Theinstruction must commence with the first elements of the science, since the new arriving students have little preparatory knowledge. It must be carried on to such an extent that the pupil may be able, after going through the first cœtus, to pass hisofficer’s examination, and after the completion of the entire course, not only to show at hisspecialexamination that he possesses the positive knowledge required for the ordinary duties of the service, but also to prove that he is qualified for continuing his studies by himself.
The Engineer pupils who close their instruction in artillery at the end of the second cœtus, are to be instructed in the composition of artillery, in the effect and the use of cannon, but more especially in its employment in sieges.
From this general notice of the limits of the course it is evident that neither a perfect exposition of the theory nor complete practical exercises are expected. Still to train the students properly in the different directions which an artillery education requires, the instruction must not consist only in a theoretical lecture, but be aided by judicious directions for drawing, and be perfected by practical exercises. For the attainment of the two latter objects special prescriptions are given, to which we refer.
Instruction in artillery is closely connected with the lectures on mathematics, physics, chemistry, tactics, fortification, and veterinary science.
a.As special points may be mentioned,in mathematics, calculation of contents, and fixing the centers of gravity, of cannon and its parts; calculation of piles of shot; strength, direction, and distribution of recoil on the separate portions of a piece of ordnance; theory of machines, of carriages, of parabolic and projectile curves, and calculation of the flight of rockets. In all these cases the mathematical lecturer develops the necessary formulas for the artillery student, but their application belongs to the course of artillery.
b.In physics.—Explanation, notice, and determination of the specific gravities of the materials used in artillery. The law of gravity. The absolute and relative strength of woods and metals. Friction. Resistance of the air. Expansive power of gases, especially of those generated by gunpowder.
c.In chemistry.—The general laws of chemical action of bodies on one another. The simple elements of the materials used in artillery. The chemical properties of their combinations. The acids exhibited in the combustion of gunpowder and their action on metals; the processes used in the reduction and manufacture of metals up to the point where they are fit for use in artillery; chemical analysis of gunpowder and of the most common metal-alloys. The action of the atmosphere on substances exposed to it, which are used in artillery.
d.In tactics.—The organization and tactics of artillery, so far as they stand in direct relation to other arms. A complete account of the conduct of artillery when coöperating with other troops.
e.In fortification.—Everything referring to the tracing, the relief, and theconstruction of fortifications; attack and defense of field-works by infantry and cavalry; complete exposition of the art of besieging, with a discussion of all the duties of an engineer, a sapper or miner, both in the attack and the defense of a fortress, also the use of infantry and cavalry in sieges, with the omission of the points specially belonging to artillery.
f.In the veterinary art.—The anatomy and physiology of the horse; general rules for feeding, treatment of diseases, and disinfection of the stables and utensils.
The instruction in the first cœtus must, as already mentioned, be so calculated, that the students at the end of the course of lessons may be able to satisfy perfectly the requirements of theOfficer’s examination.
As a further prosecution of the same subjects of instruction in the second, and again in the third cœtus, would lead to a great loss of time and to tiresome repetitions, the lectures are to be so planned that the separate subjects to be treated in the first and second cœtus, taken together, are of sufficient extent for the Engineer pupils in general; the further developments necessary for the Artillery pupils are reserved in preference for the third cœtus.
A. IN THE FIRST CŒTUS.
The separate subjects of the lecture are—
1. Definition and distribution of arms.
2. Theory of gunpowder: component parts—manufacture—ignition—force. Proving. Storing. Transporting. Necessary precautions in manufacturing. Marks of damaged powder, and the possibility of restoration. Mention of the substances which may be used in place of gunpowder for various military purposes.
3. Cannon. Materials. Dispositions. Manufacture. Proving. Storing, and duration.
4. Gun-carriages. Limbers and other artillery carriages. General explanations on the construction of carriages, with particular reference to those used for artillery. Materials. Distribution and composition of gun-carriages. Limbers and wagons. Their examination and storing.
5. Military combustibles. Elementary notions. General account of laboratory work and regulations; also with reference to later proceedings in a laboratory, and, omitting all figures not absolutely necessary, a description of the preparation of fire-works, matches, ammunition both for artillery and for small-arms, signal lights, and particular kinds of combustibles. Their packing and storing.
