ARTILLERY

 THROUGH THE AGES

 A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America

 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

 Fred A. Seaton, _Secretary_

 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

 Conrad L. Wirth, _Director_

 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C. -- Price 35 cents

 (_Cover_) FRENCH 12-POUNDER FIELD GUN (1700-1750)

 ARTILLERY

 THROUGH THE AGES

 A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America

 _by_

 _ALBERT MANUCY_

 _Historian Southeastern National Monuments_

 Drawings by Author

 Technical Review by Harold L. Peterson

 _National Park Service Interpretive Series History No. 3_

 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE _WASHINGTON: 1949_ (Reprint 1956)

Many of the types of cannon described in this booklet may be seen inareas of the National Park System throughout the country. Some parkswith especially fine collections are:

CASTILLO DE SAN MARCOS NATIONAL MONUMENT, seventeenth and eighteenthcentury field and garrison guns. 

CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL MILITARY PARK, Civil War fieldand siege guns. 

COLONIAL NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, seventeenth and eighteenth centuryfield and siege guns, eighteenth century naval guns. 

FORT MCHENRY NATIONAL MONUMENT AND HISTORIC SHRINE, early nineteenthcentury field guns and Civil War garrison guns. 

FORT PULASKI NATIONAL MONUMENT, Civil War garrison guns. 

GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK, Civil War field guns. 

PETERSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK, Civil War field and siege guns. 

SHILOH NATIONAL MILITARY PARK, Civil War field guns. 

VICKSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK, Civil War field and siege guns. 

 The National Park System is dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the benefit and enjoyment of its people. 

CONTENTS

 THE ERA OF ARTILLERY The Ancient Engines of War Gunpowder Comes to Europe The Bombards Sixteenth Century Cannon The Seventeenth Century and Gustavus Adolphus The Eighteenth Century United States Guns of the Early 1800's Rifling The War Between the States The Change into Modern Artillery

 GUNPOWDER Primers Modern Use of Black Powder

 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CANNON The Early Smoothbore Cannon Smoothbores of the Later Period Garrison and Ship Guns Siege Cannon Field Cannon Howitzers Mortars Petards

 PROJECTILES Solid Shot Explosive Shells Fuzes Scatter Projectiles Incendiaries and Chemical Projectiles Fixed Ammunition Rockets

 TOOLS

 THE PRACTICE OF GUNNERY

 GLOSSARY

 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

[Illustration: "PIERRIERS VULGARLY CALLED PATTEREROS, "from Francis Grose, Military Antiquities, 1796. ]

THE ERA OF ARTILLERY

 _Looking at an old-time cannon, most people are sure of just one thing: the shot came out of the front end. For that reason these pages are written; people are curious about the fascinating weapon that so prodigiously and powerfully lengthened the warrior's arm. And theirs is a justifiable curiosity, because the gunner and his "art" played a significant role in our history. _

THE ANCIENT ENGINES OF WAR

To compare a Roman catapult with a modern trench mortar seems absurd. Yet the only basic difference is the kind of energy that sends theprojectile on its way. 

In the dawn of history, war engines were performing the function ofartillery (which may be loosely defined as a means of hurling missilestoo heavy to be thrown by hand), and with these crude weapons thebasic principles of artillery were laid down. The Scriptures recordthe use of ingenious machines on the walls of Jerusalem eightcenturies B. C. --machines that were probably predecessors of thecatapult and ballista, getting power from twisted ropes made of hair, hide or sinew. The ballista had horizontal arms like a bow. The armswere set in rope; a cord, fastened to the arms like a bowstring, firedarrows, darts, and stones. Like a modern field gun, the ballista shotlow and directly toward the enemy. 

The catapult was the howitzer, or mortar, of its day and could throwa hundred-pound stone 600 yards in a high arc to strike the enemybehind his wall or batter down his defenses. "In the middle of theropes a wooden arm rises like a chariot pole, " wrote the historianMarcellinus. "At the top of the arm hangs a sling. When battle iscommenced, a round stone is set in the sling. Four soldiers on eachside of the engine wind the arm down until it is almost level with theground. When the arm is set free, it springs up and hurls the stoneforth from its sling. " In early times the weapon was called a"scorpion, " for like this dreaded insect it bore its "sting" erect. 

[Illustration: Figure 1--BALLISTA. Caesar covered his landing inBritain with fire from catapults and ballistas. ]

The trebuchet was another war machine used extensively during theMiddle Ages. Essentially, it was a seesaw. Weights on the short armswung the long throwing arm. 

[Illustration: Figure 2--CATAPULT. ]

[Illustration: Figure 3--TREBUCHET. A heavy trebuchet could throw a300-pound stone 300 yards. ]

These weapons could be used with telling effect, as the Romans learnedfrom Archimedes in the siege of Syracuse (214-212 B. C. ). As Plutarchrelates, "Archimedes soon began to play his engines upon the Romansand their ships, and shot stones of such an enormous size and with soincredible a noise and velocity that nothing could stand before them. At length the Romans were so terrified that, if they saw but a ropeor a beam projecting over the walls of Syracuse, they cried out thatArchimedes was leveling some machine at them, and turned their backsand fled. "

Long after the introduction of gunpowder, the old engines of warcontinued in use. Often they were side by side with cannon. 

GUNPOWDER COMES TO EUROPE

Chinese "thunder of the earth" (an effect produced by filling a largebombshell with a gunpowder mixture) sounded faint reverberationsamongst the philosophers of the western world as early as A. D. 300. Though the Chinese were first instructed in the scientific casting ofcannon by missionaries during the 1600's, crude cannon seem to haveexisted in China during the twelfth century and even earlier. 

In Europe, a ninth century Latin manuscript contains a formula forgunpowder. But the first show of firearms in western Europe may havebeen by the Moors, at Saragossa, in A. D. 1118. In later years theSpaniards turned the new weapon against their Moorish enemies at thesiege of Cordova (1280) and the capture of Gibraltar (1306). 

It therefore follows that the Arabian _madfaa_, which in turn haddoubtless descended from an eastern predecessor, was the originalcannon brought to western civilization. This strange weapon seems tohave been a small, mortar-like instrument of wood. Like an egg in anegg cup, the ball rested on the muzzle end until firing of the chargetossed it in the general direction of the enemy. Another primitivecannon, with narrow neck and flared mouth, fired an iron dart. Theshaft of the dart was wrapped with leather to fit tightly into theneck of the piece. A red-hot bar thrust through a vent ignited thecharge. The range was about 700 yards. The bottle shape of the weaponperhaps suggested the name _pot de fer_ (iron jug) given early cannon, and in the course of evolution the narrow neck probably enlarged untilthe bottle became a straight tube. 

During the Hundred Years' War (1339-1453) cannon came into generaluse. Those early pieces were very small, made of iron or cast bronze, and fired lead or iron balls. They were laid directly on the ground, with muzzles elevated by mounding up the earth. Being cumbrous andinefficient, they played little part in battle, but were quite usefulin a siege. 

THE BOMBARDS

By the middle 1400's the little popguns that tossed one-or two-poundpellets had grown into enormous bombards. Dulle Griete, the giantbombard of Ghent, had a 25-inch caliber and fired a 700-pound graniteball. It was built in 1382. Edinburgh Castle's famous Mons Meg threw a19-1/2-inch iron ball some 1, 400 yards (a mile is 1, 760 yards), or astone ball twice that far. 

The Scottish kings used Meg between 1455 and 1513 to reduce thecastles of rebellious nobles. A baron's castle was easily knocked topieces by the prince who owned, or could borrow, a few pieces of heavyordnance. The towering walls of the old-time strongholds slowly gaveway to the earthwork-protected Renaissance fortification, which istypified in the United States by Castillo de San Marcos, in Castillode San Marcos National Monument, St. Augustine, Fla. 

Some of the most formidable bombards were those of the Turks, who usedexceptionally large cast-bronze guns at the siege of Constantinople in1453. One of these monsters weighed 19 tons and hurled a 600-poundstone seven times a day. It took some 60 oxen and 200 men to move thispiece, and the difficulty of transporting such heavy ordnance greatlyreduced its usefulness. The largest caliber gun on record is the GreatMortar of Moscow. Built about 1525, it had a bore of 36 inches, was 18feet long, and fired a stone projectile weighing a ton. But by thistime the big guns were obsolete, although some of the old Turkishordnance survived the centuries to defend Constantinople against aBritish squadron in 1807. In that defense a great stone cut themainmast of the British flagship, and another crushed through theEnglish ranks to kill or wound 60 men. 

[Illustration: Figure 4--EARLY SMALL BOMBARD (1330). It was made ofwrought-iron bars, bound with hoops. ]

The ponderosity of the large bombards held them to level land, wherethey were laid on rugged mounts of the heaviest wood, anchored bystakes driven into the ground. A gunner would try to put his bombard100 yards from the wall he wanted to batter down. One would surmisethat the gunner, being so close to a castle wall manned by expertGenoese cross-bowmen, was in a precarious position. He was; butearthworks or a massive wooden shield arranged like a seesaw over hisgun gave him fair protection. Lowering the front end of the shieldmade a barricade behind which he could charge his muzzle loader (seefig. 49). 

In those days, and for many decades thereafter, neither gun crews nortransport were permanent. They had to be hired as they were needed. Master gunners were usually civilian "artists, " not professionalsoldiers, and many of them had cannon built for rental to customers. Artillerists obtained the right to captured metals such as tools andtown bells, and this loot would be cast into guns or ransomed forcash. The making of guns and gunpowder, the loading of bombs, andeven the serving of cannon were jealously guarded trade secrets. Gunnery was a closed corporation, and the gunner himself a guildsman. The public looked upon him as something of a sorcerer in league withthe devil, and a captured artilleryman was apt to be tortured andmutilated. At one time the Pope saw fit to excommunicate all gunners. Also since these specialists kept to themselves and did not drink orplunder, their behavior was ample proof to the good soldier of the olddays that artillerists were hardly human. 

SIXTEENTH CENTURY CANNON

After 1470 the art of casting greatly improved in Europe. Lightercannon began to replace the bombards. Throughout the 1500'simprovement was mainly toward lightening the enormous weights of gunsand projectiles, as well as finding better ways to move the artillery. Thus, by 1556 Emperor Ferdinand was able to march against the Turkswith 57 heavy and 127 light pieces of ordnance. 

At the beginning of the 1400's cast-iron balls had made an appearance. The greater efficiency of the iron ball, together with an improvementin gunpowder, further encouraged the building of smaller and strongerguns. Before 1500 the siege gun had been the predominant piece. Nowforged-iron cannon for field, garrison, and naval service--and later, cast-iron pieces--were steadily developed along with cast-bronze guns, some of which were beautifully ornamented with Renaissanceworkmanship. The casting of trunnions on the gun made elevation andtransportation easier, and the cumbrous beds of the early days gaveway to crude artillery carriages with trails and wheels. The Frenchinvented the limber and about 1550 took a sizable forward step bystandardizing the calibers of their artillery. 

Meanwhile, the first cannon had come to the New World with Columbus. As the _Pinta's_ lookout sighted land on the early morn of October 12, 1492, the firing of a lombard carried the news over the moonlit watersto the flagship _Santa María_. Within the next century, not only thegalleons, but numerous fortifications on the Spanish Main were armedwith guns, thundering at the freebooters who disputed Spain'sownership of American treasure. Sometimes the adventurers seizedcannon as prizes, as did Drake in 1586 when he made off with 14 bronzeguns from St. Augustine's little wooden fort of San Juan de Pinos. Drake's loot no doubt included the ordnance of a 1578 list, whichgives a fair idea of the armament for an important frontierfortification: three reinforced cannon, three demiculverins, twosakers (one broken), a demisaker and a falcon, all properly mounted onelevated platforms in the fort to cover every approach. Most of themwere highly ornamented pieces founded between 1546 and 1555. Thereinforced cannon, for instance, which seem to have been cast from thesame mold, each bore the figure of a savage hefting a club in one handand grasping a coin in the other. On a demiculverin, a bronze mermaidheld a turtle, and the other guns were decorated with arms, escutcheons, the founder's name, and so on. 

In the English colonies during the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies, lighter pieces seem to have been the more prevalent; thereis no record of any "cannon. " (In those days, "cannon" were a specialclass. ) Culverins are mentioned occasionally and demiculverins ratherfrequently, but most common were the falconets, falcons, minions, andsakers. At Fort Raleigh, Jamestown, Plymouth, and some othersettlements the breech-loading half-pounder perrier or "Patterero"mounted on a swivel was also in use. (See frontispiece. )

It was during the sixteenth century that the science of ballistics hadits beginning. In 1537, Niccolo Tartaglia published the firstscientific treatise on gunnery. Principles of construction were triedand sometimes abandoned, only to reappear for successful applicationin later centuries. Breech-loading guns, for instance, had alreadybeen invented. They were unsatisfactory because the breech could notbe sealed against escape of the powder gases, and the crude, chamberedbreechblocks, jammed against the bore with a wedge, often crackedunder the shock of firing. Neither is spiral rifling new. It appearedin a few guns during the 1500's. 

Mobile artillery came on the field with the cart guns of John Zizkaduring the Hussite Wars of Bohemia (1419-24). Using light guns, hauledby the best of horses instead of the usual oxen, the French furtherimproved field artillery, and maneuverable French guns proved to be anexcellent means for breaking up heavy masses of pikemen in the Italiancampaigns of the early 1500's. The Germans under Maximilian I, however, took the armament leadership away from the French with gunsthat ranged 1, 500 yards and with men who had earned the reputation ofbeing the best gunners in Europe. 

Then about 1525 the famous Spanish Square of heavily armed pikemen andmusketeers began to dominate the battlefield. In the face of musketry, field artillery declined. Although artillery had achieved somemobility, carriages were still cumbrous. To move a heavy Englishcannon, even over good ground, it took 23 horses; a culverin needednine beasts. Ammunition--mainly cast-iron round shot, the bomb (aniron shell filled with gunpowder), canister (a can filled with smallprojectiles), and grape shot (a cluster of iron balls)--was carriedthe primitive way, in wheelbarrows and carts or on a man's back. Thegunner's pace was the measure of field artillery's speed: the gunner_walked_ beside his gun! Furthermore, some of these experts weregetting along in years. During Elizabeth's reign several of thegunners at the Tower of London were over 90 years old. 

Lacking mobility, guns were captured and recaptured with everychanging sweep of the battle; so for the artillerist generally, thiswas a difficult period. The actual commander of artillery was usuallya soldier; but transport and drivers were still hired, and the driversnaturally had a layman's attitude toward battle. Even the gunners, those civilian artists who owed no special duty to the prince, wereconcerned mainly over the safety of their pieces--and their hides, since artillerists who stuck with their guns were apt to be picked offby an enemy musketeer. Fusilier companies were organized as artilleryguards, but their job was as much to keep the gun crew from runningaway as to protect them from the enemy. 

[Illustration: Figure 5--FIFTEENTH-CENTURY BREECHLOADER. ]

So, during 400 years, cannon had changed from the little vases, valuable chiefly for making noise, into the largest caliber weaponsever built, and then from the bombards into smaller, more powerfulcannon. The gun of 1600 could throw a shot almost as far as the gun of1850; not in fire power, but in mobility, organization, and tacticswas artillery undeveloped. Because artillery lacked these things, thepike and musket were supreme on the battlefield. 

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS

Under the Swedish warrior Gustavus Adolphus, artillery began to takeits true position on the field of battle. Gustavus saw the need formobility, so he divorced anything heavier than a 12-pounder from hisfield artillery. His famous "leatheren" gun was so light that it couldbe drawn and served by two men. This gun was a wrought-copper tubescrewed into a chambered brass breech, bound with four iron hoops. Thecopper tube was covered with layers of mastic, wrapped firmly withcords, then coated with an equalizing layer of plaster. A cover ofleather, boiled and varnished, completed the gun. Naturally, the piececould withstand only a small charge, but it was highly mobile. 

Gustavus abandoned the leather gun, however, in favor of a cast-iron4-pounder and a 9-pounder demiculverin produced by his bright youngartillery chief, Lennart Torstensson. The demiculverin was classed asthe "feildpeece" _par excellence_, while the 4-pounder was so light(about 500 pounds) that two horses could pull it in the field. 

These pieces could be served by three men. Combining the powder chargeand projectile into a single cartridge did away with the old methodof ladling the powder into the gun and increased the rapidity offire. Whereas in the past one cannon for each thousand infantrymen hadbeen standard, Gustavus brought the ratio up to six cannon, andattached a pair of light pieces to each regiment as "battalion guns. "At the same time he knew the value of fire concentration, and hefrequently massed guns in strong batteries. His plans called forsmashing hostile infantry formations with artillery fire, whileneutralizing the ponderous, immobile enemy guns with a whirlwindcavalry charge. The ideas were sound. Gustavus smashed the SpanishSquares at Breitenfeld in 1631. 

[Illustration: Figure 6--LIGHT ARTILLERY OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS (1630). ]

Following the Swedish lead, all nations modified their artillery. Leadership fell alternately to the Germans, the French, and theAustrians. The mystery of artillery began to disappear, and gunnersbecame professional soldiers. Bronze came to be the favorite gunmetal. 

Louis XIV of France seems to have been the first to give permanentorganization to the artillery. He raised a regiment of artillerymen in1671 and established schools of instruction. The "standing army"principle that began about 1500 was by now in general use, and smallarmies of highly trained professional soldiers formed a class distinctfrom the rest of the population. As artillery became an organized armof the military, expensive personnel and equipment had to bemaintained even in peacetime. Still, some necessary changes were slowin coming. French artillery officers did not receive military rankuntil 1732, and in some countries drivers were still civilians in the1790's. In 1716, Britain had organized artillery into two permanentcompanies, comprising the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Yet as late asthe American Revolution there was a dispute about whether a generalofficer whose service had been in the Royal Artillery was entitled tocommand troops of all arms. There was no such question in England ofthe previous century: the artillery general was a personage having"alwayes a part of the charge, and when the chief generall is absent, he is to command all the army. "

[Illustration: Figure 7--FRENCH GARRISON GUN (1650-1700). The gun ison a sloping wooden platform at the embrasure. Note the heavy bed onwhich the cheeks of the carriage rest and the built-in skid under thecenter of the rear axletree. ]

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

During the early 1700's cannon were used to protect an army'sdeployment and to prepare for the advance of the troops by firing uponenemy formations. There was a tendency to regard heavy batteries, properly protected by field works or permanent fortifications, as thenatural role for artillery. But if artillery was seldom decisive inbattle, it nevertheless waxed more important through improvedorganization, training, and discipline. In the previous century, calibers had been reduced in number and more or less standardized;now, there were notable scientific and technical improvements. TheEnglish scientist Benjamin Robins wedded theory to practice; his _NewPrinciples of Gunnery_ (1742) did much to bring about a morescientific attitude toward ballistics. One result of Robins' researchwas the introduction, in 1779, of carronades, those short, lightpieces so useful in the confines of a ship's gun deck. Carronadesusually ranged in caliber from 6- to 68-pounders. 

In North America, cannon were generally too cumbrous for Indianfighting. But from the time (1565) the French, in Florida, loosed thefirst bolt at the rival fleet of the Spaniard Menéndez, cannon wereused on land and sea during intercolonial strife, or against corsairs. Over the vast distances of early America, transport of heavy guns wasnecessarily by water. Without ships, the guns were inexorably walledin by the forest. So it was when the Carolinian Moore besieged St. Augustine in 1702. When his ships burned, Moore had to leave his gunsto the Spaniards. 

One of the first appearances of organized American field artillery onthe battlefield was in the Northeast, where France's Louisburg fell toBritish and Colonial forces in 1745. Serving with the British RoyalArtillery was the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, which had originated in 1637. English field artillery of the day had"brigades" of four to six cannon, and each piece was supplied with 100rounds of solid shot and 30 rounds of grape. John Müller's _Treatiseon Artillery_, the standard English authority, was republished inPhiladelphia (1779), and British artillery was naturally a model forthe arm in America. 

