US Civil War Artillery - On The Receiving End

[Zemlyak]

Browsing YouTube as one does, came across this vid which had a camera at the target end whilst being fired on.



Must have been terrifying standing in line or approaching these once the gunners got the range.

I guess i shouldn’t be surprised, but they’re more accurate than I originally thought for what I presume is a smooth bore, the gunners being on and around the target hulk with quite a few shots.

I guess they may not have done so well if being fired on themselves.

 

[Mediaeval]

Browsing YouTube as one does, came across this vid which had a camera at the target end whilst being fired on.



Must have been terrifying standing in line or approaching these once the gunners got the range.

I guess i shouldn’t be surprised, but they’re more accurate than I originally thought for what I presume is a smooth bore, the gunners being on and around the target hulk with quite a few shots.

I guess they may not have done so well if being fired on themselves.

Not sure about the cannon in the test, but the use of rifled artillery was widespread in the ACW. Being under field artillery fire is also quite well replicated in the Napoleon Total War games (and accords quite well with this), if you take the camera point of the advancing infantry...

 

[4(T)]

Imagine the incoming from the 54x (or 80x) guns of the French gunline at Waterloo.

Very hard to imagine the horror of being infantry standing or manoeuvring under such fire, but goes some way to explaining why an ethos of tight discipline and bravado had to be cultivated.

 

[Civvy Scum]

It looks to me like the best way of surviving would have been to have carried a video camera. They didn't hit it once.

 

[whiffler]

There is a double CD out there with music and instruments of the time.

They also made recording of various field pieces and rifles being fired, in varying weather condition iirc, and on ACW sites

Frederick Fennel rings that bell. Hunting for more info

eta Civil War - Its Music and Its Sounds, incl 52page booklet

 

[righthandmarker]

Any ideas as to what is being fired?

 

[Zemlyak]

Not sure about the cannon in the test, but the use of rifled artillery was widespread in the ACW. Being under field artillery fire is also quite well replicated in the Napoleon Total War games (and accords quite well with this), if you take the camera point of the advancing infantry...

You’re of course right about rifled artillery being around at the time. I’m no expert but the ones in the vid looked like bronze Napoleons which I think are smooth bore but that’s just guesswork on my part.

 

[4(T)]

Any ideas as to what is being fired?

Apparently two cannon. The big green one with the "ears" is an M1841 24 pounder howitzer.

Small one seems to be a 6 pounder of some kind.

 

[Zemlyak]

Imagine the incoming from the 54x (or 80x) guns of the French gunline at Waterloo.

Very hard to imagine the horror of being infantry standing or manoeuvring under such fire, but goes some way to explaining why an ethos of tight discipline and bravado had to be cultivated.

Reading about Waterloo many years ago there was piece about one of the British soldiers, probably inexperienced, seeing a cannon ball bouncing towards them, thought it possible to stop it by putting his foot out, but it took his leg off.

Now it could have been in one of the other Napoleonic battles, but Waterloo seems to stick in my mind about that anecdote.

 

[Zemlyak]

Apparently two cannon. The big green one with the "ears" is an M1841 24 pounder howitzer.

Small one seems to be a 6 pounder of some kind.

I knew someone would know better than me.

Are those smoothbores?

 

[Kit_Monkey]

Any ideas as to what is being fired?

Armstrong cannonball, rifled artillery. This actual one was pulled out of the Clyde by one of the magnet fishing group I'm a member of.

 

[righthandmarker]

View attachment 549408

Armstrong cannonball, rifled artillery. This actual one was pulled out of the Clyde by one of the magnet fishing group I'm a member of.

Solid shot then I take it? I'm slightly clueless with anything over 100 years old.

 

[righthandmarker]

Apparently two cannon. The big green one with the "ears" is an M1841 24 pounder howitzer.

Small one seems to be a 6 pounder of some kind.

Thanks for that. Interesting stuff.

 

[Kit_Monkey]

Solid shot then I take it? I'm slightly clueless with anything over 100 years old.

Solid shot, the round marks are what's left of nickel projections that grip the rifling, later ones were copper.

 

[sbd1]

Some of the artillery during the civil war was very advanced -

The 12-pounder Whitworth Breechloading Rifle manufactured in England and invented by Sir Joseph Whitworth, was imported into North America during the Civil War.

An article from the August 10, 1861 edition of Harper’s Weekly described the gun:
The Whitworth rifled cannon obtains its remarkable power and accuracy by the adoption of a polygonal spiral bore of uniform pitch, more rapid than could be obtained by grooves. The 12-pounder-one of which was a few days since exhibited in this city—with a bore of 3.2 inches, has one turn in sixty inches; it is eight feet long and breech-loading. The projectile is oblong, made of cast iron, and formed to fit the grooves of the barrel. The breech of the gun is covered with a cap which screws on, and on being removed swings to one side upon a hinge ; the projectile is then inserted into the open breech, and followed by a tin cartridge-case containing the powder, and capped by a cake of wax or other lubricating composition; the breech-cap is then swung to and screwed on by its handles, a fuse inserted into the vent, and the gun is discharged. The lubricating matter being carried out with the ball effectually cleanses the gun, and the deposit is afterward withdrawn with the cartridge-case. As there is no exhalation of gases from the breech-cap, one of the worst features of breech-loading guns is avoided. The range of this gun is said to be greater than the Armstrong gun, and its accuracy more positive. Guns of the size herein described cost £300 in England.

An engineering magazine wrote in 1864 that, "At 1600 yards the Whitworth gun fired 10 shots with a lateral deviation of only 5 inches."

The CSA had a very small number of these guns at Antietam and Gettysburg, one serveing in each of Hardaway’s Alabama Battery and Battery E of the Sumter, Georgia, Artillery. The Union had one 6 gun battery which saw limited service in the defenses around Washington.

 

[sbd1]

Even some of the more conventional muzzle loading guns where pretty impresseive. Something like the 3in Ordinance rifle -

To manufacture the Ordnance Rifle, strips of wrought iron were hammer-welded in crisscrossing spiral layers around a mandrel; this was then bored out and the finished product lathe turned into shape. Though time consuming and expensive to produce, the result was a singularly tough and accurate weapon.

Bore Diameter: 3.0 inches
Bore Length: 65.0 inches, 21.6 calibers
Rifling Type: 7 rifle grooves, right hand consistent twist (1 turn in 11')
Trunnion Diameter: 3.67 inches
Barrel Thickness: at Muzzle - 1.5 inches; at Vent - 2.355 inches
Tube Length: 73 inches
Tube Weight: 816 lbs.
Carriage Type: No. 1 Field Carriage (900 lbs.), 57" wheels
Total Weight (Gun & Carriage): 1,720 lbs.
Horses Required to Pull: 6
No. of Crew to Serve: Typical - 9, 1 Gunner, 8 Numbered Crew Positions, Could operate at a reduced rate with as few as 2 Crew

At 5* elevation the 3inch could send a shell 1830 yards. At 16* elevation, 4180 yards although 2200 yards *6-7* elevation being considered the effective range.
There were a number of different shell types in use -

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