6. The service, working, and moving of cannon, and of artillery carriages, with account and description of the machines in use by the Prussian artillery; but without special explanation of the official regulations.
7. Firing. Theory of the movement of projectiles, of the effect caused by their movement, and the mode of turning this action to the best account for military purposes. Elements of the theory of firing. Practice. Various descriptions of fire; their effect, and their employment for various sorts of guns.
8. Small and side-arms. Purpose and description of the composition and arrangement of small-arms. Their manufacture, storing, and the practical rules for their use. Purpose and description of side-arms. Fabrication, proving, effect, and use of them.
B. IN THE SECOND CŒTUS.
The instruction in the second cœtus is a continuation of the lectures of the first cœtus, and embraces the use of artillery in the field and in sieges. Its object is to bring the Artillery students to that point, that they are able, at its close, to discharge satisfactorily the ordinary practical duties of the service, and be prepared to follow the course of the third cœtus, and to give to the Engineer students, who, in the third cœtus no longer receive instruction in artillery, all the knowledge of the subject required for their future profession. The instruction must therefore be complete enough for the Engineers, and give the Artilterist a solid and thorough preparation for the third cœtus.
Instruction in the second cœtus should comprise, in particular—
1. The organization of the artillery: purpose and considerations in the putting together of all parts of artillery material, both in tactical and administrative respects, with historical mention of the diversities of practice of other Powers.
2. The use of artillery in the field. Marching and tactical movements. Taking up position. The engagement itself, and conduct in some particular cases; for example, in defile fighting, in entrenchments, passage of rivers, &c.
3. Use of artillery in sieges:—
a.For Attack.
Planning and throwing up the batteries. Preparation and use of the different kinds of materials of construction. Different sorts of batteries. Methods of construction. Repairing of damaged batteries, and the calculation generally of all the materials necessary for constructing them.
Purpose and equipment of besieging batteries, with the preparations, special and general, for a regular attack.
Proceedings in the regular attack, and their modifications in irregular sorts of attack, occasioned by the situation of the fortress with reference to the surrounding ground, or by the special nature of the defenses.
Proceedings after capture, and when the siege is raised.
b.For Defense.
The equipment of the fortress. Determination of its artillery. Preparations in the fortress when it is declared in a state of siege. Conduct of the artillery in the regular attack, and against irregular modes of attack, as well as in particular cases, such as when in detached isolated works, when the place is relieved, or when the garrison fight its way out.
C. IN THE THIRD CŒTUS.
In the artillery course of the first and second cœtus, the students have gained a general knowledge of the materials of artillery, as well as its organization and use as an Arm; but the lectures were for the most part limited to what was of the greatest immediate consequence, viz., the description of the actual condition and relations of the Prussian artillery.
The object of the instruction given in the third cœtus is, on the one hand, to expose the scientific laws of artillery and its various parts, and, on the other, to track the historical development of the Arm, so as by this means, and by consideration of the constitution of foreign artilleries, to extend the views of thestudents beyond our own practice, thus, to form their judgment, and induce them to think and contrive for themselves.
In the comparison of our own and foreign existing systems with the results of scientific considerations, the teacher should proceed with caution, and not raise in the young men the inclination to or the habit of crude and officious criticism. Investigation of things as they exist must, therefore, not confine itself to the mere search after defects; it can be only profitable when employed to test our own powers at improvements, and to discern thereby the difficulties and impediments that accompany them. The value which speculative reasoning has for the purposes of the artillery ought to be properly esteemed by the students, but, in face of the results of experience, not be estimated too highly; and in the comparison of different artilleries one with another, the influence must not be overlooked which the peculiarities and the history of a country ever exert on its institutions.
The final aim of the artillery instruction in the third cœtus must be a higher degree of preparation for the future practical ability of the students. As regards the material portion of the artillery, the students are to acquire a general knowledge of the construction, fabrication, and proving of thematériel, and for the tactical part, it is above all things to be made an object that they be made capable, by the instruction given them, of greater dexterity and confidence in dealing with special cases in the field or in siege operations.
The instruction commences with:—
1. Organization of the artillery service. The general relations of the artillery service are to be explained according to its different purposes, as an arm both in technical and administrative respects, then the principles for the organization of the service and of its separate portions in peace and war are to be developed, and comparison made with those carried out in the principal foreign artilleries.
