Again, with the new rifle shells, he may be able to blow up a caisson.
8. Neither should a skirmisher have much to fear from a single horseman. With his bayonet fixed, he would usually be able to defend himself successfully against the trooper, whose sabre is the shorter weapon of the two; more especially, if he will take care to keep on the trooper's left, which is his exposed side.
9. Never lose your calmness. Your power consists, not in rapid firing, but in the accuracy of your aim. Avoid all hurried and violent movements; and never raise your gun till sure of a shot.
10. The aim, according to the Tactics, is made by bringing the gun down, instead of raising it up. However little the soldier may be excited, he will be apt to pull the trigger more or less too soon; that is, while the muzzle is yet too elevated. This is the reason why infantry missiles usually fly too high. The difficulty would not be obviated by causing the aim to be made by raising the piece; for then the same disturbing cause already mentioned, the soldier's excitement, would make the shots fly as much too low, as they now fly too high.
Rapid firing is another cause of this incompleteness of aim. Infantry firing is already too rapid to be effective; so that what is claimed for the new breech-loading weapons as an advantage, that they increase the rapidity of fire, furnishes, on the contrary, a strong objection to them. The effectiveness of the fire of a sharp-shooter, especially, will be usually in inverse, instead of direct proportion to the number of shots he delivers in a given time.
In view of this, and of the tendency to pull the trigger before the muzzle is sufficiently depressed, it has become an established maxim, to
"Aim low,
Fire slow"
TACTICAL USE OF ARTILLERY.
The subject will be treated under the following heads:—