[Illustration: Figure 8--AMERICAN 6-POUNDER FIELDPIECE (c. 1775). ]

At the outbreak of the War of Independence, American artillery was anaccumulation of guns, mortars, and howitzers of every sort and some 13different calibers. Since the source of importation was cut off, theundeveloped casting industries of the Colonies undertook cannonfounding, and by 1775 the foundries of Philadelphia were casting bothbronze and iron guns. A number of bronze French guns were brought inlater. The mobile guns of Washington's army ranged from 3- to24-pounders, with 5-1/2- and 8-inch howitzers. They were usuallybronze. A few iron siege guns of 18-, 24-, and 32-pounder caliber wereon hand. The guns used round shot, grape, and case shot; mortars andhowitzers fired bombs and carcasses. "Side boxes" on each side of thecarriage held 21 rounds of ammunition and were taken off when thepiece was brought into battery. Horses or oxen, with hired civiliandrivers, formed the transport. On the battlefield the cannoneersmanned drag ropes to maneuver the guns into position. 

Sometimes, as at Guilford Courthouse, the ever-present forestdiminished the effectiveness of artillery, but nevertheless the armwas often put to good use. The skill of the American gunners atYorktown contributed no little toward the speedy advance of the siegetrenches. Yorktown battlefield today has many examples ofRevolutionary War cannon, including some fine ship guns recovered fromBritish vessels sunk during the siege of 1781. 

In Europe, meanwhile, Frederick the Great of Prussia learned how touse cannon in the campaigns of the Seven Years' War (1756-63). Theeducation was forced upon him as gradual destruction of his veteraninfantry made him lean more heavily on artillery. To keep pace withcavalry movements, he developed a horse artillery that moved rapidlyalong with the cavalry. His field artillery had only light guns andhowitzers. With these improvements he could establish small batteriesat important points in the battle line, open the fight, and protectthe deployment of his columns with light guns. What was equallysignificant, he could change the position of his batteries accordingto the course of the action. 

Frederick sent his 3- and 6-pounders ahead of the infantry. Gunnersdismounted 500 paces from the enemy and advanced on foot, pushingtheir guns ahead of them, firing incessantly and using grape shotduring the latter part of their advance. Up to closest range theywent, until the infantry caught up, passed through the artillery line, and stormed the enemy position. Remember that battle was prettyformal, with musketeers standing or kneeling in ranks, often in fullview of the enemy!

[Illustration: Figure 9--FRENCH 12-POUNDER FIELD GUN (c. 1780). ]

Perhaps the outstanding artilleryman of the 1700's was the FrenchmanJean Baptiste de Gribeauval, who brought home a number of ideas afterserving with the capable Austrian artillery against Frederick. Thegreat reform in French artillery began in 1765, although Gribeauvalwas not able to effect all of his changes until he became InspectorGeneral of Artillery in 1776. He all but revolutionized Frenchartillery, and vitally influenced other countries. 

Gribeauval's artillery came into action at a gallop and smotheredenemy batteries with an overpowering volume of fire. He created adistinct matériel for field, siege, garrison, and coast artillery. Hereduced the length and weight of the pieces, as well as the charge andthe windage (the difference between the diameters of shot and bore);he built carriages so that many parts were interchangeable, and madesoldiers out of the drivers. For siege and garrison he adopted 12- and16-pounder guns, an 8-inch howitzer and 8-, 10-, and 12-inch mortars. For coastal fortifications he used the traversing platform which, having rear wheels that ran upon a track, greatly simplified thetraining of a gun right or left upon a moving target (fig. 10). Gribeauval-type matériel was used with the greatest effect in the newtactics which Napoleon introduced. 

Napoleon owed much of his success to masterly use of artillery. Underthis captain there was no preparation for infantry advance by slowlydisintegrating the hostile force with artillery fire. Rather, hisartillerymen went up fast into closest range, and by actuallyannihilating a portion of the enemy line with case-shot fire, coveredthe assault so effectively that columns of cavalry and infantryreached the gap without striking a blow!

After Napoleon, the history of artillery largely becomes a record ofits technical effectiveness, together with improvements or changes inputting well-established principles into action. 

UNITED STATES GUNS OF THE EARLY 1800's

The United States adopted the Gribeauval system of artillery carriagesin 1809, just about the time it was becoming obsolete (the Frenchabandoned it in 1829). The change to this system, however, did notinclude adoption of the French gun calibers. Early in the century castiron replaced bronze as a gunmetal, a move pushed by the growingUnited States iron industry; and not until 1836 was bronze readoptedin this country for mobile cannon. In the meantime, U. S. Artillery inthe War of 1812 did most of its fighting with iron 6-pounders. FortMcHenry, which is administered by the National Park Service as anational monument and historic shrine, has a few ordnance pieces ofthe period. 

[Illustration: Figure 10--U. S. 32-POUNDER ON BARBETTE CARRIAGE(1860). ]

During the Mexican War, the artillery carried 6- and 12-pounder guns, the 12-pounder mountain howitzer (a light piece of 220 pounds whichhad been added for the Indian campaigns), a 12-pounder field howitzer(788 pounds), the 24- and 32-pounder howitzers, and 8- and 10-inchmortars. For siege, garrison, and seacoast there were pieces of 16types, ranging from a 1-pounder to the giant 10-inch Columbiad of7-1/2 tons. In 1857, the United States adopted the 12-pounder Napoleongun-howitzer, a bronze smoothbore designed by Napoleon III, and thismuzzle-loader remained standard in the army until the 1880's. 

The naval ironclads, which were usually armed with powerful 11- or15-inch smoothbores, were a revolutionary development in mid-century. They were low-hulled, armored, steam vessels, with one or tworevolving turrets. Although most cannonballs bounced from the armor, lack of speed made the "cheese box on a raft" vulnerable, and poorvisibility through the turret slots was a serious handicap in battle. 

[Illustration: Figure 11--U. S. NAVY 9-INCH SHELL-GUN ON MARSILLYCARRIAGE (1866). ]

While 20-, 30-, and 60-pounder Parrott rifles soon made an appearancein the Federal Navy, along with Dahlgren's 12- and 20-pounder rifledhowitzers, the Navy relied mainly upon its "shell-guns": the 9-, 10-, 11-, and 15-inch iron smoothbores. There were also 8-inch guns of 55and 63 "hundredweight" (the contemporary naval nomenclature), and foursizes of 32-pounders ranging from 27 to 57 hundredweight. The heavierguns took more powder and got slightly longer ranges. Many naval gunsof the period are characterized by a hole in the cascabel, throughwhich the breeching tackle was run to check recoil. The Navy also hada 13-inch mortar, mounted aboard ship on a revolving circularplatform. Landing parties were equipped with 12- or 24-pounderhowitzers either on boat carriages (a flat bed something like a mortarbed) or on three-wheeled "field" carriages. 

RIFLING

Rifling, by imparting a spin to the projectile as it travels along thespiral grooves in the bore, permits the use of a long projectile andensures its flight point first, with great increase in accuracy. Thelonger projectile, being both heavier and more streamlined than roundshot of the same caliber, also has a greater striking energy. 

Though Benjamin Robins was probably the first to give sound reasons, the fact that rifling was helpful had been known a long time. A 1542barrel at Woolwich has six fine spiral grooves in the bore. Straightgrooving had been applied to small arms as early as 1480, and duringthe 1500's straight grooving of musket bores was extensivelypracticed. Probably, rifling evolved from the early observation of thefeathers on an arrow--and from the practical results of cuttingchannels in a musket, originally to reduce fouling, then because itwas found to improve accuracy of the shot. Rifled small-arm efficiencywas clearly shown at Kings Mountain during the American Revolution. 

In spite of earlier experiments, however, it was not until the 1840'sthat attempts to rifle cannon could be called successful. In 1846, Major Cavelli in Italy and Baron Wahrendorff in Germany independentlyproduced rifled iron breech-loading cannon. The Cavelli gun had twospiral grooves into which fitted the 1/4-inch projecting lugs of along projectile (fig. 12a). Other attempts at what might be calledrifling were Lancaster's elliptical-bore gun and the later developmentof a spiraling hexagonal-bore by Joseph Whitworth (fig. 12b). TheEnglish Whitworth was used by Confederate artillery. It was anefficient piece, though subject to easy fouling that made itdangerous. 

Then, in 1855, England's Lord Armstrong designed a rifled breechloaderthat included so many improvements as to be revolutionary. This gunwas rifled with a large number of grooves and fired lead-coatedprojectiles. Much of its success, however, was due to the built-upconstruction: hoops were shrunk on over the tube, with the fibers ofthe metal running in the directions most suitable for strength. Several United States muzzle-loading rifles of built-up constructionwere produced about the same time as the Armstrong and included theChambers (1849), the Treadwell (1855), and the well-known Parrott of1861 (figs. 12e and 13). 

The German Krupp rifle had an especially successful breech mechanism. It was not a built-up gun, but depended on superior crucible steel forits strength. Cast steel had been tried as a gunmetal during thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but metallurgical knowledge ofthe early days could not produce sound castings. Steel was also usedin other mid-nineteenth century rifles, such as the United StatesWiard gun and the British Blakely, with its swollen, cast-iron breechhoop. Fort Pulaski National Monument, near Savannah, Ga. , has a fineexample of a 24-pounder Blakely used by the Confederates in the 1862defense of the fort. 

[Illustration: Figure 12--DEVELOPMENT OF RIFLE PROJECTILES(1840-1900). A--Cavelli type, b--Whitworth, c--James, d--Hotchkiss, e--Parrott, f--Copper rotating band type. (Not to scale. )]

The United States began intensive experimentation with rifled cannonlate in the 1850's, and a few rifled pieces were made by the SouthBoston Iron Foundry and also by the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, N. Y. The first appearance of rifles in any quantity, however, wasnear the outset of the 1861 hostilities, when the Federal artillerywas equipped with 300 wrought-iron 3-inch guns (fig. 14e). This"12-pounder, " which fired a 10-pound projectile, was made by wrappingsheets of boiler iron around a mandrel. The cylinder thus formed washeated and passed through the rolls for welding, then cooled, bored, turned, and rifled. It remained in service until about 1900. Anotherrifle giving good results was the cast-iron 4-1/2-inch siege gun. Thispiece was cast solid, then bored, turned, and rifled. Uncertainty ofstrength, a characteristic of cast iron, caused its later abandonment. 

[Illustration: Figure 13--PARROTT 10-POUNDER RIFLE (1864). ]

The United States rifle that was most effective in siege work was theinvention of Robert P. Parrott. His cast-iron guns (fig. 13), many ofwhich are seen today in the battlefield parks, are easily recognizedby the heavy wrought-iron jacket reinforcing the breech. The jacketwas made by coiling a bar over the mandrel in a spiral, then hammeringthe coils into a welded cylinder. The cylinder was bored and shrunk onthe gun. Parrotts were founded in 10-, 20-, 30-, 60-, 100-, 200-, and300-pounder calibers, one foundry making 1, 700 of them during theCivil War. 

All nations, of course, had large stocks of smoothbores on hand, andvarious methods were devised to make rifles out of them. The U. S. Ordnance Board, for instance, believed the conversion simply involvedcutting grooves in the bore, right at the forts or arsenals where theguns were. In 1860, half of the United States artillery was scheduledfor conversion. As a result, a number of old smoothbores were reboredto fire rifle projectiles of the various patents which preceded themodern copper rotating band (fig. 12c, d, f). Under the James patent(fig. 12c) the weight of metal thrown by a cannon was virtuallydoubled; converted 24-, 32- and 42-pounders fired elongated shotclassed respectively as 48-, 64-, and 84-pound projectiles. After thesiege of Fort Pulaski, Federal Gen. Q. A. Gillmore praised the84-pounder and declared "no better piece for breaching can bedesired, " but experience soon proved the heavier projectiles causedincreased pressures which converted guns could not withstand for long. 

The early United States rifles had a muzzle velocity about the same asthe smoothbore, but whereas the round shot of the smoothbore lostspeed so rapidly that at 2, 000 yards its striking velocity was onlyabout a third of the muzzle velocity, the more streamlined rifleprojectile lost speed very slowly. But the rifle had to be served morecarefully than the smoothbore. Rifling grooves were cleaned with amoist sponge, and sometimes oiled with another sponge. Lead-coatedprojectiles like the James, which tended to foul the grooves of thepiece, made it necessary to scrape the rifle grooves after every halfdozen shots, although guns using brass-banded projectiles did notrequire the extra operation. With all muzzle-loading rifles, theprojectile had to be pushed close home to the powder charge;otherwise, the blast would not fully expand its rotating band, theprojectile would not take the grooves, and would "tumble" afterleaving the gun, to the utter loss of range and accuracy. Incidentally, gunners had to "run out" (push the gun into firingposition) both smoothbore and rifled muzzle-loaders carefully. Asudden stop might make the shot start forward as much as 2 feet. 

When the U. S. Ordnance Board recommended the conversion to rifles, italso recommended that all large caliber iron guns be manufactured onthe method perfected by Capt. T. J. Rodman, which involved casting thegun around a water-cooled core. The inner walls of the gun thussolidified first, were compressed by the contraction of the outermetal as it cooled down more slowly, and had much greater strength toresist explosion of the charge. The Rodman smoothbore, founded in 8-, 10-, 15-, and 20-inch calibers, was the best cast-iron ordnance of itstime (fig. 14f). The 20-inch gun, produced in 1864, fired a1, 080-pound shot. The 15-incher was retained in service through therest of the century, and these monsters are still to be seen at FortMcHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine or on the ramparts ofFort Jefferson, in the national monument of that name, in the DryTortugas Islands. In later years, a number of 10-inch Rodmans wereconverted into 8-inch rifles by enlarging the bore and inserting agrooved steel tube. 

THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES

At the opening of this civil conflict most of the matériel for botharmies was of the same type--smoothbore. The various guns includedweapons in the great masonry fortifications built on the long UnitedStates coast line since the 1820's--weapons such as the Columbiad, aheavy, long-chambered American muzzle-loader of iron, developed fromits bronze forerunner of 1810. The Columbiad (fig. 14d) was made in8-, 10-, and 12-inch calibers and could throw shot and shell well over5, 000 yards. "New" Columbiads came out of the foundries at the startof the 1860's, minus the powder chamber and with smoother lines. Behind the parapets or in fort gunrooms were 32- and 42-pounder ironseacoast guns (fig. 10); 24-pounder bronze howitzers lay in thebastions to flank the long reaches of the fort walls. There were8-inch seacoast howitzers for heavier work. The largest caliber piecewas the ponderous 13-inch seacoast mortar. 

[Illustration: Figure 14--U. S. ARTILLERY TYPES (1861-1865). A--Siegemortar, b--8-inch siege howitzer, c--24-pounder siege gun, d--8-inchColumbiad, e--3-inch wrought-iron rifle, f--10-inch Rodman. ]

Siege and garrison cannon included 24-pounder and 8-inch bronzehowitzers (fig. 14b), a 10-inch bronze mortar (fig. 14a), 12-, 18-, and 24-pounder iron guns (fig. 14c) and later the 4-1/2-inch cast-ironrifle. With the exception of the new 3-inch wrought-iron rifle (fig. 14e), field artillery cannon were bronze: 6- and 12-pounder guns, the12-pounder Napoleon gun-howitzer, 12-pounder mountain howitzer, 12-, 24-, and 32-pounder field howitzers, and the little Coehorn mortar(fig. 39). A machine gun invented by Dr. Richard J. Gatling becamepart of the artillery equipment during the war, but was not much used. Reminiscent of the ancient ribaudequin, a repeating cannon of severalbarrels, the Gatling gun could fire about 350 shots a minute from its10 barrels, which were rotated and fired by turning a crank. In Europeit became more popular than the French mitrailleuse. 

The smaller smoothbores were _effective_ with case shot up to about600 or 700 yards, and _maximum_ range of field pieces went fromsomething less than the 1, 566-yard solid-shot trajectory of theNapoleon to about 2, 600 yards (a mile and a half) for a 6-inchhowitzer. At Chancellorsville, one of Stonewall Jackson's guns fired ashot which bounded down the center of a roadway and came to rest amile away. The performance verified the drill-book tables. Maximumranges of the larger pieces, however, ran all the way from the average1, 600 yards of an 18-pounder garrison gun to the well over 3-milerange of a 12-inch Columbiad firing a 180-pound shell at highelevation. A 13-inch seacoast mortar would lob a 200-pound shell 4, 325yards, or almost 2-1/2 miles. The shell from an 8-inch howitzercarried 2, 280 yards, but at such extreme ranges the guns could hardlybe called accurate. 

On the battlefield, Napoleon's artillery tactics were no longerpractical. The infantry, armed with its own comparatively long-rangefirearm, was usually able to keep artillery beyond case-shot range, and cannon had to stand off at such long distances that theirprimitive ammunition was relatively ineffective. The result was thatwhen attacking infantry moved in, the defending infantry and artillerywere still fresh and unshaken, ready to pour a devastating point-blankfire into the assaulting lines. Thus, in spite of an intensive 2-hourbombardment by 138 Confederate guns at the crisis of Gettysburg, asthe gray-clad troops advanced across the field to close range, doublecanister and concentrated infantry volleys cut them down in masses. 

Field artillery smoothbores, under conditions prevailing during thewar, generally gave better results than the smaller-caliber rifle. A3-inch rifle, for instance, had twice the range of a Napoleon; but inthe broken, heavily wooded country where so much of the fighting tookplace, the superior range of the rifle could not be used to fulladvantage. Neither was its relatively small and sometimes defectiveprojectile as damaging to personnel as case or grape from a largercaliber smoothbore. At the first battle of Manassas (July 1861) morethan half the 49 Federal cannon were rifled; but by 1863, even thoughmany more rifles were in service, the majority of the pieces in thefield were still the old reliable 6- and 12-pounder smoothbores. 

It was in siege operations that the rifles forced a new era. As thesmoke cleared after the historic bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861, military men were already speculating on the possibilities of thenewfangled weapon. A Confederate 12-pounder Blakely had pecked away atSumter with amazing accuracy. But the first really effective use ofthe rifles in siege operations was at Fort Pulaski (1862). Using 10rifles and 26 smoothbores, General Gillmore breached the7-1/2-foot-thick brick walls in little more than 24 hours. Yet hisbatteries were a mile away from the target! The heavier rifles wereconverted smoothbores, firing 48-, 64-, and 84-pound James projectilesthat drove into the fort wall from 19 to 26 inches at each fair shot. The smoothbore Columbiads could penetrate only 13 inches, while fromthis range the ponderous mortars could hardly hit the fort. A yearlater, Gillmore used 100-, 200-, and 300-pounder Parrott riflesagainst Fort Sumter. The big guns, firing from positions some 2 milesaway and far beyond the range of the fort guns, reduced Sumter to asmoking mass of rubble. 

The range and accuracy of the rifles startled the world. A 30-pounder(4. 2-inch) Parrott had an amazing carry of 8, 453 yards with 80-poundhollow shot; the notorious "Swamp Angel" that fired on Charleston in1863 was a 200-pounder Parrott mounted in the marsh 7, 000 yards fromthe city. But strangely enough, neither rifles nor smoothbores coulddestroy earthworks. As was proven several times during the war, thedefenders of a well-built earthwork were able to repair the triflingdamage done by enemy fire almost as soon as there was a lull in theshooting. Learning this lesson, the determined Confederate defendersof Fort Sumter in 1863-64 refused to surrender, but under the mostdifficult conditions converted their ruined masonry into an earthworkalmost impervious to further bombardment. 