At the same time, on the one hand, more details are to be gone into on the different branches of the artillery service (field, siege, fortress, and coast artillery, the technical and the administrative branches,) than was done in the second cœtus; and on the other, those considerations must be kept sight of in which the artillery appears as a portion of a greater whole, as in its relation to the Army and to the State.
2. Artillery, regarded as an arm. Since the elementary rules for the use of artillery in war have been given already in the second cœtus it will be the object in the third cœtus, first, to develop the principles of artillery tactics in the field, and in sieges, from an extended point of view, and then to apply the rules for the movements, placing in position and fighting of the artillery to the bodies now actually used in war, and to examine the great questions that may hence arise. For the field artillery, the tactics of single batteries and of masses of artillery and the collective relations of the artillery of acorps d’arméeand of an army, must be shown. For sieges there will be less occasion to treat of the separate means of defense by artillery than of the various combinations under different circumstances, of its diversified applications.
To give this instruction its most practical tendency, historical examples of battles are to be taken, and not merely their results adduced, but the circumstances gone through in detail. These are to be compared with the rules previously given, and the causes and effects of any discrepancies, as far as practicable, and with caution, explained.
Themes are then given out of campaigns and sieges, in working which the students are to show applications of tactical rules under given circumstances.
As regards the preparation for the field and the conduct in marches, quarters, camps, or bivouacs, what was necessary has already been taught in the second cœtus, as far as concerns a corps of artillery as large as a battery. In the third cœtus, therefore, only more extensive and important relations have to be explained.
Finally, as the students at the close of the third cœtus are to enter immediately into active service in the regiments, it will be useful to give them a general view of artillery duties in time of peace, of which no mention was made in the first and second cœtus, and to show the principles on which they rest. Further, the education of the men, the selection, management, and care of the artillery horses, instruction in riding and driving, the various exercises in serving and moving the guns, artillery practice, the different fatigue duties, conduct in manœuvres, detachments, &c., are to be particularly explained.
3. Artillery in a technical and administrative point of view. In the instruction given in the first and second cœtus, a descriptive notice only was given, as regards artillery material, of the arrangement and effect of what actually exists; and the reasons for this arrangement were added only so far as was necessary for this principal object.
In the third cœtus the pupils are to learn by the inductive process how, according to existing principles of natural science and of tactics, with the known mathematical and technical aids, artillery material must be contracted, manufactured, and proved, so as to obtain the desired end in the highest degree; and then our existing material and that of other countries are to be compared in the manner above stated with the results thus obtained.
To this end, in the lectures, first, the necessary explanations of artillery requirements are to be brought forward from the doctrine of mechanics; after that the fabrication, proving, and action of gunpowder are to be introduced; and finally, the construction, fabrication, and examination of cannon, carriages, and ammunition of the artillery and of small-arms.
Of course the details of powder-mills, of cannon foundries, of artillery workshops, of laboratories and small-arms manufactories, are here to be explained.
The action of projectiles and the mode of applying it, are to be scientifically explained, by the aid of the parabolic and projectile theory, as well as the principles upon which artillery experiments are to be conducted.
Finally, the principles of the management of the artillery material in the artillery dépôts are to be explained.
4. The course of instruction will be closed by an historical description of the progress of artillery, and by an historical review of its literature.
D. GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE TIME.
The total number of hours is, according to the constitution of the school—
The exact number of hours dedicated to each division must be stated by the teacher in the first instance in his special plan for lessons, as they in part dependupon his general experience. But, at all events, all the above-stated subjects for the first cœtus must be taught in the prescribed periods.
The lecture in the first cœtus must by no means be a mere mechanical preparation for theOfficer’s examination; even here the understanding of the pupil is not to remain unoccupied, though the memory is to be had recourse to in a very high degree, and the historical form, that is, description of objects as they are, predominates.
The principles of the arrangements can only be taken up in their chief features, (partly because) time will not allow a farther advance, and partly because the progress of the students in the other studies is not yet sufficiently forward.
