The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-26
HEAVY ARTILLERY DRILLS.
1T IS NOT EASY TO LEARN TO HAN
DIE THE BIG GUNS.

lsMany Things for the Heavy ArtiIIe-
ryman to study, and a Great Deal
of Hard Work Besides--Why II Re-
auires Long Service to Acquire
PrOficiency--Lack of Modern Guns.
From the New York Sun.
Washington, March 12.-Fifteen seasoned
soldiers from each battery OF the five
standing artillery regiments are to be dis
tributed among the batteries of the two
new regiments of artillery now being or
ganized in accordance with the permission
granted by Congress early this week. The
seasoned soldiers are to leaven the new
regiments and make artilIerymen of the
recruits.
The old-timers thus assigned will no
doubt be able TO convert the two regiments
of recruits quickly into emergency artil-
lerymen-that is, they will teach them at
once the mechanical operations of serving
the big guns by the numbers, In order that
the new men may not be entirely useless
when they are needed to serve the pieces
But an artillryman, as the soldier of big
ordnance Is trained in the army of the
United States, cannot be made IN emer.
gency time. An artillery recruit can be
rapidly Fashioned into an automatic car
rier Of ammunition, and in the course Of
a few drills, IL he is qulck-witted he can
master the duties demanded by his one
particular number on a big guns crew I:
but 1t takes years of alertness and atten-
ton and considerable study besides for the
cleverest recruit to become good heavy
artileryman in the American Army. As
to the light artilleryman, he is born not
made. Light artillery soldering as It Is
considered in the United States Army. is
largely a matter of horsemanship, and the
light artillerymen are picked for their mai.
ural skill and aptness with
horses. The light artllelrymau' s
drills are many and his duties are
heavy, but he is consoled for this i'm the
reflection that he belongs to the crack
branch in the whole military outfit. For
eign military critics of emnence have I'M
hesitatingly pronounced the ten batteries
of light artillery of the army Of the United
States to be indispensable in the world
for horsen1anship and rapid and scientific
handling Of the pieces. But while the
American light artilleryman has got to be
as nimble as an acrobat, and an absolute
master of horsemanship, he does not have
TO use his head nearly so much as his 'Tn
bar, heave," comrade In the heavy artil-
lery ranks. Just now the heavy artillery
branch is the most important in the army
and II Is therefore pertinent to set forth
the fact that some military critics, both
of this country and Europe, have for many
years maintained that too much work and
too many drills are saddled upon the
American heavy artilleryman. II is com
monty known among military men that by
the time an American ar
tilleryman in me heavy branch has put
in a three-year enlistment he has picked
up only smattering of the many duties
and drills that are imposed upon him as
the heavy artillery service is at present
organized. If all artillerymen who put in
one enlistment In the heavy branch would
take on again i'm that branch, the heavy
artillery force of the United States army
would be on a par with any in the world.
But men IN the heavy artillery have Of
late years been getting enough of It IN one
enlistment, and when they enlist again a
great many of them join the "doughboys,"
In the infantry regiments, for the sake of