THE CHANGE INTO MODERN ARTILLERY

With Rodman's gun, the muzzle-loading smoothbore was at the apex ofits development. Through the years great progress had been made inmobility, organization, and tactics. Now a new era was beginning, wherein artillery surpassed even the decisive role it had underGustavus Adolphus and Napoleon. In spite of new infantry weapons thatforced cannon ever farther to the rear, artillery was to become sodeadly that its fire caused over 75 percent of the battlefieldcasualties in World War I. 

Many of the vital changes took place during the latter years of the1800's, as rifles replaced the smoothbores. Steel came into universaluse for gun founding; breech and recoil mechanisms were perfected;smokeless powder and high explosives came into the picture. Hardlyless important was the invention of more efficient sighting and layingmechanisms. 

The changes did not come overnight. In Britain, after breechloadershad been in use almost a decade, the ordnance men went back tomuzzle-loading rifles; faulty breech mechanisms caused too manyaccidents. Not until one of H. M. S. _Thunderer's_ guns wasinadvertently double-loaded did the English return to an improvedbreechloader. 

The steel breechloaders of the Prussians, firing two rounds a minutewith a percussion shell that broke into about 30 fragments, did muchto defeat the French (1870-71). At Sedan, the greatest artillerybattle fought prior to 1914, the Prussians used 600 guns to smotherthe French army. So thoroughly did these guns do their work that theGermans annihilated the enemy at the cost of only 5 percentcasualties. It was a demonstration of using great masses of guns, bringing them quickly into action to destroy the hostile artillery, then thoroughly "softening up" enemy resistance in preparation for theinfantry attack. While the technical progress of the Prussianartillery was considerable, it was offset in large degree by thecounter-development of field entrenchment. 

As the technique of forging large masses of steel improved, mostnations adopted built-up (reinforcing hoops over a steel tube) orwire-wrapped steel construction for their cannon. With the advent ofthe metal cartridge case and smokeless powder, rapid-fire guns cameinto use. The new powder, first used in the Russo-Turkish War(1877-78), did away with the thick white curtain of smoke that plaguedthe gunner's aim, and thus opened the way for production of mechanismsto absorb recoil and return the gun automatically to firing position. Now, gunners did not have to lay the piece after every shot, and therate of fire increased. Shields appeared on the gun--protection thatwould have been of little value in the days when gunners had to standclear of a back-moving carriage. 

During the early 1880's the United States began work on a modernsystem of seacoast armament. An 8-inch breech-loading rifle was builtin 1883, and the disappearing carriage, giving more protection to bothgun and crew, was adopted in 1886. Only a few of the weapons wereinstalled by 1898; but fortunately the overwhelming naval superiorityof the United States helped bring the War with Spain to a quick close. 

[Illustration: Figure 15--Ranges. ]

During this war, United States forces were equipped with a number ofBritish 2. 95-inch mountain rifles, which, incidentally, served as lateas World War II in the pack artillery of the Philippine Scouts. Within the next few years the antiquated pieces such as the 3-inchwrought-iron rifle, the 4. 2-inch Parrott siege gun, converted Rodmans, and the 15-inch Rodman smoothbore were finally pushed out of thepicture by new steel guns. There were small-caliber rapid-fire guns ofdifferent types, a Hotchkiss 1. 65-inch mountain rifle, and Hotchkissand Gatling machine guns. The basic pieces in field artillery were3. 2- and 3. 6-inch guns and a 3. 6-inch mortar. Siege artillery includeda 5-inch gun, 7-inch howitzers, and mortars. In seacoast batterieswere 8-, 10-, 12-, 14-, and 16-inch guns and 12-inch mortars of theprimary armament; intermediate rapid-fire guns of 4-, 4. 72-, 5-, and6-inch calibers; and 6- and 15-pounder rapid-fire guns in thesecondary armament. 

The Japanese showed the value of the French system of indirect laying(aiming at a target not visible to the gunner) during theRusso-Japanese War (1904-05). Meanwhile, the French 75-mm. Gun of1897, firing 6, 000 yards, made all other field artillery cannonobsolete. In essence, artillery had assumed the modern form. The nextchanges were wrought by startling advances in motor transport, signalcommunications, chemical warfare, tanks, aviation, and massproduction. 

GUNPOWDER

Black powder was used in all firearms until smokeless and other typepropellants were invented in the latter 1800's. "Black" powder (whichwas sometimes brown) is a mixture of about 75 parts saltpeter(potassium nitrate), 15 parts charcoal, and 10 parts sulphur byweight. It will explode because the mixture contains the necessaryamount of oxygen for its own combustion. When it burns, it liberatessmoky gases (mainly nitrogen and carbon dioxide) that occupy some 300times as much space as the powder itself. 

Early European powder "recipes" called for equal parts of the threeingredients, but gradually the amount of saltpeter was increased untilTartaglia reported the proportions to be 4-1-1. By the late 1700's"common war powder" was made 6-1-1, and not until the next century wasthe formula refined to the 75-15-10 composition in majority use whenthe newer propellants arrived on the scene. 

As the name suggests, this explosive was originally in the form ofpowder or dust. The primitive formula burned slowly and gave lowpressures--fortunate characteristics in view of the barrel-staveconstruction of the early cannon. About 1450, however, powder makersbegan to "corn" the powder. That is, they formed it into largergrains, with a resulting increase in the velocity of the shot. It was"corned" in fine grains for small arms and coarse for cannon. 

Making corned powder was fairly simple. The three ingredients werepulverized and mixed, then compressed into cakes which were cut into"corns" or grains. Rolling the grains in a barrel polished off thecorners; removing the dust essentially completed the manufacture. Ithas always been difficult, however, to make powder twice alike andkeep it in condition, two factors which helped greatly to make gunneryan "art" in the old days. Powder residue in the gun was especiallytroublesome, and a disk-like tool (fig. 44) was designed to scrape thebore. Artillerymen at Castillo de San Marcos complained that the"heavy" powder from Mexico was especially bad, for after a gun wasfired a few times, the bore was so fouled that cannonballs would nolonger fit. The gunners called loudly for better grade powder fromSpain itself. 

How much powder to use in a gun has been a moot question through thecenturies. According to the Spaniard Collado in 1592, the properyardstick was the amount of metal in the gun. A legitimate culverin, for instance, was "rich" enough in metal to take as much powder as theball weighed. Thus, a 30-pounder culverin would get 30 pounds ofpowder. Since a 60-pounder battering cannon, however, had inproportion a third less metal than the culverin, the charge must alsobe reduced by a third--to 40 pounds!

[Illustration: Figure 16--GUNPOWDER. Black powder (above) is amechanical mixture; modern propellants are chemical compounds. ]

Other factors had to be taken into account, such as whether the powderwas coarse-or fine-grained; and a short gun got less powder than along one. The bore length of a legitimate culverin, said Collado, was30 calibers (30 times the bore diameter), so its powder charge was thesame as the weight of the ball. If the gunner came across a culverinonly 24 calibers long, he must load this piece with only 24/30 of theball's weight. Collado's _pasavolante_ had a tremendous length of some40 calibers and fired a 6- or 7-pound lead ball. Because it had plentyof metal "to resist, and the length to burn" the powder, it wascharged with the full weight of the ball in fine powder, orthree-fourths as much with cannon powder. The lightest charge seems tohave been for the pedrero, which fired a stone ball. Its charge was athird of the stone's weight. 

In later years, powder charges lessened for all guns. English velocitytables of the 1750's show that a 9-pounder charged with 2-1/4 poundsof powder might produce its ball at a rate of 1, 052 feet per second. By almost tripling the charge, the velocity would increase about half. But the increase did not mean the shot hit the target 50 percentharder, for the higher the velocity, the greater was the airresistance; or as Müller phrased it: "a great quantity of Powder doesnot always produce a greater effect. " Thus, from two-thirds the ball'sweight, standard charges dropped to one-third or even a quarter; andby the 1800's they became even smaller. The United States manual of1861 specified 6 to 8 pounds for a 24-pounder siege gun, depending onthe range; a Columbiad firing 172-pound shot used only 20 pounds ofpowder. At Fort Sumter, Gillmore's rifles firing 80-pound shells used10 pounds of powder. The rotating band on the rifle shell, of course, stopped the gases that had slipped by the loose-fitting cannonball. 

Black powder was, and is, both dangerous and unstable. Not only is itsensitive to flame or spark, but it absorbs moisture from the air. Inother words, it was no easy matter to "keep your powder dry. " Duringthe middle 1700's, Spaniards on a Florida river outpost kept powder inglass bottles; earlier soldiers, fleeing into the humid forest beforeSir Francis Drake, carried powder in _peruleras_--stoppered, narrow-necked pitchers. 

As for magazines, a dry magazine was just about as important as ashell-proof one. Charcoal and chloride of lime, hung in containersnear the ceiling, were early used as dehydrators, and in theeighteenth century standard English practice was to build the floor 2feet off the ground and lay stone chips or "dry sea coals" under theflooring. Side walls had air holes for ventilation, but screened toprevent the enemy from letting in some small animal with fire tied tohis tail. Powder casks were laid on their sides and periodicallyrolled to a different position; "otherwise, " explains a contemporaryexpert, "the salt petre, being the heaviest ingredient, will descendinto the lower part of the barrel, and the powder above will lose muchof its goodness. "

[Illustration: Figure 17--SPANISH POWDER BUCKET (c. 1750). ]

In the dawn of artillery, loose powder was brought to the gun in acovered bucket, usually made of leather. The loader scooped up theproper amount with a ladle (fig. 44), and inserted it into the gun. Hecould, by using his experienced judgment, put in just enough powder togive him the range he wanted, much as our modern artillerymensometimes use only a portion of their charge. After Gustavus Adolphusin the 1630's, however, powder bags came into wide use, althoughEnglish gunners long preferred to ladle their powder. The powderbucket or "passing box" of course remained on the scene. It wasusually large enough to hold a pair of cartridge bags. 

The root of the word cartridge seems to be "carta, " meaning paper. Butpaper was only one of many materials such as canvas, linen, parchment, flannel, the "woolen stuff" of the 1860's, and even wood. Until theadvent of the silk cartridge, nothing was entirely satisfactory. Thematerials did not burn completely, and after several rounds it wasmandatory to withdraw the unburnt bag ends with a wormer (fig. 44), else they accumulated to the point where they blocked the vent or"touch hole" by which the piece was fired. Parchment bags shriveled upand stuck in the vent, purpling many a good gunner's face. 

PRIMERS

When the powder bag came into use, the gunner had to prick the bagopen so the priming fire from the vent could reach the charge. Theoperation was accomplished simply enough by plunging the gunner's pickinto the vent far enough to pierce the bag. Then the vent was primedwith loose powder from the gunner's flask. The vent prime, which wasnot much improved until the nineteenth century, was a trick learnedfrom the fourteenth century Venetians. There were numerous tries forimprovement, such as the powder-filled tin tube of the 1700's, thepoint of which pierced the powder bag. But for all of them, the slowmatch had to be used to start the fire train. 

[Illustration: Figure 18--LINSTOCKS. ]

Before 1800, the slow match was in universal use for setting off thecharge. The match was usually a 3-strand cotton rope, soaked in asolution of saltpeter and otherwise chemically treated with leadacetate and lye to burn very slowly--about 4 or 5 inches an hour. Itwas attached to a linstock (fig. 18), a forked stick long enough tokeep the cannoneer out of the way of the recoil. 

Chemistry advances, like the isolation of mercury fulminate in 1800, led to the invention of the percussion cap and other primers. On manya battleground you may have picked up a scrap of twisted wire--theloop of a friction primer. The device was a copper tube (fig. 19)filled with powder. The tube went into the vent of the cannon andburied its tip in the powder charge. Near the top of this tube wassoldered a "spur"--a short tube containing a friction composition(antimony sulphide and potassium chlorate). Lying in the compositionwas the roughened end of a wire "slider. " The other end of the sliderwas twisted into a loop for hooking to the gunner's lanyard. It waslike striking a match: a smart pull on the lanyard, and the roughslider ignited the composition. Then the powder in the long tube beganto burn and fired the charge in the cannon. Needless to say, ithappened faster than we can tell it!

[Illustration: Figure 19--FRICTION PRIMER. ]

The percussion primer was even more simple: a "quill tube, " filledwith fine powder, fitted into the vent. A fulminate cap was glued tothe top of the tube. A pull of the lanyard caused the hammer of thecannon to strike the cap (just like a little boy's cap pistol) andstart the train of explosions. 

Because the early methods of priming left the vent open when thecannon fired, the little hole tended to enlarge. Many cannon duringthe 1800's were made with two vents, side by side. When the first onewore out, it was plugged, and the second vent opened. Then, to stopthis "erosion, " the obturating (sealing) primer came into use. It waslike the common friction primer, but screwed into and sealed the vent. Early electric primers, by the way, were no great departure from thefriction primer; the wires fired a bit of guncotton, which in turnignited the powder in the primer tube. 

MODERN USE OF BLACK POWDER

Aside from gradual improvement in the formula, no great change inpowder making came until 1860, when Gen. Thomas J. Rodman of the U. S. Ordnance Department began to tailor the powder to the caliber of thegun. The action of ordinary cannon powder was too sudden. The wholecharge was consumed before the projectile had fairly started on itsway, and the strain on the gun was terrific. Rodman compressed powderinto disks that fitted the bore of the gun. The disks were an inch ortwo thick, and pierced with holes. With this arrangement, a minimum ofpowder surface was exposed at the beginning of combustion, but as thefire ate the holes larger (compare fig. 20f), the burning areaactually increased, producing a greater volume of gas as theprojectile moved forward. Rodman thus laid the foundation for the"progressive burning" pellets of modern powders (fig. 20). 

[Illustration: Figure 20--MODERN GANNON POWDER. A powder grain has thecharacteristics of an explosive only when it is confined. Modern_propellants_ are low explosives (that is, relatively slow burning), but _projectiles_ may be loaded with high explosive, a--Flake, b--Strip, c--Pellet, d--Single perforation, e--Standard, 7-perforation, f--Burning grain of 7-perforation type. Ideally, thepowder grain should burn progressively, with continuously increasingsurface, the grain being completely consumed by the time theprojectile leaves the bore, g--Walsh grain. ]

For a number of reasons General Rodman did not take his "perforatedcake cartridge" beyond the experimental stage, and his "Mammoth"powder, such a familiar item in the powder magazines of the latter1800's, was a compromise. As a block of wood burns steadier and longerthan a quick-blazing pile of twigs, so the 3/4-inch grains of mammothpowder gave a "softer" explosion, but one with more "push" and moreuniform pressure along the bore of the gun. 

It was in the second year of the Civil War that Alfred Nobel startedthe manufacture of nitroglycerin explosives in Europe. Smokelesspowders came into use, the explosive properties of picric acid werediscovered, and melanite, ballistite, and cordite appeared in the lastquarter of the century, so that by 1890 nitrocellulose andnitroglycerin-base powders had generally replaced black powder as apropellant. 

Still, black powder had many important uses. Its sensitivity to flame, high rate of combustion, and high temperature of explosion made it avery suitable igniter or "booster, " to insure the complete ignition ofthe propellant. Further, it was the main element in such modernprojectile fuzes as the ring fuze of the U. S. Field Artillery, whichwas long standard for bursts shorter than 25 seconds. This fuze was inthe nose of the shell and consisted essentially of a plunger, primer, and rings grooved to hold a 9-inch train of compressed black powder. To set the fuze, the fuze man merely turned a movable ring to theproper time mark. Turning the zero mark toward the channel leading tothe shell's bursting charge shortened the burning distance of thetrain, while turning zero away from the channel, of course, did theopposite. When the projectile left the gun, the shock made the plungerignite the primer (compare fig. 42e) and fire the powder train, whichthen burned for the set time before reaching the shell charge. It wasa technical improvement over the tubular sheet-iron fuze of theVenetians, but the principle was about the same. 

[Illustration: Figure 21--MODERN POWDER TRAIN FUZE. ]

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CANNON

THE EARLY SMOOTHBORE CANNON

Soon after he found he could hurl a rock with his good right arm, manlearned about trajectory--the curved path taken by a missile throughthe air. A baseball describes a "flat" trajectory every time thepitcher throws a hard, fast one. Youngsters tossing the ball to eachother over a tall fence use "curved" or "high" trajectory. Inartillery, where trajectory is equally important, there are three maintypes of cannon: (1) the flat trajectory gun, throwing shot at thetarget in relatively level flight; (2) the high trajectory mortar, whose shell will clear high obstacles and descend upon the target fromabove; and (3) the howitzer, an in-between piece of medium-hightrajectory, combining the mobility of the fieldpiece with the largecaliber of the mortar. 

The Spaniard, Luis Collado, mathematician, historian, native ofLebrija in Andalusia, and, in 1592, royal engineer of His CatholicMajesty's Army in Lombardy and Piedmont, defined artillery broadly as"a machine of infinite importance. " Ordnance he divided into threeclasses, admittedly following the rules of the "German masters, whowere admired above any other nation for their founding and handling ofartillery. " Culverins and sakers (Fig. 23a) were guns of the firstclass, designed to strike the enemy from long range. The batteringcannon (fig. 23b) were second class pieces; they were to destroy fortsand walls and dismount the enemy's machines. Third class guns firedstone balls to break and sink ships and defend batteries from assault;such guns included the pedrero, mortar, and bombard (fig. 23c, d). 

Collado's explanation of how the various guns were invented is perhapsnaive, but nevertheless interesting: "Although the main intent of theinventors of this machine [artillery] was to fire and offend the enemyfrom both near and afar, since this offense must be in diverse ways itso happened that they formed various classes in this manner: they cameto realize that men were not satisfied with the _espingardas_ [smallMoorish cannon], and for this reason the musket was made; and likewisethe _esmeril_ and the falconet. And although these fired longer shots, they made the demisaker. To remedy a defect of that, the sakers weremade, and the demiculverins and culverins. While they were deemedsufficient for making a long shot and striking the enemy from afar, they were of little use as battering guns because they fire a smallball. So they determined to found a second kind of piece, wherewith, firing balls of much greater weight, they might realize theirintention. But discovering likewise that this second kind of piece wastoo powerful, heavy and costly for batteries and for defense againstassaults or ships and galleys, they made a third class of piece, lighter in metal and taking less powder, to fire balls of stone. Theseare the commonly called _cańones de pedreros_. All the classes ofpieces are different in range, manufacture and design. Even the methodof charging them is different. "

[Illustration: Figure 22--TRAJECTORIES. Maximum range of eighteenthcentury guns was about 1 mile. 

_Guns could:_ Batter heavy construction with solid shot at long orshort range; destroy fort parapets and, by ricochet fire, dismountcannon; shoot grape, canister, or bombs against massed personnel. 

_Mortars could:_ Reach targets behind obstructions; use high anglefire to shoot bombs, destroying construction and personnel. 

_Howitzers could:_ Move more easily in the field than mortars; reachtargets behind obstructions by high angle fire; shoot largerprojectiles than could field guns of similar weight. ]

It was most important for the artillerist to understand the differentclasses of guns. As Collado quaintly phrased it, "he who ignores thepresent lecture on this _arte_ will, I assert, never do a good thing. "Cannon burst in the batteries every day because gunners were ignorantof how the gun was made and what it was meant to do. Nor was suchignorance confined to gunners alone. The will and whim of the princewho ordered the ordnance or "the simple opinion of the unexpertfounder himself, " were the guiding principles in gun founding. "I amforced, " wrote Collado, "to persuade the princes and advise thefounders that the making of artillery should always take into accountthe purpose each piece must serve. " This persuasion he undertook inconsiderable detail. 

