The proceedings of the board were transmitted to England and returned in 1841, with the orders of the Court of Directors (among other points), that if the pattern carriage had given satisfaction, it should be adopted throughout all India. In the interim, however, the Afghan war had taken place, and the carriages of the Bengal and Bombay presidencies been severely tried. The former stood the test of the service in that most difficult country, while the latter, constructed on a plan nearly similar to the Madras one, proved utterly worthless. These circumstances, and the failure of some 6–pounder carriages of the “Indian pattern,” with the Bombay horse artillery, during the short affair at Hykulzie, rendered the strength of the pattern doubtful, and after calling for reports from all who had been engaged in these campaigns, the Supreme Government in 1842 finally decided on adopting the Bengal block trail as the pattern for Indian light field-carriages.
This appears an appropriate place in which to detail the different means of draught adopted from time to time, and the arrangement will have the advantage of presenting the subject in one view, and saving the reader the trouble of searching for it through different periods.
To the end of the last century, bullocks were the only draught cattle in use for artillery purposes; they were attached to the carriage by yokes, most probably similar to those which may now be seen in every native hackery, and traces made of raw hide: these latter, during Lord Cornwallis’s campaigns, were superseded by draught-chains, the whole chain in one long piece, very cumbrous and inconvenient. This pattern was early modified, we believe, by making the lengths for siege ordnance for three or four pairs of bullocks; but it was not until about 1825 that a separate chain was allotted to each pair, facilitating the lengthening, or reducing the line of draught greatly. The yoke was attached by a swivel playing loosely on the pole, with a neck which passed through the upper part of the yoke, and was fastened with a nut. The yoke, at this period we think, consisted of two bars, and has remained up to the present day with little alteration. An attempt was made to supersede it by a single bar yoke with short stanchions, and chains to confine the bullocks in their places, by General Hardwicke, about 1781. This was supposed to be an improvement on the native yoke, and more economical than the pattern in use; but an important point having been overlooked, viz. the native yoke-bar being fixed immoveably to the pole, while the H. P. yoke was moveable on its swivel, the result was not satisfactory, as the bullocks were continually in danger of suffocation, from the bar twisting and tightening the chain round their necks. The double band yoke was therefore retained, and it was fitted on the pole with a clip-band, which, by embracing the upper bar, saved the necessity of piercing it for the reception of the swivel, and added much to its strength.
About 1801, horses were first used for the draught of guns in India. Experimental horse artillery was formed, and two galloper-guns were attached to each cavalry regiment. The original plan has been followed with little variation up to the present time; each horse of the team was ridden, and the guns were worked by the men who rode the horses. The chief advantages of this system are economy, greater exertion to be got out of the horses in a difficulty, and a smaller number of men and horses exposed to an enemy’s fire; its disadvantages are, the horses being overweighted, and a liability, from the paucity of numbers, of a gun being crippled in action by a few casualties. It may, however, after many years’ experience, be pronounced a system combining with economy a very considerable degree of efficiency.
The bullocks, much improved by the arrangements of 1809, which transferred them to the care of the artillery, continued the sole draught animal of the foot artillery until 1818, when an experimental 12–pounder battery was horsed with a limited number of an inferior description of cattle: yet, under these disadvantages, so superior did this battery prove, that others were soon afterwards similarly equipped, and their numbers gradually increased until 1827, when it was decided that all the light field-batteries should be horsed; so convinced had the local Government and the Court of Directors become of the utility of the measure. But scarcely were the orders issued, when one of those extraordinary changes, so often to be met with in Indian arrangements, consequent on the change in the head of the Government, took place, and in 1828 the horses were ordered to be sold, and their place to be supplied with bullocks. Against this arrangement, destructive of the efficiency of the regiment, the representations of the commandant of artillery were of no avail; and the remonstrances of a general officer, unwilling to be left with an inefficient field-artillery, were met by the reply that the change had been resolved on “not only from motives of economy, but from a conviction that the number and efficiency of the horse artillery rendered the maintenance of horse field-batteries unnecessary;” as if the duties and use of the two branches of the arm were not quite distinct and incompatible with one another!
