The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-19 00:00:00

COLONEL WILFORD ON RIFLES AND
RIFLE PRACTICE.

Last night Colonel Wilford, Assistant Command-
ant and Chief Instructor of the Governnent School
Of Musketry 'at Hythe, delivered an interesting
lecture in the Theatre of the United Service Insti-
tution, Whitehall-yard, on rifles and rifle practice.
tord Elcho, M.P., presided. The lecture was nu-
merously attended. Among the visitors were the
Earl of Lichfield, Lord West, Colonel Leftoy, Sir
John Anson, Mr. Alcock, M.P., Hon. Augustus
Vernon, MrHastings Russell, MT., Col. Alcock,
Captain Adam Gladstone, &c.
Colonel 'WILFORD, who was warmly -received,
introduced the subject of his lecture by a brief
glance at the history and construction of firearms.
Rifles were first mentioned at a target practice at
Hamburg,' in 1498. They were described as
muskets with a grooved inner surface ; and from
that day to the present rifle-matches had existed in
Germany. The rifle was first employed by the
Jagers, who carried them for the destruction of
game that required to be shot by ball, while in
England and France gamekeepers had no such
game to bring down. The Austrians did not at first
train riflemen, for they found them ready made to
their hands among the Jagers. Frederick the
Great, in order to meet the Austrian aamy on equal
terms, was obliged to employ riflemen. They re-
mained unknown among English troops until the
necessity for them was called forth by the war of
American independence. The rifle was necessary to
the existence of the backwoodsmen, and when they
had the advantage of cover our troops could not
stand before them. England was at first obliged
to go to Hesse, to Hanover , and to Denmark
for riflemen to bring against the Americans ;
and in 1794 the Government established the 60th
battalion of Rifles, which was called the Royal
American Regiment. Our first riflemen carried a
mallet, with which to hammer down the ball ; and
the rifleman was so long in loading that it was ne-
cessary the red coats should be near that he might
take refuge behind them while he loaded. The Duke
of Richmond once said that in the Peninsular war
our riflemen were supplied with tight-fitting bullets
-that would kill and plenty of small ones that would
miss, in order that they might have the pleasure of
shooting off. (A laugh.) It was at length discovered
that the musket supplied to the English infantry
.was the worst in Europe—the heaviest, the shortest,
requiring the largest ball, the greatest charge of
powder, having the greatest windage, the shortest
range, and the least accuracy. (Laughter.) It
showed what the English soldier must be when he
could gain such splendid victories with Brown Bess.
(Applause.) The Caffre war was irksome and in-
glorious, and public attention became attracted to
_the shortcomings of our firearms. Gen. Cathcart
was sent out to the Cape with a carte blanche, and
what did he ask for P He said to the Government at
home, " Send me out 4,030 Swiss." He wanted sol-
diers who could hit small objects at long ranges.
Brown Bess was clearly unable to bring the war to
a close, for it was upon record that one morning
80,000 rounds of ball cartridge were fired, and only
25 Caffres were bagged. George IV. was very anxi-
ous that the cuirass should be adopted in the British
army, and that experiments should be tried to show
whether it would resist a bullet. A cuirass was ac-
cordingly fixed upon a pole and Brown Bess was
set to work at it, with the advantage of a " rest."
The experiment would have been very satisfactory,
only none of the balls could be persuaded to hit
the cuirass. (A laugh.) At last an officer put a mus-
ket to his shoulder, and by great good luck hit the
cuirass, when the ball, of course, went through it.
He believed that a man might sit in a chair, at 200
yards, and let a man blaze away at him all day with
Brown Bess, with one condition only, that the shooter
should be bound upon his honour to aim at the
mark. (A laugh.) A general officer told him that
in Spain, being charged with the defence of a
breastwork thrown up in a hurry, with a very few
soldiers, the order was given to them to fire as
rapidly as possible, not in the hope or intention of
hitting anybody, but to make the enemy think
they were stronger than they actually were. Fir-
ing to " make the enemy think ! " Contrast this
with what took place during the mutiny at Cawn-
pore. An officer in command of his company was
attacked by some sowars (irregular native cavalry).
He formed his men into two lines, made both kneel,
and at the word " Fire! " 69 dragoons fell to the
ground like a wall. (Applause.) One man alone
escaped the fire, seeing which a soldier came to the
front, fired, and brought the sowar from his horse
at a distance of 300 yards. That was the way to
" make an enemy think." (Applause.) Our troops
were now all armed with the Enfield rifle, which
was the best rifle made which, in similar numbers,
had been placed in the hands of any army. By
contrast and comparison with Brown Bess it was a
weapon of transcendant value and superiority.