[Illustration: Figure 23--SIXTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH ARTILLERY. Takenfrom a 1592 manuscript, these drawings illustrate the three mainclasses of artillery used by Spain during the early colonial period inthe New World, a--Culverin (Class 1). B--Cannon (Class 2). C--Pedrero(Class 3). D--Mortar (Class 3). ]

The first class of guns were the long-range pieces, comparatively"rich" in metal. In the following table from Collado, the calibers andranges for most Spanish guns of this class are given, although as thesecond column shows, at this period calibers were standardized only ina general way. For translation where possible, and to list thosewhich became the most popular calibers, we have added a final column. Most of the guns were probably of culverin length: 30- to 32-caliber. 

_Sixteenth century Spanish cannon of the first class_

 Name of Weight of Length Range in yards Popular gun ball of gun Point- Maximum caliber (pounds) (in calibers) blank

 Esmeril 1/2 208 750 1/2-pounder esmeril. Falconete 1 to 2 1-pounder falconet. Falcón 3 to 4 417 2, 500 3-pounder falcon. Pasavolante 1 to 15 40 to 44 500 4, 166 6-pounder pasavolante. Media sacre 5 to 7 417 3, 750 6-pounder demisaker. Sacre 7 to 10 9-pounder saker. Moyana 8 to 10 shorter than 9-pounder saker moyenne. Media culebrina 10 to 18 833 5, 000 12-pounder demiculverin. Tercio de culebrina 14 to 22 18-pounder third-culverin. Culebrina 20, 24, 25, 30 to 32 1, 742 6, 666 24-pounder culverin. 30, 40, 50 Culebrina real 24 to 40 30 to 32 32-pounder culverin royal. Doble culebrina 40 and up 30 to 32 48-pounder culverin. 

In view of the range Collado ascribes to the culverin, some remarks ongun performances are in order. "Greatest random" was what the old-timegunner called his maximum range, and random it was. Beyond point-blankrange, the gunner was never sure of hitting his target. So withsmoothbores, long range was never of great importance. Culverins, withtheir thick walls, long bores, and heavy powder charges, achieveddistance; but second class guns like field "cannon, " with less metaland smaller charges, ranged about 1, 600 yards at a maximum, while theeffective range was hardly more than 500. Heavier pieces, such as theFrench 33-pounder battering cannon, might have a point-blank range of720 yards; at 200-yard range its ball would penetrate from 12 to 24feet of earthwork, depending on how "poor and hungry" the earth was. At 130 yards a Dutch 48-pounder cannon put a ball 20 feet into astrong earth rampart, while from 100 yards a 24-pounder siege cannonwould bury the ball 12 feet. 

But generalizations on early cannon are difficult, for it is not easyto find two "mathematicians" of the old days whose ordnance listsagree. Spanish guns of the late 1500's do, however, appear to belarger in caliber than pieces of similar name in other countries, asis shown by comparing the culverins: the smallest Spanish _culebrina_was a 20-pounder, but the French great _coulevrine_ of 1551 was a15-pounder and the typical English culverin of that century was an18-pounder. Furthermore, midway of the 1500's, Henry II greatlysimplified French ordnance by holding his artillery down to the33-pounder cannon, 15-pounder great culverin, 7-1/2-pounder bastardculverin, 2-pounder small culverin, a 1-pounder falcon, and a1/2-pounder falconet. Therefore, any list like the one following musthave its faults:

_Principal English guns of the sixteenth century_

 Caliber Length Weight Weight Powder (inches) of gun of shot charge Ft. In. (pounds) (pounds) (pounds)

 Rabinet 1. 0 300 0. 3 0. 18 Serpentine 1. 5 400 . 5 . 3 Falconet 2. 0 3 9 500 1. 0 . 4 Falcon 2. 5 6 0 680 2. 0 1. 2 Minion 3. 5 6 6 1, 050 5. 2 3 Saker 3. 65 6 11 1, 400 6 4 Culverin bastard 4. 56 8 6 3, 000 11 5. 7 Demiculverin 4. 0 3, 400 8 6 Basilisk 5. 0 4, 000 14 9 Culverin 5. 2 10 11 4, 840 18 12 Pedrero 6. 0 3, 800 26 14 Demicannon 6. 4 11 0 4, 000 32 18 Bastard cannon 7. 0 4, 500 42 20 Cannon serpentine 7. 0 5, 500 42 25 Cannon 8. 0 6, 000 60 27 Cannon royal 8. 54 8 6 8, 000 74 30

Like many gun names, the word "culverin" has a metaphorical meaning. It derives from the Latin _colubra_ (snake). Similarly, the light guncalled _áspide_ or aspic, meaning "asp-like, " was named after thevenomous asp. But these digressions should not obscure the fact thatboth culverins and demiculverins were highly esteemed on account oftheir range and the effectiveness of fire. They were used forprecision shooting such as building demolition, and an expert gunnercould cut out a section of stone wall with these guns in short order. 

As the fierce falcon hawk gave its name to the falcon and falconet, sothe saker was named for the saker hawk; rabinet, meaning "rooster, "was therefore a suitable name for the falcon's small-bore cousin. The9-pounder saker served well in any military enterprise, and the_moyana_ (or the French _moyenne_, "middle-sized"), being a shortergun of saker caliber, was a good naval piece. The most powerful of thesmaller pieces, however, was the _pasavolante_, distinguishable by itsgreat length. It was between 40 and 44 calibers long! In addition, ithad thicker walls than any other small caliber gun, and thecombination of length and weight permitted an unusually heavycharge--as much powder as the ball weighed. A 6-pound lead ball waswhat the typical _pasavolante_ fired; another gun of the same caliberfiring an iron ball would be a 4-pounder. The point-blank range ofthis Spanish gun was a football field's length farther than either thefalcon or demisaker. 

In today's Spanish, _pasavolante_ means "fast action, " a phrasesuggestive of the vicious impetuosity to be expected from such a smallbut powerful cannon. Sometimes it was termed a _drajón_, the Englishequivalent of which may be the drake, meaning "dragon"; but perhapsits most popular name in the early days was _cerbatana_, from Cerebus, the fierce three-headed dog of mythology. Strange things happen towords: a _cerbatana_ in modern Spanish is a pea shooter. 

_Sixteenth century Spanish cannon of the second class_

 Spanish name Weight of ball Translation (pounds)

 Quarto cańon 9 to 12 Quarter-cannon. Tercio cańon 16 Third-cannon. Medio cańon 24 Demicannon. Cańon de abatir 32 Siege cannon. Doble cańon 48 Double cannon. Cańon de batería 60 Battering cannon. Serpentino Serpentine. Quebrantamuro or lombarda 70 to 90 Wallbreaker or lombard. Basilisco 80 and up Basilisk. 

The second class of guns were the only ones properly called "cannon"in this early period. They were siege and battering pieces, and insome few respects were similar to the howitzers of later years. Atypical Spanish cannon was only about two-thirds as long as aculverin, and the bore walls were thinner. Naturally, the powdercharge was also reduced (half the ball's weight for a common cannon, while a culverin took double that amount). 

The Germans made their light cannon 18 calibers long. Most Spanishsiege and battering guns had this same proportion, for a shorter gunwould not burn all the powder efficiently, "which, " said Collado, "isa most grievous fault. " However, small cannon of 18-caliber lengthwere too short; the muzzle blast tended to destroy the embrasure ofthe parapet. For this reason, Spanish demicannon were as long as 24calibers and the quarter-cannon ran up to 28. The 12-pounderquarter-cannon, incidentally, was "culverined" or reinforced so thatit actually served in the field as a demiculverin. 

The great weight of its projectile gave the double cannon its name. The warden of the Castillo at Milan had some 130-pounders made, butsuch huge pieces were of little use, except in permanentfortifications. It took a huge crew to move them, their carriagesbroke under the concentrated weight, and they consumed mountains ofmunitions. The lombard, which apparently originated in Lombardy, andthe basilisk had the same disadvantages. The fabled basilisk was aserpent whose very look was fatal. Its namesake in bronze wastremendously heavy, with walls up to 4 calibers thick and a bore up to30 calibers long. It was seldom used by the Europeans, but the TurkishGeneral Mustafa had a pair of basilisks at the siege of Malta, in1565, that fired 150- and 200-pound balls. The 200-pounder gun brokeloose as it was being transferred to a homeward bound galley and sankpermanently to the bottom of the sea. Its mate was left on the island, where it became an object of great curiosity. 

The third class of ordnance included the guns firing stoneprojectiles, such as the pedrero (or perrier, petrary, cannon petro, etc. ), the mortars, and the old bombards like Edinburgh Castle'sfamous Mons Meg. Bars of wrought iron were welded together to formMeg's tube, and iron rings were clamped around the outside of thepiece. In spite of many accidents, this coopering technique persistedthrough the fifteenth century. Mons Meg was made in two sections thatscrewed together, forming a piece 13 feet long and 5 tons in weight. 

Pedreros (fig. 23c) were comparatively light. The foundryman used onlyhalf the metal he would put into a culverin, for the stone projectileweighed only a third as much as an iron ball of the same size, and thebore walls could therefore be comparatively thin. They were made incalibers up to 50-pounders. There was a chamber for the powder chargeand little danger of the gun's bursting, unless a foolhardy fellowloaded it with an iron ball. The wall thicknesses of this gun areshown in Figure 24, where the inner circle represents the diameter ofthe chamber, the next arc the bore caliber, and the outer lines therespective diameters at chase, trunnions, and vent. 

[Illustration: Figure 24--HOW MUCH METAL WAS IN EARLY GUNS? The chartscompare the wall diameters of sixteenth-seventeenth century types. Thecenter circle represents the bore, while the three outer arcs show therelative thickness of the bore wall at (1) the smallest diameter ofthe chase, (2) at the trunnions, and (3) at the vent. The small arcinside the bore indicates the powder chamber found in the pedrero andmortar. ]

Mortars (fig. 23d) were excellent for "putting great fear and terrorin the souls of the besieged. " Every night the mortars would play uponthe town: "it keeps them in constant turmoil, due to the thought thatsome ball will fall upon their house. " Mortars were designed likepedreros, except much shorter. The convenient way to charge them waswith _saquillos_ (small bags) of powder. "They require, " said Collado, "a larger mouthful than any other pieces. "

Just as children range from slight to stocky in the same family, thereare light, medium, or heavy guns--all bearing the same family name. The difference lies in how the piece was "fortified"; that is, howthick the founder cast the bore walls. The English language hasinelegantly descriptive terms for the three degrees of"fortification": (1) bastard, (2) legitimate, and (3)double-fortified. The thicker-walled guns used more powder. Spanishdouble-fortified culverins were charged with the full weight of theball in powder; four-fifths that amount went into the legitimate, andonly two-thirds for the bastard culverin. In a short culverin (say, 24calibers long instead of 30), the gunner used 24/30 of a standardcharge. 

The yardstick for fortifying a gun was its caliber. In a legitimateculverin of 6-inch caliber, for instance, the bore wall at the ventmight be one caliber (16/16 of the bore diameter) or 6 inches thick;at the trunnions it would be 10/16 or 4-1/8 inches, and at thesmallest diameter of the chase, 7/16 or 2-5/8 inches. This tablecompares the three degrees of fortification used in Spanish culverins:

 Wall thickness in 8ths of caliber Vent Trunnion Chase

 Bastard culverin 7 5 3 Legitimate culverin 8 5-1/2 3-1/2 Double-fortified culverin 9 6-1/2 4

As with culverins, so with cannon. This is Collado's table showing thefortification for Spanish cannon:

 Wall thickness in 8ths of caliber Vent Trunnion Chase Cańon sencillo (light cannon) 6 4-1/2 2-1/2 Cańon común (common cannon) 7 5 3-1/2 Cańon reforzado (reinforced cannon) 8 5-1/2 3-1/2

Since cast iron was weaker than bronze, the walls of cast-iron pieceswere even thicker than the culverins. Spanish iron guns were foundedwith 300 pounds of metal for each pound of the ball, and in lengthsfrom 18 to 20 calibers. English, Irish, and Swedish iron guns of theperiod, Collado noted, had slightly more metal in them than even theSpaniards recommended. 

[Illustration: Figure 25--SIXTEENTH CENTURY CHAMBERED CANNON. A--"Bell-chambered" demicannon, b--Chambered demicannon. ]

Another way the designers tried to gain strength without loading thegun with metal was by using a powder chamber. A chambered cannon (fig. 25b) might be fortified like either the light or the common cannon, but it would have a cylindrical chamber about two-thirds of a caliberin diameter and four calibers long. It was not always easy, however, to get the powder into the chamber. Collado reported that many a goodartillerist dumped the powder almost in the middle of the gun. Whenhis ladle hit the mouth of the chamber, he thought he was at thebottom of the bore! The cylindrical chamber was somewhat improved by acone-shaped taper, which the Spaniards called _encampanado_ or"bell-chambered. " A _cańon encampanado_ (fig. 25a) was a goodlong-range gun, strong, yet light. But it was hard to cut a ladle forthe long, tapered chamber. 

Of all these guns, the reinforced cannon was one of the best. Since ithad almost as much metal as a culverin, it lacked the defects of thechambered pieces. A 60-pounder reinforced cannon fired a convenient55-pound ball, was easy to move, load, and clean, and held up wellunder any kind of service. It cooled quickly. Either cannon powder orfine powder (up to two-thirds the ball's weight) could be used in it. Reinforced cannon were an important factor in any enterprise, as KingPhilip's famed "Twelve Apostles" proved during the Flanders wars. 

 _Fortification of sixteenth and seventeenth century guns_

 ------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------- Ś Thickness of bore wall Ś Ś in 8ths of the caliber Ś Spanish Guns +-------+---------+-------+ English guns Ś Vent ŚTrunnionsŚ Chase Ś ------------------------+-------+---------+-------+--------------------- Ś Ś Ś Ś Light cannon; Ś Ś Ś Ś bell-chambered cannon Ś 6 Ś 4-1/2 Ś 2-1/2 Ś Bastard cannon. Demicannon Ś 6 Ś 5 Ś 3 Ś Common cannon; common Ś Ś Ś Ś siege cannon Ś 7 Ś 5 Ś 3-1/2 Ś Light culverin; common Ś Ś Ś Ś battering cannon Ś 7 Ś 5 Ś 3 Ś Bastard culverin; Ś Ś Ś Ś legitimate cannon. Common culverin; Ś Ś Ś Ś reinforced cannon Ś 8 Ś 5-1/2 Ś 3-1/2 Ś Legitimate culverin; Ś Ś Ś Ś double-fortified Ś Ś Ś Ś cannon. Legitimate culverin Ś 9 Ś 6-1/2 Ś 4 Ś Double-fortified Ś Ś Ś Ś culverin. Cast-iron cannon Ś 10 Ś 8 Ś 5 Ś Pasavolante Ś 11-1/2Ś 8-1/2 Ś 5-1/2 Ś ------------------------+-------+---------+-------+---------------------

While there was little real progress in mobility until the days ofGustavus Adolphus, the wheeled artillery carriage seems to have beeninvented by the Venetians in the fifteenth century. The essentialparts of the design were early established: two large, heavy cheeks orside pieces set on an axle and connected by transoms. The gun wascradled between the cheeks, the rear ends of which formed a "trail"for stabilizing and maneuvering the piece. 

Wheels were perhaps the greatest problem. As early as the 1500'scarpenters and wheelwrights were debating whether dished wheels werebest. "They say, " reported Collado, "that the [dished] wheel willnever twist when the artillery is on the march. Others say that awheel with spokes angled beyond the cask cannot carry the weight ofthe piece without twisting the spoke, so the wheel does not last long. I am of the same opinion, for it is certain that a perpendicular wheelwill suffer more weight than the other. The defect of twisting underthe pieces when on the march will be remedied by making the cart alittle wider than usual. " However, advocates of the dished wheelfinally won. 

SMOOTHBORES OF THE LATER PERIOD

From the guns of Queen Elizabeth's time came the 6-, 9-, 12-, 18-, 24-, 32-, and 42-pounder classifications adopted by Cromwell'sgovernment and used by the English well through the eighteenthcentury. On the Continent, during much of this period, the French wereacknowledged leaders. Louis XIV (1643-1715) brought several foreignguns into his ordnance, standardizing a set of calibers (4-, 8-, 12-, 16-, 24-, 32-, and 48-pounders) quite different from Henry II's in theprevious century. 

The cannon of the late 1600's was an ornate masterpiece of thefoundryman's art, covered with escutcheons, floral relief, scrolls, and heavy moldings, the most characteristic of which was perhaps thebanded muzzle (figs. 23b-c, 25, 26a-b), that bulbous bit ofornamentation which had been popular with designers since the days ofthe bombards. The flared or bell-shaped muzzle (figs. 23a, 26c, 27), did not supplant the banded muzzle until the eighteenth century, and, while the flaring bell is a usual characteristic of ordnance foundedbetween 1730 and 1830, some banded-muzzle guns were made as late as1746 (fig. 26a). 

By 1750; however, design and construction were fairly wellstandardized in a gun of much cleaner line than the cannon of 1650. Although as yet there had been no sharp break with the oldertraditions, the shape and weight of the cannon in relation to thestresses of firing were becoming increasingly important to the men whodid the designing. 

Conditions in eighteenth century England were more or less typical: inthe 1730's Surveyor-General Armstrong's formulae for gun design werehardly more than continuations of the earlier ways. His guns wereabout 20 calibers long, with these outside proportions:

 1st reinforce = 2/7 of the gun's length. 2d reinforce = 1/7 plus 1 caliber. Chase = 4/7 less 1 caliber. 

The trunnions, about a caliber in size, were located well forward(3/7 of the gun's length) "to prevent the piece from kicking upbehind" when it was fired. Gunners blamed this bucking tendency on thepractice of centering the trunnions on the _lower_ line of the bore. "But what will not people do to support an old custom let it be everso absurd?" asked John Müller, the master gunner of Woolwich. In 1756, Müller raised the trunnions to the _center_ of the bore, animprovement that greatly lessened the strain on the gun carriage. 

[Illustration: Figure 26--EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CANNON, a--Spanishbronze 24-pounder of 1746. B--French bronze 24-pounder of the early1700's. C--English iron 6-pounder of the middle 1700's. The 6-pounderis part of the armament at Castillo de San Marcos. ]

[Illustration: Figure 27--SPANISH 24-POUNDER CAST-IRON GUN (1693). Note the modern lines of this cannon, with its flat breech and slightmuzzle swell. ]

The caliber of the gun continued to be the yardstick for "fortification"of the bore walls:

 Vent 16 parts End of 1st reinforce 14-1/2 do Beginning of second reinforce 13-1/2 do End of second reinforce 12-1/2 do Beginning of chase 11-1/2 do End of chase 8 do

For both bronze and iron guns, the above figures were the same, butfor bronze, Armstrong divided the caliber into 16 parts; for iron itwas only 14 parts. The walls of an iron gun thus were slightly thickerthan those of a bronze one. 

This eighteenth century cannon was a cast gun, but hoops and ringsgave it the built-up look of the barrel-stave bombard, when hoops werereally functional parts of the cannon. Reinforces made the gun looklike "three frustums of cones joined together, so as the lesser baseof the former is always greater than the greatest of the succeedingone. " Ornamental fillets, astragals, and moldings, borrowed fromarchitecture, increased the illusion of a sectional piece. Tests with24-pounders of different lengths showed guns from 18 to 21 caliberslong gave generally the best performance, but what was true for the24-pounder was not necessarily true for other pieces. Why was the32-pounder "brass battering piece" 6 inches longer than its 42-pounderbrother? John Müller wondered about such inconsistencies and set outto devise a new system of ordnance for England. 

Like many men before him, Müller sought to increase the caliber ofcannon without increasing weight. He managed it in two ways: hemodified exterior design to save on metal, and he lessened the powdercharge to permit shortening and lightening the gun. Müller's guns hadno heavy reinforces; the metal was distributed along the bore in ataper from powder chamber to muzzle swell. But realizing man'sreluctance to accept new things, he carefully specified the locationand size for each molding on his gun, protesting all the while thefutility of such ornaments. Not until the last half of the nextcentury were the experts well enough versed in metallurgy and interiorballistics to slough off all the useless metal. 

