the artilleryman magazine - fall 2015

Vol. 36, No. 4Fall 2015

$5.95

A Commitment to

Reflected in theFit & Finish

of OurProduct

Honor & Integrity

Historical Ordnance WorksP.O. Box 793 Woodstock, Georgia 30188

770-928-2298 • www.HistoricalOrdnanceWorks.com

Historical Ordnance Works are experienced, skilled craftsmen who have studied and have been trained in the nineteenth century methods of applying the crafts required. Every item produced meets or exceeds the original Ordnance Department specifications. Our knowledge, skill and attention to detail consistently exceeds customer expectations. We offer our services to museum professionals, as well as, serious collectors and other parties interested in the art of preservation.

Conservation • Restoration • ReproductionSpecializing in Civil War & Other

Historical Muzzle Loading Artillery

The Artilleryman | Fall 2015 | Vol. 36, No. 4

CONTENTS

4 PUBLISHER’S PLATFORM 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

9 FRENCH FLINTLOCK CANNON LOCK A French manufactured War of 1812 flintlock cannon lock. By David Kornely.

10 U.S. 10-POUNDER PARROTT CASE SHOT WITH CANNED BURSTER How the Parrott case shot is constructed. By CW04 (Ret.) John D. Bartleson Jr. USN.

12 THE REFERENCE DESK U.S. 10-pounder Parrott case shot cross-sections. By Jack W. Melton Jr.

14 THE GIRARDEY PERCUSSION FUSE Isadore Phillipe Girardey’s percussion fuse. By Robert Gregory.

16 THE SINGLE-GUN BATTERY AT DAM NO. 1 The remarkable shot by Cpl. Dillard of the Troup Artillery. By William Sidney Smedlund.

20 TRACKING DOWN & KEEPING TRACK OF SURVIVING ARTILLERY The journey of tracking down surviving cannon. By Thomas Batha.

24 LOOMIS’ BATTERY ANNUAL LONG RANGE ARTILLERY MATCH The annual Grayling, Michigan, live-fire artillery competition. By Don Lutz, Director.

36 UNEXPLORED VICKSBURG ARTILLERY A few cannon around the Vicksburg Battlefield that you might not want to miss. By Gary Brown.

42 THE OLD COLONY CLUB’S FOREFATHER’S DAY CELEBRATION Annual celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims in Plymouth with a strange and wonderful old Forefathers’ Day celebration. By Greg White.

47 THE ARTILLERY BOOKSHELF By Peter Frandsen.

48 CLASSIFIED ADS

© 2015 Jack W. Melton Jr. LLC, All Rights Reserved.

Printed proudly and responsibly in the United States of America. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

The information contained herein is for the general history and background of our readers and The Artilleryman assumes no liability for loading or shooting data which may be published in this magazine. The circumstances surrounding the loading and discharge of firearms mentioned are beyond our control and are unique to the particular instance being described. We hereby disclaim any responsibility for persons attempting to duplicate loading data or shooting conditions referenced herein and specifically recommend against relying solely on this material. Readers are cautioned that black powder varies according to grain size, type, date of manufacture and supplier, and that firing of antique or replica ordnance should not be undertaken without adequate training and experience in procedures and loads.

Founding Publisher: C. Peter JorgensenPublisher: Jack W. Melton Jr.Editor: Peggy M. MeltonBook Reviews: Peter A. FrandsenAdvertising: [email protected]: Carson Jenkins Jr.Graphic Designer: Squeegie StudiosInDesign Guru: Neil Stewart

Contact Information:Jack W. Melton Jr. LLC dba The Artilleryman

96 Craig St., Suite 112-333East Ellijay, GA 30540(706) 940-2673 (BORE)

Email: [email protected]: ArtillerymanMagazine.com

The Artilleryman is published quarterly by Jack W. Melton Jr. LLC. The office of publication is at 96 Craig Street, Suite 112-333, East Ellijay, Georgia 30540. (706) 940-2673. Contributions of editorial material and photographs are welcomed at the above address. Subscription rates: $25 per year in U.S. and Canada; $42 overseas. U.S. bank checks or credit cards.Subscribe online at www.ArtillerymanMagazine.com.POSTMASTER: Send address change to The Artillery-man, 96 Craig Street, Suite 112-333, East Ellijay, Georgia 30540.

Consultants:Thomas Bailey, (CWO4 Ret.) John D. Bartleson Jr. U.S. Navy, Craig Bell, Jack Bell, Jim Bender, Col.(Ret.) John Biemeck, Glenn Dutton, David Gotter, Butch & Anita Holcombe, Les Jensen, Mike Kent, Lewis Leigh Jr., Donald Lutz, John Morris, Michael J. O’Donnell, Bernie Paulson, Bruce Paulson, Lawrence E. Pawl, Matthew Switlik

about the Cover: Joe Wooley, captured his father Bob’s 12-pounder CSA bronze Napoleon of Reilly’s Battery firing at a target 600 yards away at the recent Grayling, Michigan, Artillery Match. This is a fantas-tic photograph of the flame coming out of the can-non in which you can see the friction primer blown out of the vent. Bob Wooley and his crew won the muzzle loading cannon hit their target 5 out of 10 times. Reproduction solid bronze Augusta Foundry CSA 12-pounder Napoleon and carriage was built by Historical Ordnance Works.

Readers are invited to send high-resolution photos for consideration on the cover. If we use your photo you’ll get a free year’s subscription.

My first issue was well received and I appreciate the very favorable comments from our subscribers. I have included some of the comments below and welcome feedback to help continually improve our magazine. I have been blessed with support from long time subscribers and authors from all over the world. They have contributed great articles on artillery, places to visit, and events. If you have a particular subject you’d like to see or write about please feel free to contact me at [email protected].

----------------Jack, the issue is spectacular. I wish

you many more subscribers, adver-tisers and successful years ahead as publisher.

Kay JorgensenEditor - Civil War News

----------------Dear Jack,Wow! The Summer 2015 issue is

simply amazing…like it is one of those fancy TVs in the new 4K HD!

Patrick, from Tennessee----------------

As a longtime subscriber to this, and a number of other similar publica-tions, I want to compliment you on out doing yourself. Besides the fantastic

photo quality, I really liked the close ups, article content, and excellent an-notations…all first class.

All the Best,Cory

----------------Dear Mr. Melton,Just wanted to tell you that you

have done an excellent job with the Artilleryman Magazine!!

The new colors are simply beautiful and the layout is superb!!

Thank you so much and keep up the great work!!!! :-)

Chris, from Washington, PA----------------

Howdy, I just got my issue of the Artilleryman magazine. I can hardly believe how high the quality is! Won-derful weight paper, Beautiful photos and sooo much information! GREAT JOB and keep em coming!

Patrick----------------

Jack,Congratulations on the first issue!!

GREAT JOB!! Loved all the articles and was especially impressed with the cover, ha!. Good luck in this new endeavor, looking forward to many future issues.

THANK YOU for including the Ohio Civil War Show in your first issue.

Wayne WilliamsOhio Civil War Show

----------------Looks good -- a quantum leap artis-

tically. Thanks, Mason----------------

I have been a subscriber to The Ar-tilleryman since early in VOL. 1.

I just received the Summer 2015 copy. WOW ! It is beautiful. The paper, the color, the print, and the articles are top notch. Thanks for a great job.

Bob----------------

Jack, I wanted to say that the new

issue of the Artilleryman Magazine under your editorialship looks really great. I’m glad to see that someone has picked up from Katherine Jorgensen. I wish you the best of success.

Peter----------------

I really like the new Artilleryman layout, format, quality of paper, etc. Congratulations. I especially enjoyed The Reference Desk.

Rob----------------

Duffy Neubauer recommends the book West Point Foundry written by Trudie A. Grace and Mark Forlow. Sold by Arcadia Press. To order call 1-800-313-2665. He says it is a must for every artilleryman’s library.

----------------Cannon UpdateJim Bender reports that he has

added the following information to the National Registry of Surviving Guns: two 24-pounder M1844 Flank Howitzers are on US 29 at a small C.S. Memorial in Palmetto, Georgia.

Facebook.com/ArtillerymanMagazine

Jack W. Melton Jr., Publisher

The Artilleryman4

TO THE EDITOR:Greetings! Visited your page while

doing research on the artillery used during the first significant ironclad battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. I’m trying to find out how much the cannonballs used by both ships weighed, and more spe-cifics about their particular cannon. Hope you can help, or steer me in the right direction! Thanks.

