rivers were still civilians in the
1790's. In 1716, Britain had organized artillery into two permanent
companies, comprising the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Yet as late as
the American Revolution there was a dispute about whether a general
officer whose service had been in the Royal Artillery was entitled to
command troops of all arms. There was no such question in England of
the previous century: the artillery general was a personage having
"alwayes a part of the charge, and when the chief generall is absent,
he is to command all the army."

[Illustration: Figure 7--FRENCH GARRISON GUN (1650-1700). The gun is
on a sloping wooden platform at the embrasure. Note the heavy bed on
which the cheeks of the carriage rest and the built-in skid under the
center of the rear axletree.]

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

During the early 1700's cannon were used to protect an army's
deployment and to prepare for the advance of the troops by firing upon
enemy formations. There was a tendency to regard heavy batteries,
properly protected by field works or permanent fortifications, as the
natural role for artillery. But if artillery was seldom decisive in
battle, it nevertheless waxed more important through improved
organization, training, and discipline. In the previous century,
calibers had been reduced in number and more or less standardized;
now, there were notable scientific and technical improvements. The
English scientist Benjamin Robins wedded theory to practice; his _New
Principles of Gunnery_ (1742) did much to bring about a more
scientific attitude toward ballistics. One result of Robins' research
was the introduction, in 1779, of carronades, those short, light
pieces so useful in the confines of a ship's gun deck. Carronades
usually ranged in caliber from 6- to 68-pounders.

In North America, cannon were generally too cumbrous for Indian
fighting. But from the time (1565) the French, in Florida, loosed the
first bolt at the rival fleet of the Spaniard Menendez, cannon were
used on land and sea during intercolonial strife, or against corsairs.
Over the vast distances of early America, transport of heavy guns was
necessarily by water. Without ships, the guns were inexorably walled
in by the forest. So it was when the Carolinian Moore besieged St.
Augustine in 1702. When his ships burned, Moore had to leave his guns
to the Spaniards.

One of the first appearances of organized American field artillery on
the battlefield was in