Guns of the Krupp system may be temporarily disabled by carrying off the breech-block, or breaking off its handle.
ASCENTS.
After pulling up a short, steep hill the horses should be halted to recover their wind. When this cannot be done, they will move very slowly.
In going up a difficult hill the carriages may be halted to rest the horses by bringing them across the declivity and locking the limbers or chocking the wheels, or by putting on the brake to the rear; for this purpose it may be expedient to start the sections or platoons from the bottom in succession, leaving a distance of 20 or 30 yards between the different portions of the column.
If the draught be so difficult that the teams are liable to stall, the carriages in rear are halted, and the lead-and swing-horses of the rear half of the carriages can be taken out and hitched to the leading half; when these have been taken through, all the horses, except the wheel, will be taken back, and the rear carriages brought up. As it is very hard to make the horses pull together, not more than five pairs can be hitched with effect to a single carriage.
DESCENTS.
The drivers never dismount going down hill; the wheel-driver holds his near horse well in hand, and his off horse very short. Two cannoneers may be mounted on each gun-carriage and caisson to apply the brakes. In the absence of instructions from higher authority the chief of carriage directs whether the brakes are to be applied to a particular wheel or to both. The brakes are easily applied and removed, and a judicious use of them will save the horse much fatigue and prevent sore necks and shoulders. If the descent be very steep, the sectional picket-line may be used by the cannoneers to hold back; in this case the wheel-horses only remain hitched to the carriage, the others being led in rear.
MOVING ALONG DECLIVITIES.
If a carriage have to move along a declivity so steep that a slight jolt may overturn it, the wheels are locked, the sectional picket-line fastened to the top of the upper wheel and held by two or three cannoneers, who march on the upper side of the slope.