7. Muddy ground is unfavorable for artillery. Over such ground, its carriages move slowly, and its fire is less effective. Balls cannot ricochet; and shells often sink into the mud, and thus are either extinguished or explode with but little effect.
Napoleon depended so much on his artillery at Waterloo that, although every moment was precious, he delayed commencing the battle till his chief of artillery had reported the ground, which had been covered by a soaking rain, to be sufficiently dry for the movements and effectiveness of that arm. The three hours' delay thus caused, would have sufficed him to crush Wellington's army before the arrival of the Prussians.
8. Stony ground is a bad location for a battery; for the enemy's shot will scatter the stones around it with more or less fatal effect.
9. Rough or uneven ground immediately in front of a battery is not objectionable, as it will stop the enemy's shot.
10. A battery, when it is possible to avoid it, should not be posted within musket range of woods, bushes, ravines, hedges, ditches, or other cover from which the enemy's sharpshooters might kill off the gunners, or, by a sudden dash, capture the guns.
11. To prevent the enemy from approaching a battery under cover, it should be so placed as to be able to sweep all villages, hollows, and woods, in front and in flank.
12. In taking up a position, a battery should avail itself of all inequalities of the ground, for the shelter of its pieces and gunners, or of its limbers and caissons, at least.
For the same purpose, a battery posted on an eminence should have its pieces some ten paces behind its crest.
13. Where the ground affords no shelter, and where the position of the guns is not likely to be changed, it may be worth while to cover them by an épaulement or breastwork, some three feet, or more, high.