Curtis

Dear Curtis:There are many references for

finding out what the Merrimack (CSS Virginia) and the USS Monitor carried in her batteries. The best summary I know if found in a book by Tony Gib-bons, Warships and Naval Battles of the Civil War, Gallery Books, W. H. Smith Publishers, Inc., New York, NY, 1989.

Wikipedia also has a summary of the battle and the armament of each vessel. You can view this by going to the site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor_and_Merrimack or looking elsewhere on line for the details of the ships. There is ample information available about their armament.

The CSS Virginia had two 7-inch rifles; two 6.4-inch rifles; six 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbore cannons (U.S. Navy ordnance captured when the Navy Yard was captured); and two each, 12-pounder howitzers. The USS Monitor had two, 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbore cannons.

The 9-inch Dahlgrens on the CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merri-mack) fired cannonballs consisting of solid shot and shells. The solid shot weighed 90 pounds and the explosive shells weighed 72 pounds which in-cluded the weight of the black pow-der bursting charge that weighed 3 pounds. I have found many of these shells that were abandoned along the

James River by the retreating Con-federates and can tell you the naval watercap fuses are marked 1857, 1858 and 1859. It’s unlikely the 12-pounder howitzers saw any service during the battle as the crew had to be exposed to fire them and the small caliber cannon would have proven totally ineffective against the fleet and the USS Monitor.

The USS Monitor fired 11-inch solid shot, case shot and shells, from what I can determine. The solid shot weighed 166 pounds; the case shot 137.75 pounds; and the shells 133.5 pounds. The case shot and shell includes the weight of the black powder bursting charge: shell 6.0 pounds and case shot 6 ounces. I have found a case shot fired by the Monitor some days after the battle and can confirm case shot were in her locker. It had a five second fuse which the commander complained was too short in one of his reports, so this was consistent with what I found. Official Records (OR’s) also indicated she had bronze cover solid shot, but I’ve never seen one of these to weigh... nor do I know if any were fired.

I haven’t addressed the rifles as your question pertained to cannon balls. The mix of shells the Virginia’s rifles fired is a much more complex question as many authors have re-ported a mix of 7-inch and 6.4-inch projectiles. This is likely beyond the scope of your question.

John Biemeck

Dear Curtis:Here is a more complete response

to your questions about the cannon and projectiles used by the two duel-ing ships.

John Biemeck correctly identified for you the cannon on board the two vessels. John and I were both privi-leged to be able to inspect the only known surviving projectile docu-mented to have been fired by the CSS

Virginia. As I indicated earlier, the CSS Virginia carried only shells, not anticipating encountering an ironclad vessel. The shell we examined was a 7-inch Confederate Dahlgren shell. Without its lead sabot (lost when fired), the empty shell weighed in at 91 pounds. With a full load of pow-der, a fuze, and with a complete lead sabot, the shell would have weighed somewhere in the range of 110-115 pounds. A photograph of an unfired 7-inch Confederate Dahlgren shell is shown on page 218 of my book, Civil War Heavy Explosive Ordnance. Accord-ing to the Naval ORs (Series I, Volume 7, page 28), the USS Monitor only used cast iron shot against the CSS Virginia, most of which shattered upon striking the armor of the CSS Virginia. Accord-ing to its records (as John indicated), the USS Monitor also had on board both bronze covered shot and wrought iron shot, but did not use them during the battle.

The U.S. Naval Academy has two 6.4-inch Tredegar type III shells (see my book, pages 441-442), engraved with notations that they were fired by the Confederates in early 1862, which is consistent with the timing of the de-sign of these shells for use on the CSS Virginia with its 6.4-inch rifles. They weigh 62 and 65 pounds (adjusted for the loss of the lead ring sabot on one of them).

The USS Monitor’s two 11-inch smoothbore cannon are well docu-mented. The specific type of rifled cannon used by the CSS Virginia was a matter of debate for some years (and still may be among some). They were too early to be the standard Brooke rifled cannon that became the stan-dard heavy cannon for the Confed-eracy. Most likely, they were an early Tredegar design in which 10-inch Columbiads were bored and rifled to 6.4-inch caliber, and IX-inch Dahlgren

ArtillerymanMagazine.com | Vol. 36, No. 4 5

rifles were cast and bored and rifled as 7-inch rifles, on to which a heavy reinforcing band was placed on the breech. (See my book, pages 9-10). As John indicates, the smoothbore cannon aboard the CSS Virginia were probably part of the large number of cannon barrels recovered in Gosport (near Norfolk, VA) after Confederates captured the Union Navy port there.

There is a great book on the heavy cannon barrels, The Big Guns, by Olm-stead, Stark, and Tucker, which is out of print.

Jack Bell§

High Speed Camera PhotographsRob Hoctor sent photographs (bot-

tom page photography sequence) of a small bore cannon that were taken using a high speed camera shooting at 120 frames per second. The load was 3 ounces of 1Fg black powder wrapped in aluminum foil with no projectile. It makes a normal flash and bang when it fires, but these photographs depict a remarkable sequence of events once ignited. Rob thinks you will find them very interesting and they certainly il-lustrate why you should keep your distance when firing a cannon.

The barrel is 30 inches in length with a 1-7/8 bore with a steel sleeve. Note that the next to the last photo-graph on the right depict the carriage trail rising a few inches off the ground and the cannon moving rearward about 18 inches.

§Jack,

Perhaps a foolish question but: how sensitive were the Civil War percussion fuzes if they were used in muzzle loading weapons and had

Photography by Austin Marti

to be rammed into the bore (back to-wards the breach)?

I’ve been a student of the Civil War since my youth (Baby Boomer – Class of 1947) and have a large Civil War library and a few Civil War artifacts (most recently a Parrott 20-pounder shell – with percussion fuze). I am currently reading the History of the 5th Massachusetts Battery. I really hadn’t given this question a lot of thought prior to acquiring the 20-pounder but found myself thinking about it on my way into the office. I would appreciate learning more.

Hal

Dear Hal:To answer your question about

fuzes – projectile fuzes of the Civil War, in most fuzes, had a handling and bore safety that provided a mea-sure of assurance for the gun crew. I have not read of any handling accident save the James shell when a work-man attempted to remove the per-cussion cap from the fuze, caused a detonation which killed him and mor-tally wounded the shell’s inventor Charles T. James, who died the next day.

There were several in-stances of in bore or at the muzzle deto-nations, pri-marily in the

large caliber Parrott rifles.Your shell is a U.S. 20-pounder

Parrott shell with a dud-fired Schenkl percussion fuze. (See my color draw-ing of a unfired Schenkl fuze) It would appear that the shell nose impacted slightly at an angle crushing the fuze back into the shell threads. Who knows what caused the fuze plunger and cap not to move forward and strike the anvil. Perhaps the plunger canted and jammed.

John Bartleson§

Jack,The match where

this picture was taken is the an-nual Long Range Artillery com-petition spon-sored by Loomis

Battery and held at range 35 on the

Michigan National Guard base at Grayling,

Michigan. Our Confederate Hughes

Gun competed at 600 yards, the target being a 4-foot by 6-foot piece

of panel board. 10 shot match with total number of “hits” counting for score.

The Artilleryman6

The

Magazine

The Artilleryman is a quarterly magazine founded in 1979 forenthusiasts who collect and shoot cannons and mortars primarily from the Revolutionary War, Civil War to World War II. ArtillerymanMagazine.com

Cannon safety, artillery history, places to visit, projectiles, fuses, equipment, book reviews, shoot reports, how-to articles, and artillery news U.S. and abroad.

Subscription only $25/year, U.S.

715-526-9769 • www.zurkopromotions.com

ZURKO’S MIDWEST PROMOTIONS

& MILITARY EXTRAVAGANZA

2015 • SEMI-ANNUAL • 2015CHICAGOLAND’S NATIONALCIVIL WAR

WHEATON, ILDuPage Co. Fairgrounds

2015 W. Manchester • Wheaton, IL 60189

$1 OFF

ADMISSION!

