AMMUNITION
AMMUNI’TION. Sometimes this name is given to cannon and mortars, as well as to the projectiles and explosive substances employed with them; but more usually A. is considered to apply to the latter—such as shot, shell, gunpowder, cartridges, fuses, wads, grenades. Muskets, swords, bayonets, and other small-arms are sometimes, but improperly, included under this term. The Royal laboratory at Woolwich is the place where A. is chiefly prepared for the British army and navy. The cannon-balls maybe cast at some of the great iron-foundries in the north; the shells maybe cast or forged in the shell-factory at Woolwich; the muskets may be made at Birmingham, and the rifles at Enfield; the bullets at the shot-factories; the gunpowder at Waltham-Abbey—and so on; but the ‘making up’ of the A. is mostly conducted at the establishment above mentioned. Bags of serge, in enormous number, are cut out and made, and filled to form the cartridges for large ordinance. Bags or tubes of paper are made and filled to constitute blank cartridges for small-arms; while the ball-cartridges are enclosed in thin copper cylinders. The tubes and combustibles for war-rockets and fuses are also manufactured. The cartridges for small-arms (rifles, muskets, carbines, and pistols) are made in millions; since it is on those that the main offensive operations of an army depend. It has been calculated by the Woolwich authorities, that a British army of 60,000 men, comprising 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 1000 A. wagons, and 3600 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 A. each; the cartridges are packed in boxes, and the wagons are drawn by four horses each- Several wagons are organized into an ‘equipment,’ under the charge of a detachment of artillery; and there are several such equipments for an army of the magnitude above mentioned—one for each division of infantry, 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 cartridges with them, besides those in reserve; and that the conveyance of such a quantity, with a few forges and stores, would require 150 A. 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 A. 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. When the word A. is used in connection with artillery matters, the ‘ fixed’ A. comprises the loaded shells, cartridges, and carcasses; whereas the ‘unfixed’ are the unfilled case-shot, grape-shot, and shell. During peace, the Woolwich Laboratory serves out little less than a million lbs. of gunpowder annually, in A. for the army and navy, for purposes of exercising, saluting, &c.
The chief kinds of A. will be found briefly described under their proper headings.