excellent service on numerous occasions; being so very light they could
be easily transported, and, on the field of battle, their movements
could be made to conform to the movements of his troops.

As cannon and small arms were gradually introduced into general use,
various inventions and improvements were proposed and introduced from
time to time. Cannon were constructed with two or more barrels; some
were arranged for being loaded in the breech, and others at the mouth of
the piece; two pieces were sometimes connected by horizontal timbers,
which revolved about a vertical axis, so that the recoil of one piece
would bring the other into battery; and various other arrangements of
this description, which have recently been revived and some of them
patented as new inventions. The small arms employed at this period were
much the same as those used at the present day, except the matchlock,
which afterwards gave place to flint-locks. Arms of this description
were sometimes made to be loaded at the breach, and guns with two,
three, and even as many as eight barrels, were at one time in fashion.
In the _Musee de l'Artillerie_ at Paris may be found many arms of this
kind, which have been reproduced in this country and England as new
inventions. In this Museum are two ancient pieces, invented near the end
of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century, which very
nearly correspond with _Colt's patent_, with the single exception of the
lock![33]

[Footnote 33: It is not to be inferred that the modern _improvements_
(as they are called) are copied from the more ancient _inventions_. Two
men of different ages, or even of the same age, sometimes fall upon the
same identical discovery, without either's borrowing from the other.]

The _materiel_ of artillery employed in modern warfare is divided into
two general classes: 1st. _Siege Artillery_, or such as is employed in
the attack and defence of places. 2d. _Field Artillery_, or such as is
used in battle, or in the field-operations of an army.

1. _Siege Artillery_ is composed of _mortars, large howitzers, Paixhan
guns_ or _Columbiads_,[34] and _all cannon_ of _a large calibre._ In our
service this class of ordnance includes the twelve, eighteen,
twenty-four, thirty-two, and forty-two-pounder guns, the eight, ten, and
thirteen-inch mortars, the sixteen-inch stone mortar, the
twenty-four-pounder coehorn mortar, the twenty-four-pounder carronade,
and the eight, ten, and