Fun with Artillery

Just for fun, while we're on the subject, I thought I would post a video of our group from last summer doing an artillery demonstration. If you look at my YouTube channel, you'll find a few more videos of us doing some night firing, usually with supercharged loads. This video has me as gunnery sergeant, who would yell the commands for firing it (not bad for having asthma!). It was a multi-step process. During battle, a crew could get off three shots per minute, but for safety reasons, we take our time and do some extra sponging of the barrel. I am in the pinkish dress (those of you who know me know that's an unusual color choice for me, but hey, it was pretty), and my older niece (green dress) is serving as powder monkey, who would run rounds from the rear to the crew. Some of our infantry is firing at some Confederates across the lake. At the end, our corporal is playing "Taps" on his cornet. And for those who may be wondering, while there are at least 400 known women who disguised themselves as men and fought in the war, to my knowledge, there are no reports of women in dresses helping to fire a cannon. But there are instances of that during the American Revolution, so it is plausible.




The cannon we use is a 12-pound mountain howitzer. It was used in Americans in battle from the Seminole Wars in the 1830's through the Civil War, even during World War II in the Philippines. It was especially popular earlier during the Civil War during the Western Virginia campaign because it could be disassembled easily and hauled by three pack mules, which made it easy to carry through the mountains there where a bigger field piece could not go. It could fire solid shot, case shot, and canister, using about a pound of black powder to fire.