So, using powder charges about one-third the weight of the projectile, Müller designed 14-caliber light field pieces and 15-caliber shipguns. His garrison and battering cannon, where weight was no greatdisadvantage, were 18 calibers long. The figures in the tablefollowing represent the principal dimensions for the four types ofcannon--all cast-iron except for the bronze siege guns. The first linein the table shows the length of the cannon. To proportion the rest ofthe piece, Müller divided the shot diameter into 24 parts and used itas a yardstick. The caliber of the gun, for instance, was 25 parts, or25/24th of the shot diameter. The few other dimensions--thickness ofthe breech, length of the gun before the barrel began its taper, fortification at vent and chase--were expressed the same way. 

 -----------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------- | Field | Ship | Siege | Garrison -----------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------- Length in calibers | 14 | 15 | 18 | 18 (Other proportions in 24ths of the shot diameter) | Caliber | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 Thickness of breech | 14 | 24 | 16 | 24 Length from breech to taper | 39 | 49 | 40 | 49 Thickness at vent | 16 | 25 | 18 | 25 Thickness at muzzle | 8 | 12-1/2 | 9 | 12-1/2 -----------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+---------

The heaviest of Müller's garrison guns averaged some 172 pounds ofiron for every pound of the shot, while a ship gun weighed only 146, less than half the iron that went into the sixteenth century cannon. And for a seafaring nation such as England, these were importantthings. Perhaps the opposite table will give a fair idea of thechanges in English ordnance during the eighteenth century. It is basedupon John Müller's lists of 1756; the "old" ordnance includes cannonstill in use during Müller's time, while the "new" ordnance isMüller's own. 

Windage in the English gun of 1750 was about 20 percent greater thanin French pieces. The English ratio of shot to caliber was 20:21;across the channel it was 26:27. Thus, an English 9-pounder fired a4. 00-inch ball from a 4. 20-inch bore; the French 9-pounder ball was4. 18 inches and the bore 4. 34. 

The English figured greater windage was both convenient andeconomical: windage, said they, ought to be just as thick as the metalin the gunner's ladle; standing shot stuck in the bore and unless itcould be loosened with the ladle, had to be fired away and lost. JohnMüller brushed aside such arguments impatiently. With a proper wadover the shot, no dust or dirt could get in; and when the muzzle waslowered, said Müller, the shot "will roll out of course. " Besides, compared with increased accuracy, the loss of a shot was trifling. Furthermore, with less room for the shot to bounce around the bore, the cannon would "not be spoiled so soon. " Müller set the ratio ofshot to caliber as 24:25. 

_Calibers and lengths of principal eighteenth century English cannon_

 ---------+-----------+---------------------+-----------+----------+ Caliber | Field | Ship | Siege | Garrison | +-----------+----------+----------+-----------+----------+ | Iron | Bronze | Iron | Bronze | Iron | +-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+ (pounder)| Old | New | Old| New | Old | New| Old | New | Old| New | ---------+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+ 1-1/2 | | | | | | | 6'0"| | | | 3 |3'6" |3'3" | |3'6" | 4'6"|3'6"| 7'0"| |4'6"| 4'2"| 4 | | | | | 6'0"| | | | | | 6 |4'6" |4'1" |8'0"|4'4" | 7'0"|4'4"| 8'0"| |6'6"| 5'3"| 9 | |4'8" | |5'0" | 7'0"|5'0"| 9'0"| |7'0"| 6'0"| 12 |5'0" |5'1" |9'0"|5'6" | 9'0"|5'6"| 9'0"| 6'7"|8'0"| 6'7"| 18 | |5'10"| |6'4" | 9'0"|6'4"| 9'6"| 8'4"|9'0"| 7'6"| 24 |5'6" |6'5" |9'6"|7'0" | 9'0"|7'0"| 9'6"| 8'4"|9'0"| 8'4"| 32 | | | |7'6" | 9'6"|7'6"|10'0"| 9'2"|9'6"| 9'2"| 36 | | | |7'10"| | | | 9'6"| | | 42 | | |9'6"|8'4" |10'0"|8'4"| 9'6"|10'0"| |10'0"| 48 | | | |8'6" | |8'6"| |10'6"| | | ---------+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+

In the 1700's cast-iron guns became the principal artillery afloat andashore, yet cast bronze was superior in withstanding the stresses offiring. Because of its toughness, less metal was needed in a bronzegun than in a cast-iron one, so in spite of the fact that bronze isabout 20 percent heavier than iron, the bronze piece was usually thelighter of the two. For "position" guns in permanent fortificationswhere weight was no disadvantage, iron reigned supreme until theadvent of steel guns. But non-rusting bronze was always preferableaboard ship or in seacoast forts. 

Müller strongly advocated bronze for ship guns. "Notwithstanding allthe precautions that can be taken to make iron Guns of a sufficientstrength, " he said, "yet accidents will sometimes happen, either bythe mismanagement of the sailors, or by frosty weather, which rendersiron very brittle. " A bronze 24-pounder cost Ł156, compared with Ł75for the iron piece, but the initial saving was offset when the gunwore out. The iron gun was then good for nothing except scrap at afarthing per pound, while the bronze cannon could be recast "as oftenas you please. "

In 1740, Maritz of Switzerland made an outstanding contribution to thetechnique of ordnance manufacture. Instead of hollow casting (that is, forming the bore by casting the gun around a core), Maritz cast thegun solid, then drilled the bore, thus improving its uniformity. Butalthough the bore might be drilled quite smooth, the outside of acast-iron gun was always rough. Bronze cannon, however, could be putin the lathes to true up even the exterior. While after 1750 thefoundries seldom turned out bronze pieces as ornate as the Renaissanceculverins, a few decorations remained and many guns were stillpersonalized with names in raised letters on the gun. Castillo de SanMarcos has a 4-pounder "San Marcos, " and, indeed, saints' names werenot uncommon on Spanish ordnance. Other typical names were _ElEspanto_ (The Terror), _El Destrozo_ (The Destroyer), _Generoso_(Generous), _El Toro_ (The Bull), and _El Belicoso_ (The QuarrelsomeOne). 

In some instances, decoration was useful. The French, for instance, atone time used different shapes of cascabels to denote certaincalibers; and even a fancy cascabel shaped like a lion's head wasalways a handy place for anchoring breeching tackle or maneuveringlines. The dolphins or handles atop bronze guns were never merelyornaments. Usually they were at the balance point of the gun; tacklerun through them and hooked to the big tripod or "gin" lifted thecannon from its carriage. 

GARRISON AND SHIP GUNS

Cannon for permanent fortifications were of various sizes andcalibers, depending upon the terrain that had to be defended. AtCastillo de San Marcos, for instance, the strongest armament was onthe water front; lighter guns were on the land sector, an areanaturally protected by the difficult terrain existing in the colonialperiod. 

[Illustration: Figure 28--EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH GARRISON GUN. ]

Before the Castillo was completed, guns were mounted only in thebastions or projecting corners of the fort. A 1683 inventory clearlyshows that heaviest guns were in the San Agustín, or southeasternbastion, commanding not only the harbor and its entrance but the townof St. Augustine as well San Pablo, the northwestern bastion, overlooked the land approach to the Castillo and the town gate; and, though its armament was lighter, it was almost as numerous as that inSan Agustín. Bastion San Pedro to the southwest was within the townlimits, and its few light guns were a reserve for San Pablo. Thewatchtower bastion of San Carlos overlooked the northern marshland andthe harbor; its armament was likewise small. The following listdetails the variety and location of the ordnance:

_Cannon mounted at Castillo de San Marcos in 1683_

 Location No. Caliber Class Metal Remarks

 In the bastion of San Agustín 1 40-pounder Cannon Bronze Carriage battered. 1 18-pounder do do New carriage. 2 16-pounder do Iron Old carriages, wheels bad. 1 12-pounder do Bronze New carriage. 1 12-pounder do Iron do. 1 8-pounder do Bronze Old carriage. 1 7-pounder do Iron Carriage bad. 1 4-pounder do do New carriage. 1 3-pounder do Bronze do. 

 In the bastion of San Pablo 1 16-pounder Demicannon Iron Old carriage. 1 10-pounder Demiculverin Bronze do. 2 9-pounder Cannon Iron do. 1 7-pounder Demiculverin Bronze do. 1 7-pounder Cannon Iron Carriage bad. 1 5-pounder do do New carriage. 

 In the bastion of San Pedro 1 9-pounder Cannon Iron Old carriage. 2 7-pounder do do Carriage bad. 2 5-pounder do do do. 1 4-pounder do Bronze Old carriage. 

 In the bastion of San Carlos 1 10-pounder Cannon Iron Old carriage. 1 5-pounder do do New carriage. 1 5-pounder do Bronze Good carriage. 1 2-pounder do Iron New carriage. 

The total number of Castillo guns in service at this date was 27, butthere were close to a dozen unmounted pieces on hand, including a pairof pedreros. The armament was gradually increased to 70-odd guns asconstruction work on the fort made additional space available, and asother factors warranted more ordnance. Below is a summary of Castilloarmament through the years:

_Armament of Castillo de San Marcos, 1683-1834_

 Kind 1683 1706 1740 1763 1765 1812 1834 of gun Iron Iron Iron Iron Iron Iron Iron Bronze Bronze Bronze Bronze Bronze Bronze Bronze

 2-pounder 1 . . . . ** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-pounder . . 1 . . ** 2 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-pounder 1 1 * ** 5 1 . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . 5-pounder 4 1 * ** 15 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-pounder . . . . * ** 5 . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . 3 . . 7-pounder 4 1 * ** 5 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-pounder . . 1 * ** 11 1 5 11 . . . . 1 . . . . . . 3-1/2 in. Carronade . . . . * ** . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . . . . . 9-pounder 3 . . * ** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-pounder 1 1 * ** . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-pounder 1 1 * ** . . . . 13 . . 7 . . 2 . . . . . . 15-pounder . . . . . . ** 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-pounder 3 . . . . ** . . . . 2 1 . . . . 8 . . . . . . 18-pounder . . 1 . . . . 4 1 7 . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . 24-pounder . . . . . . . . 2 . . 7 . . 32 . . 10 . . 5 . . 33-pounder . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-pounder . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-pounder . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-pounder field howitzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 6-in. Howitzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . 2 8-in. Howitzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . Small mortar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . 20 . . . . . . . . 6-in. Mortar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . 1 10-in. Mortar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Large mortar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . 1 . . . . . . . . Stone mortar 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . . 

 Total 20 9 26 9 55 10 40 37 39 24 26 8 14 6

 Grand total 29 35 65 77 63 34 20

* 26 guns from 4- to 10-pounders

** 8 guns from 2- to 16-pounders

This tabulation reflects contemporary conditions quite clearly. Themost serious invasions of Spanish Florida took place during the firsthalf of the eighteenth century, precisely the time when the Castilloarmament was strongest. While most of the guns were in batterycondition, the table does have some pieces rated only fair and mayalso include a few unserviceables. Colonial isolation meant thatordnance often served longer than the normal 1, 200-round life of aniron piece. A usual failure was the development of cracks around thevent or in the bore. Sometimes a muzzle blew off. The worst casualtiesof the 1702 siege came from the bursting of an iron 16-pounder whichkilled four and seriously wounded six men. At that period, incidentally, culverins were the only guns with the range to reach theharbor bar some 3, 000 yards away. 

Although when the Spanish left Florida to Britain in 1763 they tookserviceable cannon with them, two guns at Castillo de San MarcosNational Monument today appear to be seventeenth century Spanishpieces. Most of the 24- and 32-pounder garrison cannon, however, areEnglish-founded, after the Armstrong specifications of the 1730's, andwere part of the British armament during the 1760's. Amidst thegeneral confusion and shipping troubles that attended the Britishevacuation in 1784, some ordnance seems to have been left behind, toremain part of the defenses until the cession to the United States in1821. 

The Castillo also has some interesting United States guns, including apair of early 24-pounder iron field howitzers (c. 1777-1812). Duringthe 1840's the United States modernized Castillo defenses byconstructing a water battery in the moat behind the sea wall. Many ofthe guns for that battery are extant, including 8-inch Columbiads, 32-pounder cannon, 8-inch seacoast and garrison howitzers. St. Augustine's Plaza even boasts a converted 32-pounder rifle. 

[Illustration: Figure 29--VAUBAN'S MARINE CARRIAGE (c. 1700). ]

Garrison and ship carriages were far different from field, siege, andhowitzer mounts, while mortar beds were in a separate class entirely. Basic proportions for the carriage were obtained by measuring (1) thedistance from trunnion to base ring of the gun, (2) the diameter ofthe base ring, and (3) the diameter of the second reinforce ring. Theresult was a quadrilateral figure that served as a key in laying outthe carriage to fit the gun. Cheeks, or side pieces, of the carriagewere a caliber in thickness, so the bigger the gun, the more massivethe mount. 

A 24-pounder cheek would be made of timber about 6 inches thick. TheSpaniards often used mahogany. At Jamestown, in the early 1600's, Capt. John Smith reported the mounting of seven "great pieces ofordnance upon new carriages of cedar, " and the French colonials alsoused this material. British specifications in the mid-eighteenthcentury called for cheeks and transoms of dry elm, which was verypliable and not likely to split; but some carriages were made of youngoak, and oak was standard for United States garrison carriages untilit was replaced by wrought-iron after the Civil War. 

For a four-wheeled English carriage of 1750, height of the cheek was4-2/3 diameters of the shot, unless some change in height had to bemade to fit a gun port or embrasure. To prevent cannon from pushingshutters open when the ship rolled in a storm, lower tier carriageslet the muzzle of the gun, when fully elevated, butt against the sillover the gun port. 

On the eighteenth century Spanish garrison carriage (fig. 28), nobolts were threaded; all were held either by a key run through a slotin the foot of the bolt, or by bradding the foot over a decorativewasher. Compared with American mounts of the same type (figs. 30 and31), the Spanish carriage was considerably more complicated, duepartly to the greater amount of decorative ironwork and partly to thedesign of the wooden parts which, with their carefully workedmortises, required a craftsman's skill. The cheek of the Spanishcarriage was a single great plank. English and American constructioncalled for a built-up cheek of several planks, cleverly jogged ormortised together to prevent starting under the strain of firing. 

[Illustration: Figure 30--ENGLISH GARRISON CARRIAGE (1756). Bysubstituting wooden wheels for the cast-iron ones, this carriagebecame a standard naval gun carriage. ]

Müller furnished specifications for building truck (four-wheeled)carriages for 3- to 42-pounders. Aboard ship, of course, the truckcarriage was standard for almost everything except the little swivelguns and the mortars. 

Carriage trucks (wheels), unless they were made of cast iron, had ironthimbles or bushings driven into the hole of the hub, and to save thewood of the axletree, the spindle on which the wheel revolved waspartly protected by metal. The British put copper on the _bottom_ ofthe spindle; Spanish and French designers put copper on the _top_, then set iron "axletree bars" into the bottom. These bars strengthenedthe axletree and resisted wear at the spindle. 

A 24-pounder fore truck was 18 inches in diameter. Rear trucks were 16inches. The difference in size compensated for the slope in the gunplatform or deck--a slope which helped to check recoil. Aboard ship, where recoil space was limited, the "kick" of the gun was checked by aheavy rope called a breeching, shackled to the side of the vessel(see fig. 11). Ship carriages of the two-or four-wheel type (fig. 31), were used through the War between the States, and there was no greatchange until the advent of automatic recoil mechanisms made astationary mount possible. 

[Illustration: Figure 31--U. S. NAVAL TRUCK CARRIAGE (1866). ]

With garrison carriages, however, changes came much earlier. In 1743, Fort William on the Georgia coast had a pair of 18-pounders mountedupon "curious moving Platforms" which were probably similar to thetraversing platforms standardized by Gribeauval in the latter part ofthe century. United States forts of the early 1800's used casemate andbarbette carriages (fig. 10) of the Gribeauval type, and thetraversing platforms of these mounts made training (aiming the gunright or left) comparatively easy. 

Training the old truck carriage had been heavy work for thehandspikemen, who also helped to elevate or depress the gun. Maximumelevation or depression was about 15° each way--about the same asnaval guns used during the Civil War. If one quoin was not enough tosecure proper depression, a block or a second quoin was placed belowthe first. But before the gunner depressed a smoothbore below zeroelevation, he had to put either a wad or a grommet over the ball tokeep it from rolling out. 

Ship and garrison cannon were not moved around on their carriages. Ifthe gun had to be taken any distance, it was dismounted and chainedunder a sling wagon or on a "block carriage, " the big wheels of whicheasily rolled over difficult terrain. It was not hard to dismount agun: the keys locking the cap squares were removed, and then the ginwas rigged and the gun hoisted clear of the carriage. 

A typical garrison or ship cannon could fire any kind of projectile, but solid shot, hot shot, bombs, grape, and canister were in widestuse. These guns were flat trajectory weapons, with a point-blank rangeof about 300 yards. They were effective--that is, fairly accurate--upto about half a mile, although the maximum range of guns like theColumbiad of the nineteenth century, when elevation was not restrictedby gun port confines, approached the 4-mile range claimed by theSpanish for the sixteenth century culverin. The following ranges ofUnited States ordnance in the 1800's are not far different fromcomparable guns of earlier date. 

_Ranges of United States smoothbore garrison guns of 1861_

 Caliber Elevation Range in yards

 18-pounder siege and garrison 5° 0" 1, 592 24-pounder siege and garrison 5° 0" 1, 901 32-pounder seacoast 5° 0" 1, 922 42-pounder seacoast 5° 0" 1, 955 8-inch Columbiad 27°30" 4, 812 10-inch Columbiad 39°15" 5, 654 12-inch Columbiad 39° 0" 5, 506

_Ranges of United States naval smoothbores of 1866_

 Caliber Point-blank range Elevation Range in yards in yards 32-pounder of 42 cwt 313 5° 1, 756 8-inch of 63 cwt 330 5° 1, 770 IX-inch shell gun 350 15° 3, 450 X-inch shell gun 340 11° 3, 000 XI-inch shell gun 295 15° 2, 650 XV-inch shell gun 300 7° 2, 100

_Ranges of United States naval rifles in 1866_

 Caliber Elevation Range in yards

 20-pounder Parrott 15° 4, 400 30-pounder Parrott 25° 6, 700 100-pounder Parrott 25° 7, 180

In accuracy and range the rifle of the 1860's far surpassed thesmoothbores, but such tremendous advances were made in the next fewdecades with the introduction of new propellants and steel guns thatthe performances of the old rifles no longer seem remarkable. In theeighteenth century, a 24-pounder smoothbore could develop a muzzlevelocity of about 1, 700 feet per second. The 12-inch rifled cannon ofthe late 1800's had a muzzle velocity of 2, 300 foot-seconds. In 1900, the Secretary of the Navy proudly reported that the new 12-inch gunsfor _Maine_-class battleships produced a muzzle velocity of 2, 854foot-seconds, using an 850-pound projectile and a charge of 360 poundsof smokeless powder. Such statistics elicit a chuckle from today'sartilleryman. 

SIEGE CANNON

Field counterpart of the garrison cannon was the siege gun--the"battering cannon" of the old days, mounted upon a two-wheeled siegeor "traveling" carriage that could be moved about in field terrain. Whereas the purpose of the garrison cannon was to destroy the attackerand his matériel, the siege cannon was intended to destroy the fort. Calibers ranged from 3- to 42-pounders in eighteenth century Englishtables, but the 18- and 24-pounders seem to have been the most widelyused for siege operations. 

