Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-23
DRILL AND TACTICS.
7HE GREAT CHANGES IN MODERN
 METHODS OF WARFARE.

METHODS OF WARFARE.
 bIerazine RiAas to Supersede Breech Loaders as imeech Loaders Superseded
 Muzzle Loaaers-Smokeless Powder The Charge-Use of Cavalry.
 To those who knew him it is almost incon- ceivable that Gen. SkobeleR could have be come a strategist, but he was a born tao tician. On the other hand, the lieutenant in the United States army who lays his plans so that he surprises and captures a band of hos. tile Indians is, pro tanto, a strategist. The line between strategy and tactics cannot be drawn easily or exactly; but the line between drill and tactics is so clear that it is passing strange how any confusion between them can ever have arisen. The band of farmers who, the other day, hunted down and surrounded the lar of family of murderers, knew, prob ably, nothing of drill, but they brought tao tics into play.
 There is danger lest our officers fail to study tactics such as they would require every day and hour if they were opposed to regularly organized force. The fact that they have to handle troops mainly against Indians and rarely against mobs in cities, is apt to induce them to ignore field tactics as understood and practiced ill other countries.
 We are apparently on the eve of mighty struggle, in which magazine rifles will super sede breech loaders, as breech leaders, in 1866 and 1870, superseded muzzle loaders Not only will more shots minute be available for the defense of position, but those shots will be more effective on account of the lower trajectory of the bullets. A bullet fired point blank will henceforth hit anywhere up to 500 yards, instead of falling far short of that range. At any rate, this will be so with the new Enfield Lee-Burton rifles and with the Lebel rifle in France, and we may be sure the other nations will not he long in rear of the French and the English.
 IN COMING WARS
 The new number of Whitakers Alnlanack, it may be interesting to say, contains very we'll written and instructive article on the present status of the nations of Europe in this respect. But not only will magazine rifles play their part in coming wars; maga- zine guns also will add enormously to the effectiveness of both attack and defense, , though probably more to the latter than tc the former. Mitraillenses were indeed used in 1870, but, for mechanical reasons, they were not very effective, and, in any case, the French had not enough of them, and did not
 
 the best work out of them. It will be very different next time, when these machine guns will to considerable extent take the place of light artillery, and, in some respects, of | half battalions of infantry. It is, therefore, obvious, that every operation of war will be- largely affected by the change in the rifles and in the habitua1 use of machine guns Strategy itself will have to take the progress into account, and it will profoundly modify and, in a sense, revolutionize tactics; how greatly we shall probably not know until thousands of men have fallen through blum dering. But that is no reason why we should wait for such an experimentum crucis. 1 Each year sees so many changes in the | armament of nation that the tactics of to- day are in some respects anticipated this day twelvenonth. Suppose it is true that the French and English have got smokeless pow der in their new cartridges, as is more than suggested in the almanac above mentioned. 1 That in itself must materially modify tactics employed by or against them. We do not indeed believe that the heat waves arising from smokeless powder will sometimes fail to deceive as well those using it as their ad- versaries, or that this powder will be found as we'll adapted as black powder for transport and for keeping purposes. But it's disadvan- tages will in any case be outweighed by its l advantages, and when ''the war cloud rolling dun'' has disappeared many movements now possible under it's curtain ;:i then be inn | practicable.
 | CHARGING THE WORKS.
 ! Gen. Skobeleff said to Capt. Green, United States engineers: ''The only formation in which troops can successfully assault in. trenched positions is in successive lines of skirmishers." And that will probably now remain true in some senses as long as war lasts. But against magazines guns and ma chine guns the lines of skirmishers will have to be far more open than they were against breech leaders. It is even doubtful whether they will be, strictly speaking, lines at all, or whether they will not have to be turned into rather what is called the cloud formation. The trouble with this will be, except with troops of the very highest training, to bring enough men together and well in hand tc assnake the final assault against the serried line of the defenders holding all the advan. tage of the cover of the trenches. And here again, as any soldier must see, comes in the question of the support to be given to the skirmishers by machine guns or artillery seeking to keep down the fire from the in trenchments. In fact, the whole problem i, altered by the shifting of what might appear but 0 minor factor of it.
 | We recently pointed out the coming change in the use of cavalry, when each squadron shall have attached to it galloping guns machine gun-such as Col. Hasbrouck sav one or two English cavalry regiments witt on his recent visit to Aldershot Infantr, will cease to despise cavalry so much as the, are now taught to do, when they have had , few lessons from cavalry dropped" behint bank or hill crest and their lying down fir supported by storm of bullets from gallop ing guns. Cavalry, on the other hand, vii not ''charge for the guns" quite so readit when field batteries are fanked by machin guns And artillery will not open at LOO or 1,5OO yards, as they have done, when tn men serving the guns can be moved down a 2,5OO or 5000 yards by storm of bullets pro jected by the agency of only one or two men It must never be forgotten that to get tn greatest amount of heroism displayed by tn average man he must have at least fai chance of coming out unscathed Take ava that chance and you take away the courag of nine men out of ten.-New York Times.
 North Anlerica's Inland Ocean.
 First of all, word or two in reference Hudson's bay itself The proportions of thi inland ocean are such as to give it a prom nent place among the geographical feature of the world One thousand three hundre miles in length by GOO miles in breadth, it e1 tends over 12 deos of latitude, and covers a