FALL SHOW & SALE

SEPT. 19th, 2015

ZURKO’S MIDWEST PROMOTIONS

& MILITARY EXTRAVAGANZA

2015 • SEMI-ANNUAL • 2015CHICAGOLAND’S NATIONALCIVIL WAR

WHEATON, ILDuPage Co. Fairgrounds

2015 W. Manchester • Wheaton, IL 60189

• 1,000’s of Civil War Treasures • Plus! Revolutionary War • Spanish-American War Indian Wars • Mountain Men • Bowie Knife

Fur Traders • AND World Wars I & II Memorabilia

Show Hours: 9am to 4pm / $9 • Early Buyer’s 8am / $25

Our powder charge was 3 ounces of FG black powder and a solid shot that weighs about one pound six ounces. Fired using a standard mus-ket percussion cap.

Normally there would be two ammunition boxes straddling the barrel, but we remove them and place them back of the gun, in line with the other limbers.

Unfortunately, Robinson’s Bat-tery has only shot this distance a few times and we are still having a learning curve to deal with, so our score was unimpressive. Still, every time we fire this with shot, we learn more about the art of the artilleryman.

John HughesCapt. Robinson’s Batteryhttp://robinsonsbattery.org


Reproduction Confederate Hughes Gun manned by Robinson’s Battery shooting at the annual Loomis’ Battery Long Range Competition. Courtesy John Hughes, Capt. of Robinson’s Battery.

The National Park Service lost a valued Volunteer In Parks member in the tragedy in Chattanooga, Tennessee on July 16th.

He was born in Cobb County, Georgia, graduating from Sprayberry High School. He attended Georgia Southern University for a year before postponing higher education to enlist in the United States Marine Corps in 2014. Skip was assigned to Mike Battery, 3rd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, serving as a recorder.

Skip began his NPS volunteer service in September 2014. Serving with the Kennesaw Mountain National Battle�eld Park volunteer artillery detachment, he had become an integral part of the gun crew, mastering all of the numbered positions in the Civil War era artillery drill. During his ten months of volunteer service Skip never missed an event except for the times when his higher calling of service to our nation as a Marine superseded the needs of the park and its visitors. Skip’s enthusiasm and dedication was a boon to the crew as a whole and interpretation of Artillery to the public.

As an active service Marine, Skip was an asset, connecting the history of the �eld artillery with the demands on our armed services in the present day for thousands of visitors. He also brought a sense of continuity between his fellow volunteers who strive every day to honor the soldiers of the past and the brave young men and women like Skip who serve our nation today.

Lance Cpl. “Skip” Wellsholding the sponge and rammer.

Photography by:Phillip & Janine Whiteman

The National Park Service lost a valued Volunteer In Parks member in the tragedy in Chattanooga, Tennessee on July 16th.

He was born in Cobb County, Georgia, graduating from Sprayberry High School. He attended Georgia Southern University for a year before postponing higher education to enlist in the United States Marine Corps in 2014. Skip was assigned to Mike Battery, 3rd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, serving as a recorder.

Skip began his NPS volunteer service in September 2014. Serving with the Kennesaw Mountain National Battle�eld Park volunteer artillery detachment, he had become an integral part of the gun crew, mastering all of the numbered positions in the Civil War era artillery drill. During his ten months of volunteer service Skip never missed an event except for the times when his higher calling of service to our nation as a Marine superseded the needs of the park and its visitors. Skip’s enthusiasm and dedication was a boon to the crew as a whole and interpretation of Artillery to the public.

As an active service Marine, Skip was an asset, connecting the history of the �eld artillery with the demands on our armed services in the present day for thousands of visitors. He also brought a sense of continuity between his fellow volunteers who strive every day to honor the soldiers of the past and the brave young men and women like Skip who serve our nation today.

Lance Cpl. “Skip” Wellsholding the sponge and rammer.

Photography by:Phillip & Janine Whiteman

T he object at hand is a rare 1812 French manufactured flintlock ignition system

for cannon.Prior to cannon ignition ‘locks’ being

used, typical firing of cannon would be with a quill primer or open powder train which was touched off with either a handheld linstock or portfire. Use of either of these methods required the gunner to be in close proximity to the cannon’s vent and left the artillerist sub-ject to possibly be in line of the cannons’ recoil, or in the event of the failure of the tube; undoubtably in harms way.

Cannon locks were developed and put into use first probably by the Brit-ish in the mid-1700’s. They were quickly viewed as an improvement over the earlier systems used. The gunner would use a rope and lanyard to fire the can-non now which allowed him to be fur-ther away from the cannon on ignition. Also, in the case of a naval gun, the igni-tion was speedier which allowed for bet-ter shooting accuracy on moving ships and rolling seas.

The brass body consists of two pieces with the release spring and cock-ing mechanism inside, as typical with a flintlock gun. At the rear of the lock, is an iron piece which has a hole in it for the lanyard line to at-tach. Black powder was filled into the pan and the frizzen closed to protect the powder from the wind and elements. The hammer which held a flint was pulled back or cocked readying the piece. A quick pull on the outstretched lanyard released the hammer and the flint would strike the steel

frizzen hopefully creating a spark which would instantaneously light the powder in the pan and set off the propellant charge.

Cannon locks would either mount onto a raised cast section on the bar-rel next to the vent, or onto an applied mount next to the vent. On some older cannon barrels you can see the cast on mounts, or the threaded holes for screws used for attaching the mount next to the vent. The lock pictured, has in the front a pin that slid into a receiv-ing hole, and a hole through the brass housing for a bolt to secure it. The lock measures overall, approximately 6 5/8 inches in length.

Some locks have different markings. Besides different man-ufacturers and countries of origin, I have some that have different stampings such as anchors and other inspectors marks. Some are numbered so if they are removed from a certain cannon, they could be matched back when needed.

Cannon locks are very rare to find today. Eventually flintlock style cannon locks were replaced with a percussion style system of ignition which

was a further improvement. After the simpler friction primer was introduced, cannon locks fell into disuse. Although, on some naval photographs from the American Civil War, sometimes you can still see them in use.

David Kornely has an extensive collec-tion of black powder projectiles, fuzes and es-pecially artillerists tools and implements. He is happy to talk artillery and welcomes any comments at [email protected]


BRINGOL / A PARIS / 1812

The rifled Parrott case shot is unique in that it has its burster charge of black

powder located in the base of the shell body. A normal paper fuse adapter connects to the bursting charge by way of two pieces of rolled tubing. The two piece tubing aids in dropping in the shrapnel balls followed by the melted matrix.

The bursting charge holds a mea-sured amount of black powder poured into the can by way of the two piece tubing using a funnel. I have no refer-ence to the tubing being filled with the powder but see no reason why it could not be filled. The lower tubing is sol-dered to the tin can and permits addi-tion of case shot level with the top. The second tubing is then mated with the lower half and allows some movement to fill remaining space with the case shot. The matrix of melted asphaltum pitch or sulphur is then poured into the shell until just below the tubing and allowed to harden. The shell can be sealed by screwing in the zinc Par-rott time fuse adapter.

At the battle line, the paper time fuse, of the required time is then tapped home by the artillerist and ready to load in the cannon.

Several models of American Civil War (ACW) rifled projectiles make use of this base charge effect including the Hotchkiss case shot projectile. I have often wondered if the U.S. copied the English versions or if the British cop-ied our patents.

I doubt if designers Hotchkiss and Parrott had any thoughts of how their inventions would affect all the wars to follow. The base initiating, nose ejecting principle is used by modern day projectiles of the shrapnel variety. When detonated, the majority of the shrapnel will tend to follow the trajec-tory and speed of the shell.

Editor’s Comments: According to Robert P. Parrott’s book, Ranges Of Parrott Guns, And Notes For Prac-tice, 1863, on page 13, he wrote that a 10-pounder, 2.9-inch caliber Parrott case shot projectile, weighing 10 1/2 pounds, fired with a 1 pound service charge at 2° elevation had a range of 930 yards with a flight time of 3 sec-onds. A 10-pounder Parrott shell, weighing 9 3/4 pounds, fired with a 1 pound service charge at 20° elevation, had a range of 5,000 yards and a flight time of 21 seconds. The approximate rule for time of flight for a Parrott pro-jectile under 4,000 yards had a veloc-ity of 900 feet in 1 second according to Robert Parrott.

Text and illustrations by John D. Bartleson Jr., author and illustrator of the 1972 field guide for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel titled Civil War Explosive Ordnance 1861-1865 with radiographs. Photography by Jack W. Melton Jr.

The Artilleryman10

U.S. 10-pounder Parrott case shot projectile. This case shot projectile is sectioned to show the black, asphal-tum pitch matrix, the lead balls, the tin bursting charge can, the powder tube and the paper time fuse section. This is the invention of Robert Parker Parrott, the inventor of the Parrott can-non and Parrott projectiles. He was the superintendent of the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York.


