3-003-704 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The National Rifle Association meeting on Wimbledon Common: skirmishers forming squares to resist cavalry, 1861. Military review in London. 'A cavalry attack was threatened...file-firing instantly commenced with a sustained deafening uproar that was tremendous, and seemed to shake the very air. From this the fusillade after some minutes changed to firing by companies and regiments in volleys, and some of these were given with such a solidity and singleness that they rather sounded like the discharge of a single enormous piece of artillery than a simultaneous fire from 500 muskets. These repeated volleys were at last supposed to have the desired effect upon the enemy, for the bugle sounded to cease firing, and a long jingling rattle ran along the line, softening into a mere tinkle in the distance, as the whole mass fixed bayonets'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.