famous Spanish Square of heavily armed pikemen and
musketeers began to dominate the battlefield. In the face of musketry,
field artillery declined. Although artillery had achieved some
mobility, carriages were still cumbrous. To move a heavy English
cannon, even over good ground, it took 23 horses; a culverin needed
nine beasts. Ammunition--mainly cast-iron round shot, the bomb (an
iron shell filled with gunpowder), canister (a can filled with small
projectiles), and grape shot (a cluster of iron balls)--was carried
the primitive way, in wheelbarrows and carts or on a man's back. The
gunner's pace was the measure of field artillery's speed: the gunner
_walked_ beside his gun! Furthermore, some of these experts were
getting along in years. During Elizabeth's reign several of the
gunners at the Tower of London were over 90 years old.

Lacking mobility, guns were captured and recaptured with every
changing sweep of the battle; so for the artillerist generally, this
was a difficult period. The actual commander of artillery was usually
a soldier; but transport and drivers were still hired, and the drivers
naturally had a layman's attitude toward battle. Even the gunners,
those civilian artists who owed no special duty to the prince, were
concerned mainly over the safety of their pieces--and their hides,
since artillerists who stuck with their guns were apt to be picked off
by an enemy musketeer. Fusilier companies were organized as artillery
guards, but their job was as much to keep the gun crew from running
away as to protect them from the enemy.

[Illustration: Figure 5--FIFTEENTH-CENTURY BREECHLOADER.]

So, during 400 years, cannon had changed from the little vases,
valuable chiefly for making noise, into the largest caliber weapons
ever built, and then from the bombards into smaller, more powerful
cannon. The gun of 1600 could throw a shot almost as far as the gun of
1850; not in fire power, but in mobility, organization, and tactics
was artillery undeveloped. Because artillery lacked these things, the
pike and musket were supreme on the battlefield.

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS

Under the Swedish warrior Gustavus Adolphus, artillery began to take
its true position on the field of battle. Gustavus saw the need for
mobility, so he divorced anything heavier than a 12-pounder from his
field artillery. His famous "leatheren" gun was so light that it could
be drawn and served by two men. This gun was