Rad

iogr

aph

from

the

book

Civ

il W

ar E

xplo

sive

Ord

nanc

e 18

61-1

865,

sho

win

g th

e ca

vity

, lea

d ca

se s

hot b

alls

and

tin

cann

ed b

urst

er o

utlin

es.

Tin can burster for the 10-pounder Parrott case shot projectile that held the bursting charge.

Zinc Parrott time fuse adapter designed for a tapered paper time fuse.

8 second taperedpaper time fuse.

Bursting cavity tincylinder

Zinc time fuse adapter

Paper time fuse

Wrought- iron sabot

Lead case shot balls

Tin connecting cylinder

Sulphur matrix

Powder train tube

Notches in sabot

Diameter: 2.86 inchesBore Diameter: 2.90 inchesGun: 10-pounder Parrott Rifle, M1861Length: 8.50 inchesWeight: 9.6 pounds

Construction: Case shotFusing System: Time, ParrottFusing Material: ZincFuse Threads Diameter: 1.12 inchesFuse Hole Length: 1.31 inches

Sabot: Ring, wrought iron, Type IWall Thickness: .43 inchesMatrix Material: SulphurCase Shot Material: LeadCase Shot Diameter: .69 caliber

A tin bursting charge cylinder was inserted into the shell through the fuse hole, the lead case shot loaded around the bursting can and a hot, liquefied matrix poured into the cavity. The paper time fuse has been driven down into the shell from impact. There are chisel notches in the wrought-iron sabot that help bond the sabot to the cast-iron shell body in order to prevent slippage when fired. Federal Ordnance records state that 51,130 10-pounder Parrott case shot projectiles were purchased for a total cost of $106,248.20*.

* Message of the President of the United States and Accompanying Documents, To the Two Houses of Congress, at The Commence-ment of the Second Session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress. Washington. Government Printing Office, 1866. Page 662.

Note the difference in the nose and base thicknesses between these two cross-sectioned Parrott projectiles.

By Jack W. Melton Jr.

The Artilleryman12

Bursting cavity tincylinder

Zinc Parrotttime fuse

adapterPaper time

fuse location

Brass sabot

Lead case shot balls

Tin connecting cylinder

Asphaltum matrix

Air bubbles

Powder train tube

Diameter: 2.86 inchesBore Diameter: 2.90 inchesGun: 10-pounder Parrott Rifle, M1861Length: 8.25 inchesWeight: 9.8 pounds

Construction: Case shotFusing System: Time, ParrottFusing Material: ZincFuse Threads Diameter: 1.12 inchesFuse Hole Length: 1.75 inches

Sabot: Ring, brass Type IIIWall Thickness: .37 inchesMatrix Material: Asphaltum Case Shot Material: LeadCase Shot Diameter: .69 caliber

Sulphur matrix was replaced with a coal-tar distillate after 1862. This cold-tar distillate matrix was patented by Alfred Berney of New Jersey on June 17, 1862, United States patent No. 35,659, and was an improvement over the sulphur matrix. In the manufacture of case shot projectiles, Mr. Berney used in his matrix the residue from the distillation of coal-tar, generally known as asphaltum. This case shot projectile has a tin tube leading from the fuse to the tin cylinder which held the bursting charge. The sabot height is .50 inches from the base to the bottom edge of the sidewall of the vertical body. The zinc Parrott time fuse adapter is 1 ½ inches in length. This projectile has a longer fuse channel as compared to the one on the previous page. This unfired Parrott projectile was recovered from the James River at City Point in Hopewell, Virginia.

Federal10-pounder Parrott

Case Shot Projectiles


Robert Parker Parrott

I sadore Phillipe Girardey en-listed on April 11, 1861 as a Captain and was commis-

sioned into Co. “F”, 1st C. S. Infantry. He was reassigned to the Washington Artillery also known as Girardey’s Georgia Battalion of Light Artillery. The Governor reluctantly allowed the battalion to be reassigned to the Con-federate States Army, saying “This is the best-armed and most thoroughly drilled artillery corps in the State.”

The Battery was assigned to the Army of the Mississippi, commanded by General Albert Sidney Johnston. The Battalion was attached to the 2nd Corps, 2nd Division, 3rd Brigade. They fought in one major battle, Shi-loh or known as Pittsburg Landing. Kudos were given to the Georgia units for their gallantry and bravery during the battle, “During this time Captain Girardey used his battery with effect upon a battery of the enemy which was playing on us from the brow of the hill oppo-site.” and “Georgia appears with credit at the famous battle of Shiloh, April 6th and 7th, 1862 by two commands, the Wash-ington Light Artillery, Capt. Isadore P. Girardey, and the Mountain Dragoons, Capt. I. W. Avery.”

As early as January, 1862, Girardey submitted a re-quest to develop a fuse. In his request he stated “I have a project in view for the improvement of Explod-ing Rifle Shells, which I’m

fully confident will ensure the explosion as desired. It will be adaptable for all sizes of Rifle Shells. . . . If you deem it sufficiently important, I would be pleased to make a few for trial.” It wasn’t until June 5, 1863 that Girardey’s percussion fuse received recognition. The patent application was assigned Patent No. 176 by the Confederate States Patent Office, Rich-mond, Va. Shortly thereafter he was re-assigned. On August 9, 1863, Girardey was detailed to the Augusta, Ga. Ar-senal and appointed as acting Military Storekeeper. He was promoted to the rank of Major, date unknown.

His percussion fuse was very simple and inexpensive to produce. It substituted a paper-time fuse for a percussion fuse that fit perfectly into a wood or brass fuse-plug. The ad-vantage, of course, was that the fuse would detonate a shell on impact. The fuse was shaped like a paper-time fuse and ignited like a friction primer.

A copper tube filled with fulminate was wrapped with a paper casing that was tapered like a paper-time fuse. A raised serrated knife with a flat top was inserted into the anvil disc and covered by a tin cap to protect the fuse from a premature ignition. The impact of the shell drove the serrated knife into the tube causing a spark to ignite the fulminate. The flame was transferred to the main bursting cavity then BOOM!

The Girardey Percussion Fuse was used from the latter part of 1863 through the end of the war. It appears that there were a backlog of invoices in the latter part of 1863 as indicated by the following excerpt. In a report by Brigadier-General Ripley C.S.A., to Brigadier-General Jordan C.S.A. on September 17, 1863, he stated, “Very few Girardey fuses have been sent to Sullivan’s Island; the district ord-nance office reports that the reason is that the fuse plugs have not been furnished from the arsenal [Augusta], requisitions having been made weeks since.” Girardey’s fuse was so popu-lar that they couldn’t meet the de-mand initially. Lt. Col. George Rains, commander at the Augusta Arsenal, declared that “Girardey’s fuse to be superior to any other.”

The Artilleryman14

Robert Gregory is a collector, historian and author of Civil War Ordnance: An Introduction. He has written several articles for related publications including; The Mystery Crate, Hard-luck Ironclad Got Lucky, A Letter From Camp Falmouth-Virginia, Who Fired the Spherical Case, Bullet Storage Method and Gettysburg Parrott Fuze-Plug.

Sources:- Artillery Fuses of the Civil War- Civil War Ordnance: An Introduction- Confederate Military History, Vol. V- Historical Database Systems, Inc.- Never for Want of Powder: The Confederate

Powder Works in Augusta, Georgia- Official Records, Vols. XXVIII, LII.- University of Alabama Archives - Circular- National Archives


X-Ray of a Girardey percussion fuse.

Girardey Percussion FuseOverall Length: 1.566 inchesCopper tube diameter is .276 inches. .543 is the tube flange diameter and diameter of the top striker flange is .379 inches.

Girardey Percussion FuseOverall Length: 1.783 inchesNon-Excavated. Top diameter cylinder is .556 inches, flange diameter is .755 inches, and has a paper covering the tapered tube. Taper is from .490 to .423 inches. The protective tin cap has been waterproofed with black Japanning.

