great surprise, and in both British services much
attention was at once directed to improvement in artillery and musketry.
Nothing could exceed the frankness with which Englishmen avowed their
inferiority. According to Sir Francis Head, "gunnery was in naval
warfare in the extraordinary state of ignorance we have just described,
when our lean children, the American people, taught us, rod in hand, our
first lesson in the art." The English text-book on Naval Gunnery,
written by Major-General Sir Howard Douglas immediately after the peace,
devoted more attention to the short American war than to all the battles
of Napoleon, and began by admitting that Great Britain had "entered with
too great confidence on war with a marine much more expert than that of
any of our European enemies." The admission appeared "objectionable"
even to the author; but he did not add, what was equally true, that it
applied as well to the land as to the sea service.

No one questioned the bravery of the British forces, or the ease with
which they often routed larger bodies of militia; but the losses they
inflicted were rarely as great as those they suffered. Even at
Bladensburg, where they met little resistance, their loss was several
times greater than that of the Americans. At Plattsburg, where the
intelligence and quickness of Macdonough and his men alone won the
victory, his ships were in effect stationary batteries, and enjoyed the
same superiority in gunnery. "The Saratoga," said his official report,
"had fifty-five round-shot in her hull; the Confiance, one hundred and
five. The enemy's shot passed principally just over our heads, as there
were not twenty whole hammocks in the nettings at the close of
the action."

The greater skill of the Americans was not due to special training; for
the British service was better trained in gunnery, as in everything
else, than the motley armies and fleets that fought at New Orleans and
on the Lakes. Critics constantly said that every American had learned
from his childhood the use of the rifle; but he certainly had not
learned to use cannon in shooting birds or hunting deer, and he knew
less than the Englishman about the handling of artillery and muskets.
The same intelligence that selected the rifle and the long pivot-gun for
favorite weapons was shown in handling the carronade, and every other
instrument however clumsy.

Another significant result of the war was the sudden development of
scientific e