alternatehistory.com

26 September

The Act for the Provision of Incentives to Mutual Defence (AKA the Mutual Defence Act) is passed in the Confederate Congress with a substantial majority - this is largely because South Carolina now likes the idea (Charleston still has rubble on the streets, in no small part due to the way that most of the city's labour is currently being processed for settlement in the British Empire). This provides for fairly substantial state-level tax incentives to those states with an effective militia.
The primary result of this is to lead to massive budget fights in future years (as no definition of effective is given) but there is at least a general understanding that states with a militia more capable of quickly taking the field should be better off for it and get more incentives.


27 September

An Ordnance Select Committee in Britain issues a preliminary report on the Armstrong gun. The sense of the report is that the Armstrong gun is inadequately reliable in heavy use and quite costly, but that the performance shown in the late war (paying particular attention to the penetration of the shells into masonry, brickwork and earthwork, and the accuracy and rapidity with which even heavy guns may be fired) more than justifies this expense for the time being.
Examples of anecdotes given in evidence include:
"As regards the care of the gun I find no difficulty in keeping it in perfect order in all weathers and all circumstances" (Major Govan, RA)
"On one occasion his guns had very rough work indeed. They were sent out with a division of the army over a swamp, the very worst ground possible for artillery. The guns were in fact almost swallowed up, and were covered with mud when brought into action, but no impediment occurred." (Major Govan, RA)
"On two occasions vent-pieces were blown away; on the last occasion I happened to come up to the gun almost immediately after it had occurred... The traversing screw was jammed, but the gun was not otherwise injured, and with another vent-piece was again serviceable." (Major Hay, RA)
"When taking action against a fort, I felt confident in the ability of our guns to pierce them... on two occasions the vent-piece failed, but the gun was immediately able to be fired once again after the replacement of this device. The effect of the fire was terrible against a masonry fort of a character that would be absolutely resilient against a gun of the same size from previous wars... we could fire once, then twice more before an enemy gun could be reloaded and directed upon us..." (Lt. Com. Hoskins, Royal Navy, CO of HMS Beaver)
Also brought up to answer the issue of reliability is a test done on 12-lber no.8, where it was left out in the rain for a month and a half before being tested. Firing took place with no problems, despite a lack of any maintenance done in the interim.

The matter of cost is under continued examination, but it is agreed that any weapon that should replace the Armstrong gun for a given scale (e.g. field gun, siege gun) should display an equal or superior quality in rapidity of loading AND cost AND reliability AND accuracy. Armstrong himself notes that he is looking into a developed form of breech, and also that he has produced specialized anti-armour guns but feels that his current breechloaders are serviceable for general purpose.

A cartoon appears in Punch mocking Armstrong, noting that he seems to want to provide the British armed forces with all of their artillery and depicting him as a jeweller telling Brittania that two very different rings - one small and simple, the other with a gemstone the size of her head - are both "her". (This cartoon will later be framed by Armstrong, who finds it rather entertaining)


1 October

An abandoned Russian brick fort in Poland is used for testing and practice with the guns "Sigismund", "Wladyslaw" and "Hedwig". Also present are a number of infantry regiments from the new Polish army, who are being trained for assault tactics - the idea is that their confidence will be boosted when they see the performance of the three powerful breechloaders.
The guns in question do indeed perform well - aiming is a little hard for the Uhlans, who were expecting something with a little less recoil, but the shells go several feet into the brickwork and then blow out huge chunks of it - and morale is noticeably improved among the assault troops. (They have not yet been given an appropriately resonant designation from Polish history, unfortunately - "Lancers" and "Hussars" are both taken.)