“On to Richmond” boasted Gen. George B. McClellan in early

April of 1862. With his Army of the Potomac of over 100,000, he marched west toward the Warwick River that wound north to south across the pen-insula from near Yorktown to the southern point of Mulberry Island. Confederate Gen. John B. Magruder, with his little army of less than 15,000, was determined to stop McClellan’s huge army. Magruder dammed up the Warwick River adding three ponds to the two mill ponds at Wynn’s Mill about a mile to the north of Dam No. 1, and Lee’s Mill less than two miles to the south of Dam No. 1. Two lines of breastworks were dug by Magruder just to the west of the Warwick River. McClellan, in his siege, cautiously made a couple of half-hearted at-tempts to cross the Warwick in the previous two weeks to April 16, 1862. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston inspected the Confederate position in early April and determined Magruder would be

out-flanked by Union troops moving up the York and James Rivers trapping the little army. Gen. Johnston quickly ordered troops from Orange Court House to allow Magruder to withdraw toward Richmond. Col. George T. An-derson arrived with his brigade the day before McClellan began his attack at Dam No. 1. Gen. Howell Cobb ad-mirably commanded his brigade at the dam on the 16th. With the assistance of Anderson’s men and the single-gun

battery, the Confederates successfully slowed McClellan’s advance.

April 15 there were no sharpshoot-ers firing across the Warwick. A fine Union band and chopping of wood was heard by the Confederates. Then at 7 a.m. of the 16th, McClellan began a vigorous attack at Dam No. 1. Capt. Marcellus Stanley of the Troup Artil-lery, and Charlie, their little mascot, were in their camp to the rear. As soon as the firing began, Capt. Stanley with

The Artilleryman16

Brig. Gen. Howell Cobb.Courtesy Milton Leathers.

Charlie, the mascot of the Troup Artillery

Charlie at his heels rushed to the front to offer their assistance. Charlie, ex-cited with the fray, began barking and seemed to dance with delight. Before 9 a.m. Mott’s New York battery silenced the iron howitzer of the Bedford Light Artillery immediately at the end of the dam, killing two and wounding several others. The Troup Artillery had a 12-pounder bronze howitzer in the first line of breastworks about 100 yards above the end of Dam No. 1. It was unable to fire over the heads of the riflemen in gun pits for fear of an imperfect fuse. It did not fire a single round that day.

A little 6-pounder field gun named the “Olivia” by the Troup Artillery was the only other gun that Magruder placed in their breastworks, about 100 yards to the right of the 12-pounder howitzer. Lt. A. Franklin Pope com-manded the gun crew and Cpl. James F. Dillard was its gunner. Before the day was over, McClellan’s men re-ferred to the little gun crew as the one-gun battery. When the Vermont Brigade wrote their histories of Dam No. 1, they also respectfully referred to the crew of the Olivia as the single-

gun battery. It played havoc with the Vermonters crossing the Warwick below the dam. Before the day was over there were 22 Union guns fir-ing at the Confederates. They were no match for Dillard and his 6-pounder. The Troup Artillery had only one man wounded by a misguided shell while handling horses behind the lines. Per-haps Lt. Pope took exception to Mott’s Battery targeting fellow artillerists.

The first shot aimed by Cpl. Dillard exploded over one of Mott’s guns re-quiring a new gun crew.

A Union officer wrote a letter to the New York Express describing Dil-lard’s efforts upon Mott’s battery on the 16th:

“Seven out of ten of our men were killed or wounded at one gun alone, the second from the right, and Gen. Smith, with three of the staff, stood not ten feet to the left and rear of it. The firing was so hot from the enemy that our dead and wounded laid so thick around the pieces as to impede the gunners in loading and one of the staff was sent to our reserve to get a fa-tigue party to remove the bodies. Four were buried directly under fire, and of the burial party five were wounded.


Sgt. James F. Dillard image courtesy Winifred Morrow.

Lt. Alexander Franklin Pope. Cour-tesy Hargrett Rare Book and Manu-script Library, University of Georgia Libraries.

Maj. Marcellus Stanley. Courtesy Har-grett Rare Book and Manuscript Li-brary, University of Georgia Libraries.

DIXIE GUN WORKS, INC.1412 W. Reelfoot Avenue

PO Box 130 Dept. 66 Union City, TN 38281

INFO PHONE: (731) 885-0700

FAX: (731) 885-0440

EMAIL: [email protected]

VIEW ITEMS AND ORDER ONLINE!www.dixiegunworks.com

Major credit cards accepted

FOR ORDERS ONLY (800) 238-6785

Our all new 2016 DIXIE GUN WORKS catalog is packed with over 10,000 items ! It has the world’s largest selection of blackpowder replica

arms and accessories for re-enactment aficionados and history buffs... AND it’s the most comprehen-sive equipment resource available for blackpow-der hunting and sport shooting enthusiasts.

All this and STILL ONLY$5.00!

Get yours today!

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AND EXPERTISE GUARANTEED

Gun Works, Inc.YOUR LEADING BLACKPOWDER

RESOURCE SINCE 1954

distance precisely. Lt. Pope ordered his gun crew to load the appropriate charge of powder, cut the fuse of the shell to the proper timing, adjust the elevation and Dillard aimed it at the engineering crew. Pope ordered the lanyard a quick jerk and it ignited the fulminate of mercury in the tube of the friction primer, thereby igniting the powder in the tube of the 6-pounder. Everything had to work perfectly. BANG! went the little barker. The shell struck the tripod with great precision literally blowing up the whole group. The spectacular shot fatally wounded 1st Lt. Wagner and Pvt. Jerry Luther of the Second Rhode Island regiment attached to the surveying party, and three of the crew were killed outright. Several others were wounded. 1st Lt. William E. Merrill was wounded in the upper right arm. The alidade was blown from Dorr’s hand and the sleeve of his coat torn away, but he received no personal injury except a slight scratch on the hand. Nothing was left of the plane-table. Gen. Longstreet called Dillard’s shot the best shot he saw during the war. Gen. Magruder wrote in his official report, “This piece was served with the greatest accuracy and effect, and by the coolness and

I will not shock you with the ghastly sickening wounds I saw.”

A little after 7 p.m., after the fighting had ceased, Gen. James Longstreet rode along the rear of the first line of breastworks and dismounted when he reached the Olivia. He peered through his field glass for a few seconds and saw a crew of Federal engineers hurriedly surveying the Confederate lines. F. W. Dorr, a sub-assistant with a plane-table attached atop a tripod, rapidly sighted through the alidade at the Confederate breastworks drawing determining lines. A very few minutes were given to each station. 1st Lt. Orlando G. Wagner of the Corps of Topographical Engineers came up to the instrument “on station” and was engaging in conversation with Dorr, within sight of Dillard’s gun, about 1,000 feet distant. Gen. Longstreet ordered Cpl. James Dillard, gunner of the Olivia, to fire a shot at the surveying crew. Dillard, having made several remarkable shots earlier in the day at Mott’s Battery, estimated the

The Artilleryman18

Topographical engineers at Headquarters, Army of Potomac, in front of York-town, Va. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Lt. Middleton Pope Barrow. Cour-tesy Hargrett Rare Book and Manu-script Library, University of Georgia Libraries.

skill with which it was handled, the great odds against us were almost counter balanced.”

Middleton Pope Barrow, former Lieutenant in the Troup Artillery, was elected by the Georgia State Legisla-ture to serve as U.S. Senator in 1882. While serving his term he was stand-ing amongst a crowd on a street in Washington, D.C. telling his story about the remarkable shot by Dillard. After telling the story, an unidentified gentleman stepped forward and told the crowd that he could substantiate Senator Barrow’s story. He then iden-tified himself as the assistant engineer that was in the surveying crew when Dillard fired his shot. William E. Mer-rill was working in Washington D.C. as an official with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.

This was the first of several times the Troup Artillery faced such odds. Reports revealed in every engage-ment they inflicted many times more casualties on their enemy. The Troup Artillery received only eight mortal wounds during the Civil War.

Bill Smedlund is a member of the Briga-dier General T. R. R. Cobb Camp 97 Sons of Confederate Veterans in Watkinsville, GA. He is currently in the final stages of

writing the manuscript for the history of the Troup Artillery to be entitled Sons of Tom Cobb, Troup Artillery, Athens, Georgia. His first book, Camp Fires of Georgia’s Troops, 1861-1865, was first published in 1995. This book was nomi-nated for the Douglas Southall Freeman History Award by the Military Order of Stars and Bars. He has also published sev-eral articles relating to the Troup Artillery.


Topographical engineer reenactors with plane-table and alidade atop tripod.

Map of Yorktown to Williamsburg compiled by Capt. H. L. Abbot, Topographical Engineers, September 1862.

