The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-11 00:00:00

VOLUNTEER RIFLEMEN AT RYTHE.

An interesting paper has been delivered at
Birkenhead by Captain V. A. King, of the 2d
Cheshire Rifles, on the Rifle Practice at the Hythe
School of Musketry. Captain KING said,—=You
will perhaps like to know what we did at Hythe,
and I will try to tell you as briefly as possible. We
assembled thlre on Saturday, the 23d of July, and
reported ourselves to the General. Now, a word
about Major-General Hay ;she is a fins, handsome
man, of very pleasing manners, and much beloved
by all about him ; he is a splendid shot, and is
seldom seen without his rifle in his hand. There
were 42 of us from all parts of the kingdom, of
all classes ; there were two peers, Earl Spencer
and Earl Pomfret; there were country gentle-
then, there were barristers, there were men from
the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, there
were merchants, there were tradesmen—all classes,
in fact. We requ'resi no introduction ; wo
were good Mends as noon as we met. We felt
we were all brethren Nvh o had a grand national ob-
ject in view, the defence of our native land, and
this was sufficient introduction. The peer was
treated with no more respect than the tradesman,
or the tradesman than the peer ; and here let me
say, for the honour of the aristocracy of England,
that the peers worked quite as hard as any of us,
there was no distinction; they were drilled by
the sergeants just the same as all of us. On
Monday, the 25th of July, we assembled in the
barrack tent—a rifle, knee-cap, and book of instruc-
tions were delivered to each of us. We were
then formed into six sections, containing from six
to nine each. We were No. 1 Section, and con-
sisted of the seven men from the four companies in
this neighbourhood. We were then ushered into
the lecture-room to hear a few words from the
General. He told us he was a warm friend of the
volunteer movement, which he would de sill• in his
power to forward, as he considered it essential to
the safety of the country. He thanked us for our
zeal in coming so far for instruction, and stated
that it mould give both him and his staff the great-
est pleasure to impart to us all they could in the
very limited time we had for the course. He then
stated that if the volunteer force could not shoot
they were worse than useless, for " suppose," said
he, " there were 200,000 volunteers enrolled, and
Government depended on them, and when the hour
of trial comes it turns out that not one of them can
shoot, why, then, it must be clear we had much
better not have a volunteer force at all ; for, if they
could not shoot, we should be hanging on a
rope of sand. Much better to have 20,000 men, or
even 2,000 men who can shoot, than 200,000 who
cannot." He then combatted and ridiculed the
popular error which has been so much dwelt upon
of late in the newspapers, that nothing but plenty
of ball practice would ever make men good shots.
He told us that such practice only perpetuated
error, in fact, made it worse ; that he could bring
forward many instances where men shot worse and
worse by mere practice, , He told us that the less
shooting we had previously had the better ; for
those of us who had never fired a gun were most
probably the best, as he had merely to teach us to
shoot, while those of us who had been in the habit
of shooting were probably the worst,' as he would
have first to break them off bad habits, and, until
they were broken off them, it was useless to teach
them to shoot. He then told us that it was position
drill alone which could teach us to shoot ; the more
of this a man had the better. A man had never had
too much of position drill until lie had not a single
fault. The first object of this position drill was to
teach men to shoot without ever firing a shot ; and
I have not the slightest doubt that this can be done,
lam certain of it. He told us that we volunteers
ought to be such good shots that our fire would be
effective at 600 to 900 yards ; for it would not be
safe to employ us in the field at a less distance than
this, as, of course, our drill and discipline could not
be expected to be such as would enable us to come
to close quarters with such troops as the Zsamves,
for instance. He then told us that it was an extra-
ordinary fact that the riflemen of the British army
shot worse than any other troops until the last few
years. He asked if there ;were any volunteer rifle-
men present who had_ been embodied some years.
There was a 011./..eman from South Devon. The
General ask" him if they practised aiming drill ?
He said ."
