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dying which already barricaded the street. The head of the column fell literally "like the Moor's swath at the close of day."
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The form of cannon termed a howitzer was intended for firing its projectiles in a high trajectory. In effect it is a compromised mortar, mounted on a carriage so as to be more easily transported. Because this lessened the effectiveness of shot or grape they were mainly used with shell, which they could lob over defensive walls.
In order to be effective it was, of course, necessary to correctly aim the cannon. The cannon barrel was mounted on a carriage that could be slewed sideways, but the larger pieces mounted on board ships were quite cumbersome, and were mainly aligned with the ship. Guns were elevated with a screw jack or wedges, to give the correct range. The aiming, or 'laying' of a gun was a skilled task, as indeed was the whole operation of a gun. This had led to artillery men being formed into the separate regiments of the Royal Artillery. Troops or batteries of artillery were then attached to infantry forces.
Finally the European troops had Congreve rockets. These carried a cast hollow head allowing bursting charges and a fuse to be inserted, thus being a type of shell. They were relatively inaccurate as they had a tendency to veer off line, and many officers at the time considered them to be of doubtful use. However, they certainly had a psychological effect against unsophisticated natives in some of the Victorian wars, and there is no doubt that they did inflict casualties. There is one spectacular example of a rocket finding the magazine of a junk and blowing it up.12
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As for the Chinese, on the face of it their guns were similar to those of the European forces. They were muzzle loaders and smooth bored, however, the quality of the guns themselves was not good. The Chinese method of casting cannon was with the muzzle down. This meant that the quality of the metal at the breech was suspect and in spite of using more metal, the guns were more likely to burst.13 The extra metal also made them very heavy,14 and this would make them difficult to aim.
Most of the Chinese guns were mounted in shore batteries, al-