Battles Of The Future

BATTLES OF THE FUTURE.

To Be Fought With Shrapnel, Not Small Arms, Says an Officer.

In a recent issue of Harper's Weekly Mr. George E. Summers, M. E., writes of the new field artillery used in the United States army. The article has been examined and its publication authorized by the secretary of war, so that it may be considered in effect official. The new field guns described by Mr. Summers will carry effectively about three miles, and the extreme rapidity of fire will permit of a shot once in two seconds, or about as fast as an ordinary Winchester repeating rifle.

As it takes about seventeen seconds for a shell to go three miles, it will be possible to keep eight fifteen pound shrapnel in the air at once, and Mr. Summers points out as a possibility that "the enemy might then receive seven shots after it had surrendered." He believes that, as the distance necessary for effectual warfare between combatants is increasing yearly, the battles of the future will be fought not with small arms, but with shrapnel, at a distance of from two to three miles.