[Illustration: Figure 32--SPANISH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SIEGE CARRIAGE. ]

The siege carriage closely resembled the field gun carriage, but wasmuch more massive, as may be seen from these comparative figures drawnfrom eighteenth century English specifications:

 24-pounder 24-pounder field carriage siege carriage

 9 feet long Length of cheek 13 feet. 4. 5 inches Thickness of cheek 5. 8 inches. 50 inches Wheel diameter 58 inches. 6x8x68 inches Axletree 7x9x81 inches. 

Heavy siege guns were elevated with quoins, and elevation wasrestricted to 12° or less, which was about the same as United Statessiege carriages permitted in 1861. It was considered ample for theseflat trajectory pieces. 

Both field and siege carriages were pulled over long distances bylifting the trail to a horse-or ox-drawn limber; a hole in the trailtransom seated on an iron bolt or pintle on the two-wheeled limber. Some late eighteenth century field and siege carriages had a secondpair of trunnion holes a couple of feet back from the regular holes, and the cannon was shifted to the rear holes where the weight wasbetter distributed for traveling. The United States siege carriage ofthe 1860's had no extra trunnion holes, but a "traveling bed" wasprovided where the gun was cradled in position 2 or 3 feet back of itsfiring position. A well-drilled gun crew could make the shift veryrapidly, using a lifting jack, a few rollers, blocks, and chocks. Whenthere was danger of straining or breaking the gun carriage, however, massive block carriages, sling carts, or wagons were used to carry theguns. 

Sling wagons were of necessity used for transport in siege operationswhen the guns were to be mounted on barbette (traversing platform)carriages (fig. 10). Emplacing the barbette carriage called forconstruction of a massive, level subplatform, but it also eliminatedthe old need for the gunner to chalk the location of his wheels inorder to return his gun to the proper firing position after each shot. 

The Federal sieges of Forts Pulaski and Sumter were highly complicatedengineering operations that involved landing tremendously heavyordnance (the 300-pounder Parrott weighed 13 tons) through the surf, moving the big guns over very difficult terrain and, in some cases, building roads over the marshes and driving foundation piles for thegun emplacements. 

The heavy caliber Parrotts trained on Fort Sumter were in batteriesfrom 1, 750 to 4, 290 yards distant from their target. They were veryaccurate, but their endurance was an uncertain factor. The notorious"Swamp Angel, " for instance, burst after 36 rounds. 

FIELD CANNON

[Illustration: Figure 33--SPANISH 4-POUNDER FIELD CARRIAGE (c. 1788). This carriage, designed on the "new method, " employed a handscrewinstead of a wedge for elevating the piece, a--The handspike wasinserted through eyebolts in the trail, b--The ammunition locker heldthe cartridges. ]

The field guns were the mobile pieces that could travel with the armyand be brought quickly into firing position. They were lighter inweight than any other type of flat trajectory weapon. To achieve thislightness the designers had not only shortened the guns, but thinneddown the bore walls. In the eighteenth century, calibers ran from the3- to the 24-pounder, mounted on comparatively light, two-wheeledcarriages. In addition, there was the 1-1/2-pounder (and sometimes thelight 3- or 6-pounder) on a "galloper" carriage--a vehicle with itstrail shaped into shafts for the horse. The elevating-screw mechanismwas early developed for field guns, although the heavier pieces likethe 18- and 24-pounders were still elevated by quoins as late as theearly 1800's. 

In the Castillo collection are parts of early United States fieldcarriages little different from Spanish carriages that held a score of4-pounders in the long, continuous earthwork parapet surrounding St. Augustine in the eighteenth century. The Spanish mounts were a littlemore complicated in construction than English or American carriages, but not much. Spanish pyramid-headed nails for securing ironwork werenot far different from the diamond-and rose-headed nails of theEnglish artificer. 

Each piece of hardware on the carriage had its purpose. Gunner's toolswere laid in hooks on the cheeks. There were bolts and rings for thelines when the gun had to be moved by manpower in the field. On thetrail transom, pintle plates rimmed the hole that went over the pintleon the limber. Iron reinforced the carriage at weak points or wherethe wood was subject to wear. Iron axletrees were common by the late1700's. 

For training the field gun, the crew used a special handspike quitedifferent from the garrison handspike. It was a long, round staff, with an iron handle bolted to its head (fig. 33a). The trail transomof the carriage held two eyebolts, into which the foot of the spikewas inserted. A lug fitted into an offset in the larger eyebolt sothat the spike could not twist. With the handspike socketed in theeyebolts, lifting the trail and laying the gun was easy. 

The single-trail carriage (fig. 13) used so much during the middle1800's was a remarkable simplification of carriage design. It was alsoessential for guns like the Parrott rifles, since the thick reinforceon the breech of an otherwise slender barrel would not fit the oldertwin-trail carriage. The single, solid "stock" or trail eliminatedtransoms, for to the sides of the stock itself were bolted short, highcheeks, humped like a camel to cradle the gun so high that greatlatitude in elevation was possible. The elevating screw was threadedthrough a nut in the stock, right under the big reinforce of the gun. 

While the larger bore siege Parrotts were not noted for longserviceability, Parrott field rifles had very high endurance. As forperformance, see the following table:

_Ranges of Parrott field rifles (1863)_

 Caliber Weight Type of Projectile Elevation Range Smoothbore of gun projectile weight of same (pounds) (pounds) caliber

 10-pounder 890 Shell 9. 75 5° 2, 000 3-pounder. Do 9. 75 20° 5, 000 20-pounder 1, 750 do 18. 75 5° 2, 100 6-pounder. Do 18. 75 15° 4, 400 30-pounder 4, 200 do 29. 00 15° 4, 800 9-pounder. Do 29. 00 25° 6, 700 Long shell 101. 00 15° 4, 790 do 101. 00 25° 6, 820 Hollow shot 80. 00 25° 7, 180 do 80. 00 35° 8, 453

Amazingly enough, these ranges were obtained with about the sameamount of powder used for the smoothbores of similar caliber: the10-pounder Parrott used only a pound of powder; the 20-pounder used atwo-pound charge; and the 30-pounder, 3-1/4 pounds!

HOWITZERS

The howitzer was invented by the Dutch in the seventeenth century tothrow larger projectiles (usually bombs) than could the field pieces, in a high trajectory similar to the mortar, but from a lighter andmore mobile weapon. The wide-purpose efficiency of the howitzer wasappreciated almost at once, and it was soon adopted by all Europeanarmies. The weapon owed its mobility to a rugged, two-wheeled carriagelike a field carriage, but with a relatively short trail thatpermitted the wide arc of elevation needed for this weapon. 

[Illustration: Figure 34--SPANISH 6-INCH HOWITZER (1759-88). Thisbronze piece was founded during the reign of Charles III and bears hisshield. A--Dolphin, or handle, b--Bore, c--Powder chamber. ]

English howitzers of the 1750's were of three calibers: 5. 8-, 8-, and10-inch, but the 10-incher was so heavy (some 50 inches long and over3, 500 pounds) that it was quickly discarded. Müller deplored thesuperfluous weight of these pieces and developed 6-, 8-, 10, and13-inch howitzers in which, by a more calculated distribution of themetal, he achieved much lighter weapons. Müller's howitzers survivedin the early 6- to 10-inch pieces of United States artillery and onefine little 24-pounder of the late eighteenth century happens to beamong the armament of Castillo de San Marcos, along with some earlynineteenth century howitzers. The British, incidentally, were thefirst to bring this type gun to Florida. None appeared on the Castilloinventory until the 1760's. 

[Illustration: Figure 35--ENGLISH 8-INCH "HOWITZ" CARRIAGE (1756). Theshort trail enabled greater latitude in elevating the howitzer. ]

In addition to the very light and therefore easily portable mountainhowitzer used for Indian warfare, United States artillery of 1850included 12-, 24-, and 32-pounder field, 24-pounder and 8-inch siegeand garrison, and the 10-inch seacoast howitzer. The Navy had a12-pounder heavy and a 24-pounder, to which were added the 12- and24-pounder Dahlgren rifled howitzers of the Civil War period. Suchguns were often used in landing operations. The following table givessome typical ranges:

_Ranges of U. S. Howitzers in the 1860's_

 Caliber Elevation Range in yards

 10-inch seacoast 5° 1, 650 8-inch siege 12°30' 2, 280 24-pounder naval 5° 1, 270 12-pounder heavy naval 5° 1, 085 20-pounder Dahlgren rifled 5° 1, 960 12-pounder Dahlgren rifled 5° 1, 770

[Illustration: Figure 36--ENGLISH MORTAR ON ELEVATING BED (1740). ]

From earliest times the usefulness of the mortar as an arm of theartillery has been clearly recognized. Up until the 1800's the weaponwas usually made of bronze, and many mortars had a fixed elevation of45°, which in the sixteenth century was thought to be the properelevation for maximum range of any cannon. In the 1750's Müllercomplained of the stupidity of English artillerists in continuing touse fixed-elevation mortars, and the Spanish made a _mortero deplancha_, or "plate" mortar (fig. 37), as late as 1788. Range for sucha fixed-elevation weapon was varied by using more or less powder, asthe case required. But the most useful mortar, of course, hadtrunnions and adjustable elevation by means of quoins. 

[Illustration: Figure 37--SPANISH 5-INCH BRONZE MORTAR (1788). ]

The mortar was mounted on a "bed"--a pair of wooden cheeks heldtogether by transoms. Since a bed had no wheels, the piece wastransported on a mortar wagon or sling cart. In the battery, themortar was generally bedded upon a level wooden platform; aboard ship, it was a revolving platform, so that the piece could be quickly aimedright or left. The mortar's weight, plus the high angle of elevation, kept it pretty well in place when it was fired, although Englishartillerists took the additional precaution of lashing it down. 

The mortar did not use a wad, because a wad prevented the fuze of theshell from igniting. To the layman, it may seem strange that the shellwas never loaded with the fuze toward the powder charge of the gun. But the fuze was always toward the muzzle and away from the blast, apractice which dated from the early days when mortars were dischargedby "double firing": the gunner lit the fuze of the shell with one handand the priming of the mortar with the other. Not until the late1600's did the method of letting the powder blast ignite the fuzebecome general. It was a change that greatly simplified the use of thearm and, no doubt, caused the mortarman to heave a sigh of relief. 

[Illustration: Figure 38--SPANISH 10-INCH BRONZE MORTAR (1759-88). A--Dolphin, or handle, b--Bore, c--Powder chamber. ]

Most mortars were equipped with dolphins, either singly or in pairs, which were used for lifting the weapon onto its bed. Often there was alittle bracketed cup--a priming pan--under the vent, a handy gadgetthat saved spilling a lot of powder at the almost vertical breech. Aswith other bronze cannon, mortars were embellished with shields, scrolls, names, and other decoration. 

About 1750, the French mortar had a bore length 1-1/2 diameters of theshell; in England, the bore was 2 diameters for the smaller calibersand 3 for the 10- and 13-inchers. The extra length added a great dealof weight to the English mortars: the 13-inch weighed 25hundredweight, while the French equivalent weighed only about halfthat much. Müller complained that mortar designers slavishly copiedwhat they saw in other guns. For instance, he said, the reinforce wasunnecessary; it ". .. Overloads the Mortar with a heap of uselessmetal, and that in a place where the least strength is required, yetas if this unnecessary metal was not sufficient, they add a greatprojection at the mouth, which serves to no other purpose than to makethe Mortar top-heavy. The mouldings are likewise jumbled together, without any taste or method, tho' they are taken from architecture. "Field mortars in use during Müller's time included 4. 6-, 5. 8-, 8-, 10-, and 13-inch "land" mortars and 10- and 13-inch "sea" mortars. Müller, of course, redesigned them. 

[Illustration: Figure 39--COEHORN MORTAR. The British GeneralOglethorpe used 20 coehorns in his 1740 bombardment of St. Augustine. These small mortars were also used extensively during the War Betweenthe States. ]

The small mortars called coehorns (fig. 39) were invented by the famedDutch military engineer, Baron van Menno Coehoorn, and used by him in1673 to the great discomfit of French garrisons. Oglethorpe had manyof them in his 1740 bombardment of St. Augustine when the Spanish, trying to translate coehorn into their own tongue, called them_cuernos de vaca_--"cow horns. " They continued in use through the U. S. Civil War, and some of them may still be seen in the battlefieldparks today. 

Bombs and carcasses were usual for mortar firing, but stoneprojectiles remained in use as late as 1800 for the pedrero class(fig. 43). Mortar projectiles were quite formidable; even in thesixteenth century missiles weighing 100 or more pounds were notuncommon, and the 13-inch mortar of 1860 fired a 200-pound shell. Thelarger projectiles had to be whipped up to the muzzle with block andtackle. 

[Illustration: Figure 40--THE "DICTATOR. " This huge 13-inch mortar wasused by the Federal artillery in the bombardment of Petersburg, Va. , 1864-65. ]

In the last century, the bronze mortars metamorphosed into the greatcast-iron mortars, such as "The Dictator, " that mammoth Federal pieceused against Petersburg, Va. Wrought-iron beds with a pair of rollerswere built for them. In spite of their high trajectory, mortars couldrange well over a mile, as witness these figures for United Statesmortars of the 1860's, firing at 45° elevation:

_Ranges of U. S. Mortars in 1861_

 Caliber Projectile Range weight (pounds) (yards)

 8-inch siege 45 1, 837 10-inch siege 90 2, 100 12-inch seacoast 200 4, 625 13-inch seacoast 200 4, 325

At the siege of Fort Pulaski in 1862, however, General Gillmorecomplained that the mortars were highly inaccurate at mile-long range. On this point, John Müller would have nodded his head emphatically. Ahundred years before Gillmore's complaint, Müller had argued that arange of something less than 1, 500 yards was ample for mortars or, forthat matter, all guns. "When the ranges are greater, " said Müller, "they are so uncertain, and it is so difficult to judge how far theshell falls short, or exceeds the distance of the object, that itserves to no other purpose than to throw away the Powder and shell, without being able to do any execution. "

PETARDS

"Hoist with his own petard, " an ancient phrase signifying that one'scarefully laid scheme has exploded, had truly graphic meaning in theold days when everybody knew what a petard was. Since the petard firedno projectile, it was hardly a gun. Roughly speaking, it was nothingbut an iron bucket full of gunpowder. The petardier would hang it on agate, something like hanging your hat on a nail, and blast the gateopen by firing the charge. 

Small petards weighed about 50 pounds; the large ones, around 70pounds. They had to be heavy enough to be effective, yet light enoughfor a couple of men to lift up handily and hang on the target. Thebucket part was packed full of the powder mixture, then a2-1/2-inch-thick board was bolted to the rim in order to keep thepowder in and the air out. An iron tube fuze was screwed into a smallhole in the back or side of the weapon. When all was ready, thepetardiers seized the two handles of the petard and carried it to thetroublesome door. Here they set a screw, hung the explosive instrumentupon it, lit the fuze, and "retired. "

Petards were used frequently in King William's War of the 1680's toforce the gates of small German towns. But on a well-barred, doublegate the small petard was useless, and the great petard would breakonly the fore part of such a gate. Furthermore, as one would guess, hanging a petard was a hazardous occupation; it went out of style inthe early 1700's. 

PROJECTILES

There are four different types of artillery projectiles which, in oneform or another, have been used since very early times:

 (1) Battering projectiles (solid shot). (2) Exploding shells. (3) Scatter shot (case or canister, grape, shrapnel). (4) Incendiary and chemical projectiles. 

SOLID SHOT

At Havana, Cuba, in the early days, there was an abundance of roundstones lying around, put there by Mother Nature. Artillerists atHavana never lacked projectiles. Stone balls, cheap to manufacture, relatively light and therefore well suited to the feeble constructionof early ordnance, were in general use for large caliber cannon in thefourteenth century. There were experiments along other lines such asthose at Tournay in the 1330's with long, pointed projectiles. Lead-coated stones were fairly popular, and solid lead balls were usedin some small pieces, but the stone ball was more or less standard. 

Cast-iron shot had been introduced by 1400, and, with the improvementof cannon during that century, iron shot gradually replaced stone. Bythe end of the 1500's stone survived for use only in the pedreros, murtherers, and other relics of the earlier period. Iron shot for thesmoothbore was a solid, round shot, cast in fairly accurate molds; themold marks that invariably show on all cannonballs were of smallimportance, for the ball did not fit the bore tightly. After casting, shot were checked with a ring gauge (fig. 41)--a hoop through whicheach ball had to pass. The Spanish term for this tool is verydescriptive: _pasabala_, "ball-passer. "

Shot was used mainly in the flat-trajectory cannon. The small caliberguns fired nothing but shot, for small sizes of the other typeprojectiles were not effective. Shot was the prescription when thesituation called for "great accuracy, at very long range, " andpenetration. Fired at ships, a shot was capable of breaching theplanks (at 100-yard range a 24-pounder shot would penetrate 4-1/2 feetof "sound and hard" oak). With a fair aim at the waterline, a gunnercould sink or seriously damage a vessel with a few rounds. On ironcladtargets like the _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, however, round shot didlittle more than bounce; it took the long, armor-piercing rifleprojectile to force the development of the tremendously thick plate ofmodern times. 

[Illustration: Figure 41--EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PROJECTILES. (Not toscale. )]

Round shot was very useful for knocking out enemy batteries. Thegunner put his cannon on the flank of the hostile guns and usedricochet firing so that the ball, just clearing the defense wall, would bounce among the enemy guns, wound the crews, and break the guncarriages. In the destruction of fort walls, shot was essential. Afterdismounting the enemy pieces, the siege guns moved close enough tobatter down the walls. The procedure was not as haphazard as itsounds. Cannon were brought as close as possible to the target, andthe gunner literally cut out a low section with gunfire so that thewall above tumbled down into the moat and made a ramp right up to thebreach. Firing at the upper part of the wall defeated its own purpose, for the rubble brought down only protected the foundation area, andthe breach was so high that assault troops had to use ladders. 

The most effective bombardment of Castillo de San Marcos occurredduring the 1740 siege, and shot did the most damage. The heaviestEnglish siege cannon were 18-pounders, over 1, 000 yards from the fort. Spanish Engineer Pedro Ruiz de Olano reported that the balls did notpenetrate the massive main walls more than a foot and a half, but theparapets, being only 3 feet thick, suffered considerable damage. Someof the old parapets, Engineer Ruiz said, "have been demolished, andthe new ones have suffered very much owing to their recentconstruction. " (He meant that the new mortar had not sufficientlyhardened. ) Ruiz was not deceived about what would happen if hostilebatteries were able to get closer; in such case, he thought, the enemy"will no doubt succeed in destroying the parapets and dismounting theguns. "

Variations of round shot were bar shot and chain shot (fig. 41), twoor more projectiles linked together for simultaneous firing. Bar shotappears in a Castillo inventory of 1706, and like chain shot, was forspecialized work like cutting a ship's rigging. There is oneapocryphal tale, however, about an experiment with chain shot asanti-personnel missiles: instead of charging a single cannon with thetwo balls, two guns were used, side by side. The ball in one gun waschained to the ball in the other. The projectiles were to fly forth, stretching the long chain between them, mowing down a sizeable segmentof the enemy. Instead, the chain wrapped the gun crews in a murderousembrace; one gun had fired late. 

EXPLOSIVE SHELLS

The word "bomb" comes to us from the French, who derived it from theLatin. But the Romans got it originally from the Greek _bombos_, meaning a deep, hollow sound. "Bombard" is a derivation. Today bomb ispronounced "balm, " but in the early days it was commonly pronounced"bum. " The modern equivalent of the "bum" is an HE shell. 

