AMMUNITION. Ammunition is prepared the various arsenals and by numerous pri ite manufacturing companies. Bags of serge, enormous number, are cut out and made, and lied to form the cartridges for large ordnance. 1ags or tubes of paper are made and filled to onstitute blank cartridges for small-arms; :bile the ball-cartridges are enclosed in thin opper cylinders. The tubes and combustibles or war-rockets and fuses are also manufac ured. The cartridges for small-arms (rifles, nuskets, carbines and pistols) are made in nillions ; since it is on those that the main of :ensive operations of an army depend. It has men calculated that an army of 60,000 men, :ornprising a fair average of infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineers, ought to be provided with no less than 18,000,000 ball-cartridges for small-arms, for six months' operations. These would require 1,000 ammunition-wagons and 3,600 horses to convey them all at once. It is, therefore, deemed better that, under any such circumstances, there should be established entrepOts for supplying the troops from time to time. The wagons constructed for this kind of service will carry 20,000 rounds of small-arm ammunition each; the cartridges are packed in boxes, and the wagons are drawn by four horses each. Several wagons are organized into an uequipment,s under the charge of a de tachment of artillery, and there are several such equipments for an army of the magnitude above mentioned—one for each division of in fantry, a small portion for the cavalry, and the rest in reserve. It has been laid down that an army of 60,000 men ought to have 2,680,000 cart ridges with them, besides those in reserve; and that the conveyance of such a quantity, with a few forges and stores, would require 150 am munition wagons, 830 men and 704 horses. The equipment would return to the entrepOt for a new supply when needed. In the Peninsular War, and at Waterloo, the English used two horse carts, carrying about 10,000 rounds of small-arm ammunition each; but a superior kind of wagon has been since introduced. In the field, an infantry soldier usually carries about 60 rounds, put in compartments in his pouch.
The packing-boxes for field-ammunition are made of well-seasoned stuff (generally white pine), 125 inch thick, dovetailed with the tenon on the ends. The top of the box is fastened with six 2-inch screws. The box has two handles of lg-inch rope, attached to brackets at the ends. The boxes are painted on the out side different colors to indicate the contents of the box. Those containing shot are painted olive; shells, black; spherical case-shot, red; and canisters, a light drab. The kind of ammuni tion is marked on each end in large white letters. The place and date of fabrication are marked on the inside of the cover. The boxes are packed as follows: For Smooth-bore Guns. Shot, spherical case and canisters, fixed.— Laid in two tiers across the box, the shot or canisters alternating with the cartridges at each side. The shot or canisters of the upper tier rest on those of the lower and not on the cartridges. Canisters are packed in the same manner, omitting the strips of wood in the bottom of the box.
For 12-PDR. Mountain-howitzer. Shells and cast-shot, fixed.— Placed upright, the balls down, resting on strips of wood as for the other howitzer. Canisters are packed in the same manner, resting on the bottom of the box.
For Rigged Guns. Shells and Case-shot. Placed upright, the balls down, resting on strips of wood as for the howitzer. The iron part of the balls rests against strips of wood 4 inches wide and 25 inch thick, nailed to the side and ends of the box at the bottom, and similar strips placed between the row of the balls to prevent the soft metal cups from bear ing against the box or against each other and being bruised; the cartridges are placed on top of the projectiles. Canisters are packed in the same manner as the case-shot, omitting the strips of wood on the bottom of the box. In all the boxes the small stories are placed in the vacant spaces on top of the ammunition. A layer of tow is placed in the bottom of each box, and the whole contents are well packed in tow, filling the box so as to be pressed down by the cover. About three pounds of tow are required for a box.