In the second cœtus the advantage has been obtained that the students have gained a knowledge of the entire material of artillery in its various relations, and the lecture gives, therefore, an introduction to the use of artillery in the field and in sieges; and with special regard to a fundamental knowledge of the details, and with the view to what is necessary to complete the Engineer pupil and make an efficient preparation of the Artillerist for the third cœtus, aims at a somewhat more scientific treatment, without going into the full comprehensive details reserved for the latter student. For the same reason, this portion of the lectures is confined nearly throughout to the explanation of existing conditions of our artillery, and only where the necessities of the Engineer student may demand it, can mention be made of the earlier material, or of the most important matters of foreign artilleries.
The instruction, therefore, of the first and second cœtus is directed more to the general and historical, that of the third cœtus, more to the special and scientific culture of the student; the materials were there collected which are here to be worked up.
From this general point of view proceed also the methods which are to be observed by the teachers in each cœtus.
The principal point to be kept hold of in all three cœtus is, that everything that can be shown the students, or which they can learn by their own manipulation, should be brought visibly before them, and as far as time and circumstances permit, should be actually put in practice. The material objects, in their actual state for use, must as often as possible be shown and explained, for which the Practical Exercises offer the best opportunity to which reference is here therefore made.
After these, a collection of models, diagrams, tables, and literary notices are necessary, which may be partly used for immediate instruction in the class, and partly furnished the pupils as a necessary and time-saving aid to the memory.
Deficiencies in these aids to the lectures are to be laid before the Direction and Board of Studies by the teacher, and supplied as far as the existing means allow.
Those cases in which the proceedings are fixed by certain regulations require special mention; for instance, the transport of powder, examination of cannon, drills, harnessing of horses, stable and camp service, &c.
All these regulations are grounded on certain principles, from which no deviation can take place without evil. The method of drawing them up is, however, variable, on which times and circumstances, and even the views of the superior authorities, have influence.
It is, therefore, highly necessary that in this respect the essential be carefully in the instruction separated from the accidental, and by omitting the latter, not only gain time, but hinder that the students accustom themselves in a slovenly manner to look only to forms, and to seek in them the true being and life of artillery.
A true exposition of the principles on which these regulations rest ought not to be omitted from the lectures. They will suffice to prepare the students to act correctly in every case that occurs, for which actual service gives them, moreover, the separate instruction. The more completely the teacher keeps this point in view the less need he fear to form his pupils to immature critics, since the well-informed officer will more easily enter into the spirit of each such regulation, and more exactly carry it into execution for the benefit of the service, than he who has been accustomed to keep without reflection only to the dead letter; this, in the varied phases of practical life, will often enough leave him without guidance, unless he knows how to find it within himself.
As amongst the many existing class and hand-books for the artillery, none is entirely adapted to form a basis for the lectures, the formation of a special plan of lectures for each cœtus is indispensable, that the lecturer may have a defined path, and the students an assistance in their repetitions.
The lecture commences with the first principles of fortification, supposes no previous knowledge, and comprises—
(a.) Field fortification, attack and defense of a redoubt, communication in the field, and,(b.) Permanent fortification, the art of besieging, with the example of a siege that has actually taken place.
(a.) Field fortification, attack and defense of a redoubt, communication in the field, and,
(b.) Permanent fortification, the art of besieging, with the example of a siege that has actually taken place.
In the first cœtus it must be so far carried out that the pupil is capable of passing hisOfficer’s examinationaccording to the regulation of the 26th March, 1846. In the second cœtus the general knowledge of field and permanent fortification acquired in the first is carried on in such a degree as both Artillery and Engineer officers require to form a good foundation for the particular professional study of both arms in the third cœtus.
In the formation of the special plan of the lecture the instruction-regulations for artillery and exclusive engineering in the third cœtus are to be kept in view, so as to prepare for these subjects by the nature and the method of the instruction.
The principal contents of the lecture are—
A. IN THE FIRST CŒTUS.
a.In Field Fortification.
A correct description of the profile, the ground plan, the technical obstacles and modes of strengthening, the construction, and elementarily also, the use of field-works; attack and defense of a redoubt, and the military communications in the field, as roads, fords, and bridges.
b.In Permanent Fortification.
Exposition of the essential principles for plan and profile; acquaintance with the parts of a bastioned fortress with the outworks; special acquaintance witha work on Vauban’s first system, and its improvements by Cormontaigne. Knowledge of the characteristics of the Italian, Dutch, and French fortification, of the ideas of Rimpler and Montalembert, as well as of the latest fortifications in Prussia; lastly, a knowledge of sieges as regards a regular attack and defense. The art of construction is taught to the Engineers in the third cœtus.