Upon the beach ati/Hythe one day, when Sir John
Burgoyne was present, a target was put up, Sit. by
61%., upon which was outlined the figure of a man
on horsebask. A detachment of 32 men were
formed in line at 600 yards distance, who lodged
three balls in the horse and two in the man before
an officer could gst a glass to his eye. Sir John
Burgoyne, when he saw this, exclaimed " No dra-
goon cau stand before you, and no artillery can
stand before you unless it is protected." But a new
gun required a new man. Men must be taught to
shoot as they were trained in any other skilled call-
ing. What was wanted was that all the men in a
regiment should be taught to shoot as all the dra-
goons in a regiment were taught to ride. In the
Government School of Musketry shooting was taught
as a drill, without ball at all. The gallant colonel
then entered into a technical description of " aiming
drill" and "position drill," and strongly insisted
upon the necessity of commencing rifle practice by
snapping caps and firing blank cartridge. To begin
with firing ball cartridge was fatal. The volun-
teer who did so would never become a good shot, for
he would only perpetuate his errors. If there were
any sportsmen who wanted to improve their shoot-
ing, let them go through a course of "position drill,"
then let them fire blank cartridges at swallows or
other small birds, and he would promise them that
when the Ist of September came round they would
fire half as well again. (Applause.) He had never
fired a ball until he was 56 years of age, and for a
long time he could not get into the first class. He
used to miss 18 shots out of 20, but he persevered,
and one day he got 19 points iu the first class (650
to 900 yards). The next drill was " aiming drill."
The eye might be strengthened by exercise, and it
was desirable to shoot at smaller objects than a rifle-
man would ordinarily require to hit. " Aiming drill"
at 800 yards with blank cartridge was excellent
training. The ball cartridge merely gave you the
power to find out if you could shoot, and what pro-
gress you were making. With this exception
marksmen learned nothing with ball cartridge. An
important part of a rifleman's training was the abi-
lity to judge distances. It was not at first easy,
but it could be learnt. There were certain distances
at which horses seemed to have no ears—when flesh
could not be discerned, when men seemed to have no
necks, when cannon-wheels had no spokes, and when
all horses seemed to be of one colour. Savages could
judge of distances with great accuracy, and the fa-
culty only required to be cultivated. The gallant
colonel then proceeded to explain by means of dia-
grams the line of sight, the line of fire, and the tra-
4ectory of the Enfield rifle. The whole difficulty
in firing bullets was that they were always travel-
ling through the air at a curve, so that at long
ranges it was necessary literally to drop them on a
man's head. (A laugh.) Armed with the Enfield
rifle, no infantry soldiers ever need form a square
to resist cavalry, unless surprised. The cavalry
might come down upon them, but not a man would
escape the aim of their rifles. They talked of the
" common soldier," but we did net want the " com-
mon soldier" in these days. What was wanted
was a taught, educated, and trained man. (Applause)
Some persons said that a range of 400 yards was
long enough for the bulk of our troops, but if one
soldier had a gun that would kill at 1,000 yards the
man whose rifle would only carry 400 yards would
not be abl.e to get a single shot at his enemy. The
only limit to the range of a gun was the power of
the human eye. You might get a longer range by
increasing the charge of powder and the weight of
the gun, but the rifle then kicked, and where the
recoil was great there was an end of accurate shoot-
ing. The weight of the gun was also an important
consideration, for an infantry soldier required a
weapon that he could carry in a 25 miles' march
and fight with afterwards. How, then, was a long
range to be obtained i) The resistance of the air to
any object in motion was in proportion to the mag-
nitude of its surface. In artillery the 681 b. ball,
with a charge of 10.1 b. of powder, was at present
the most accurate of aim, but in firearms the
whole
secret of extending the range was in narrowing the
hore. The 'Whitworth riffwas constructed on this
principle, and at 900 yards range the bullet from
this rifle was going. three times as fast as the Enfield.
The greater the elevation a rifle required the more
skill was wanted to drop the bullet down just where
it would hit. It followed that the worse a soldier
was the better his gun ought to be, and that the
best guns ought to be given to the worst shots.
Firing with the Enfield rifle at 800 or 900 yards he
often missed the target twice out of five, and some-
times four times out of five, but with the Whitworth
rifle he could hit it directly. Mr. Whitworth's rifle
possessed the very great advantage of having a low
trajectory, and the Enfield-rifle the disadvantage of
having a very high one. Now, it might be laid down
as a rule in rifle shooting that the certainty of hit-
ting was just in proportion to the lowness of the
angle of elevation.
Lord Eeeito begged pardon for interrupting the
[pliant colonel, but he should be glad to know the