Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text.
The cover image has been created for this text, and is placed in the public domain.
CLASS BOOK
FOR
THE SCHOOL OF MUSKETRY
HYTHE.
PREPARED FOR THE USE OF OFFICERS.
BY
COLONEL E. C. WILFORD,
Assistant-Commandant and Chief Instructor.
HYTHE:
W. S. PAINE, STATIONER, POST OFFICE, HIGH STREET.
1861.
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INTRODUCTION.
The School of Musketry was founded in 1853, by the then Commander-in-Chief, thelate Viscount Hardinge, as a normal school of instruction in Musketry.
It has for its especial object the formation of officers and non-commissioned officersto act as instructors in the several battalions throughout the Army.
In the book of “Regulations for conducting the Musketry Instruction of the Army,”promulgated by order of His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief, it is ordered atpage 33, and paragraph 35, that, “The Commanding Officer is to assemble the officersof the battalion at least once in each half-year, and to cause the non-commissionedofficers and men to be assembled occasionally by squads or companies, at other timesthan when the annual course is proceeding, when the officer-instructor, having previouslyexplained the theoretical principles detailed in the foregoing lessons, will be at libertyto advance deeper into the subject, developing to a degree proportionate to the rankand intelligence of his auditors, the whole history of small arms, from the first inventionof gunpowder, and the successive steps by which the rifle-musket has attained its presentefficiency; in order that the officers and soldiers, by acquiring a thorough knowledgeof the subject theoretically, may take a greater interest in the practical part of thismost important branch of their duty.”
The following Lectures have been prepared for the use of officers qualifying at theSchool of Musketry for the positions of Instructors in their respective Regiments. Theyare not to be considered as complete treatises or histories, but merely as “aids” to instruction,which can be expanded by the Instructor in viva voce Lectures, and if boundwith an alternate ruled blank leaf, they may be corrected and enlarged when desirable,to suit the various improvements in arms, &c., introduced from time to time.
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These Lectures are a mere compilation, extracted from a vast amount of interestingand valuable matter, systematically arranged. The names of the various authors uponwhom wholesale plunder has been committed are mentioned in the course of the work,and the compiler hopes this general confession may secure their pardon.
The Theory of Gunnery has