Excerpt from Colonel Laidley's Reply to the Charge of Infringement of Colonel Wingate's Copyright I was not content to be a mere copyist from Col. Wingate, as he would have it believed that I am, for in that case why should I go to the trouble and expense Of getting works in foreign languages, and translating portions Of them, and having others translated, as I can prove I did, then turn round and copy Wingate's Manual? A detailed examination has been made Of all the sections and portions Of Wingate's work, which he says have been appropriated by me, and it appears that in by far the greater number Of cases the same suggestions in substance, and in many instances literally the same, have been made in former publications accessible to any one who would take the trouble to look for them. It was Wingate's duty in publishing his work to avail himself Of all the information on the subject that he could find which he thought valuable; SO was it my duty to pursue a like course; and I did, as stated in the Preface, cull from all the fields which were open to me, and selected such materials as approved themselves to my judgment. The task is to determine what is valuable and what is not; to select what is good and reject what is worthless; to express what is stated in the clearest and simplest manner; to keep up a regular sequence Of thought, SO as to make the whole Of the greatest practical utility. This is what I have striven to accomplish, and believe to have succeeded in doing, at least to a certain extent. The Chief Of Ordnance in transmitting it to the Secretary Of War, said Of it, In completeness Of detail of the theory and practice of gunnery, in its admirable condensation of the valuable experience Of American and European Practice grounds, it embraces every theoretical and practical idea necessary to the education Of the soldier to a perfect realiza tion Of all the possibilities Of our government arm I am sure that the army will not be slow in recognizing its great merit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.