The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-08-18
ENGINES OF DEATH.
The Great Accuracy OF Field Gums in
Trial Practice ut san
Antonio, Tex.


The betterment of the modern field
gtn is fully equal to the development
OF other branches of military arma-
ntent. 1t has been especially rapid
Within the last dozen years. The work
Of specialists and the results of ex-
tended tests have ended in the pro-
duction of a weapon of great accuracy
and of Titanic force. The field gun
of to-day is the favorite weapon of the
military man, and he expects from
II some very remarkable demonstra-
ttions when opportunity to use it oc-
ours. Napoleon is credited with the
remark that Providence is always on
the side of the heavy artillery, but the
artillery which Napoleon knew was
not worthy to be mentioned ON the
same day with the light, graceful and
deadly arm with which the moderns
are prepared to do slaughter. The
first great step forward was taken
when the breech-loading action was
invented. WeH-known scientific rules
of boring and the improvement in pro-
jectiles and powders have done the
rest.
The United States has no better
field guns than those with which the
armies of Germany and France are
armed, but they are every bit as good.
Like our other ordnance, they are all
made on this side of the water. The
American manufacturer yields to no
one in ability to make perfect
weapon. Indeed, many of the chief
improvements in field guns and in the
larger sizes, sometimes called siege
guns, are the products of American
brains. The field guns of the United
States army are made at Watervliet,
n. Y, just as the large guns for the
navy and for coast defense are turned
out at Washington. They have a cal
iber of little more than three inches,
are, of course, breech-loading, and
rather lengthy for their width and
are lightly but strongly mounted.
They use a pointed shell which ex-
plodes either on conclusion or by
time fuse, generally the former, and
are fired with great rapidity. Each
gun of battery is in command of a
lieutenant, who, under the eye of his
superior, sights it and directs its work
ing. He has his elevation, depression
and wind-gauge formula at his fin
gers ends, and with him good shoot
Ing is mainly a question of care. The
powder used in these guns is of the
smaller-grained brown heXagonal
kind, though the spheroidal is pre-
ferred for some calibers. The recoil
of this gun on level ground is 26 feet,
with the wheels unlocked. With the
wheels locked it recoils five feet, and
is run forward and resighted very
swiftly. Its point-blank range is 1900
yards. 1t can be made effective at a
much greater distance, of course. but
officers prefer that range for accurate
shooting.
1t fell to me some seven years ago to
report the first field trial given the
Watervliet guns. Three of them were
sent to Fort Sam Houston, at San An
tonia, Tex, where Light Battery F,
hllb al tliIVl was SldilOIlGI uIltltG
command of Maj. James b. Burbank,
most capable officer, now attached to
the staff of the governor of New York.
Maj. Burbank was instructed to try
them out thoroughly. and for this pur-
pose selected an ideal range on Ga
nahl's ranch, 60 miles north of San An
tonic. The guns were planted in line
and 20~feet apart on the side of a
green hill and pointed across a shall
low valley. On the opposite hill, 1900
yards away, tent fly was put up as
a target. 1t was Is by feet in dimen-
sion, and was stretched on two poles.
At that distance it looked like moth
ing in the world so much as mans
ket-handkerchief. One shot was
fired as range-fnder, and that shot
proved the range was found. Then the
work began.
For half an hour these guns pitched
shells through or under the target, ac-
cording to firing directions, with as
much accuracy as a man would use a
Winchester rifle at 100 yards. The
work was done with the precision of
clock. There was the rush of the
piece into its first position. the quick
command to load, the rapid aim and
discharge, the faint scream of the
shell, the puff of smoke and dull re-
port as it struck and the dust rose up
in pillar. When it was ended we
rode across the valley and up the OPP
posite slope to the spot where the
tent fly had stood. Bits of it lay about
here and there. One of the poles was
bitten short off. For so yards below
the other pole, for 80 yards on either
side of it and for 100 yards above it
the earth was not plowed-it was har-
rowed An ant could not have lived
on the ground.
1t was not difficult to imagine what
would have become of an opposing
force. Men and horses would have
been dead and all guns dismounted in
five minutes after the firing began.
There could have been no better il
lustration of the absolutely fatal char
acter of these pieces. 1t was found
that they did not become unmanage-
able through heat. that the breech
mechanism displayed no sign of strain,
that the recoil was not greater than