Note 95 — Chapter IX

The following extract from a minute by Sir Henry Hardinge, dated January 20, 1845, relates to this important subject. “In reference to the 4-horse field-batteries, it appears to me essential that 9-pounders should be drawn by eight horses instead of six; that a battery of six pieces should therefore have, when ordered on field service, a complement of 120 horses, instead of 98; and considering the immediate result of a few weeks’ campaigning, the number ought to be 130 horses. When not under orders for field service, the number may remain at 98. On this matter, and every other relating to the artillery, the Governor-General requests the Honourable Sir George Pollock to make the arrangements which his experienced judgment may decide, so as to secure the utmost efficiency; for in all these matters, efficiency will be found to be true economy.” [The number of horses would seem to have been raised in the first instance from 89 to 98.]