No." " Exactly so," said the General,
",715' like all the rest, are Riflemen only in name."
told us that the great object of the instruction
at Hythe was to raise the intelligence of the
soldier, to make him consider himself an unit,
and not a machine. This, from my short
experience, I can fully bear out; I feel certain the
course of instruction is framed for this object. Now.
gentlemen, 1 will tell you our daily work for the
first week. The course of instruction was cleaning
of arms, theoretical principles, aiming drills, posi-
tion drills, judging distance drills. In the cleaning
of arms we were not only taught to clean our rifle,
but every part of the weapon was named and ex-
plained to us. We were taught to dismount and re-
mount the lock, and name every part of it. After
all this explanation we were questioned, to ascer-
tain if we understood all which had been told us.
The lectures on theoretical principles explained
clearly to us the force which drives the bullet for-
ward, the force which stops its flight, the force
which draws it to the ground. The course of the
bullet through the air was clearly described, and
the reason of having to take a greater elevation
when firing at a very distant object. In the aiming
drills we placed our rifle upon a tripod, with a sand-
bag at the top, and laid our aim at the target at all
distances, from 150 to 900 yards. After laying
the aim, it was examined by one of the staff, or the
sergeant, who pointed out any fault that might be
in the aim, such as too full or a little to the left
or to the right. In the position drills we were
taught to handle the rice, to bring the body
in the proper position for firing, to bring the rifle
to the "present" quickly and steadily. We were
taught always to aim at an object, and never
to draw our trigger until we had aligned the
eye, the object, te back sight, and the fore
sight. The greatest pains were taken with us in
this position drill, as it is the foundation of good
shooting. In judging distance drills, we were
marched out to the shingles, where points were
placed at different distances for us to observe, and
we then had to judge the distance of men placed at
various distances from us. We were many of us at
the barrack-yard at 6.30 a.m. for an extra drill.
We assembled at 9.30 a.m., and were worked till
1 p.m. ; then assembled at 2.30 p.m., and worked till
4.40 p.m. ; then each section went to the quarters
of one of them, and discussed and questioned each
other on all• they had heard during the day ; work
was over at 7 p.m., when we dined. So, you see,
your representatives were not idle. On Monday,
the Ist of August, we fired blank cartridge, and on
Tuesday we began firing ball cartridge, and then
commenced such excitement as I never witnessed
before. The first course was 'the third class. We
fired five rounds at 150 yards, five at 200 yards, five
at 250 yards, and five at 300 yards ; and, if we did
not make 15 points, we were kept in the third
class. Our gallant lieutenant made 29 points;
another man, Warner, of Oxford, made the same ;
and this was the largest score. I only made 14
points, and, like all blockheads, was kept in the
third class ; but, I have the satisfaction to say, I
got out of it. and am now a second-class man.
Lieutenant Horner is a first-class man, and En-
sign Bower, of the Rockferry Company, has
the honour of being a marksman. The second-
class was five rounds at 400 yards, five
at 500 yards, five at 550 yards, and five
at 600 yards. It was necessary to make
12 points out of these to get into the first class, and
17 of our whole number stuck in the second class.
The first class was five rounds at 650 yards, five at
700 yards, five at 800 yards, and five at 900 yards.
And it was necessary to make seven points out of
these to become a marksman, and there were ne
lasted
from than 14 who did this. This practice
from Tuesday to Saturday, and I cannot describe
to you the excitement of it. It exceeded anything
I ever saw. Hunting, or cricket, or boating is
nothing to it. I felt, when I saw it, that there was
no mistake about the volunteer movement; and
there is no reason why there should not be the
same excitement when the Cheshire companies
march from their parade ground for ball practice
as there was at the barrack yard at Hythe. I ought
to tell you that we subscribed for three rifles—one
for the best shot of the whole; one for the best shot
of the right wing; one for the best shot of the left
wing. Warner, of Oxford, won the first • Robert
Tinley, of Liverpool, the second ; Coxe, of! Derby,
the third. I cannot attempt to describe to you the
excitement on Saturday afternoon. The struggle
was between Warner and Tinley for the first prize
—they were firing at 600 yards. There were many
spectators, and as each of these men knelt to fire
there was not even a whisper heard ; all seemed
afraid even to breathe. They both got 11 points—a
tie ; but Warner won, as in the previous classes he
had made 53 points, and Tinley 51. Tinley had un-
fortunately twice aimed at the wrong target, and hit
it, and these two points did not count, otherwise
Warner and Tinley would have been ties through-
out. On Monday we fired 10 rounds file firing, 10
rounds volley firing, and 10 rounds skirmishing.