Lt. William E. Merrill. Courtesy Roger D. Hunt Collection. U. S. Army Military History Institute.

Captured artillery pieces have always been collected as trophies by armies and na-

tions. In America, many British can-nons from both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 have been preserved around the country. Later, a larger group of bronze cannons from the Mexican War were added to the stockpile. However, the preservation and display of United States memorial cannons didn’t really become popular until the 1890’s. It was finally realized that the thousands of muzzle load-ing cannons from the Civil War were probably obsolete as weapons. A large number were initially sent to Gettys-burg for the creation of the National Battlefield Park there in 1895.

Simultaneously, GAR posts in nearly every town in America began requesting display guns. Communities that couldn’t afford a statue settled for a “field gun” to honor their Civil War veterans. Others added cannons to en-hance statuary memorials. Thousands were sent to courthouses, cemeteries and GAR Posts around the country. More were sent to the Civil War battle-fields as they became developed and preserved. By 1910, the supply had diminished but fortunately a large quantity of recently captured Spanish breechloaders were declared excess and put into the donation program. After WWI some 5,000 captured Ger-man artillery pieces and 20,000 heavy machine guns were made available. These were distributed by the Ameri-can Legion beginning around 1921.

Many people with an interest in

this topic have wondered where they went, what specifically they are and how many are left. Regarding the Civil War cannons specifically, much ad-ditional knowledge was to be gained from direct observation, supplement-ing those surviving written records.

Now, one would think that the US government would have kept records of where and to whom they sent can-nons. Well, they did for the most part. The problem for modern observers is that so many cannons were donated to scrap drives in both world wars that the records now serve as merely “leads” to where one might be.

In the early 1960’s Dr. James C. Hazlett began inventorying surviv-ing Civil War cannons in the United States. Early efforts centered around the National Battlefield Parks such as Gettysburg and Antietam. A few years later, Warren Ripley (also a can-non hunter) published the seminal work Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War. This early “catalog” of Civil War artillery outlined the incredible variety of weapons used in that war and attempted (rather successfully) to place them in some sort of context.

These efforts were joined by Edwin Olmstead who was also a fellow Com-pany of Military Historians member. As he further studied surviving can-nons and also conducted research in National Archives, the picture became clearer. Ed was able to make many corrections and additions to Ripley’s book. Much to Ripley’s credit, he gratefully accepted these submissions from Olmstead and incorporated them

in the many later editions of his book.By the early 1980’s, this project had

attracted the attention of Wayne Stark. Wayne took over the Olmstead list and refined it into what is now the Na-tional Register of Surviving Civil War Artillery. In my opinion, Wayne Stark became probably the most knowledge-able person in America on the inven-tory and types of Civil War artillery. He was very focused on this task. Ed once confided in me that while he was always interested in a new variation, Wayne would be excited over the mere discovery of a “new find” regard-less of how common it was. Wayne refined the network of Ed’s “spies” as he called us, encouraged and sup-ported by leads the discovery of “new finds”. I remember one of my last sub-missions to Wayne. I was talking to him on a cell phone and he was telling me where to scrape paint to find the registry number. He exclaimed that he could “hear the scraping”, almost as if he was there. I didn’t realize just how ill he was at the time.

Fortunately, the National Register was able to be passed to Jim Bender ([email protected]) who is proving to be eminently qualified to maintain the list. Jim’s biggest hurdle that I see is trying to keep track of the numerous location transfers within the military owned collections. This is a daunting task but with everyone’s help I’m sure he will prevail.

The next group of cannon survi-vors to be surveyed was the post-Civil War to pre WWII breech loaders. There had never been an organized attempt to track these but fortunately they were better documented. Konrad Schreier published a ground break-ing article in Military Collector and Historian in 1968 (revised in the 1997 Periodical), focusing on all the vari-ous designs prior to WWI. As with the Ripley book, this stimulated oth-ers to begin identifying and catalog-ing survivors. The man who really got the project off the ground was Dick Pope from Huntsville, Alabama with his Great War Artillery Survey,

The Artilleryman20

1754 Little Valley Rd., Blaine TN 37709 (865) 932-1200• [email protected]

www.trailrockordnance.com

T RAIL R OCK O RDNANCE � Carriage hardware for #1 and #2 Field Carriage, Field Limber & 1st Model Prairie Carriage �

� Complete Carriages – in stock & ready to ship �

� Implements �

� Artillery Ammunition �

� Sabots & Shooting Accessories �

� Ammunition Shipping Boxes �

� Artillery Harness �

� Other Artillery Goodies �

Our Paul & Silas Cadet 6 pdr. guns Our Paul & Silas Cadet 6 pdr. guns

COONIE’S BLACK POWDER, INC.

We ship out in full case lots (25 - 1# cans) You can mixCall us at (800) 713-6321 - Fax (575) 393-6060 orEmail: [email protected] for price quotes.

GOEX 1FG-4FG, CANNON, CARTRIDGE, COWBOY, EXPRESS,REENACTOR, OLDE EYNSFORD, SOME BP SUBS & SWISS BP

(MASTER DISTRIBUTOR FOR GOEX POWDER SINCE 1983 (32 YRS)

begun around 1999. Dick was great at encouraging artillery enthusiasts to re-port their findings. While hindered by lack of a computer program and thus consigned to a difficult to correct man-ual system, Dick never the less listed nearly 2,000 survivors. This project has been passed on to Charles J. Buga-jsky ([email protected]). Charles has apparently been able to computerize the data in a format that is significantly easier to use.

How does one find new, previ-ously unknown guns to add to the register? There are a number of ways, most involving a little detective work, which is a great part of the fun. Olm-stead and Stark had what they called a “Compendium of Donated Can-nons”. This was any reference they could mine from National Archives. These were frequently donation lists from around 1890-1920. The problem of course is that even if a cannon was donated to say Rochester, Vermont, we can’t tell from the records what it was or if it is still there. Unfortunately, probably over half the donated Civil

War guns were scrapped during WWI and WWII. A surprisingly large num-ber were unintentionally blown up by ignoramuses trying to fire salutes with dynamite instead of powder. That, in-cidentally was the fate of the previ-ously mentioned Rochester, Vermont Ordnance Rifle.

When Ed and Wayne would physi-cally check out a lead, if it wasn’t a Civil War cannon, they made no note of what was there. Wayne also main-tained a rather extensive collection of

vintage post cards showing cannons in front of court houses, in parks, etc. He would send me relevant leads prior to embarking on another field trip. So armed with a list of known finds ar-ranged alphabetically by state and city plus the compendium leads, I would set out. I always checked out the known finds as I wish to see all of them, even-tually. Frequently I would be rewarded by a breech loader displayed next to the listed Civil War gun. This most re-cently happened in Warren, Ohio.


If a town isn’t on the Stark list, I begin by checking out the courthouse, town park and cemeteries. You’d be surprised how many older cemeteries display cannons in the veterans sec-tion. Then I check out the American Legion and VFW Posts. Most of these have something and it’s always inter-esting. In a few months’ time I saw a post with three very large WWII Japanese guns, two with previously unknown coast defense guns (the rar-est category of artillery survivors) and another that had a rare Gatling gun on a wheeled carriage with shield.

A recent cannon expedition to Lockport, New York will serve to il-lustrate the aforementioned “detec-tive work” involved in tracking down survivors. An initial survey revealed a M1917A1 155mm GPF, s/n764, Puteaux located in a park. It had no

wheels or axel and was painted black. Another WWI cannon was also lo-cated, in a different park. It was a U.S. M1917A3 Schneider howitzer, s/n 2987, made in 1918. It was lacking it’s pneumatic tires but still retained the empty wheel rims. (remember this, it will come up later). Records from National Archives listed a 4.7 inch Armstrong coast defense gun as donated to Lockport in 1922. I wondered where it was and searched all the likely places. A similar 4.7 inch Armstrong, with mount recently turned up in Springville, New York

and it was from the same list.

A visit to the local his-torical society museum raised even more ques-tions and more leads. They provided newspa-per articles from June 1920 referring to the “can-non committee’s” dedica-tion ceremony of arrived cannon in West Avenue Park. West Avenue Park is where the 155mm Schneider is presently lo-cated. Were they dedicat-ing the Schneider or is this where the 4.7 inch Armstrong mount was to be located? Turns out, probably neither.

