they proportionably take more Powder than the Cannon and that is now double and treble of more strength and efficacy than it was in the Infancy of Gunnery Fourthly observe the more ponderous and heavy the Bullet is so it be expell'd with Fourth a due proportion of Powder it shakes the more the batter'd place provided that place be within the range of the Piece and therefore the Cannon shakes more than the Culverine though it pierce not so deep if the Culverine have her due loading Hence it is that in Batteries Culverins and Demi-Culverins are used to shoot cross wise or to flank to cut away that which the Cannon hath shaken The Third kind of Ordnance is the Stone-caster which the French call Stone-caster Pierrieros or Pierrieras from Pierre which in that language signifieth a Stone The Germans call them Steinbuchsen which is to say Stone-Guns They are cast and ordain'd to shoot Stones yet may shoot either Lead or iron if sparingly charged with Powder They are handsome Pieces and very like Cannon or Pieces of Battery the longest of them will be but eight diameters of the heighth of their bore they are not strongly fortified in their Metal neither need they be for they require not much Powder and hence they are light to carry Being duly loaden they serve well enough to defend a breach or the Port of a Town they are good against Troops or Companies in the Field and can commit Murther enough with small expence for they save abundance of Iron and very much Powder The fourth kind of Ordnance is the Mortar under which comprehend Pot-pieces Mortar Square Murtherers Tortles and Petards The Pot-piece shoots Granado's Fireballs and Stones These Mortars are of several and very far different greatnesses for some of them shoot but five some six some eight It s Use pounds others 300 350 and 400 pound They are only useful at Sieges and at them they can serve both the Assailants and Defendants The besieged use them for shooting in the Batteries and Approaches of the Enemy to ruin their Works destroy their Men burn their Ammunition and by their Comet-like light while they are in the air to discern where they are working The Besiegers use them to terrifie and annoy the Defendants to burn their Houses and Magazines with Granado's or break them down with stones which sometimes will be of that huge weight that scarce a double Vault can resist them The operation of the Mortar is as I said before altogether in oblique and crooked lines Those Gunners that are appointed to oversee them had need to be skilful the Art being difficult for Granado's are very expensive and therefore must not be cast away yet I have seen as many yea a great deal more miss than hit the mark Bullets for any kind of Ordnance or Fire-Guns may be of any metal you please yea of Gold or Silver the first is too costly the second some fancy to Silver Bullets be able to pierce such as are by some black art or other hard or Bullet-proof But to charge a person that is Bullet-proof with a Silver-ball to me seems to be like the Assaulting an Inchanted Castle The Bullets which are ordinarily used are threefold Stone Lead and Iron Of the Stone I have spoke Lead-Bullets Leaden Bullets are for all Hand-guns but are not fit for Ordnance except in case of necessity which seldom arriveth They weigh a third more than Iron and so are costlier they pierce not so far into an Earthen-wall as the Iron ones and in stone-walls they batter themselves out in breadth without doing much hurt to the wall Irâ—â— bullets are of two kinds massie ones and those that are empty Iron Bullets or hollow within The empty are called Granado's and are filled with such Hollow Iron Bullets or Granado's stuff as the Engineer or Gunner thinks effectual for the business or errand on which he intends to send them The massie Iron-bullet should be exactly round and Gunners ought to be sure that they fit the bores of their several Pieces for if the Bullet be too great and stick in the vacant Cylinder it hazards in the discharge the bursting the Piece and if too little it is impossible for any Cannoneer to make a just shot with it they use to help the smallness of the Bullet by tying Hemp Flax Hay or Straw about it for all Bullets must be a little less than the bore of the Piece for which they are made And therefore it was long a general rule to make all Bullets for Ordnance one fourth part of Massie Bullets of Iron an inch lower in its Diameter than the height of the bore of the Piece But this is now condemned by Gunners as an error because they think for a Falcon or other small Pieces the fourth part of an Inch is too great an abatement and for either a Culverine or Cannon it is too little Bockler tells me that they agree now that the twentieth part of the Diameter of the bore of all Pieces is a reasonable abatement for their Bullets There be also Chains Chained Bullets and Cartridges shot out of Pieces of Ordnance The first at Sea-service and all of the other two in the fields against Troops or Companies either of Horse or Foot I shall forbear to say any more of great Ordnance leaving the rest to the Gunners art which all Soldiers are not obliged to learn Only I cannot omit to tell my Reader that notwithstanding all I have said there is an History extant of that Siege which