Another example was John Gibbon, the author of the influential Artillerist's Manual published in 1863 (although Gibbon would achieve considerably more fame as an infantry general during the war). There were two general types of artillery weapons used during the Civil War: smoothbores and rifles. It fought at Vicksburg in 1863, Tupelo and Nashville in 1864, and Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely in 1865. Pre-war allocations called for 6-pounder field guns matched with 12-pounder howitzers, 9 and 12-pounder field guns matched with 24-pounder howitzers. The battery is honored by two monuments on the East Cavalry Field at Gettysburg. Confederate Water Battery (Columbiad Guns) - Warrington, FL at the Entrance to Pensacola Bay - February 1861. Artillery Units and Equipment. [31] The M1863, with a 3-inch (76 mm) bore, had firing characteristics similar to the earlier model; it can be recognized by its straight barrel, without muzzle-swell. The barrels of the guns were longer than corresponding howitzers, and called for higher powder charges to achieve the desired performance. But there were 12 pounder batteries, Mr Rezac can correct me here if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly certain in early 1861 12 lb batteries would have been more a regular Army thing? Robert Stiles wrote about Union counter-battery fire striking a Confederate battery on Benner's Hill at the Battle of Gettysburg: Such a scene as it presented—guns dismounted and disabled, carriages splintered and crushed, ammunition chests exploded, limbers upset, wounded horses plunging and kicking, dashing out the brains of men tangled in the harness; while cannoneers with pistols were crawling around through the wreck shooting the struggling horses to save the lives of wounded men. Civil War Morgan's Light Artillery. While shell produced only a few large fragments, case was loaded with lead or iron balls and was designed to burst above and before the enemy line, showering down many more small but destructive projectiles on the enemy. Frederick Phisterer. History The following is taken from New York in the War of the Rebellion, 3rd ed. For example: the basic field organization being the "gun group" and the "tactical group". It was connected directly behind the team of six horses and towed either a gun or a caisson. The Federal version of the Napoleon can be recognized by the flared front end of the barrel, called the muzzle-swell. It was not popular as an anti-infantry weapon. The large number of horses posed a logistical challenge for the artillery, because they had to be fed, maintained, and replaced when worn out or injured. An engineering magazine wrote in 1864 that, "At 1600 yards [1500 m] the Whitworth gun fired 10 shots with a lateral deviation of only 5 inches." [35] The 32-pounder howitzer was too heavy to be employed as field artillery and the one battery using them was soon rearmed with 3-inch Ordnance rifles. The introduction on indirect fire in the early 20th century necessitated two other groups, firstly observers who deployed some distance forward of the gun line, secondly a small staff on the gun position to undertake the calculations to convert the orders from the observers into data that could be set on the gun sights. During the Battle of Atlanta, a Confederate gunner was quoted: "The Yankee three-inch rifle was a dead shot at any distance under a mile. The bore was hexagonal in cross-section, and the projectile was a long bolt that twisted to conform to the rifling. In December 1860, Secretary of War John Floyd wrote, "the results of trials of rifled cannon and projectiles … indicates a superiority of James expanding projectiles for such cannon. Appomattox Campaign. Siege of Petersburg. Parrotts were manufactured with a combination of cast iron and wrought iron. But in practice the limited payload of the projectile was seen as a shortcoming of this weapon. For a rifled gun, the projectile was referred to as a bolt and had a cylindrical or spherical shape. Even a few older iron Model 1819 weapons were pressed into service. [34] Though both sides employed the 6-pounder field gun and 12-pounder howitzer in the early battles, they were recognized as inferior to the 12-pounder Napoleon and soon discontinued in the Union armies in the Eastern Theater. General support battery commanders are likely to be at brigade or higher headquarters. To simplify the design many later ships used dual-purpose guns to combine the functions of the secondary battery and the heavier guns of the tertiary batteries. Historical versions often closely resembled naval cannon of their day, "garrison carriages," like naval carriages, were short, heavy, and had four small wheels meant for rolling on relatively smooth, hard surfaces. Often, particularly as the war progressed, individual batteries were grouped into battalions under a major or colonel of artillery. It had a caliber of 2.75 inches (70 mm). It’s gallant service in the battles of Bull Run, Fair Oaks, Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg place this battery as one of the finest batteries to serve during the war. [8] Copper for casting bronze pieces became increasingly scarce to the Confederacy throughout the war and became acute in November 1863 when the Ducktown copper mines near Chattanooga were lost to Union forces. By the end of the war, the army had 3,325 guns, of which 53% were field pieces. The number of guns, howitzers, mortars or launchers in an organizational battery has also varied, with the calibre of guns usually being an important consideration. Civil War First Excelsior Light Artillery History The following is taken from New York in the War of the Rebellion, 3rd ed. The effective range of the canister was only 400 yards (370 m), but within that range dozens of enemy infantrymen could be mowed down. Six pounder guns had mostly disappeared from the Union armies by 1863 but the Confederates continued using them until the end of the war. 15th Independent Battery Light Artillery (Veteran) Civil War. Shortly after the outbreak of war, Brig. Company K served with its regiment until August 25, 1861, when detached. Battle of Sailor's Creek. Batteries also have sub-divisions, which vary across armies and periods but often translate into the English "platoon" or "troop" with individual ordnance systems called a "section" or "sub-section", where a section comprises two artillery pieces. Two guns operating under the control of a lieutenant were known as a "section". Artillerymen from Ft. Riley fire a replica of the 1855 model 3-inch cannon, 2012. The officers in charge of the reserve battalions were all drawn from Longstreet's command, which displeased Jackson as he had not been allowed to select his own men for the corps artillery reserve, but he accepted it without complaining. Although virtually all battles of the Civil War included artillery, some battles are known better than others for significant artillery engagements, arguably critical to the overall outcome: Not nearly as well known as their infantry and cavalry counterparts, a small group of officers excelled at artillery deployment, organization, and the science of gunnery: Hazlett, pp. The major shortcoming of these heavy field guns was mobility, as they required eight-horse teams as opposed to the six-horse teams of the lighter guns. Shells contain an explosive charge and were designed to burst into fragments in the midst of enemy troops. [41] A primary weakness of shell was that it typically produced only a few large fragments, the count increasing with caliber of the shell. Each man in a battery had multiple duties he had to perform on a daily basis. 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