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. > > > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