The horse-batteries being thus extinguished, for many years there was not a foot field-battery that could be considered efficient for service; fortunately it was a period of profound peace, or the twelve troops of horse artillery would have proved but a “broken reed” to rest upon as the whole effective field-artillery of an army mustering, perhaps, 80,000 men, and scattered over a country twelve hundred miles in length, with hostile powers bordering on it in all directions.
In 1835, attempts were made to turn the enduring powers of the camel to gun-draught. Arguing on the fact that the animal had in former times been employed in draught, and that in the present day he is used in the plough in the Hurrianah and other sandy districts, Major Pew made many experiments, and at length succeeded so far, that Government authorized a battery to be fitted for this draught at Dehli, and it was placed under the command of Captain W. Anderson. Its first performances, when with the camp of the Commander-in-Chief, appeared to promise well—so well, indeed, that on the formation of the Army of the Indus, it was attached to it under the command of Captain A. Abbott. In the field, however, it did not keep up its character; while the ground was smooth and sandy, the camels worked well, but in moist or slippery soil they were continually liable to accidents, and in ground intersected by trenches they were peculiarly awkward; at all times they were found deficient in muscular exertion, weight constituting their sole power of traction; and when the work became hard, and food scarce, they knocked up completely and suddenly, without any warning; and on the army moving from Candahar towards Ghuznee, the camels were replaced by the horse and yaboo of the country. A second battery, which proceeded to Scinde in 1843, fared no better. A third, stationed at Nusseerabad, seems to answer for cantonment duties, but we believe has not been tried in any other way. The result of the experiments appears to be, that though the camel will answer as gun-draught in particular localities, he will not do for a battery which is liable to move in all directions.
The war in Afghanistan forced on the Government the necessity of improving their field-artillery, and as a commencement, a battery on the frontier was supplied with cast horses from the horse artillery and cavalry; but on the apparent termination of the war in 1840, with a view to economy, these horses were withdrawn and replaced, with much delay, with bullocks, leaving the frontier, on which our dubious friends the Sikhs could in a week have mustered 100,000 men and 200 pieces of artillery, with no other artillery than one or two 6–pounder troops of horse artillery, and this battery ill equipped with bullocks and drivers from the Commissariat; and such was its state when the Afghan reverses broke upon India like a clap of thunder.
In 1841, the orders of the Court of Directors were received, to supersede bullocks entirely by horses, camels, and elephants, which were supposed likely to form cheap and efficient field-batteries, horses were given to a few, and one was furnished with elephants. We believe no one expected that this latter would answer. The awkward line of traction, the great power of the animal, and the fear of his becoming unmanageable under fire, were the obvious objections; to which might be added the disadvantage of the whole power of draught being concentrated in one animal, in case of this one being wounded, and which his great bulk rendered extremely probable. After two years’ experience, the elephant was rejected from field-artillery; but it was proposed to use his strength more advantageously in the movement of siege-guns, where several of the objections would not apply, particularly that of being exposed to an enemy’s fire. During the recent campaign on the Sutlej, elephants were used in siege-guns, and also in a battery of iron 12–pounders; but although this battery was provided with spare limbers, with bullocks for carrying it into action, yet, by some mismanagement, the elephants were used at Sobraon, and, as had been anticipated, took fright at the first shot which passed over them, and ran off to the rear with the limbers, proving clearly the soundness of the opinion originally pronounced against their use for field-artillery.
We believe, too, that they are to be given up for siege-artillery, but not, we think, on such sound grounds; their adoption was an experiment; the harness intended for field-guns was transferred to siege, without alteration, and, as might have been expected, proved too weak: whether a stronger pattern, which was recommended, was used in the hurried march, by which the heavy guns were brought up from Dehli to the Sutlej, and how that answered; whether the animals proved themselves unequal to the work, or whether, as a means of instituting a fair comparison, a gun drawn by bullocks accompanied the elephants, and moved with greater ease or difficulty, we know not; but we think it is a pity that the animal has not been fairly tried, or if so, that the experiments have not been recorded and published for general information.