But Winters thought ringing the bell was too slow, once something happened, it was far from being as quick as a whistle.
The second thing was expanding the angles of the passages to the left and right of the cannon so that two groups of ten could be accommodated. Winters placed his two groups of ten on either side, instead of scattering them throughout the passageway.
This was the experience he gained after being ambushed several times at night: lone sentries could easily be eliminated; it was essential to arrange multiple concealed and visible sentries.
The third thing was to request six crossbows. In Winters's view, issuing matchlock guns to night sentries was pure stupidity, a model of bureaucracy. It was impossible for sentries to keep a matchlock smoldering all night, and even if they were not afraid to die, there wasn't enough match cord for them to squander.