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.

A bit about Civil War weaponry and ammunition, part 2: Artillery

I admit that I am partial to artillery, because two of my living history groups - The 11th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company I and 1st West Virginia Light Artillery, Jacob's Meadow Battery (we're sort of a hybrid group at this point) - demonstrate the firing of a mountain howitzer on a semi-regular basis. I have also fallen in with other groups over the years, sometimes being part of their cannon crew as well. Any artillery reenactor will tell you that they have a blast (haha) at their impression.

Anyway...Civil War artillery.

Before the war began in 1861, the U.S. Ordnance Department showed little interest in improving the artillery its arsenals produced. To them, smoothbore cannons had been used heretofore with success, so why mess with a good thing? However, in Great Britain, inventors were encouraged to make improvements on their guns, most notably implementing the rifling system in artillery pieces. "Rifling" refers to grooves inside the barrel of a gun in order to make a projectile spin as it leaves the muzzle, thus improving the weapon's range and accuracy, therefore making it more deadly. The United States was beginning to use rifled muskets in their respective infantries in great numbers during the war (more on infantry weapons another day!).

When hostilities began, and without an arsenal of their own as yet (and only one working cannon foundry, Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond), the fledgling Confederacy seized any stashes of weapons they could find within their borders, especially United States Arsenals, where many women would work. Among these weapons were many outdated smoothbore artillery pieces as well as heavy siege and seacoast guns. The Confederacy would come to rely heavily on imports from Great Britain to supplement their artillery, which became increasingly difficult with the blockade of their ports, and also captured Union pieces.

The North had a great advantage in having not only more foundries with which to make new artillery pieces but also their own arsenals to make ammunition for them. At the beginning of the war, they accounted for 4,000 artillery pieces, with only 165 being field artillery.

Artillery can be classified in many ways: field (easily movable overland in battle), mountain (easily disassembled for use in rugged terrain), siege and garrison (most often used in defense of fortifications), and seacoast (difficult to move and usually used in forts or along coastal defenses). It can also be classified by barrel length, elevation, range, weight (light or heavy artillery), and types and weight of projectiles used (i.e., 10-pounder). Here, I will outline a few of the most popular types.

Artillery pieces fired several basic types of ammunition: solid shot (solid iron balls with no explosive charge; think a small bowling ball coming at you a thousand yards downrange), canister (the most deadly; picture a coffee can full of marbles being fired in your direction), shell (a hollow shell with black powder and a timed fuse), and spherical case, which fired shrapnel - often bits of any kind of metal that the men could find to fire.

Artillery groups were formed into batteries, which typically had six guns to it: 4 guns and 2 howitzers (shorter barreled cannons that were more portable and could fire at a higher elevation). Batteries were made up of about 100-125 men to man the guns. In battle, several batteries would be put in line together in order to fire in a row upon the enemy. A battery could fire off 2 or 3 shots per minute.

The most popular types of cannon used on both sides included:

*24, 12, and 6 pound howitzers - typically used in the field, designed to lob shells at higher angles rather than straight-on. Often discarded by Union artillery early on in favor of the Napoleon. Bronze. Smoothbore.

12-pound howitzer

* Napoleon, Model 1857 12 pounder - modeled after a gun commissioned by France's Napoleon III in the 1850s. Easily movable gun, often in the front lines, and a favorite of both sides. Bronze. Smoothbore.

*Parrott Rifle - An example of the newer rifled artillery very popular on both sides. Made of iron instead of the traditional bronze. Had band in rear for reinforcement. Weighed less than the Napoleon but twice as accurate. * 3inch Ordnance Rifle Model 1861 - Probably most popular piece of the war. Also known as Rodman rifles. Could use same ammo as the Parrott due to them both having the same sized larger bores. *Whitworth - a 12-pounder breechloading gun developed in England, which saw some use especially in the Confederate armies, including at Gettysburg. It had a hexagonal barrel and could only fire its own oddly-shaped projectiles, but up to 5 miles.

Pictures and information from http://www.civilwarartillery.com

Other information from Lawrence T. Russell's Civil War Arms and Firepower.

A bit about Civil War weaponry and ammunition, part 1

I thought it would be worthwhile to write something about the kinds of weapons and ammunition made and used during the Civil War because without women in arsenals there to fill cartridges and such to be used against the enemy, the war effort on both sides would likely have ground to a halt. Entire books can be - and have - been written about the subject, so I am writing the Spark Notes version here of some of the more commonly used weapons and ammo.

At arsenals, many implements and supplies were made for the armed forces, including cartridges for small arms, artillery ammunition, percussion caps, artillery fuzes, primers, gun carriages, signal rockets, cap and cartridge boxes, and more. In his report made in the aftermath of the Allegheny Arsenal explosion, Colonel John Symington wrote that about 125,000 rounds of .71 and .54 small arm cartridges, and 175 rounds of artillery ammuition for 12 and 10 pounder Parrott rifles had blown up September 17, 1862. The women working there would have rolled most of the cartridges, and many died that day doing so.

The Confederate Laboratory on Brown's Island made not only cartridges for small arms, breech-loading guns, and pistols, but also fuzes, primers, chemicals, percussion caps, signal lights, ammunition for seacoast defenses, and early versions of grenades - just about every kind of implements that the Confederate army and navy would need. Defective artillery ammunition was repacked there for use into colored boxes with red ones for case shot, black for shell, and olive for shot and canister (more on that later). There, the women did much of the manufacturing work; only men were employed in the heavy ammunition department. It is thought that girls ages 9 to 12 would have made up to 1,200 cartridges per day there.

After looking through what I have on the subject, I think I will do this subject in several parts, by side and possibly by branch. But here, I have put it into context of my project. Stay tuned.

Sources:
Becer, Alan. “An Appalling Disaster: The Allegheny Arsenal and the Explosion of
1862.” Westmoreland History. Fall 1999, 41-59.

"The Confederate States Laboratory Department." Richmond Dispatch, January 5, 1863.

"The Confederate States Laboratory." Richmond Enquirer, January 6, 1863.