The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-07-24
ELEPHANTS IN WARFARE
EXTENSIVE USE OF TIE GREAT
BEASTS IN INDIA

they Drag Big Guns and DO Duty Like
Soldiers-Their Enormous Strength
Enables Few OF Them to Replace
Many Buliocks-Never Know Defeat.
The elephant, says the New York
Herald, has become. one OF the most
important adjuncts of the English
army in India He is attached to the
artillery, in every sense of the word,
and drags the biggest guns as if they
were feathers, keeping steady pace
with the tramp of the infantry He
is no laggard at any time, and deep,
indeed, must be the mire and high the
barricade which he cannot walk
through or demolish. In one respect
the elephant in artillery is like Ma
poleon-never knows defeat. The
officers and men of the Indian army
have for years been working with the
idea of making the elephant more and
more useful. At first the big beast
was used on the Notifications, for
hauling lumber, and all kinds of tasks
for which great strength, absolute
obedience and docility were required.
Now he knows as well what to do as
the best posted artilleryman, and will
bring his gun to the regimental front
with the precision of veteran.
The particular use to which the ele-
plant is put in the artillery line in In
dia is to drag the heavy batteries aud
the guns of the siege train. These in
~, be- sc FRO, II
size and exceedingly heavy. Until the
regime of the elephant it had been the
custom to have them drawn by long
lines of bullocks.
There was, however, no end of trou-
BILE with these beasts. They were
hard to control, and so many of them
were required that they proved good
deal of a nuisance. So it is that the
British artillery man rejoices at the
substitution of the elephant for the
bullock. One elephant will draw with
out effort q piece of artillery which a
long line of bullocks would have diff
Guilty in moving at all.
Every one of these heavy batteries,
which the elephant moves from place
to place, consists of four forty-pound-
ers and two six and three-inch howitz-
ers. While one elephant can draw, if
necessary, a single piece of artillery, in
order not to strain him at all they are
sometimes paired Or driven tandem.
For instance, in some batteries twelve
elephants are utilized. These are not
oil employed in drawing the artillery
at the same time, for it is well not to
work an elephant too hard, because, if
that is done, he is apt to become stub
born, despite his usual tractability.
For this reason tile elephants are given
kindly usage, and under those circum-
stances do all that is asked Of them.
The elephant battery, or rather the
guns thereof, is always accompanied
by ammunition wagons and baggage.
Owing to the fact that the supply of
properly trained elephants is limited,
bullocks ore still utilized as the beasts
of draught for the battery accompani-
ments. The fact that 262 bullocks are
required to draw the ammunition and
baggage forms striking contrast be-
tween their powers and those of the
elephant, for the gross weight of the
ammunition and the baggage is con-
siderably less than that of the artillery
itself.
| The British artillerymen do not at
tempt to manage the big beasts that
draw the guns. To accomplish this
task there is employed staff of twelve
mahouts, with twelve assistants, the
latter being under the command of an
official known as the jemadar or cap
tain. All are natives of India.
Then, besides the elephant company,
as it is called, there are with each bat
terry a jemadar, six sirdars and 131
drivers, who care for the bullocks.
Therefore it can be seen that a. battery
OF artillery in India amounts to some
thing. In fact, it is little army in
itself, for every one of the natives en-
ployed is supposed to be competent and
ready to fight if necessary.
Whenever it happens that the bat.
terry is to be transported great dis.
lance, the railroad is used as an aid, il
it can possibly be made available. In
such cases it is necessary, of course, to
transport the elephants by rail, and
special cars have been made for the
purpose.