The batteries should be organized into one or more brigades. The store and ammunition trains should be under a field officer, with a competent command of foot artillery, to insure the prompt execution of all duties connected with them. Such an organization as the grand park is indispensable to a large army. It enables the corps to move unincumbered with mass of material which they could not otherwise dispense with, and permits of a safe reduction of the total amount of such material with the army. Its reserve batteries furnish the means of replacing inefficient ones in the corps and refitting the latter.

When the reserve artillery of this army was broken up this summer it was found necessary to retain the ammunition trains, and during the summer no less than eleven batteries which had become surplus with the corps, but were needed with the army, were sent to these trains. The want of the previous organization was immediately felt. There should be with the park not only a general supply of artillery, but also of small ammunition. By such an arrangement 100 rounds per man- 40 on the person, 40 with the corps reserve, and 20 in the grand park-would probably supply the wants of the most severe campaign, the park promptly replacing the expenditures of the corps after a battle.

The principal duties of the reserve batteries are:

First. To re-enforce the artillery of corps and on the line of battle.

Second. To occupy positions as the necessity arises, without depriving the troops of their own batteries.

Fourth. To act in mass upon important points, or in certain cases to replace large bodies of infantry or cavalry, which can thus be rendered disposable.

A battle rarely takes place without showing the necessity of a reserve of artillery for some or all of these purposes.

The siege train, if small, could also be attached to the grand park; if large, it would report direct to the chief of artillery, who would furnish its guards, escorts, and additional troops for the service of the train when its operations required them.

For the service of the artillery a certain force of foot troops is indispensable. The duties required are the defined duties of foot artillery, and require for the performance of most of them specially instructed troops. This force furnishes details of men to the field batteries when shorthanded, parties for the construction of works on the field and for other works, for the construction and repair of magazines, the fabrication of gabions, facines, &c., for preparing and laying platforms, and for all labors requiring special instruction and practice to insure rapidity and perfection for the construction of stables, shelters, &c., for the animals of the large trains, for guards attached to the artillery for escorts on the march, pioneers, and all other duties for which infantry must now be detailed. For detached works or lines, such as those now held by us, it will furnish the garrisons so far as its numbers will permit, or, at least, the men necessary to serve thee guns with which they are armed, without drawing upon the corps for the field batteries, which should always be free to move with them. It would thus save the increase of field batteries to meet such duties with the enormous expense it entails, and the injury to the batteries themselves, and to the extent of its own numbers furnish the garrisons, and so far obviate the necessity of drawing on the infantry division.

It is very certain that the nature, extent, variety, and amount of duty involved are fully sufficient to demand this special force and have not been fully appreciated in our army. For the purposes named a regi-