the famous Marquis Spinola form'd and maintain'd at Breda in the years 1625 and 1626 written originally in Latin and approv'd by the said Marquis and thereafter translated into several Languages in which we are told that during the time of the Siege Philip Count of Mansfield went to Count Mansfield his rare Invention of Guns at the Siege of Breda Brussels and there by his great art and industry founded forty Brass-Guns and twenty three Murtherers for so our Historian calls them thirty of these shot Iron Bullets of six pound weight all the rest shot twenty five pound The metal of every one of the six pounders weighed no more but a 180 pound and those of twenty five Bullet weighed no more but 750 pound If you will calculate this you will find that these Pieces had just thirty pound of metal and no more allow'd for every pound of their Bullet this was a weak fortification for we must suppose Spinola wanted not for Powder of the best sort The Author adds that these new Pieces shot their Bullets further than the old ones did and required but the third part of Powder formerly allowed for Pieces of their Bores He adds also which he needed not that the lesser new Guns were drawn by two Horses and the greater by four for it is certain the lighter the Piece is the fewer Horses Men or Oxen it will need to
of Brimstone and one pound of Coal for six pounds of Saltpeter this they say is for Musquets The third is the finest and hath seven or eight pounds of Niter for one pound of Sulphur and one pound of Charcoal this is for birding for fowling-pieces or if you will for Pistols Powder for fear of its mischief must be kept in upper rooms but in dry and warm places for age and moisture corrupts it and renders it improper for any use but it may be again renewed by an addition of Saltpeter The Gunners Art is a necessary Appendix of the Modern Art of War but not necessary for every Soldier to learn yet the more he knoweth of it the perfecter Soldier he is I shall speak but of a few things of Artillery which I think are convenient for necessary I say they are not for most Officers and Commanders in the War to know leaving the Art in its intire compass to the taught by those ingenious persons who profess it wherein I have no skill and profess as little Pieces of Ordnance that shoot in a direct line for I speak not of Pot-pieces Three sorts of Guns or Mortars which cast their shots in crooked and oblique lines are either of Leather of Iron or of Copper These Guns which are called Leather-Cannon Leather have Copper under the Leather and are made with great art and are light to carry which is the greatest advantage they have Iron-Guns are accounted better than the Leather ones but experience hath taught us that they Iron are not so good for many uses as those of Copper It is true they are not so costly by far neither do they burst so readily and some think the firing them makes them firmer and faster In the casting Copper-Guns the Founders differ in the quantity of Bell-metal Copper with it some allowing more some less and Bockler the Engineer informs us that now the Germans allow no Bell-metal at all but for every eight pound of Copper one pound of rough Tin their reason for this is they have found by experience that Bell-metal makes the Piece brittle and subject to breaking Bell-metal and Tin makes it hard The English and French allow both Bell-metal and Tin And some allow also a mixture of Latten and Lead Time and Art hath brought Powder to have a greater force than it had in its Infancy The Saltpeter being more artificially refined the Sulphur better purged Powder better now than a 150 or 200 years ago and the Coals of more proper wood and better burnt the Powder now being corned which then it was not This change of Powder hath occasion'd a very great alteration in the fortification of Ordnance for Powder having now a double or a treble force more than when it was first found out a Piece requires a proportionable fortification of her metal to resist the violence of the Powder As by example an hundred and fifty years ago and upward or rather two hundred Founders allowed for a Cannon or Demi-Cannon 80 pound Therefore the Fortification of Ordnance must be the stronger of metal for every pound of their shot by which account a Piece that shot a Bullet of 48 pound weight did but weigh in mettal 3840 pound whereas now and sixty years ago too she weighs with the Germans 9000 pound which will be above 187 pound of metal for every pound of the Bullet But in all the sorts of Culverines there is a stronger fortification required than in Cannon in regard they being of a greater length they are able proportionably to receive in their Chambers more Powder than the Cannon and therefore must be better fortified After the first practice of Guns a Culverine that shot 16 pound of Iron had but a 100 pound of metal allow'd for every pound of her shot and so she weighed but then 1600 pound but now and long before this she weighs 4300 pound and consequently hath the allowance of near 270 pound of metal for every pound of her shot for smaller Ordnance in times of old 150 pound of metal was allowed for every pound of their shot now above 300 or near 400. How the Moulds for founding Cannon should be made of what earth