AMMUNITION 

Ammunition, comprises the projectiles, charges, and articles used
for priming, required for the use of fire-arms, and, as the word is
generally understood, supposes these articles to be made up ready
for use. Thus, small-arm ammunition comprises cartridges and
percussion caps (the latter, of course, are unnecessary where
flint-locks or the needle-gun are in use); field-artillery ammunition
is composed of shot, loaded shell, case shot, shrapnell, cartridges,
priming tubes, matches, portfires, &c., with rockets for rocketbatteries. In fortresses and for sieges, the powder is generally kept
in barrels, and made up in cartridges when required for use; so
are the various compositions required during a siege; the hollow
shot are also filled on the spot. The proportion of ammunition
accompanying an army in the field varies according to circumstances. Generally an infantry soldier carries 60 rounds,
seldom more; and a similar quantity per man accompanies the
army in wagons, while a further supply follows with the park
columns a march or two to the rear. For field-artillery, between
150 and 200 rounds per gun are always with the battery, partly in
the gun-limber boxes, partly in separate wagons; another 200
rounds are generally with the ammunition-reserve of the army,
and a third supply follows with the park columns. This is the rule
in most civilized armies, and applies, of course, to the beginning of
a campaign only; after a few months of campaigning, the
ammunition-reserves are generally very severely drawn upon,
perhaps lost after a disastrous battle, and their replacing is often
difficult and slow.