Artillery Two main types of artillery were used during the Civil War Highly mobile field artillery supported the troops on the battlefield More powerful heavy artillery was used from fixed positions to attack and defend fortifications and ports The Union and Confederate armies employed guns of several kinds as field or heavy artillery Smoothbore muzzleloaded cannons were the most common but there were rifled guns breechloading guns and mortars Some guns were highly specialized such as the Union’s 12-pounder 5 4-kg mountain gun which was only 33 inches 84 cm long and could be carried by mule The Napoleon The most versatile and widely used artillery piece was the Model 1857 12-pounder Napoleon named for the French Emperor Napoleon III When the Civil War broke out only five Napoleons were in use U S arsenals were still stocked with old Model 1841 6-pounders which the Confederates seized when they captured federal arsenals in 1861 The 6-pounder was their main field gun in the first year of the war but it lacked the range and power of the Napoleon By July 1862 the Tredegar Works in Richmond Virginia the main Confederate gun foundry was casting the 12-pounder The Napoleon was a muzzleloaded smoothbore with a bronze barrel 5 feet 6 inches 168 cm long It had a range of up to 1,600 yards 1,463 m and could fire four types of shot The Confederacy made more than 450 Napoleons compared with 1,127 produced in the Union Ammunition types Solid shot was used against large bodies of enemy troops at long range or to batter enemy fortifications A traditional cast iron cannonball weighing 12 pounds Muzzleloaded breechloading Muzzleloaded weapons were loaded through the end of the barrel breechloading took place through a gap near the back of the weapon Curriculum Context As in other areas of American culture artillery in the mid-19th century was based on European models Smoothbore Without rifled grooves on the inside of the barrel 6 Weapons Tactics and Strategy
5 4 kg it was the most accurate type of ammunition The shrapnel shell was used against troops in the open or in trenches Its accuracy depended on a timed fuse that started when the gun went off Another ammunition type the explosive shell also depended on a fuse This projectile was filled with about 8 ounces 225 g of black powder It was designed to penetrate and blow up fortifications and buildings Canister shot was used against attacking infantry and cavalry at close ranges of 350 yards 320 m or less Canister was a large tin can filled with 27 pieces of 1 inch 2 5-cm diameter iron shot As the gun was fired the can split apart releasing the shot and turning the artillery piece into a kind of giant shotgun At times of extreme danger artillerymen sometimes loaded their guns with double or even triple rounds of canister The most common method of firing artillery in the Civil War was by using a lanyard a special rope to pull and ignite a friction primer inserted into the rear vent hole of the gun The friction primer was a copper tube filled Curriculum Context Curricula might ask students to analyze the effect of different weapons on the battlefield Shot Small spherical pellets that are packed into canisters or shells Union artillery waiting to be transported in May 1863 including solid shot foreground coehorns and Parrott guns background Artillery 7
with gunpowder that ignited when the lanyard pulled out a serrated wire Field guns were organized into batteries In the Union army batteries were made up of six guns manned by about 150 men commanded by a captain In the Confederate army which had fewer guns a battery was reduced to four guns after 1861 The guns of a battery were positioned 14 yards 12 8 m apart Rifled artillery Rifled artillery began to appear soon after the war began Rifled guns had a spiraled groove cut into the inside of the barrel that gave them greater range and accuracy than smoothbores such as the Napoleon They were made of iron because the rifling groove wore away too quickly on bronze barrels Rifled guns were easily identified by the big reinforcing bands of iron fitted at the rear of the barrel to strengthen the breech Two designs were mainly used in the Union army the 3-inch 7 6-cm Ordnance Rifle and the 10 pounder 4 5-kg Parrott gun Their success led the Confederates to start making copies by 1863 though the Southern guns were generally inferior in quality Like the smoothbore cannon the rifled guns were muzzleloaded Breechloading guns were at the leading edge of technology and both armies imported some from Britain Breechloaders were not used in large numbers however as muzzleloaders could fire just as rapidly Heavy artillery The most powerful guns in the Civil War were those of the heavy artillery They were made of iron and by the end of the war most were rifled Curriculum Context The Union had the advantage of a far more developed iron industry than the South The Napoleon was the standard artillery piece used by both sides in the Civil War It was a smoothbore weapon with a range of 1,600 yards 1,460 m 8 Weapons Tactics and Strategy
Moving and Firing Field Artillery A six-horse team pulled the gun and the two wheeled vehicle to which it was attached known as a limber while another team of six pulled the caisson a wagon with extra ammunition a spare wheel and other accessories Each team had three drivers the rest of the crew either walked or sat on the limber and caisson The pace was usually a steady trot when not under fire galloping was only for emergencies Field artillery was meant to be able to keep up with the cavalry but its ability to do so depended on the condition of the roads which often slowed down the batteries considerably The gun was brought into action by a commander and crew of six who had to go through 14 maneuvers to load and fire The drill was complicated but an experienced team could arrive in position unlimber and fire their first shot in about 30 seconds After that a fire rate of two shots a minute was a good average The heaviest guns a marching army could transport were siege guns such as the 30-pounder 13 6-kg Parrott gun Bigger artillery pieces had to be mounted on a carriage to control the massive recoil and be installed within fortifications or entrenchments Some of these guns were huge The most powerful were the coastal artillery pieces used against shipping The Union Rodman gun could fire a projectile weighing 1,080 pounds 490 kg over 3 miles 5 km Mortars The mortar was the other type of artillery used during the war Mortars had a short stubby barrel that could throw shells in a high arc at short range into fortifications This made them ideal for sieges and they were used in large numbers by the Union army The largest mortars had a caliber of 13 inches 33 cm and were sometimes mounted on railroad flatcars A much smaller bronze mortar called the coehorn was also used in sieges It weighed about 290 pounds 131 kg and could be carried by four men The coehorn was used in the trenches around Petersburg Virginia in the fighting and siege of 1864 and 1865 Recoil The kickback of a gun or cannon as it is fired Curriculum Context You could read more about the use of mortars in Union sieges such as those of Vicksburg Petersburg and Port Hudson Caliber The diameter of a bullet or other projectile Artillery 9
