"
This discussion as presented was entirely and absolutely original with
the author and the result of his own unaided researches on the
subject. It will be seen in the account of the battle how accurately
the conditions there laid down were fulfilled.
But the carriage in use by the Gatling Gun Detachment was not the one
proposed to the War Department. That carriage has not, as yet, been
built, nor has the War Department in any way recognized the invention
or even acknowledged the receipt of the communication and drawings.
The problem, therefore, confronting the Gatling Gun Detachment was to
demonstrate the above uses of the machine gun, taking the obsolete
artillery carriage drawn by mules, and endeavor to get the guns into
action by draft. The personnel of the detachment alone accounts
for their success. They got the guns up on the firing-line, not
because of any superiority of the carriage over that in use by the
artillery, for there was none; not because of aid rendered by other
arms of the service, for they actually went into battle as far as 100
yards in advance of the infantry skirmishers; but because the Gatling
Gun Detachment was there for the purpose of getting into the fight and
was determined to give the guns a trial.
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