what Gunners to look carefully to the defects of Guns defects a Gun may receive from a faulty Mould or from the melting the metal and running it in the Moulds what overplus of metal is allowed which the German Founders call the Wolf how a Gun in founding comes to be weaker of one side than the other how she gets chinks flaws and honeycombs and how Gunners ought to be careful to try their Guns if they have either these or any other defects and how they shall mend them belongs properly to Gunners to discourse of from whom the Courteous Reader may easily learn them There are three Fortifications of Ordnance the ordinary fortified the lessened Several Fortifications of Ordnance that is less than the ordinary and the re-inforced which is the double fortified All Pieces are to be more strongly fortified at the Touch-hole and Musle and Trunions than in the other parts of them The Trunions equiballance the Piece and on them she is mounted and imbased The Bore which goeth from the Musle to the Touch-hole is called the Cylinder or Concave it is also called the Soul of the Piece And hence when a Piece is equally bored and hath no more metal on one side than another Gunners use to say her Soul lyeth right in her Body So much of the Concave as containeth Powder Bullet and Wad is called the Charged Cylinder or Chamber the Rest the vacant Cylinder or guide of the shot The Touch-hole at Sallies is often nail'd and The names of the several parts of a Piece therefore Gunners ought to be skilful to know how to unnall them and there be several ways for it yet often none of them prevails and therefore they are forc'd to bore a new Touch-hole which will cost them some hours labour The rest of the parts of a Piece not yet nam'd are the Pommel call'd also the Cascabel the Breech the Visier or Base-ring the Trunion-ring the re-inforced ring the Coronice ring which is also call'd the Astragal the Neck and the Musle-ring which is also called the Freeze These denominations a Piece hath from a Column or Pillar which a Piece resembles as Mr. Norton tells us in his practice of Artillery and can be more easily demonstrated by the Finger to the Reader than intelligibly describ'd Great Guns or pieces of Ordnance take frequently their denominations from the Inventers or from Beasts and Birds whom for their swiftness rapacity and cruelty they seem to represent And though the word Cannon Cannon properly so called be generally now taken for all manner of Ordnance yet properly it is that Piece which is ordain'd for battering of Walls Towers and Castles and Ships the French call them Battemurs and the Germans Maurbrechern
Beasts yet thereafter they found means to wound them or by making lanes and streets for them to render their fury so useless that they got but little hurt by them But for all this I cannot have faith enough to believe what Livy reports that an armed Souldier enter'd into combat with an Elephant and that the Beast grapled him with his Trunk about the middle and cast him up in the air but that the Souldier falling with little or no hurt wounded the Beast with his Sword I should be of opinion that such a hug as that might have crush'd both the Souldiers Corsset and his Bones till the Marrow came out for in his Trunk which the Latines call Proboscis there is such strength that therewith as some write he is able to fell Trees or I think the Elephant might have toss'd his Duellist so high in the air that the very fall should have dash'd him in pieces But Livy did no more see this Romantick combat than he saw showers of Blood and Stones which he writes rain'd frequently among the Territories of the Romans and their Allies Chariots in ancient times had sometimes Scythes on both sides of them sometimes none Xenophon writes that before Cyrus time the Trojans and Assyrians and thereafter the Cyrenians used Chariots drawn with four Horses in every one whereof was only one Combatant and a Driver or Coachman Chariots This fashion seem'd to Cyrus of no greater advantage than to skirmish a little but did not at all help to beat an Enemy rang'd in Battel Therefore he abolish'd it and order'd his Chariots to be made with strong and broad Axle-trees to both sides of which were fasten'd Brass or Iron Scythes next he put armed men within the Chariots who in the charge discharg'd lustily their missile Weapons wherewith he took care that they should be well stored and with these he did not only sometimes skirmish but for most part charg'd furiously the Enemies strongest and closest Bodies and Batallions The Egyptians Arms for the Offensive were great and massy Spears saith Egyptian Arms. Xenophon but how long they were he doth not tell and for the Defensive they had Shields of Brass of such a largeness that therewith they cover'd both their Bodies and their Legs They marshall'd their men one hundred in File and when this was told to Cyrus he made himself merry with it and said he wish'd all his Enemies would draw up a thousand deep for so they should be the more easily surrounded their flanks sooner attack'd and consequently said he I should have the cheaper market of them By what that same Author saith it would seem the Egyptians drew up constantly an hundred deep for when Croesus desir'd them to change they