THE HAND-BOOK OF
ARTILLERY.
BY CAPT. JOSEPH ROBERTS,
Fourth Regt. Artillery U. S. Army.
RICHMOND:
PRINTED BY RITCHIE & DUNNAVANT.
1861.
PROCEEDINGS.
The following Report was made by the Committee appointed at a meetingof the staff of the Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Va., to whom thecommanding officer of the School had referred this work:
Your Committee to which has been referred theconsideration of the work of Captain Roberts,proposed as a text-book for the Artillery School,beg leave to submit the following Report, viz:
The work submitted by Captain Roberts, and entitled“Hand-book of Artillery,” embraces sections on thefollowing subjects.
[For subjects see Table of Contents,page 7.]
Under each of these heads, except the last, the work contains a numberof questions and answers. Your Committee have carefully examined eachof these questions and their corresponding answers, and find that theanswers have been principally drawn from the following sources, viz:Gibbon’s Artillerist’s Manual, Light and Heavy Artillery Tactics, andthe Ordnance Manual, all of which works have been authorized by the WarDepartment. Wherever the prescribed authorities furnish the means ofanswering the questions, they appear to have been followed as closelyas possible.
The idea of the arrangement, and a few of the questions and answers,appear to have been taken from “Burns’ Questions and Answers onArtillery;” but that work has been so far deviated from, as fairly toentitle the present work to be considered as an original compilation.
In the opinion of your Committee, the arrangement of the subjects andthe selection of the several questions and answers have been judicious.The work is one which may be advantageously used for referenceby the officers, and is admirably adapted to the instruction ofnon-commissioned officers and privates of Artillery.
Your Committee do therefore recommend that it be substituted as atext-book in place of “Burns’ Questions and Answers on Artillery.”
The preceding Report was adopted, and the Staff recommended this workas a book of instruction at the Artillery School, in lieu of “Burns’Questions and Answers on Artillery.”
PREFACE.
The following compilation originated in an attempt to adapt Lieut.Col. Burns’ “Questions and Answers on Artillery” to the United Statesservice. The British Artillery being very different from ours, it wasfound necessary to omit many of Burns’ questions, and to introduceothers.
The compiler is under great obligations to several of his brotherofficers at Fort Monroe (especially to Major Haskin, 1st Artillery),for their kindness in assisting him in the compilation of this littlevolume, and for important suggestions in the revision of many of the“answers.”
[Pg 7]
CONTENTS.
The pages refer to the sidenotesin the margin of the text.
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