From the notes to the states it is clear that this money was sometimes not enough and it was allowed to spend only 9 rubles on each horse, from the money remaining from the shortage of horses. 12 rubles were allocated for the purchase of one horse. Each pontoon corps was staffed with the following number of servants: 2 chief officers, with the rank of second lieutenant and lieutenant; There are 54 lower ranks, including 30 sailors. The corporals, captains and sergeants were armed with guns (6 guns in total). The privates had backpacks. With the pontoon convoy, each corps consisted of a team of Furshtat servants (now convoys), consisting of 1 chief officer and 209 lower ranks. Fourmeisters and non-commissioned masters (corresponding to the current senior convoy of the non-commissioned rank) were armed with pistols. In addition, each team of servants was assigned 12 rifles with bayonets, which were intended for people assigned to guard duty to guard the cash box, provisions, fodder and other supplies during the campaign. Melee weapons consisted of swords with copper blades, which were assigned to foremans, non-commissioned officers and other people who had guns. In total, 71,404 rubles were allocated at a time for the installation of all pontoons of the 3 corps, with accessories, horses and for the purchase of weapons, equipment and uniforms for the lower ranks. 24 kopecks and annually for the maintenance of everything (both property and all ranks) 31,804 rubles. 55 kopecks
Until this time, there had been no developed and precise instructions for pontoon teams. Under the leadership of Count Shuvalov, a manual was compiled, which was called “Form on pontoon positions.” (See Appendix KhPI].
The Form for Pontoon Positions states:
1) About those knowledge with which every officer serving on pontoons should be familiar. He was obliged, among other things, to know artillery well, so that he could always, without the help of an artillery commander, determine the weight of the artillery being transported across the pontoon bridge. Since with pontoons the highest to no. you
The official rank was lieutenant, then if he was not familiar with the artillery, he could not expect further movement.
2) About the location of ranks during the “march” (i.e., campaign). The entire pontoon corps was assigned a place directly behind the vanguard of the army, under the cover of artillery, “detachments from cavalry and soldiers.”
3) How to transport weights across a pontoon bridge. For crossing 24-pound guns and 5 poods. mortars and generally large weights “connect beams, passing through the entire pontoon at the sides”, and for small weights “connect bridge beams in the middle of each pontoon”, in the first case, with a full bow, the bridge of 10 pontoons will be 22 fathoms long, and in the second case, with a semi-pontoon bow, it will be 30 fathoms long. Thus, one pontoon hull was able to build a bridge of 990 or 66 fathoms, depending on the loads being transported.
4) What to do if the width of the bridge exceeded the length of the existing pontoon bridge. In this case, a rope was stretched from one bank to the other, and three pontoons connected to form a ferry (like a modern airplane) were pulled along this rope. For this purpose, the pontoon hull had five 3-inch resin ropes, each 500 arshins long.
5) How to build a bridge and cross during a battle, and how measures should be taken for protection. from an enemy attack. By the way, when sutlers following the troops in wartime crossed the bridge, these instructions were supposed to take two soots from each. boards and one barrel at a time, which can be used in places where there will not be enough pontoon abutments. After the bridge was raised, the barrels and planks had to be returned according to their belongings, and in the event of their loss, the perpetrator was charged 10 kopecks for each plank, and 50 kopecks for the barrel.
6) From this instruction it is clear that at that time pontoon bridges were built across the water ditches of the fortress, for the passage of assault columns when attacking gaps.
With the introduction of copper pontoons, tin pontoons were ordered to be excluded from the states, leaving 10 of them for each corps for practical training in peacetime.
The newly approved pontoons had the following main dimensions: length, along the side - 7! 10 vertices, 1 arsh in height.