Not to mention the fact that he was scared as hell because he was under 
fire. It's illogical that he would go around picking up heavy solid shot 
to arrange a photo shoot.
Norm

John Sessoms wrote:
> I think the most likely explanation is the photograph of the cleared 
> road is the later one. There are two military reasons for clearing the 
> cannon balls from the road.
>
> First, the cannon balls may have been picked up by British soldiers and 
> fired back at the Russians by British artillery. The author cites 
> reports from other correspondents that the British did just that.
>
> Muzzle loading cannons don't require precisely fitted shells; the 
> wadding holds the ball in place until the cannon is fired. And the 
> British picked up the ones lying on the road because, soldiers being 
> soldiers, it required less work than digging 'em out of whatever muck 
> might have been in the ditches.
>
> That's also an argument for the photo of the cannon balls in the road 
> being the first one, since it's unlikely the soldiers would have 
> cooperated in such an unnecessary task of moving cannon balls into the 
> road so he could take a photograph of them, especially since they'd just 
> have to remove them again.
>
> Because the road would have to be cleared. That's the second military 
> reason.
>
> If you want to be able to move horse drawn artillery (or cavalry, or any 
> horse drawn equipment) down that road you've got to move those cannon 
> balls. Cannon balls in the road wouldn't be much danger to the wagon 
> wheels, but a horse could break a leg.
>
> And whether the British planned to move down that road or not, a good 
> officer would be prepared for that possibility. I understand that at the 
> company level at least the British did have some good officers.
>
> Good sergeants anyway.
>
> But you wouldn't need to move the cannon balls that were already off the 
> road. Again, Tommy ain't gonna' do any unnecessary work.
>
> Hence photo number two showing the cleared road with all those cannon 
> balls in the ditches.
>
>
>   

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