One quadrant, One perpendicular, One fuze engine, for every four or five mortars. One tube pocket. One lanyard with hook, for friction tubes. One set of priming irons. One filling funnel. One cork screw. One mallet. Two setters. Tow, or flax. Shells. Pound shot, or stones. Bottoms for ditto. Valenciennes composition. Fuzes. Carcasses. Light balls.
| At the Magazine. | |
| One budge barrel. | One set of powder measures. |
| One set of weights and scales. | |
Prepare for action. Plant the pointing rods. Halt. Plant the rod. Pointing rods are sometimes fixed in two and a half or three inch planks, about seven or eight feet in length, prepared for this purpose.
Mortars are run up by the same numbers, and in the same manner, as guns on standing carriages, the handspikes being applied under the running up bolts. Load. Put in the shell. Traverse. Muzzle right. Heave. Halt. Muzzle Left. Heave. Halt. If necessary—Cross lift the mortar to the right, (or LEFT). Heave. Down. Priming, and Firing, as detailed for guns, except that No. 2, at the word “Ready,” takes the sheepskin out of the mortar, and as well as No. 3 takes an oblique pace to the rear, to be clear of the explosion.
Article 13.
FIRING BY NIGHT.
To insure as accurate a fire as possible during the night, the following expedients have been adopted:—
For guns on standing carriages.—A directing bar, or piece of timber, about a foot or eighteen inches longer than the platform and four inches by six in thickness, is used. It has a hole at one end, through which a bolt is passed into the platform close to the hurter, and in the object line. On this bolt the bar traverses. At equal distances from the axis or middle line of the carriage, two cleats are bolted under each axletree, at a distance from each other equal to the breadth of the bar, and the bar is passed under the carriage and fitted between these cleats. Holes are bored at the tail of the platform, for the reception of bolts, at distances from each other to suit the size of the bar. The gun is laid for the object during the day, and should the bar fall exactly between two holes, the bolts are put in, and the bar remains fixed. When however the bar covers a hole, the bolts are put into the nearest holes on each side, and small wedges driven in between them and the bar, in order to keep it in its place. The gun now requires nothing more after each round than to be loaded, run up, and fired; operations which are as easily performed by night as by day.
For guns on travelling carriages.—The gun having been properly laid during the day, a bead or piece of timber of a proper scantling is nailed or screwed to the platform, inside the felloe of each wheel, and parallel to the object line, and two shorter pieces are fastened in like manner outside of the cheeks of the carriage, at the trail.