A second news clipping from 2002 related how an alderman suggested moving the 7-inch mortar at the West

Avenue Park to the Veterans Park on East Avenue. Wait a minute, what 7-inch mortar? The article goes on to state that the mortar was sent to Lockport f r o m W a t e r v l i e t Arsenal in 1920. It was manufactured in 1892, weighs 1,700 pounds and is set in concrete in the park. This is obviously

not the 4.7 inch Armstrong which was donated in 1922. This would have been a US 7-inch Siege Mortar, Model of 1892, one of 61 made. Very rare,

very interesting. But not there and no one seems to know what became of it.

So to recap: Lockport has two WWI vintage cannons there now. Records indicate two additional pre-WWII guns sent to and received by Lockport in the 1920’s. These have not been found. Conclusion: I believe the two missing guns were scrapped during WWII. Only a wartime news article will confirm this. The two WWI pieces were in fact used in WWII: The Schneider howitzer was converted in 1940 to high speed carriage M1918A3, exchanging its wood spoke wheels for pneumatic rubber tires with steel rims. They were used in this configu-ration extensively during WWII both

The Artilleryman22

Surviving 4.7 Inch QF Mk IV Armstrong coast de-fense gun, located in Springville, NY. This one was originally emplaced at Battery Drum, Fort Strong, Boston, MA. A similar one was once on display in Lockport, NY. Photo credit: Jim Glor.

US Model 1917A3 155mm Howitzer (Schneider). Located in West Avenue Park, Lockport, NY. Photo credit: Jim Glor.

Surviving US 7-inch Siege Mortar, Model of 1892. Located at the Price County Court House in Phillips, WI. A similar mortar was once located in Lockport, NY. Photo credit: Glen Williford.

US Model 1917A1 155mm GPF. Located in Lock-port, NY. Photo credit: Jim Glor.

American Digger Magazine Proudly Presents

The 2016 Low Country Civil War Show & Sale

January 16-17, 2016 Omar Shrine Temple 176 Patriots Point Rd.

Mt Pleasant, SC (Just Across Bridge From Charleston)

www.americandiggerevents.com

For information:Call (770) 362-8671 or (716) 574-0465

[email protected]

Civil War Relics Indian Artifacts

WWI & II Militaria& Much More!

MISince 1979

Military Imagesmagazine

Showcase. Interpret. Preserve.

MilitaryImagesMagazine.com | Facebook.com/MilitaryImages

America’s only publication dedicated to historic photographs of soldiers and sailors.

Or send a check payable to:Military ImagesPO Box 50171Arlington, VA 22205

Subscribe online:MilitaryImagesMagazine.com

SUBSCRIBE NOW4 quarterly issues, $24.95

for combat and for training. They were superseded by the 155mm howitzer, M1 and disposed of immediately after WWII. The 155mm GPF gun, while of WWI vintage was also extensively used in WWII, primarily for coast defense in prepared “Panama mounts”. One hundred were con-verted to self- propelled guns during WWII. They were replaced by the M1A1 155mm “Long Tom”. GPFs were quickly disposed of after the war.

I think these two 155mm cannons were sent to Lock-port immediately after WWII to replace the earlier guns that had been scrapped. This is conjecture at this point but eventually I’ll get to the bottom of it.

Finally, people ask me why I am interested in old can-non survivors. You can view photos of them in many books. Why make the effort to track them down? My mother kind of summarized it by comparing it to a bird watcher’s “life list” of birds he has seen. I liken it to a scavenger hunt. Following leads, making calls and mak-ing long trips much more enjoyable by the diversions a search will take. Having someone to share your efforts with, who appreciates them, like Stark, Bender, Pope and now Bugajsky makes it all the more fun.

Tom Batha is a long time student of historical artillery and enjoyed a working friendship with Ed Olmstead, Wayne Stark and Dick Pope for many years.


July 17-19, 2015 brought 197 cannoneers and 34 cannons to Grayling, Michigan for the 2015 Loomis’ Battery Long Range Invitational

Cannon Match. This was the 24th meeting held on the Michigan National Guard training facility with over 40 ranges. This facility covers 147,000 acres spread over three counties. The event was held on Range 35.

The Artilleryman24

The 34 cannon teams competed for two cash prizes plus six trophies in the following categories:

1. Muzzle loading rifled cannons shooting 1,000 yards at a 4-foot wide by 6-foot high target.

2. Breech loading rifled cannons shooting 1,000 yards at a 4-foot wide by 6-foot high target.

3. Muzzle loading smooth bore cannons shooting at an 8-foot wide by 6-foot high target at 600 yards for 12 pounders and 500 yards for 6 pounders and smaller.

4. Breech loading rifled mountain guns shooting at an 8-foot wide by a 6-foot high target at 600 yards.

5. Mortars, both 24-pounder Coehorns and 12-pound-ers, shooting at a common stake at 350 yards.

6. Siege mortars, both 8-inch and 10-inch, shooting at a common stake at 625 yards.


ConsignmentsOur last two sales included the renown and esteemed collection of artillery from the Springfield Arsenal, LLC Collection amassed by renowned cannon expert John Morris. Prices were strong and consistent throughout both sessions of the Morris auction and included a number of exciting prices. In addition to Mr. Morris’ collection the sale also included select items from other collections. We are now accepting consignments of single items and/or entire collections for our upcoming October, 2015 sale including Fine Artillery, Class III, Military items, quality Winchesters, fine Colts, important Sporting Arms, Historic weapons, Civil War and Confederate items, fine Kentucky rifles and more.

We are the world’s leading auctioneers of rare, high-grade, quality firearms. We do not sell the greatest number of firearms in a year, we sell the greatest number of expensive firearms in a year.

Extremely Rare Confederate New Orleans Made 12-Pound Bronze Napoleon on Carriage With LimberSN 30. This spectacular gun, just recently discovered, is the only privately owned New Orleans made Napoleon cannon. Bronze gun metal was not available to the foundries in New Orleans so a proclamation was sent out from Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard to the Southern States to send their bells to N.O. to help the war effort. This is no doubt one of the Napoleons cast by Leeds from bells sent to New Orleans from churches, plantations and such across the South. Records of Leeds & Co, New Orleans indicate they shipped two light 12 pdrs on the December 19, 1861…probably foundry #19 & 20; by February 19th they shipped four more #5,30,37,and 38. Robertson’s Alabama Battery had four Leeds Napoleons on Ruggles line at Shiloh in April of ’62 of which gun was most likely one. The Federals reported capturing six Leeds Napoleons after the battle of Missionary Ridge. It seems safe to say this gun was at Shiloh and quite possibly captured at Missionary Ridge. The other five known examples listed in Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War by Hazlett, Olmstead & Parks, 2004 are all in museums or owned by National Park Service. Other listed existing SNs are 19, which is at the Petersburg National Battlefield Park; SN 38, at John Browning Museum, Rock Island. IL; SNs 45 & 53, on display at Augusta Arsenal Museum, GA; and SN 49, at Carlisle Barracks, PA. SN 30, which we offer here, is in beautiful condition with complete markings as on other examples: “1862” on left trunnion, “LEEDS & CO. NEW ORLEANS” on right trunnion. This cannon is mounted on an exacting #2 regulation field carriage with limber and implements. This cannon is ready to be taken into the field and get revenge on the Yankees who originally captured her and took her to New York. This is the only Confederate Napoleon to ever be offered at public auction and we can find only two Confederate 6-pound bronze tubes ever auctioned in the last 30 years. There are no more than 4 or 5 Confederate bronze Napoleons by any maker that are privately owned; this is your opportunity to get the most desirable bronze Confederate cannon extant. CONDITION: Very good as can be seen in photographs, as is carriage and limber. Markings are crisp and fine. Please Note: Additional history on this cannon. It was NOT taken to New York, but was according to Wayne Stark’s 1984 Cannon Registry, donated to a GAR Post #134 in 1946 and was on display at the local GAR in Wood River, Nebraska until it eventually sold. It was also featured on a television series “Sons of Guns” on Discovery Channel in 2010. 4-54465 (Pre-sale estimate: $200,000 - $250,000)

Sold for $350,750A New World Auction Record for the Most Expensive Piece of American Artillery sold at auction and a New World Auction Record for the Most Expensive Confederate Arm

of Any Variety sold at auction.