B. IN THE SECOND CŒTUS.
Applied art of fortification, and, namely, attack and defense of the various sorts of field-works, castrametation, permanent fortification, provisional fortification, and sieges. At their proper places, are to be introduced the precepts of military constructions which are suitable alike to the Artillerist and the Engineer, as well as the conduct of infantry and cavalry, and the duty of the Engineers in sieges.
Distribution of Time.
The first cœtus receives four, the second three hours weekly; therefore, in thirty-five weeks, the first 140, the second 105 hours. The number of hours which are to be dedicated to each portion will be indicated by the teacher in his special plan of the lectures, as it in part depends upon his experiences. All the above-named subjects must, however, be gone through within the prescribed period.
Before every principal division of the lectures, a general statement of its purport and essential principles is given; then follows a short historical exposition which is to explain the connection, the employment, and the thence arising conditions of the subject under consideration in reference to the other parts of the art of war.
The precepts hence deducible on the form of the parts of a fortification, and on the subsisting relations of fighting, are to form the latest and principal portion of each lecture.
The lecture is to be given in detail in such a manner, that its precepts may be deduced from one another in a way suited to the powers of perception of the pupils, and their mental powers accustomed to the carrying out of principles, rather than to a blind adherence to absolute regulations. To avoid repetition, the details of those doctrines which belong to different places are to be given only once, namely, where they are first required; and afterwards reference only made to them.
The military element, as indispensable both for the Artillerist and Engineer alike, is to be kept continually in view.
As regards the principal divisions, oral repetitions may be made from time to time for greater clearness; and, since individual and continued attention and self-reflection alone render a well-grounded progress in the student possible, written themes, besides those prescribed, are particularly recommended. It will not be necessary to submit each individual essay to a separate correction, but the teacher may content himself each time with giving a general view of important defects in the treatment of the subject, and then reading aloud one or more of the essays that have best succeeded, and showing by their analysis how the subject could be best treated.
In both cœtus, the existing models and full sized drawings in the school, as also the models in the arsenal, and for the second cœtus more especially the models of fortresses in the model-house, are to be used.
The means employed to complete the instruction in both cœtus, are fortification drawing, practical exercise in field-works, and an inspection of the fortress of Spandau.
The lectures are given without any fixed hand-book, from manuscript drafts or notes.
The instruction in General Engineering in the first cœtus was intended to teach the Artillerist and Engineer so much of the art of fortification, of sieges, and of field-works as is requisite for officers of every arm, and is necessary for the students to pass theirOfficer’s examination.
In the second cœtus this instruction was enlarged, and connected with its application to field and permanent fortification, to such extent as the kindred arms of the artillery and engineer corps required equally to know, that they may execute effectually their separate duties in fortification and sieges.
The instruction in Exclusive Engineering in the third cœtus is, however, intended solely for Engineers, as it teaches only professional matters which the engineer shares with no other arm of the service; while, on the other hand, the Artillerist receives a special instruction in those branches which are only necessary for the artillery officer.
Since the lectures would receive a too great and heterogeneous extension, if to them were to be added that portion of hydraulics which the engineer officer ought to know, without being immediately connected with his military constructions, and if further, civil architecture applied to military buildings was touched on, these subjects will be taught contemporaneously in the third cœtus by special instructors, and are therefore in the lectures on Exclusive Engineering not to pass the limits of that instruction. Their respective teachers must receive reciprocally special information of each other’s plan of lectures, and give mutual help by communications and inquiries where the studies might come into collision.
The teacher of the Exclusive Engineer class must learn the extent of those subjects of instruction which have been already treated in the lectures on Special Engineering in the second cœtus, and not only by inspection of the programme, but by personal consultation with their respective teachers.
In more remote relation, the instruction connects itself with the earlier lectures on artillery, tactics, history of the art of war, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the exercises in plan-drawing and surveying. The special programmes of instruction of these branches of study are also to be taken notice of by the teacher, that nothing may be twice taught, and that where the use of doctrines from those studies is necessary, he may merely refer to them historically.
This instruction comprises, after an introduction, the following principal divisions.
