Viewing page 18 of 51

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

                                        .16
of the consequences or they did not give a damn.
     Another defect of the 3-inch gun was that it had to be re-laid after each discharge, unless it was fired straight forward. This was because the gun, in being laid at an an angle, was simply rotated about a point on the axle of the limber [[best guess]],and so was no longer in line with the trail spade. Thus: [[image-sketch of the 3 inch-gun with an angled dotted line]] the recoil occurred in the direction of the dotted line. The trail spade being fixed in the middle of the axle. The French 75, on the other hand, was traversed by moving the trail spade on the axle. Thus: the recoil therefore was always in the line of the trail spade, and firing did not so much disturb the position of the gun. [[image-sketch of the French 75]]
     The Virginia guardsman had good horses, however. Horses and guns were placed at our disposal. We hauled the guns and caissons all over Chickamauga Park, went through dummy firing drill, did a great deal of riding, and groomed the horses thereafter.
     Sauds, as indicated above, took pride in his horsemanship. He took us out for long rides almost daily, over the most difficult terrain he could find in the park. We jumped hurdles and gullies. We rode down the steep sides of railroad cuts. He rode his own polo horse, which was trained to such stunts, but the cadets had the artillery horses. They were on the average good, but not all sure-footed. I expected a fatal accident daily, but although there were numerous falls, no cadet of our battery was seriously hurt. One, horse, falling down into a railroad