The School of Musketry was founded in 1853, by the then Commander-in-Chief, the late Viscount Hardinge, as a normal school of instruction in Musketry.

It has for its especial object the formation of officers and non-commissioned officers to act as instructors in the several battalions throughout the Army.

In the book of “Regulations for conducting the Musketry Instruction of the Army,” promulgated by order of His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief, it is ordered at page 33, and paragraph 35, that, “The Commanding Officer is to assemble the officers of the battalion at least once in each half-year, and to cause the non-commissioned officers and men to be assembled occasionally by squads or companies, at other times than when the annual course is proceeding, when the officer-instructor, having previously explained the theoretical principles detailed in the foregoing lessons, will be at liberty to advance deeper into the subject, developing to a degree proportionate to the rank and intelligence of his auditors, the whole history of small arms, from the first invention of gunpowder, and the successive steps by which the rifle-musket has attained its present efficiency; in order that the officers and soldiers, by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the subject theoretically, may take a greater interest in the practical part of this most important branch of their duty.”

The following Lectures have been prepared for the use of officers qualifying at the School of Musketry for the positions of Instructors in their respective Regiments. They are not to be considered as complete treatises or histories, but merely as “aids” to instruction, which can be expanded by the Instructor in viva voce Lectures, and if bound with an alternate ruled blank leaf, they may be corrected and enlarged when desirable, to suit the various improvements in arms, &c., introduced from time to time.

These Lectures are a mere compilation, extracted from a vast amount of interesting and valuable matter, systematically arranged. The names of the various authors upon whom wholesale plunder has been committed are mentioned in the course of the work, and the compiler hopes this general confession may secure their pardon.

The Theory of Gunnery has been very slightly touched upon: it cannot be pursued by any persons unless well grounded in Mathematics, and the short time passed by officers at Hythe wholly precludes so abstruse a study. Our School is decidedly a practical institution; to acquire an art or skill is our object, and we only broach the subject of Theory to soldiers, so far as to enable them to understand the reasons for all those rules which have to be attended to in practice.

E. C. WILFORD,
Colonel.

Hythe, January, 1861.