1. The application of the rules for sieges already given to particular cases, with a general regard to the ground, more especially of irregular fortresses, shown by various remarkable sieges.
2. A theory of construction as auxiliary science in the execution of engineering works for field or permanent fortification, and in the execution of military constructions: building materials, modes of building, and the application of both for given purposes.
To this part belong—
a.A knowledge of the different building materials from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; their production and preparation for various building purposes, and the data, so important in practice, regarding their durability and mode of employment.
b.The theory of the use and combination of these building materials for constructive purposes, and of the building of separate portions of an edifice.
c.The foundations of buildings and the means of improving the foundation bottoms.
d.Construction of ordinary buildings, as inclosures, inclined or unloaded revetments, loopholed walls, barracks and hospitals, dwelling and guard-houses, military prisons, stables, magazines, such as arsenals, wagon sheds, provision stores, bakeries, powder magazines, laboratories, communications, mines, weirs and stop-sluices, ice-breakers, &c.
e.Principles of machinery, with explanations of the forces necessary to move machines, with notice of the most common for raising and moving weights, for pumping, draining, dredging, &c.
3. The art, to apply the knowledge gained by the foregoing lectures by means of projects for certain special purposes, and under given circumstances of ground, such as his service may require of an Engineer Officer. The application of field fortification to given portions of ground is alone excepted, since the teacher of applied Fortification-drawing has this especially assigned to him, who still is only to give out his projects in unison with the teacher of Exclusive Engineering.
There belongs to this part—
a.The method of preparing plans and estimates of buildings, in the manner treated of under 2, at (c) and (d,) illustrated by frequent practice in making out such plans.
b.Practice in plans for special objects and given ground, which latter is to be chosen in the neighborhood of the fortress of Spandau.
c.Instructions generally conceived on the duties in a fortress of an Officer of Engineers, and on the practice of building in Prussian fortresses.
d.As appendix, notices on the formation and preservation of hedges, and plantations of shrubs and trees.
The time fixed for this instruction amounts in thirty-five weeks, at ten hours each, to 350 hours, which, according to the importance of the different sections, may, as a general rule, be appropriated as follows:—
The more particular distribution of this general division of time is matter of the special lesson plan, and it only remains to be observed, that with the approval of the Director, some afternoons are to be taken for viewing the most remarkable buildings in Berlin and neighborhood; and in conjunction with theteacher of applied Fortification-drawing, three days are to be set apart for a recognizance of the works of the fortress of Spandau, relative to the projects of fortifications mentioned under 3 at (b.)
The two first sections of this instruction, namely, the continuation of the instruction on sieges, and the theory of construction, keep their place in the regular lectures of the school, though naturally they have an immediate applicability to practical service, and the lectures therefore ought to be made his own by the pupil by frequent exercises and detailed plans.
The projects for a given ground, on the contrary, must be worked out by the pupils in conformity with the instruction given, as much as possible independently, and as on service a young officer would do under the guidance of his superior. The drawings need not be entirely shaded, but may be partially executed by lines only, but they must be distinct and clean. Here, as in Fortification-drawing, the prescriptions of the Engineer regulation of the 25th of April, 1820, are to be observed, a copy of which is therefore always present in the drawing-room, that they may be seen by each student. Attention is to be given also to the correctness of the scale, to correct coloring, entry on the drawing of the date when done, and of the name as well as the rank of the student, as directed by the above regulation.
In the exercises all propositions for improvements which vary from the mode of practice now in use are excluded.
The teaching auxiliaries are the books and models of the school.
The instruction in hydraulics is to comprehend:—
1. Those general principles of hydraulic architecture which in the lectures on Exclusive Engineering in the third cœtus of the school could not be specially explained without extending them too far, and therefore were there taken for granted.
2. Such hydraulic works, as do not immediately come within the scope of military buildings, and therefore could not be included in a lecture on Exclusive Engineering, but which on account of their connection with the profession of an Engineer Officer in general, independently of military construction proper, ought to be known by him in their most important principles.
Since in the instruction in engineering in the third cœtus, opportunities offer for projects of fortification, with application of the theoretical principles given above (at 1,) the exercise problems for the instruction in hydraulic architecture need only extend to those hydraulic works (at 2,) not referring to fortification.
