ESCALADE.

485

“ There would be less wear and tear of horses than with carts when all work inshafts, and consequently fewer spare horses would be required with waggon reserves.

“ Carts would require to have all large, or what is termed wheel horses, whereas amixed description of horse would be available for waggons to be distributed for wheeland leading, as is practised with batteries of artillery.

" Should it be required to detach ammunition with great expedition from a waggonreserve, towards any given point, it might be done by taking the leading horses fromhalf the waggons, and advancing the other half rapidly with six horses, or by unlim-bering and sending the limbers alone with four horses; and this is an advantage whichcarts would not admit of, for want of leading harness. The horses with waggonswould be more ready to render mutual assistance to the carriages in difficulty thanthose with carts.

“ In case of retreat and being pressed by an enemy, should the horses be hard-worked and the roads very bad, considerable casualties would naturally be the conse-quence, which would occasion many carts being lost or destroyed; for it would beimpossible for a cart to proceed with one horse, though a waggon could do withthree; that is to say, if a reserve of twelve waggons was reduced to thirty-six horses,it would still continue to move without diminution of carriage, whereas a reserve oftwenty-four carts, under similar circumstances, would be obliged to abandon six carts»besides, in the time of march, should a horse drop in a waggon, it would be easilyextricated, and the waggon move on, whilst, by the same thing occurring with a cart,if a spare horse was not at hand, the movement of the column would be either in-terrupted, or the cart thrown out of the road.”

Note .—By a subsequent arrangement in the French Service, the musket-ball am-munition equipments are associated with the field batteries attached to divisionsof Infantry .

ESCALADE.*

This article will comprehend three subjects.

1. The Means of effecting this operation, i.e. the Scaling Ladder.

2. The Arrangement before escalading works.

3. The Execution.

1. There are two kinds of Scaling Ladder , those in lengths, provided by Govern-ment with other Engineer stores, which have never yet been used,—and those of animpromptu kind, made for the occasion : the first description (used in the School ofInstruction at Chatham) consists of ladders about 12 feet in length, which fit into oneanother, so that each joint will give an effective length of 10 feet: they are madetapering as explained in the annexed figures.

Pig. 1.

i JTmmrmr rnrm 111111 1

* Compiled by Major-General Lewis, C.B., R.E.