the sub-duplicate ratio of their corresponding exterior abscissæ be, ce, &c., to the entire axis a e. That is to say, as And as √be: Nae:: ▲ afb: ▲ aib. &c. &c. &c. &c. ANECDOTES OF THE FOURTH REGIMENT OF HORSE. BY AN EYE-WITNESS. (FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MS.) His Majesty's 4th Regiment of Horse, commanded by Sir John Ligonier, continued upon the Irish establishment from the conclusion of Queen Anne's wars to the year 1742. This long period of thirty years naturally brought the corps to be composed almost entirely of Irish; as I do not recollect at any time more than two or three private men in it of any other country. A regiment eminently distinguished at the revolution, and in the queen's wars under Marlborough, found no difficulty in recruiting: it was, in general, composed of the younger branches of ancient and respectable families; nor was it uncommon to give from twenty to thirty guineas to become a trooper. In the summer of 1742 the regiment was ordered on foreign service, and so very unexpectedly, that the troop-horses were taken up from grass; and the clothing of the men in the last month of its being worn. Under these disadvantages was the regiment embarked for England; and upon their march for embarkation for Flanders, was reviewed, without respite or preparation, at Hounslow, by the King, in the centre between the Oxford Blues and Pembroke's Horse, of nine troops each, newly and completely appointed, and which had only marched from the neighbouring cantonments for that purpose. No wonder that there was a manifest disparity in the appearance of the corps,-the meagre horses of the Blacks scarcely able to crawl under the rawboned, half-naked Hibernians. The old King, however, had judgment to discern and generosity to make the proper allowances; and wishing to afford their dejected Colonel some consolation, (who, no doubt, found not a little uneasiness upon the occasion,) said, "Ligonier! your men have the air of soldiers; their horses, indeed, look poorly-how is it?" Sire," replied he," the men are Irish and gentlemen, the horses are English." 66 The regiment shortly after embarked for Germany, and in the ensuing campaign in June, 1743, were of the brigade of English cavalry at the battle of Dettingen. The army being surprised into action, and not having an opportunity of calling in their outposts, was but 180 strong in the field; after having sustained a very heavy cannonade from three batteries for an hour and forty minutes, they charged the French gendarmerie drawn up six deep, to sustain the weight of British horse. From a failure in one of the flank regiments of the brigade, (the Oxford Blues,) of which the enemy had taken the advantage, the regiment was surrounded and overpowered, and forced to fight their way back through the enemy, as the only means of preventing their being totally cut off. In this charge the regiment had fifty-six men and six officers killed and wounded, (Colonel Ligonier, Captains Stewart and Robinson, Lieut. Cholmondeley, Cornet Richardson, and Quartermaster Jackson; Robinson and Jackson died of their wounds; making nearly one-third of the whole. For the remainder of the campaign the regiment did duty but as one squadron. Many had hitherto been the taunts and snouches which the two English regiments had thrown upon the Virgin Mary's Guards, for so the Blacks were termed; but from this period the tables were changed, and St. Patrick protected the honour of his countrymen. Having served in that engagement in the 33d regiment of foot (Johnston's), I had, fortunately, an opportunity of preserving the life of a French nobleman; and having occasion to fall into the rear of the line to protect my prisoner, I came immediately behind the Blacks, and I then saw an old veteran corporal and half a dozen comrades who had fought through the enemy, and covered with wounds: he addressed his companions with observing their present wretched condition, that they had begun the day well, and hoped they would end it so; and collecting this small squadron of heroes, they recharged the thickest of the enemy, and in a second of time not a man survived! Cornet Richardson, who carried a standard, received seven-andthirty cuts and shots upon his body and through his clothes, besides many on the shaft of the standard; and being questioned how he contrived to save the colours, he observed, like a true Hibernian, "that if the wood of the standard had been made of iron, it would have been cut off." The regiment being provided with new standards the ensuing winter, each cornet was presented with the standard he had carried, as an honourable testimony of his good behaviour. In 1745 the regiment was at the battle of Fontenoy, and upon that field there was not a man or horse wanting of their full complement. One man, indeed, had been left behind in Brussels, wounded in a duel; but there having been brought up to the regiment with a number of recruits one man more than was wanting, the general ordered him to be kept at his own expense till a vacancy should happen, so that in reality the regiment was, by one man, more than complete. In this action there was a trooper in the regiment named Stevenson, whose horse had been shot early in the morning; the regiment saw no more of him till next evening that he joined them at Ath: the men of his troop insisted upon it that he should give an account of himself,-that he was unworthy of being a Ligonier,and that he should not attempt to stay in the lines. Stevenson demanded a court-martial,-next day it sat,—and being questioned what he had to say in his justification, he produced Lieut. Izod, of the Welsh Fusiliers, who declared, that in the morning of the action the prisoner addressed him, told him that his horse was killed, and requested to have the honour of carrying a firelock under his command in the grenadiers; which was complied with ;-that through the whole of that day's action he kept close by him, and behaved with uncommon intrepidity and conduct, and was one of nine grenadiers that he brought out of the field. Stevenson was restored to his troop with honour; and next day the Duke presented him to a Lieutenancy in the regiment wherein he had behaved so well. Quartermaster Jackson was the son of a quartermaster in the regiment. His father not having the means of providing for him, the young fellow went on board a man-of-war in a fleet going to the Mediterranean. A party of the crew made a descent on the coast of Spain-this was in 1734; the party was surprised, and Jackson made prisoner by the Spaniards. In order to obtain his liberty from a gaol, after twelve months' captivity, he enlisted in the Spanish army; and the year following, being on command on the coast of Spain, his party was surprised by the Moors, he was made prisoner carried to Oran in Barbary, and exhibited as a slave for sale. The English Consul seeing something in his appearance that made him suspect that he was his countryman, spoke to him, and finding him a British subject, purchased him, brought him home to his house, and made him superintendent of his family. After some years he obtained his discharge, returned to Ireland, and found his old father living. Lord Ligonier permitted him to resign his warrant to his son. Some time after, the regiment being upon Dublin duty, Jackson, passing through the Castle yard. observed a soldier standing sentinel at the gate, and perceived, as he passed him by, the soldier turned his face from him. Jackson, returning to the barrack, found himself unusually distressed; he could not banish the idea of this same sentinel out of his mind, he had an anxiety (that he could not suppress) to know who he was; and going next morning to the Castle, he waited the relief of the guard; he found the man that he wanted. Jackson addressed him, told him that his face was familiar to him, and begged to be informed where he had seen him; in short, in this soldier he |