The instruction is in immediate connection with the lectures on mathematics, physics, and exclusive engineering, the last of which will be lectured on at the same time as hydraulics; the lectures on physics and that portion of mathematics which is here necessary, with the exception of hydraulics, have been already treated in the first cœtus. In arranging the plan of the lectures, and in carrying it out, the plans for those sciences must be considered, and conferences held with the teachers it may concern, to prevent the frequent repetition of the same subject.
The entire number of hours is seventy, two of which are given weekly,which, that they may fall in at the same time with the lectures on exclusive engineering, are thus distributed:—
To make the lecture plainer, and to exercise the student in comprehending existing hydraulic buildings, eight afternoons, at the choice of the teacher, after a previous consultation with the director, are to be appropriated to the inspection and drawing of hydraulic constructions, at Berlin, namely, the sluices and mills.
Although this instruction embraces a large field in a very short period, it must not be extended over too many objects, but rather to be confined to what is indispensable to the practical use of the engineer; the matter of these, however, to be treated fundamentally and thoroughly, and all superficiality be avoided.
The lectures are to be given from private notes, without any prescribed hand-book.
In the First Cœtus.
The Students of the first cœtus are to receive a thorough instruction in elementary tactics, and the employment of the different arms, both separately and united. The object is not merely that they may pass theOfficer’s examination, but that they may gain true general ideas on these subjects, which ought not to be strange to a well-informed officer of any arm. A frequent illustration of the lectures delivered, by examples and problems for actual ground, is particularly recommended.
Lectures on tactics are closely connected with those on artillery, fortification, rules of the service; and in certain respects the lectures on plan-drawing and veterinary art, as well as practical exercises in surveying.
More especially—
a.In artillery: Construction of cannon, of small-arms and side-arms, choice and training of horses for artillery service; organization of the artillery; regulation for the artillery on march and in camp; use of artillery in the field, as regards the specialties of its position, movement, and mode of fighting. The use of artillery in general, in attack and defense, with the use of the reserveartillery in more important battles, in village skirmishes, passage of rivers and defiles, and field fortifications, belongs to the lectures on artillery, but only in the second cœtus; these subjects are therefore to be treated historically with tactics, as far as knowledge of them is required for theOfficer’s examination. As a general principle, however, all the relations of detail in the constitution or the specialties of artillery are to be treated in the lectures on that science; in the tactics, on the contrary, only the more general relations which concern all the arms of the service, and where the artillery acts in union with infantry and cavalry.
b.In Fortification; the designing and construction of field-works and all means of obstruction. The manner in which ground in general, and the given position in particular, is to be used for the throwing up field-works. Attack and defense of field-works. Complete exposition of the art of sieges.
c.Veterinary art. Natural history, physiology, and general nourishment of the horse.
d.Plan-drawing and surveying. Everything that is to be said on the general physical laws of the form of the earth’s surface, and specially on a knowledge of topography and its representation.
e.Rules of the service. A knowledge of military style. Discipline in all its various branches. The internal service on detachments, convoys, and separate commands, and some historical remarks on the provisioning of an army.
The lectures embrace the following principal sections:—
1. Introduction. General ideas of war. War materials. Aim of war. Conduct of war. Tactics and strategy. Army organization.
2. Organization of the Prussian army. Raising and equipping the troops. Formation and strength. Replacing of men and materials. Supplies.
3. Special ideas of tactics. Forming, changing position, and combat. Close and open fighting; distant and near fighting. Offensive and defensive. The enemy. The ground. Characteristics of the different sorts of troops. A short sketch of the development of tactics up to their present state.
4. The proscribed tactics of the infantry, cavalry, and artillery according to the Prussian regulations.
5. Ideas on the combination of the three Arms and order of battle.
6. Influence of ground on the use of troops. Classification of ground and cognizance of the individual objects on it.
7. Occupation, attack, and defense of objects on the ground, as heights, valleys, woods, river lines, farm-buildings, inhabited places, defiles, bridges, dykes.
8. Security of troops on a march. Service of advanced posts. Reconnaissances. Special duties for detachments, as escorting convoys in our own or enemy’s country; foraging, surprises, ambuscades, covering of works in the field. In conclusion, some remarks on partizan warfare.
The total number of hours comprises, according to the regulation, in thirty-five weeks at four hours each, 140 hours, of which are to be employed:—