rmined Confederate defenders
of Fort Sumter in 1863-64 refused to surrender, but under the most
difficult conditions converted their ruined masonry into an earthwork
almost impervious to further bombardment.

THE CHANGE INTO MODERN ARTILLERY

With Rodman's gun, the muzzle-loading smoothbore was at the apex of
its development. Through the years great progress had been made in
mobility, organization, and tactics. Now a new era was beginning,
wherein artillery surpassed even the decisive role it had under
Gustavus Adolphus and Napoleon. In spite of new infantry weapons that
forced cannon ever farther to the rear, artillery was to become so
deadly that its fire caused over 75 percent of the battlefield
casualties in World War I.

Many of the vital changes took place during the latter years of the
1800's, as rifles replaced the smoothbores. Steel came into universal
use for gun founding; breech and recoil mechanisms were perfected;
smokeless powder and high explosives came into the picture. Hardly
less important was the invention of more efficient sighting and laying
mechanisms.

The changes did not come overnight. In Britain, after breechloaders
had been in use almost a decade, the ordnance men went back to
muzzle-loading rifles; faulty breech mechanisms caused too many
accidents. Not until one of H.M.S. _Thunderer's_ guns was
inadvertently double-loaded did the English return to an improved
breechloader.

The steel breechloaders of the Prussians, firing two rounds a minute
with a percussion shell that broke into about 30 fragments, did much
to defeat the French (1870-71). At Sedan, the greatest artillery
battle fought prior to 1914, the Prussians used 600 guns to smother
the French army. So thoroughly did these guns do their work that the
Germans annihilated the enemy at the cost of only 5 percent
casualties. It was a demonstration of using great masses of guns,
bringing them quickly into action to destroy the hostile artillery,
then thoroughly "softening up" enemy resistance in preparation for the
infantry attack. While the technical progress of the Prussian
artillery was considerable, it was offset in large degree by the
counter-development of field entrenchment.

As the technique of forging large masses of steel improved, most
nations adopted built-up (reinforcing hoops over a steel tube) or
wire-wrapped steel construction for their cannon. With the advent of
the metal cartridge case and smokeless powder, rap