Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[306] of the cartridge, and caused the discharge; after this discharge the tube fell into a box, from which it was taken to reload. This machine fired one hundred shots per minute, and threw ounce balls, with great precision, to a distance of seven or eight hundred metres; it was drawn with its caisson by a single horse. By means of a pivot like a pump-handle the gun was aimed without interrupting the continuous stream of balls; and this arm, handled by two cool-headed men, might have proved very effective in defending a breach or defile. But although Mr. Lincoln recommended its adoption, and had even made a trial of it with his own hands, it was never used during the war; and the coffee-mills, which, with a few alterations, might have taken the place of our mitrailleuses, were sold after the peace as old iron, for eight dollars each.

We have only spoken of rifle cannon; they were the only guns in fashion, like the zouaves' uniforms for infantry. The imagination of the volunteers exaggerated their importance, and their very novelty inspired the inexperienced soldiers of the American armies with confidence. Fortunately, the artillery officers did not share this excessive infatuation, and they retained for the service of the army a certain number of brass field howitzers, smooth bore, which rendered the utmost service during the entire war. In fact, as the wooded country, where the fighting had to be done, rendered it almost impossible for the artillery to become engaged at long distances, the rifle cannon was frequently deprived of its advantages. On the battle-fields of America the gun easiest to handle, the strongest, and the most readily loaded, which, at a moment's notice, could substitute grape-shot for the shell, was also the most effective. An experience differing from that of European wars, where armies can ordinarily fight at a distance, showed that smooth-bore guns satisfied all these conditions; a large number of them were cast, and no general ever had occasion to regret having secured them for his artillery.

The field materiel was thus found to be composed of smoothbore twelve-pounders, of three-inch wrought-iron guns, and of bar-guns three to four and a half inches in diameter. The greatest variety was to be found in guns of heavy calibre. Besides the old mortars, forty-eight pounders, and large cast-iron