Unfortunately there were few methods to quell enemy artillery other than counter battery fire - blowing them out of their positions by artillery from your own side, or attack by infantry. The last is often less hazardous than might be imagined, as most cannon can only be depressed so far, and once you get past the swept area - the area of danger from the artillery - the only defense the cannoneers have is individual firearms.

Most artillery pieces could not be fired while traveling, as they required to be set up, in place, and zeroed in on visible or known targets. There was little exception to this situation back in the 1860's. Today of course we have self propelled artillery, large bore weapons mounted on tread equipped transportation like tanks, and tanks themselves, which also suffer from their vulnerability to antitank weapons carried by infantry, the reason that tanks try to have infantry support. The tanks work against distant targets and shelters their supporting infantry, while these troops supress antitank fire from close up infantry.

As for the infantry in those days. They had the choice of advancing as a unit into cannon and rifle fire, or being shot out of hand or later for cowardice. Death from the opposition was less likely than death from your own people, for cowardice or desertion. Even in WWI, groups of infantry went "over the top" against rifle and machine gun fire, as the "normal" way to wage a battle. This method of fighting was only used on landing beachheads in WWII.

Conscription or not, serving in the military offered the Irish as well as other recent immigrants was one way of assuring of meals and a place to sleep. As recently as 1960, when I enlisted in the Army, immigrants were enlisting in the Army to gain citizenship or escape the uncertainty of conscription, or to avenge former ocurances. One of my platoon mates was the son of the Uraguayan ambassador to the US, whom I suspected of being much too close to Naziism for my taste, and a Hungarian refugee who joined up for an opportunity, ". . . to kill some Communists!"   During that period many immigrants took advantage of an act that conferred citizenship upon people who completed a tour in the military, as opposed to the seven years of residence required of others.

Dave