The first recorded use of explosive shells was by the Venetians in1376. Their bombs were hemispheres of stone or bronze, joined togetherwith hoops and exploded by means of a primitive powder fuze. Shellsfilled with explosive or incendiary mixtures were standard formortars, after 1550, but they did not come into general use forflat-trajectory weapons until early in the nineteenth century, whereafter the term "shell" gradually won out over "bomb. "

In any event, this projectile was one of the most effective ever usedin the smoothbore against earthworks, buildings, and for generalbombardment. A delayed action shell, diabolically timed to rollamongst the ranks with its fuze burning, was calculated to "disorderthe stoutest men, " since they could not know at what awful instant thebomb would burst. 

A bombshell was simply a hollow, cast-iron sphere. It had a singlehole where the powder was funneled in--full, but not enough to packtoo tightly when the fuze was driven in. Until the 1800's, the largerbombs were not always smooth spheres, but had either a projectingneck, or collar, for the fuze hole or a pair of rings at each side ofthe hole for easier handling (fig. 41). In later years, however, suchprojections were replaced by two "ears, " little recesses beside thefuze hole. A pair of tongs (something like ice tongs) seized the shellby the ears and lifted it up to the gun bore. 

During most of the eighteenth century, shells were cast thicker at thebase than at the fuze hole on the theory that they were (1) betterable to resist the shock of firing from the cannon and (2) more likelyto fall with the heavy part underneath, leaving the fuze uppermost andless liable to extinguishment. Müller scoffed at the idea of"choaking" a fuze, which, he said, burnt as well in water as in anyother element. Furthermore, he preferred to use shells "everywhereequally thick, because they would then burst into a greater number ofpieces. " In later years, the shells were scored on the interior toensure their breaking into many fragments. 

FUZES

[Illustration: Figure 42--NINETEENTH CENTURY PROJECTILE FUZES. A--Cross-section of Bormann fuze, b--Top of Bormann fuze, c--Woodenfuze for spherical shell, d--Wood-and-paper fuze for spherical shell, e--Percussion fuze. ]

The eighteenth century fuze was a wooden tube several inches long, with a powder composition tamped into its hole much like thenineteenth century fuze (fig. 42c). The hole was only a quarter of aninch in diameter, but the head of the fuze was hollowed out like acup, and "mealed" (fine) powder, moistened with "spirits of wine"(alcohol), was pressed into the hollow to make a larger ignitingsurface. To time the fuze, a cannoneer cut the cylinder at the properlength with his fuze-saw, or drilled a small hole (G) where the firecould flash out at the right time. Some English fuzes at this periodwere also made by drawing two strands of a quick match into the hole, instead of filling it with powder composition. The ends of the matchwere crossed into a sort of rosette at the head of the fuze. Papercaps to protect the powder composition covered the heads of thesefuzes and had to be removed before the shell was put into the gun. 

Bombs were not filled with powder very long before use, and fuzes werenot put into the projectiles until the time of firing. To force thefuze into the hole of the shell, the cannoneer covered the fuze headwith tow, put a fuze-setter on it, and hammered the setter with amallet, "drifting" the fuze until the head stuck out of the shell only2/10 of an inch. If the fuze had to be withdrawn, there was a fuzeextractor for the job. This tool gripped the fuze head tightly, andturning a screw slowly pulled out the fuze. 

Wooden tube fuzes were used almost as long as the spherical shell. AUnited States 12-inch mortar fuze (fig. 42c), 7 inches long andburning 49 seconds, was much like the earlier fuze. During the 1800's, however, other types came into wide use. 

The conical paper-case fuze (fig. 42d), inserted in a metal or woodenplug that fitted the fuze hole, contained composition whose rate ofburning was shown by the color of the paper. A black fuze burned aninch every 2 seconds. Red burned 3 seconds, green 4, and yellow 5seconds per inch. Paper fuzes were 2 inches long, and could be cutshorter if necessary. Since firing a shell from a 24-pounder to burstat 2, 000 yards meant a time flight of 6 seconds, a red fuze wouldserve without cutting, or a green fuze could be cut to 1-1/2 inches. Sea-coast fuzes of similar type were used in the 15-inch Rodmans untilthese big smoothbores were finally discarded sometime after 1900. 

The Bormann fuze (fig. 42a), the quickest of the oldtimers to set, wasused for many years by the U. S. Field Artillery in spherical shelland shrapnel. Its pewter case, which screwed into the shell, containeda time ring of powder composition (A). Over this ring the top of thefuze case was marked in seconds. To set the fuze, the gunner merelyhad to cut the case at the proper mark--at four for 4 seconds, threefor 3 seconds, and so on--to expose the ring of powder to the powderblast of the gun. The ring burned until it reached the zero end andset off the fine powder in the center of the case; the powder flashthen blew out a tin plate in the bottom of the fuze and ignited theshell charge. Its short burning time (about 6 seconds) made theBormann fuze obsolete as field gun ranges increased. The main troublewith this fuze, however, was that it did not always ignite!

The percussion fuze was an extremely important development of thenineteenth century, particularly for the long-range rifles. The shockof impact caused this fuze to explode the shell at almost the instantof striking. Percussion fuzes were made in two general types: thefront fuze, for the nose of an elongated projectile; and the basefuze, at the center of the projectile base. The base fuze was usedwith armor-piercing projectiles where it was desirable to have theshell penetrate the target for some distance before bursting. Bothtypes were built on the same principles. 

A Hotchkiss front percussion fuze (fig. 42e) had a brass case whichscrewed into the shell. Inside the case was a plunger (A) containing apriming charge of powder, topped with a cap of fulminate. A brass wireat the base of the plunger was a safety device to keep the cap awayfrom a sharp point at the top of the fuze until the shell struck thetarget. When the gun was fired, the shock of discharge dropped a leadplug (B) from the base of the fuze into the projectile cavity, permitting the plunger to drop to the bottom of the fuze and restthere, held by the spread wire, while the shell was in flight. Uponimpact, the plunger was thrown forward, the cap struck the point andignited the priming charge, which in turn fired the bursting charge ofthe shell. 

SCATTER PROJECTILES

When one of our progenitors wrathfully seized a handful of pebbles andflung them at the flock of birds in his garden, he discovered theprinciple of the scatter projectile. Perhaps its simplest applicationwas in the stone mortar (fig. 43). For this weapon, round stones aboutthe size of a man's fist (and, by 1750, hand grenades) were dumpedinto a two-handled basket and let down into the bore. This primitivecharge was used at close range against personnel in a fortification, where the effect of the descending projectiles would be uncommonlylike a short but severe barrage of over-sized hailstones. There were6, 000 stones in the ammunition inventory for Castillo de San Marcos in1707. 

[Illustration: Figure 43--SPANISH 16-INCH PEDRERO (1788). This mortarfired baskets of stones. ]

One of the earliest kinds of scatter projectiles was case shot, orcanister, used at Constantinople in 1453. The name comes from itscase, or can, usually metal, which was filled with scrap, musketballs, or slugs (fig. 41). Somewhat similar, but with larger ironballs and no metal case, was grape shot, so-called from the grape-likeappearance of the clustered balls. A stand of grape in the 1700'sconsisted of a wooden disk at the base of a short wooden rod thatserved as the core around which the balls stood (fig. 41). The wholeassembly was bagged in cloth and reinforced with a net of heavy cord. In later years grape was made by bagging two or three tiers of balls, each tier separated by an iron disk. Grape could disable men at almost900 yards and was much used during the 1700's. Eventually, it wasalmost replaced by case shot, which was more effective at shorterranges (400 to 700 yards). Incidentally, there were 2, 000 sacks ofgrape at the Castillo in 1740, more than any other type projectile. 

Spherical case shot (fig. 41) was an attempt to carry theeffectiveness of grape and canister beyond its previous range, bymeans of a bursting shell. It was the forerunner of the shrapnel usedso much in World War I and was invented by Lt. Henry Shrapnel, of theBritish Army, in 1784. There had been previous attempts to produce aprojectile of this kind, such as the German Zimmerman's "hail shot" of1573--case shot with a bursting charge and a primitive time fuze--butShrapnel's invention was the first air-bursting case shot which, intechnical words, "imparted directional velocity" to the bullets itcontained. Shrapnel's new shell was first used against the French in1808, but was not called by its inventor's name until 1852. 

INCENDIARIES AND CHEMICAL PROJECTILES

Incendiary missiles, such as buckets or barrels filled with a fiercelyburning composition, had been used from earliest times, long beforecannon. These crude incendiaries survived through the 1700's as, forinstance, the flaming cargoes of fire ships that were sent amidst theenemy fleet. But in the year 1672 there appeared an iron shell calleda carcass (fig. 41), filled with pitch and other materials that burnedat intense heat for about 8 minutes. The flame escaped through vents, three to five in number, around the fuze hole of the shell. Thecarcass was standard ammunition until smoothbores went out of use. TheUnited States ordnance manual of 1861 lists carcasses for 12-, 18-, 24-, 32-, and 42-pounder guns as well as 8-, 10-, and 13-inch mortars. 

During the late 1500's, the heating of iron cannon balls to serve asincendiaries was suggested, but not for another 200 years was the ideasuccessfully carried out. Hot shot was nothing but round shot, heatedto a red glow over a grate or in a furnace. It was fired from cannonat such inflammable targets as wooden ships or powder magazines. During the siege of Gibraltar in 1782, the English fired and destroyeda part of Spain's fleet with hot shot; and in United States seacoastforts shot furnaces were standard equipment during the first half ofthe 1800's. The little shot furnace at Castillo de San Marcos NationalMonument was built during the 1840's; a giant furnace of 1862 stillremains at Fort Jefferson National Monument. Few other examples areleft. 

Loading hot shot was not particularly dangerous. After the powdercharge was in the gun with a dry wad in front of it, another wad ofwet straw, or clay, was put into the barrel. When the cherry-red shotwas rammed home, the wet wad prevented a premature explosion of thecharge. According to the _Ordnance Manual_, the shot could cool in thegun without setting off the charge! Hot shot was superseded, about1850, by Martin's shell, filled with molten iron. 

The smoke shell appeared in 1681, but was never extensively used. Similarly, a form of gas projectile, called a "stink shell, " wasinvented by a Confederate officer during the Civil War. Because of its"inhumanity, " and probably because it was not thought valuable enoughto offset its propaganda value to the enemy, it was not popular. Thesewere the beginnings of the modern chemical shells. 

In connection with chemical warfare, it is of interest to review theHussite siege of Castle Karlstein, near Prague, in the first quarterof the fifteenth century. The Hussites emplaced 46 small cannon, 5large cannon, and 5 catapults. The big guns would shoot once or twicea day, and the little ones from six to a dozen rounds. 

Marble pillars from Prague churches furnished the cannonballs. Manyprojectiles for the catapults, however, were rotting carcasses andother filth, hurled over the castle walls to cause disease and breakthe morale of the besieged. But the intrepid defenders neutralizedthese "chemical bursts" with lime and arsenic. After firing 10, 930cannonballs, 932 stone fragments, 13 fire barrels, and 1, 822 tons offilth, the Hussites gave up. 

FIXED AMMUNITION

In early days, due partly to the roughly made balls, wads were veryimportant as a means of confining the powder and increasing itsefficiency. Wads could be made of almost any suitable material athand, but perhaps straw or hay ones were most common. The hay wasfirst twisted into a 1-inch rope, then a length of the rope was foldedtogether several times and finally rolled up into a short cylinder, alittle larger than the bore. After the handier sabots came into use, however, wads were needed only to keep the ball from rolling out whenthe muzzle was down, or for hot shot firing. 

Gunners early began to consolidate ammunition for easier and quickerloading. For instance, after the powder charge was placed in a bag, the next logical step was to attach the wad and the cannonball to it, so that loading could be made in one simple operation--pushing thesingle round into the bore (fig. 48). Toward that end, the sabot or"shoe" (fig. 41) took the place of the wad. The sabot was a woodendisk about the same diameter as the shot. It was secured to the ballwith a pair of metal straps to make "semi-fixed" ammunition; then, ifthe neck of the powder bag were tied around the sabot, the result wasone cartridge, containing powder, sabot, and ball, called "fixed"ammunition. Fixed ammunition was usual for the lighter field pieces bythe end of the 1700's, while the bigger guns used "semi-fixed. "

In transportation, cartridges were protected by cylinders and caps ofstrong paper. Sabots were sometimes made of paper, too, or ofcompressed wood chips, to eliminate the danger of a heavy, unbrokensabot falling amongst friendly troops. A big mortar sabot was a lethalprojectile in itself!

ROCKETS

Today's rocket projectiles are not exactly new inventions. About thetime of artillery's beginning, the military fireworker came into thebusiness of providing pyrotechnic engines of war; later, his jobincluded the spectacular fireworks that were set off in celebration ofvictory or peace. 

Artillery manuals of very early date include chapters on themanufacture and use of fireworks. But in making war rockets there wasno marked progress until the late eighteenth century. About 1780, theBritish Army in India watched the Orientals use them; and within thenext quarter century William Congreve, who set about the task ofproducing a rocket that would carry an incendiary or explosive chargeas far as 2 miles, had achieved such promising results that Englishboats fired rocket salvos against Boulogne in 1806, The British FieldRocket Brigade used rockets effectively at Leipsic in 1812--the firsttime they appeared in European land warfare. They were used again 2years later at Waterloo. The warheads of such rockets were cast iron, filled with black powder and fitted with percussion fuzes. They werefired from trough-like launching stands, which were adjustable forelevation. 

Rockets seem to have had a demoralizing effect upon untrained troops, and perhaps their use by the English against raw American levies atBladenburg, in 1814, contributed to the rout of the United Statesforces and the capture of Washington. They also helped to inspireFrancis Scott Key. Whether or not he understands the technicalcharacteristics of the rocket, every schoolboy remembers the "rocket'sred glare" of the National Anthem, wherein Key recorded his eyewitnessaccount of the bombardment of Fort McHenry. The U. S. Army in Mexico(1847) included a rocket battery, and, indeed, war rockets were animportant part of artillery resources until the rapid progress ofgunnery in the latter 1800's made them obsolescent. 

TOOLS

Gunner's equipment was numerous. There were the tompion (a lid thatfitted over the muzzle of the gun to keep wind and weather out of thebore) and the lead cover for the vent; water buckets for the spongesand passing boxes for the powder; scrapers and tools for "searching"the bore to find dangerous cracks or holes; chocks for the wheels;blocks and rollers, lifting jacks, and gins for moving guns; anddrills and augers for clearing the vent (figs. 17, 44). But among themost important tools for everyday firing were the following:

_The sponge_ was a wooden cylinder about a foot long, the samediameter as the shot, and covered with lambskin. Like all bore tools, it was mounted on a long staff; after being dampened with water, itwas used for cleaning the bore of the piece after firing. Essentially, sponging made sure there were no sparks in the bore when the newcharge was put in. Often the sponge was on the opposite end of therammer, and sometimes, instead of being lambskin-covered, the spongewas a bristle brush. 

_The wormer_ was a double screw, something like a pair of intertwinedcorkscrews, fixed to a long handle. Inserted in the gun bore andtwisted, it seized and drew out wads or the remains of cartridge bagsstuck in the gun after firing. Worm screws were sometimes mounted inthe head of the sponge, so that the piece could be sponged and wormedat the same time. 

_The ladle_ was the most important of all the gunner's tools in theearly years, since it was not only the measure for the powder but theonly way to dump the powder in the bore at the proper place. It wasgenerally made of copper, the same gauge as the windage of the gun;that is, the copper was just thick enough to fit between ball andbore. 

Essentially, the ladle is merely a scoop, a metal cylinder secured toa wooden disk on a long staff. But before the introduction of thepowder cartridge, cutting a ladle to the right size was one of themost important accomplishments a gunner had to learn. Collado, thatSpanish mathematician of the sixteenth century, used the culverinladle as the master pattern (fig. 45). It was 4-1/2 calibers long andwould carry exactly the weight of the ball in powder. Ladles forlesser guns could be proportioned (that is, shortened) from the masterpattern. 

[Illustration: Figure 44--EIGHTEENTH CENTURY GUNNER'S EQUIPMENT. (Notto scale. )]

The ladle full of powder was pushed home in the bore. Turning thehandle dumped the charge, which then had to be packed with the rammer. As powder charges were lessened in later years, the ladle wasshortened; by 1750, it was only three shot diameters long. Withcartridges, the ladle was no longer needed for loading the gun, but itwas still handy for withdrawing the round. 

_The rammer_ was a wooden cylinder about the same diameter and lengthas the shot. It pushed home the powder charge, the wad, and the shot. As a precaution against faulty or double loading, marks on the rammerhandle showed the loaders when the different parts of the charge wereproperly seated. 

_The gunner's pick or priming wire_ was a sharp pointed toolresembling a common ice pick blade. It was used to clear the vent ofthe gun and to pierce the powder bag so that flame from the primercould ignite the charge. 

[Illustration: Figure 45--SIXTEENTH CENTURY PATTERN FOR GUNNER'SLADLE. ]

_Handspikes_ were big pinch bars to manhandle cannon. They were usedto move the carriage and to lift the breech of the gun so that theelevating quoin or screw might be adjusted. They were of differenttypes (figs. 33a, 44), but were essentially 6-foot-long wooden poles, shod with iron. Some of them, like the Marsilly handspike (fig. 11), had rollers at the toe so that the wheelless rear of the carriagecould be lifted with the handspike and rolled with comparative ease. 

_The gunner's quadrant_ (fig. 46), invented by Tartaglia about 1545, was an aiming device so basic that its principle is still in usetoday. The instrument looked like a carpenter's square, with aquarter-circle connecting the two arms. From the angle of the squaredangled a plumb bob. The gunner laid the long arm of the quadrant inthe bore of the gun, and the line of the bob against the graduatedquarter-circle showed the gun's angle of elevation. 

The addition of the quadrant to the art of artillery opened a wholenew field for the mathematicians, who set about compiling long, complicated, and jealously guarded tables for the gunner's guidance. But the theory was simple: since a cannon at 45° elevation would fire_ten_ times farther than it would when the barrel was level (at zero°elevation), the quadrant should be marked into _ten_ equal parts; therange of the gun would therefore increase by _one-tenth_ each time thegun was elevated to the next mark on the quadrant. In other words, thegunner could get the range he wanted simply by raising his piece tothe proper mark on the instrument. 

[Illustration: Figure 46--SEVENTEENTH CENTURY GUNNER'S QUADRANT. Thelong end of the quadrant was laid in the bore of the cannon. The plumbbob indicated the degree of elevation on the scale. ]

Collado explained how it worked in the 1590's. "We experimented with aculverin that fired a 20-pound iron ball. At point-blank the firstshot ranged 200 paces. At 45-degree elevation it shot ten timesfarther, or 2, 000 paces. .. . If the point-blank range is 200 paces, then elevating to the _first_ position, or a tenth part of thequadrant, will gain 180 paces more, and advancing another point willgain so much again. It is the same with the other points up to theelevation of 45 degrees; each one gains the same 180 paces. " Colladoadmitted that results were not always consistent with theory, but itwas many years before the physicists understood the effect of airresistance on the trajectory of the projectile. 

_Sights_ on cannon were usually conspicuous by their absence in theearly days. A dispart sight (an instrument similar to the moderninfantry rifle sight), which compensated for the difference indiameter between the breech and the muzzle, was used in 1610, but theaverage artilleryman still aimed by sighting over the barrel. TheSpanish gunner, however, performed an operation that put the boreparallel to the gunner's line of sight, and called it "killing the_vivo_" (_matar el vivo_). How _vivo_ affected aiming is easily seen:with its bore level, a 4-pounder falconet ranged 250 paces. But whenthe _top of the gun_ was level, the bore was slightly elevated and therange almost doubled to 440 paces. 

To "kill the _vivo_, " you first had to find it. The gunner stuck hispick into the vent down to the bottom of the bore and marked the pickto show the depth. Next he took the pick to the muzzle, stood it up inthe bore, and marked the height of the muzzle. The difference betweenthe two marks, with an adjustment for the base ring (which was higherthan the vent), was the _vivo_. A little wedge of the proper size, placed under the breech, would then eliminate the troublesome _vivo_. 