answered They Their Order would not alter their Countrey fashion Yet I conjecture the Egyptian custome hath been to marshal their Batallions by the squaâ—â— root for here I find their Body consisted of ten thousand men and they perhaps being desirous to make a square of men which is to have as many in File as Rank have embattell'd them a hundred in each for a hundred times a hundred produceth ten thousand Of the Square Root I shall speak hereafter The Persians that serv'd on Foot in Cyrus's time carried for the Defensive Arms of the ancient Persians a Head-piece Corslet and a little Target and for the Offensive a Sword and a Curtle-axe besides their Darts and Stones His Cuirassiers and Light-horse were arm'd as the Grecians were whereof I shall speak in the next Chapter In his time the Sacans and Cardusians a people dwelling near Persia were excellent Bow-men on Horse-back whose off-spring in all probability were those Parthians who by their valour and skill in that manner of fight routed the Army of the Roman Consul Crassus and kill'd himself and put Mark Anthony to so shameful a retreat and so near a danger of evident ruine that oftner than once he offer'd to rid himself of that impending disgrace by Self-Murther as Plutarch in his Life relates Cyrus who was the first Persian Monarch did not adhere to one constant number of Ranks for sometimes he drew up his Batallions ten in File and it is like he observ'd Their Order that most for he had Myriarchs who had the command of ten thousand Chiliarchs who were Colonels of thousands and Centeniers who were Captains of hundreds all which may infer ten deep Yet in Xenophons second Book we find Cyrus his Persians to be twelve in File and his Batallions when he fought with Croesus were four and twenty deep and indeed that was deep enough Perhaps in the marshalling his several Bodies he hath sometimes made use of the Square Root But the King of Lydia in that Lydians same Battel which he fought with Cyrus made both his Horse and Foot thirty deep except the Egyptians I spoke of who were an hundred in File as I told you formerly What more I have to say of any point of War used by any other ancient Nation either before or in the time of either the Grecian or the Roman greatness shall be interwoven in the discourses of the Militia of these two famous Nations CHAP. III. Of the Election Levy and Arms Offensive and Defensive of the Grecians SInce we have found out but little of the true Militia of other Ancient Nations let us take a survey of the Grecian Art of War which hath been in many ages and still is so much spoken of And herein we must borrow all our help from Aelian who you will find hath given it us very sparingly For though we have the works of Homer and that he is accounted the first Heathen Author who wrote any thing of formed Battels yet we are not to expect much light from so blind a Lanthorn Polybius though a Grecian and a Captain contributes nothing to our assistance but what we are glad to glean from the scattered drops of his Pen. The rest of the Grecian Tacticks nam'd Grecian Tacticks lost by Aelian in his Treatise are lost except some pieces of Aeneas translated into Latine seventy years ago by Casaubon which Sir Thomas Kellie thought were likewise perish'd But truly we need not much regret that loss if that And no matter which Aelian who perus'd them all tells us be true that they wrote not as if they intended to instruct those who were ignorant and desirous to learn but as to those who were already Proficients who understood the words and terms of Art and who knew the practice of the Grecian War as well as the Authors themselves All Armies and Forces were rais'd by a Levy called ordinarily in ancient times and still very properly an Election And truly I am sorry I should so Aelians omission soon have occasion to expostulate with Aelian who hath forgot to tell us that of which he should have given us a particular information and in the first place too that is how the levies of
the rest resent it as an injury done to the whole fraternity for which they will very readily make him march a whole week without a Trumpeter to sound before him None may sound a Trumpet before a Troop but he who is master of their Art and he must prove himself to be so by producing a Certificate sign'd by a certain number of Master Trumpeters with their Seals annexed to it and this in their Language they call a Lerbrief If any wanting this offer to sound before a Company of Horse the Masters may come and take him away with disgrace in spite of the Ritmaster Those who have not yet got Lerbriefs they call Boys who must serve the Master Trumpeters in all manner of drudgery though they could sound all the points of War never so well They pretend to have got these priviledges from the Emperour Charles the Fifth under his Manual Subscription and Imperial Seal Ask them where this Patent of theirs lyeth some of them will tell you at Augsburg others say at Strasburg and a third will say at Nuremburg I have not seen any of them punished by their Officers and whatever discipline of their own they have I know not but I have not heard of any of their gross misdemeaners I knew one Colonel Boy an ancient Gentleman who for many years had commanded Horse in whose