This is a picture of horse-drawn artillery. This type of mobile artillery was developed during the Thirty Years’ War by the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus. In the Civil War, a unit consisted of the cannon on two wheels and an ammunition carrier called a caisson. It was usually pulled by six horses and manned by ten men. Their jobs included sponging the barrel after a shot, bringing the ammo from the caisson, ramming the powder, pushing the cannon back into position after recoil, and a gunner to aim. The cannons were 6, 9, or 12-pounders (referring to the weight of the cannon ball). The most common was the 12-pounder, also called a Napoleon (named after Napoleon III, not Napoleon Bonaparte). It could be either rifled or smoothbore, with smoothbore being more common. It had a range of about 1,000 yards. The barrels were made of bronze or iron. They fired a variety of ordnance. Cannonballs (also known as solid shot) were used against fortifications and enemy artillery. A shell was a hollow cannonball filled with gunpowder used against earthworks and wooden buildings. Case shot was a ball filled with musket balls. It was fused to explode above an infantry unit. Canister was a can full of balls that turned the cannon into a giant shotgun. It was used against an attacking infantry unit.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-civil-war-artillery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_artillery_in_the_American_Civil_War
0 Comments