During the first half of the 1700's Spanish cannon of the "newinvention" were made with a notch at the top of the base ring and asighting button on the muzzle, and these features were also adopted bythe French. But they soon went out of use. There was some argument, aslate as the 1750's, about the desirability of casting the muzzle thesame size as the base ring, so that the sighting line over the gunwould always be parallel to the bore; but, since the gun usually hadto be aimed higher than the objective, gunners claimed that a fatmuzzle hid their target!

[Illustration: Figure 47--SEVENTEENTH CENTURY GUNNER'S LEVEL. Thistool was useful in many ways, but principally for finding the line ofsight on the barrel of the gun. ]

Common practice for sighting, as late as the 1850's, was to find thecenter line at the top of the piece, mark it with chalk or filednotches, and use it as a sighting line. To find this center line, thegunner laid his level (fig. 47) first on the base ring, then on themuzzle. When the instrument was level atop these rings, the plumb bobwas theoretically over the center line of the cannon. But guns werecrudely made, and such a line on the outside of the piece was notlikely to coincide exactly with the center line of the bore, so therewas still ample opportunity for the gunner to exercise his "art. "Nonetheless the marked lines did help, for the gunner learned byexperiment how to compensate for errors. 

Fixed rear sights came into use early in the 1800's, and tangentsights (graduated rear sights) were in use during the War Between theStates. The trunnion sight, a graduated sight attached to thetrunnion, could be used when the muzzle had to be elevated so highthat it blocked the gunner's view of the target. 

Naval gunnery officers would occasionally order all their guns trainedat the same angle and elevated to the same degree. The gunner mightnot even see his target. While with the crude traversing mechanism ofthe early 1800's the gunners may not have laid their pieces tooaccurately, at least it was a step toward the indirect firingtechnique of later years which was to take full advantage of thelonger ranges possible with modern cannon. Use of tangent and trunnionsights brought gunnery further into the realm of mathematical science;the telescopic sight came about the middle of the nineteenth century;gunners were developing into technicians whose job was merely to loadthe piece and set the instruments as instructed by officers in firecontrol posts some distance away from the gun. 

THE PRACTICE OF GUNNERY

The old-time gunner was not only an artist, vastly superior to theaverage soldier, but, when circumstances permitted, he performed hiswizardry with all due ceremony. Diego Ufano, Governor of Antwerp, watched a gun crew at work about 1500:

"The piece having arrived at the battery and being provided with allneedful materials, the gunner and his assistants take their places, and the drummer is to beat a roll. The gunner cleans the piececarefully with a dry rammer, and in pulling out the said rammer givesa dab or two to the mouth of the piece to remove any dirt adhering. "(At this point it was customary to make the sign of the cross andinvoke the intercession of St. Barbara. )

"Then he has his assistant hold the sack, valise, or box of powder, and filling the charger level full, gives a slight movement with theother hand to remove any surplus, and then puts it into the gun as faras it will go. Which being done, he turns the charger so that thepowder fills the breech and does not trail out on the ground, for whenit takes fire there it is very annoying to the gunner. " (And probablyto the gentleman holding the sack. )

"After this he will take the rammer, and, putting it into the gun, gives two or three good punches to ram the powder well in to thechamber, while his assistant holds a finger in the vent so that thepowder does not leap forth. This done, he takes a second charge ofpowder and deposits it like the first; then puts in a wad of straw orrags which will be well packed to gather up all the loose powder. Thishaving been well seated with strong blows of the rammer, he spongesout the piece. 

"Then the ball, well cleaned by his assistant, since there is dangerto the gunner in balls to which sand or dirt adhere, is placed in thepiece without forcing it till it touches gently on the wad, the gunnerbeing careful not to hold himself in front of the gun, for it is sillyto run danger without reason. Finally he will put in one more wad, andat another roll of drums the piece is ready to fire. "

Maximum firing rate for field pieces in the early days was eightrounds an hour. It increased later to 100 rounds a day for light gunsand 30 for heavy pieces. (Modern non-automatic guns can fire 15rounds per minute. ) After about 40 rounds the gun became so hot it wasunsafe to load, whereupon it was "refreshed" with an hour's rest. 

[Illustration: Figure 48--LOADING A CANNON. Muzzle-loading smoothborecannon were used for almost 700 years. ]

Approved aiming procedure was to make the first shot surely short, inorder to have a measurement of the error. The second shot would be atgreater elevation, but also cautiously short. After the third round, the gunner could hope to get hits. Beginners were cautioned againstthe desire to hit the target at the first shot, for, said a celebratedartillerist, ". .. You will get overs and cannot estimate how muchover. "

As gunners gradually became professional soldiers, gun drills took ona more military aspect, as these seventeenth century commands show:

 1. Put back your piece. 2. Order your piece to load. 3. Search your piece. 4. Sponge your piece. 5. Fill your ladle. 6. Put in your powder. 7. Empty your ladle. 8. Put up your powder. 9. Thrust home your wad. 10. Regard your shot. 11. Put home your shot gently. 12. Thrust home your wad with three strokes. 13. Gauge your piece. 

Gunners had no trouble finding work, as is singularly illustrated bythe case of Andrew Ransom, a stray Englishman captured near St. Augustine in the late 1600's. He was condemned to death. Theexecutional device failed, however, and the padres in attendance tookit as an act of God and led Ransom to sanctuary at the friary. Meanwhile, the Spanish governor learned this man was an artilleristand a maker of "artificial fires. " The governor offered to "protect"him if he would live at the Castillo and put his talents to use. Ransom did. 

[Illustration: Figure 49--A SIEGE BOMBARD OF THE 1500's. ]

By 1800, although guns could be served with as few as three men, efficient drill usually called for a much larger force. The smallestcrew listed in the United States Navy manual of 1866 was seven: firstand second gun captains, two loaders, two spongers, and a "powdermonkey" (powder boy). An 11-inch pivot-gun on its revolving carriagewas served by 24 crewmen and a powderman. In the field, transportationfor a 24-pounder siege gun took 10 horses and 5 drivers. 

Twelve rounds an hour was good practice for heavy guns during theCivil War period, although the figure could be upped to 20 rounds. Bythis date, of course, although the principles of muzzle loading hadnot changed, actual loading of the gun was greatly simplified by usingfixed and semi-fixed ammunition. Loading technique varied with thegun, but the following summary of drill from the United States _HeavyOrdnance Manual_ of 1861 gives a fair idea of how the crew handled asiege gun:

In the first place, consider that the equipment is all in its properplace. The gun is on a two-wheeled siege carriage, and is "inbattery, " or pushed forward on the platform until the muzzle is in theearthwork embrasure. On each side of the gun are three handspikes, leaning against the parapet. On the right of the gun a sponge and arammer are laid on a prop, about 6 feet away from the carriage. Nearthe left muzzle of the gun is a stack of cannonballs, wads, and a"passbox" or powder bucket. Hanging from the cascabel are two pouches:the tube-pouch containing friction "tubes" (primers for the vent) andthe lanyard; and the gunner's pouch with the gunner's level, breech-sight, pick, gimlet, vent-punch, chalk, and fingerstall (aleather cover for the gunner's second left finger when the gun getshot). Under the wheels are two chocks; the vent-cover is on the vent, a tompion in the muzzle; a broom leans against the parapet beyond thestack of cannonballs. A wormer, ladle, and wrench were also part ofthe battery equipment. 

The crew consisted of a gunner and six cannoneers. At the command_Take implements_ the gunner stepped to the cascabel and handed thevent-cover to No. 2; the tube-pouch he gave to No. 3; he put on hisfingerstall, leveled the gun with the elevating screw, applied hislevel to base ring and muzzle to find the highest points of thebarrel, and marked these points with chalk for a line of sight. Hissix crewmen took their positions about a yard apart, three men on eachside of the gun, with handspikes ready. 

_From battery_ was the first command of the drill. The gunner steppedfrom behind the gun, while the handspikemen embarred their spikes. Cannoneers Nos. 1, 3, and 5 were on the right side of the gun, and theeven-numbered men were on the left. Nos. 1 and 2 put their spikesunder the front of the wheels; Nos. 3 and 4 embarred under thecarriage cheeks to bear down on the rear spokes of the wheel; Nos. 5and 6 had their spikes under the maneuvering bolts of the trail forguiding the piece away from the parapet. With the gunner's word_Heave_, the men at the wheels put on the pressure, and withsuccessive _heaves_ the gun was moved backward until the muzzle wasclear of the embrasure by a yard. The crew then unbarred, and Nos. 1and 2 chocked the wheels. 

[Illustration: Figure 50--GUN DRILL IN THE 1850's. ]

_Load_ was the second command. Nos. 1, 2, and 4 laid down theirspikes; No. 2 took out the tompion; No. 1 took up the sponge and putits wooly head into the muzzle; No. 2 stepped up to the muzzle andseized the sponge staff to help No. 1. In five counts they pushed thesponge to the bottom of the bore. Meanwhile, No. 4 took the passboxand went to the magazine for a cartridge. 

The gunner put his finger over the vent, and with his right handturned the elevating screw to adjust the piece conveniently forloading. No. 3 picked up the rammer. 

At the command _Sponge_, the men at the sponge pressed the toolagainst the bottom of the bore and gave it three turns from right toleft, then three turns from left to right. Next the sponge was drawn, and while No. 1 exchanged it for No. 3's rammer, the No. 2 man tookthe cartridge from No. 4, and put it in the bore. He helped No. 1 pushit home with the rammer, while No. 4 went for a ball and, ifnecessary, a wad. 

_Ram!_ The men on the rammer drew it out an arm's length and rammedthe cartridge with a single stroke. No. 2 took the ball from No. 4, while No. 1 threw out the rammer. With the ball in the bore, both menagain manned the rammer to force the shot home and delivered a finalsingle-stroke ram. No. 1 put the rammer back on its prop. The gunnerstuck his pick into the vent to prick open the powder bag. 

The command _In battery_ was the signal for the cannoneers to man thehandspikes again, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 working at the wheels and Nos. 5and 6 guiding the trail as before. After successive _heaves_, thegunner halted the piece with the wheels touching the hurter--thetimber laid at the foot of the parapet to stop the wheels. 

_Point_ was the next order. No. 3, the man with the tube-pouch, gotout his lanyard and hooked it to a primer. Nos. 5 and 6 put theirhandspikes under the trail, ready to move the gun right or left. Thegunner went to the breech of the gun, removed his pick from the vent, and, sighting down the barrel, directed the spikemen: he would tap theright side of the breech, and No. 5 would heave on his handspike toinch the trail toward the left. A tap on the left side would move No. 6 in the opposite direction. Next, the gunner put the breech-sight (ifhe needed it) carefully on the chalk line of the base ring and ran theelevating screw to the proper elevation. 

As soon as the gun was properly laid, the gunner said _Ready_ andsignaled with both hands. He took the breech-sight off the gun andwalked over to windward, where he could watch the effect of the shot. Nos. 1 and 2 had the chocks, ready to block the wheels at the end ofthe recoil. No. 3 put the primer in the vent, uncoiled the lanyard andbroke a full pace to the rear with his left foot. He stretched thelanyard, holding it in his right hand. 

At _Fire!_ No. 3 gave a smart pull on the lanyard. The gun fired, thecarriage recoiled, and Nos. 1 and 2 chocked the wheels. No. 3 rewoundhis lanyard, and the gunner, having watched the shot, returned to hispost. 

_The development of heavy ordnance through the ages is a subject withmany fascinating ramifications, but this survey has of necessity beenbrief. _ _It has only been possible to indicate the general pattern. Most of the interesting details must await the publication of muchlarger volumes. It is hoped, however, that enough information has beenincluded herein to enhance the enjoyment that comes from inspectingthe great variety of cannon and projectiles that are to be seenthroughout the National Park System. _

GLOSSARY

Most technical phrases are explained in the text and illustrations(see fig. 51). For convenient reference, however, some important wordsare defined below:

*Ballistics*--the science dealing with the motion of projectiles. 

*Barbette carriage*--as used here, a traverse carriage on which a gunis mounted to fire over a parapet. 

*Bomb, bombshell*--see projectiles. 

Breechblock--a movable piece which closes the breech of a cannon. 

*Caliber*--diameter of the bore; also used to express bore length. A30-caliber gun has a bore length 30 times the diameter of the bore. 

*Cartridge*--a bag or case holding a complete powder charge for thecannon, and in some instances also containing the projectile. 

*Casemate carriage*--as used here, a traverse carriage in a fortgunroom (casemate). The gun fired through an embrasure or loophole inthe wall of the room. 

*Chamber*--the part of the bore which holds the propelling charge, especially when of different diameter than the rest of the bore; inchambered muzzle-loaders, the chamber diameter was smaller than thatof the bore. 

*Elevation*--the angle between the axis of a piece and the horizontalplane. 

*Fuze*--a device to ignite the charge of a shell or other projectile. 

*Grommet*--a rope ring used as a wad to hold a cannonball in place inthe bore. 

*Gun*--any firearm; in the limited sense, a long cannon with highmuzzle velocity and flat trajectory. 

*Howitzer*--a short cannon, intermediate between the gun and mortar. 

*Lay*--to aim a gun. 

*Limber*--a two-wheeled vehicle to which the gun trail is attached fortransport. 

*Mandrel*--a metal bar, used as a core around which metal may beforged or otherwise shaped. 

*Mortar*--a very short cannon used for high or curved trajectoryfiring. 

*Point-blank*--as used here, the point where the projectile, whenfired from a level bore, first strikes the horizontal ground in frontof the cannon. 

*Projectiles*--_canister or case shot_: a can filled with smallmissiles that scatter after firing from the gun. _Grape shot_: acluster of small iron balls, which scatter upon firing. _Shell_:explosive missile; a hollow cast-iron ball, filled with gunpowder, with a fuze to produce detonation; a long, hollow projectile, filledwith explosive and fitted with a fuze. _Shot_: a solid projectile, non-explosive. 

*Quoin*--a wedge placed under the breech of a gun to fix itselevation. 

*Range*--The horizontal distance from a gun to its target or to thepoint where the projectile first strikes the ground. _Effective range_is the distance at which effective results may be expected, and isusually not the same as _maximum range_, which means the extreme limitof range. 

*Rotating band*--a band of soft metal, such as copper, which encirclesthe projectile near its base. By engaging the lands of the spiralrifling in the bore, the band causes rotation of the projectile. Rotating bands for muzzle-loading cannon were expansion rings, and thepowder blast expanded the ring into the rifling grooves. 

*Train*--to aim a gun. 

*Trajectory*--curved path taken by a projectile in its flight throughthe air. 

*Transom*--horizontal beam between the cheeks of a gun carriage. 

*Traverse carriage*--as used here, a stationary gun mount, consistingof a gun carriage on a wheeled platform which can be moved about apivot for aiming the gun to right or left. 

*Windage*--as used here, the difference between the diameter of theshot and the diameter of the bore. 

[Illustration: Figure 51--THE PARTS OF A CANNON. ]

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following is a listing of the more important sources dealing withthe development of artillery which have been consulted in theproduction of this booklet. None of the German or Italian sources havebeen included, since practically no German or Italian guns were usedin this country. 

*SPANISH ORDNANCE. * Luis Collado, "Platica Manual de la Artillería"ms. , Milan 1592, and Diego Ufano, _Artillerie_, n. P. , 1621, havedetailed information on sixteenth century guns, and Tomás de Morla, _Láminas pertenecientes al Tratado de Artillería_, Madrid, 1803, illustrates eighteenth century material. Thor Borresen, "Spanish Gunsand Carriages, 1686-1800" ms. , Yorktown, 1938, summarizes eighteenthcentury changes in Spanish and French artillery. Information oncolonial use of cannon can be found in mss. Of the Archivo General deIndias as follows: Inventories of Castillo de San Marcos armament in1683 (58-2-2, 32/2), 1706 (58-1-27, 89/2), 1740 (58-1-32), 1763(86-7-11, 19), Zuńiga's report on the 1702 siege of St. Augustine(58-2-8, B3), and Arredondo's "Plan de la Ciudad de Sn. Agustín de laFlorida" (87-1-1/2, ms. Map); and other works, including [AndresGonzales de Barcía, ] _Ensayo Cronológico para la Historia General dela Florida_, Madrid, 1723; J. T. Connor, editor, _Colonial Records ofSpanish Florida_, Deland, 1930, Vol. II. , Manuel de Montiano, _Lettersof Montiano_ (Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, v. VII, pt. I), Savannah 1909; Albert Manucy, "Ordnance used at Castillo deSan Marcos, 1672-1834, " St. Augustine, 1939. 

*ENGLISH ORDNANCE. * For detailed information John Müller, _Treatise ofArtillery_, London, 1756, has been the basic source for eighteenthcentury material. William Bourne, _The Arte of Shooting in GreatOrdnance_, London, 1587, discusses sixteenth century artillery; andthe anonymous _New Method of Fortification_, London, 1748, containsmuch seventeenth century information. For colonial artillery datathere is John Smith, _The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-Englande, and the Summer Isles_, Richmond, 1819; [Edward Kimber] _LateExpedition to the Gates of St. Augustine_, Boston, 1935; and C. L. Mowat, _East Florida as a British Province_, 1763-1784, Los Angeles, 1939. Charles J. Foulkes, _The Gun-Founders of England_, Cambridge, 1937, discusses the construction of early cannon in England. 

*FRENCH ORDNANCE. * M. Surirey de Saint-Remy, _Mémoires d'Artillerie_, 3rd edition Paris, 1745, is the standard source for French artillerymaterial in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Col. Favé, _Études sur le Passé et l'Avenir de L'Artillerie_, Paris, 1863, is agood general history. Louis Figurier, _Armes de Guerre_, Paris, 1870, is also useful. 

*UNITED STATES ORDNANCE. * Of first importance is Louis de Tousard, _American Artillerist's Companion_, 2 vols. , Philadelphia, 1809-13. For performance and use of artillery during the 1860's the followingsources are useful: John Gibbon, _The Artillerist's Manual_, New York, 1863; Q. A. Gillmore, _Engineer and Artillery Operations against theDefences of Charleston Harbor in 1863_, New York, 1865; his _OfficialReport . .. Of the Siege and Reduction of Fort Pulaski, Georgia_, NewYork, 1862; and the _Official Records of Union and Confederate Armiesand Navies_. Ordnance manuals of the period include: _Instruction forHeavy Artillery_, U. S. , Charleston, 1861; _Ordnance Instructions forthe United States Navy_, Washington, 1866; J. Gorgas, _The OrdnanceManual for the Use of the Officers of the Confederate States Army_, Richmond, 1863. For United States developments after 1860: L. L. Bruff, _A Text-book of Ordnance and Gunnery_, New York, 1903; F. T. Hines and F. W. Ward, _The Service of Coast Artillery_, New York, 1910; the U. S. Field Artillery School's _Construction of FieldArtillery Matériel_ and _General Characteristics of Field ArtilleryAmmunition_, Fort Sill, 1941. 

*GENERAL. * For the history of artillery, as well as additionalbiographical and technical details, there is the Field ArtillerySchool's excellent booklet, _History of the Development of FieldArtillery Matériel_, Fort Sill, 1941. Henry W. L. Hime, _The Origin ofArtillery_, New York, 1915, is most useful, as is that standard work, the _Encyclopedia Britannica_, 1894 edition: Arms and Armour, Artillery, Gunmaking, Gunnery, Gunpowder; 1938 edition: Artillery, Coehoorn, Engines of War, Fireworks, Gribeauval, Gun, Gunnery, Gunpowder, Musket, Ordnance, Rocket, Small arms, and Tartaglia. 

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