bring the other into battery; and various other arrangements of this description, which have recently been revived and some of them patented as new inventions.  The small arms employed at this period were much the same as those used at the present day, except the matchlock, which afterwards gave place to flint-locks.  Arms of this description were sometimes made to be loaded at the breach, and guns with two, three, and even as many as eight barrels, were at one time in fashion.  In the Musee de l’Artillerie at Paris may be found many arms of this kind, which have been reproduced in this country and England as new inventions.  In this Museum are two ancient pieces, invented near the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century, which very nearly correspond with Colt’s patent, with the single exception of the lock![33]

[Footnote 33:  It is not to be inferred that the modern improvements (as they are called) are copied from the more ancient inventions.  Two men of different ages, or even of the same age, sometimes fall upon the same identical discovery, without either’s borrowing from the other.]

The materiel of artillery employed in modern warfare is divided into two general classes:  1st. Siege Artillery, or such as is employed in the attack and defence of places. 2d. Field Artillery, or such as is used in battle, or in the field-operations of an army.

1. Siege Artillery is composed of mortars, large howitzers, Paixhan guns or Columbiads,[34] and all cannon of a large calibre. In our service this class of ordnance includes the twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, thirty-two, and forty-two-pounder guns, the eight, ten, and thirteen-inch mortars, the sixteen-inch stone mortar, the twenty-four-pounder coehorn mortar, the twenty-four-pounder carronade, and the eight, ten, and twelve-inch howitzers.

[Footnote 34:  These pieces were first invented by Colonel Bomford, of the U.S. army, and used in the war of 1812.  The dimensions of these guns were first taken to Europe by a young French officer, and thus fell into the hands of General Paixhan, who immediately introduced them into the French service.  They were by this means first made known to the rest of Europe, and received the name of the person who introduced them into the European services, rather than that of the original inventor.  All these facts are so fully susceptible of proof, that Europeans now acknowledge themselves indebted to us for the invention; even General Paixhan gives up all claim to originality in his gun, and limits himself to certain improvements which he introduced.  The original gun, which was invented by Colonel Bomford, and whose dimensions were carried to General Paixhan in France, is now lying at the ordnance depot, in New York harbor.]