Regiment no sound of Trumpet was heard for none of them would serve under him because in his younger years he had kill'd a Trumpeter with his own hand But it is well these pretended priviledges of theirs are confin'd within the bounds of the German Empire There is another Martial Instrument used with the Cavalry which they call a Kettle-drum there be two of them which hang upon the Horse before the Kettle-drum Drummers Saddle on both which he beats They are not ordinary Princes Dukes and Earls may have them with those Troops which ordinarily are called their Life-guards so may Generals and Lieutenant Generals though they be not Noble-men The Germans Danes and Sweedes permit none to have them under a Lord Baron unless they have taken them from an Enemy and in that case any Ritmaster whatever extraction he be of may make them beat beside his Trumpeters They are used also for State by the Princes of Germany when they go to meat and I have seen them ordinarily beat and Trumpets sound at the Courts of Sweden and Denmark when either of the two Kings went to Dinner or Supper Dragoons are Musketeers mounted on Horses appointed to march with the Dragoons Cavalry in regard there are not only many occasions wherein Foot can assist the Horse but that seldome there is any occasion of service against an Enemy but wherein it is both fit and necessary to joyn some Foot with the Horse Dragoons then go not only before to guard Passes as some imagine but to fight in open Field for if an Enemy rencounter with a Cavalry in a champaign or open Heath the Dragoons are obliged to alight and mix themselves with the Squads of Horse as they shall be commanded and their continuate Firing before the Horse come to the charge will no doubt be very hurtful to the Enemy If the encounter be in a close Countrey they serve well to line Hedges and possess Enclosures they serve for defending Passes and Bridges whether it be in the Advance or a Retreat of an Army and for Serve on foot beating the Enemy from them Their service is on foot and is no other than that of Musketeers but because they are mounted on Horse-back and ride with the Horse either before in the Van or behind in the Rear of an Army they are reckon'd as a part of the Cavalry and are subordinate to the Yet are part of the Cavalry General Lieutenant General or Major General of the Horse and not to those of the foot And being that sometimes they are forced to retire from a powerful and prevailing Enemy they ought to be taught to give Fire on Horse-back that in an open field they may keep an Enemy at a distance till they get the advantage of a closer Countrey a Straight a Pass a Bridge a Hedge or a Ditch and then they are bound to alight and defend that advantage that thereby though perhaps with the loss of the Dragoons themselves the Cavalry may be saved When they alight they cast their Bridle Reins over the necks of their side-mens Horses and leave them in that same order as they marched Of ten Dragoons nine fight and the tenth man keeps the ten Horses For what they have got the denomination of Dragoons Whence they have their denomination is not so easie to be told but because in all languages they are called so we may suppose they may borrow their name from Dragon because a Musketeer on Horse back with his burning Match riding at a gallop as many times he doth may something resemble that Beast which Naturalists call a Fiery Dragon Since then a Dragoon when he alights and a Musqueteer are all one I have The several services of a Musqueteer forborn hitherto to speak of the several ways how the ranks of Musqueteers fire having reserv'd it to this as a proper place Take them then thus If the enemy be upon one of your flanks that hand file fires that is nearest How he fires in the flank and falls off the danger and the next standing still to do the like that which hath fired marches thorough the rest of the files till it be beyond the furthest file of that wing of Musqueteers But if you be charg'd on both flanks then your right and left-hand files fire both and immediately march into the middle of the Body room being made for them and in such pieces of service as these Officers must be attentive dexterous and ready to see all things done orderly otherwise confusion first and immediately after a total rout will inevitably follow If your Body be retiring from an enemy who pursues you in the reer the two last How iâ— the reer ranks stand whereof one having fired it divides it self into two the one half by the right the other half by the left-hand marcheth up to the Van making ready all the while this way is much practised especially in the Low-Countries but with submission to their better judgments I should think it more easie for these ranks that have fired to march every man of them up to their Leaders and then step before them thorough these Intervals of three foot that is between files and this may be done without any trouble either to themselves or their neighbours If the service with the enemy be in the Van as mostly it is Musqueteers after firing fall off two several ways ranks may after they have fired fall off two several ways First the rank which hath fired divides it self into two and the half goes to the right hand and the other half to the left