ed and thirty-five ungarrisoned; of the
total number, fifty-one were sea-coast forts and the balance
barracks, properly speaking. Of the garrisoned forts, fifteen had
no armaments, and the armaments of all the others were the old
muzzle-loading types of low power. The efficiency of the artillery
personnel was far from satisfactory, from lack of proper instruction,
due in turn to lack of facilities. Artillery target practice,
except at Forts Monroe, Hamilton, and Wadsworth, had practically
ceased in the division; and of the forty-five companies of artillery,
comprising seventy-five per cent. of the entire artillery troops
of the army, only two batteries continually at Fort Monroe had had
annual artillery target practice during the preceding ten years,
and some of the batteries had not fired a shot.

MEASURES FOR IMPROVING THE SEA-COAST DEFENSE

"To remedy these defects, and at the same time provide a system of
fire control applicable to the defense of all our harbors, orders
were issued in 1887 for mapping the harbors, establishing base
lines, and arranging the extremities for the use of angle-measuring
instruments, and graduating traverse circles in azimuth. Systematic
artillery instruction and target practice were ordered, and a system
of reports suited to the preservation and utilization of all data
resulting from the firing.

"Thus, for the first time in the history of the country, an effort
was made to establish and develop a system of artillery fire control
adapted to our fortifications and armament. In 1888 General
Schofield succeeded General Sheridan in command of the army, and
in December issued 'General Orders, No. 108' from the headquarters
of the army. This order extended to all the artillery troops of
the army the system of artillery instruction and target practice
which had been established in the Division of the Atlantic. As it
had not been found practicable to equip all the artillery posts
with the necessary appliances for carrying out the provisions of
the order, the eleven principal posts on the Eastern, Western, and
Southern coasts were designated as artillery posts of instruction,
and provided with all the guns, implements, and instruments necessary
for the instruction and target practice of such of the neighboring
garrisons as were unprovided with proper facilities.

"To insure the proper execution of the order, there was appropriated
March 2, 1889, twenty t