For Our Important March 2016 Firearms Auction

08-28-15artilleryfull.indd 1 8/28/15 9:09 AM

ConsignmentsOur last two sales included the renown and esteemed collection of artillery from the Springfield Arsenal, LLC Collection amassed by renowned cannon expert John Morris. Prices were strong and consistent throughout both sessions of the Morris auction and included a number of exciting prices. In addition to Mr. Morris’ collection the sale also included select items from other collections. We are now accepting consignments of single items and/or entire collections for our upcoming October, 2015 sale including Fine Artillery, Class III, Military items, quality Winchesters, fine Colts, important Sporting Arms, Historic weapons, Civil War and Confederate items, fine Kentucky rifles and more.

We are the world’s leading auctioneers of rare, high-grade, quality firearms. We do not sell the greatest number of firearms in a year, we sell the greatest number of expensive firearms in a year.

Extremely Rare Confederate New Orleans Made 12-Pound Bronze Napoleon on Carriage With LimberSN 30. This spectacular gun, just recently discovered, is the only privately owned New Orleans made Napoleon cannon. Bronze gun metal was not available to the foundries in New Orleans so a proclamation was sent out from Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard to the Southern States to send their bells to N.O. to help the war effort. This is no doubt one of the Napoleons cast by Leeds from bells sent to New Orleans from churches, plantations and such across the South. Records of Leeds & Co, New Orleans indicate they shipped two light 12 pdrs on the December 19, 1861…probably foundry #19 & 20; by February 19th they shipped four more #5,30,37,and 38. Robertson’s Alabama Battery had four Leeds Napoleons on Ruggles line at Shiloh in April of ’62 of which gun was most likely one. The Federals reported capturing six Leeds Napoleons after the battle of Missionary Ridge. It seems safe to say this gun was at Shiloh and quite possibly captured at Missionary Ridge. The other five known examples listed in Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War by Hazlett, Olmstead & Parks, 2004 are all in museums or owned by National Park Service. Other listed existing SNs are 19, which is at the Petersburg National Battlefield Park; SN 38, at John Browning Museum, Rock Island. IL; SNs 45 & 53, on display at Augusta Arsenal Museum, GA; and SN 49, at Carlisle Barracks, PA. SN 30, which we offer here, is in beautiful condition with complete markings as on other examples: “1862” on left trunnion, “LEEDS & CO. NEW ORLEANS” on right trunnion. This cannon is mounted on an exacting #2 regulation field carriage with limber and implements. This cannon is ready to be taken into the field and get revenge on the Yankees who originally captured her and took her to New York. This is the only Confederate Napoleon to ever be offered at public auction and we can find only two Confederate 6-pound bronze tubes ever auctioned in the last 30 years. There are no more than 4 or 5 Confederate bronze Napoleons by any maker that are privately owned; this is your opportunity to get the most desirable bronze Confederate cannon extant. CONDITION: Very good as can be seen in photographs, as is carriage and limber. Markings are crisp and fine. Please Note: Additional history on this cannon. It was NOT taken to New York, but was according to Wayne Stark’s 1984 Cannon Registry, donated to a GAR Post #134 in 1946 and was on display at the local GAR in Wood River, Nebraska until it eventually sold. It was also featured on a television series “Sons of Guns” on Discovery Channel in 2010. 4-54465 (Pre-sale estimate: $200,000 - $250,000)

Sold for $350,750A New World Auction Record for the Most Expensive Piece of American Artillery sold at auction and a New World Auction Record for the Most Expensive Confederate Arm

of Any Variety sold at auction.

For Our Important March 2016 Firearms Auction


Contact Francis Lombardi or Wes Dillon Email: [email protected] | 203 Skowhegan Rd., Fairfield, ME 04937 www.jamesdjulia.com | Tel: (207) 453-7125 | Fax: (207) 453-2502 | Auctioneer: James D. Julia Lic#: ME: AR83

Wanted

Hotchkiss 2-Pounder Breech Loading Mtn Gun (est. $20-30,000)

Rare & Historic U.S. Navy Light Bronze 12-Pounder Dahlgren Boat Howitzer and Orig. Carriage (est. $50-60,000)

Ames Model 1841 Bronze 6-Pounder Gun on Original Carriage (est. $50-70,000)

Rare Civil War 8” Siege Mortar (est. $15-25,000)

US Navy 500-Pound Breech Loading Cannon SN 19 on Original Carriage (est. $20-30,000)

Ames 1861-Dated Bronze 12 Pounder Mountain Howitzer Registry Number 1 (est. $30-50,000)

Elegant Spanish 1803 8-Pound Bronze Field Gun (est. $35-45,000)

Pair of French Model 1786 Bronze 2-1/2” Bore Cannon on Carriages (est. $15-20,000)

Below are just a few of the successes from the Springfield Arsenal, LLC Collection amassed by John Morris

Sold for $46,000

Sold for $92,000 Sold for $92,000

Sold for $34,500

Sold for $40,250Sold for $63,250 Sold for $63,250

Sold for $27,025

Dahlgren Heavy 12-Pounder Boat Howitzer on Original Carriage (est. $60-90,000)

Model 1906 Krupp 50 MM Mountain Cannon (est $35-45,000)

Spanish Siege Mortar Dated 1750 Captured By Dupont at Fernandina Florida 1862 (est. $90-125,000)

Sold for $97,750 Sold for $92,000 Sold for $70,800

Remember:Seller’s Commission Rates on High Value Items as low as...

0%


Winners in the six categories were:• Muzzle loading rifled cannon at 1,000 yards – 3rd

U.S. Artillery - John Wells using a 3-inch Parrott rifle with 8 hits of 10 fired.

• Breech loading rifled cannon at 1,000 yards – Knolls Chicago Battery – Ken Knoll using a 3.2-inch Model 1895 gun with 1 hit of 10 fired.

• Muzzle loading cannon at 600 and 500 yards – Reil-ly’s Battery – Bob Wooley using a 12-pounder CSA Bronze Napoleon with 5 hits of 10 fired.

• Breech loading rifled mountain guns at 600 yards - Loomis’ Battery – Mike Potucek using a 3-pounder Whitworth gun with 10 hits of 10 fired.

• Coehorn mortars at 350 yards – Dave’s Pennsylvania Battery – Dave Seedenburg.

• Siege mortars at 625 yards – Loomis’ Battery – Com-bined Battery crew of Donald, Baumann, Carroll, & Potucek shooting the 8-inch mortar owned by Loomis’ Battery commander Don Lutz. Two of the above matches were very close requiring a

string measurement for resolution. Reilly’s Battery shoot-ing a 12-pounder Napoleon (for the first time) and Bled-soe’s CSA Battery each had 5 of 10 hits on the 6-foot wide by 8-foot high target. The string measurement performed by Dave Donald proved that Reilly’s battery won by a few inches.

A similar situation existed between Loomis Battery – Potucek, 1st South Carolina – Gibson and 7th Wisconsin – Zandarkskz. All three mountain rifles had 10 hits on the 8-foot by 6-foot target. A string measurement by Matt Swit-lik established that Potucek shooting the Whitworth gun was the winner by only a few inches.

§The highlight of the Sunday shooting was the Bacon

Creek Memorial Match, which was open to rifled field guns that shot in the 1,000-yard match on Saturday.

The Artilleryman28

Reillys’s Battery, owned by Bob Wooley, won the muzzle loading cannon category at 500 and 600 yards with their 12-pounder CSA Bronze Napoleon and hit the target 5 out of 10 times.

Knoll’s Chicago Battery, owned by Ken Knoll using a 3.2-inch Model 1895 gun with 1 of 10 hits won the Breech loading rifled cannon category at 1,000 yards with an almost bulls eye strike.

Dave Seedenburg Pennsylvania Battery won the Coehorn Mortars category at 350 yards.

The 3rd U.S. Artillery won the 1,000 yard muz-zle loading rifle cannon category firing a 3-inch Parrott rifle hitting this target with 8 of 10 hits. John Wells, owner.

One in a million! Whether talent or luck, the photog-rapher catches the 8-inch mortar ball leaping down-range at the moment of firing as seen at the top of this photograph. The 46.5 pound mortar ball was fired us-ing 14.3 oz of FG black powder shooting at 625 yards at 45 degrees elevation. This shot by the Loomis Bat-tery won the Siege Mortar Match. A combined Battery crew of Dave Donald, Ken Baumann, Kerry Carroll, & Mike Potucek shooting the 8-inch Siege Mortar, Model 1861, owned by Loomis’ Battery commander and Director Don Lutz.


Loomis’ Battery – Mike Potucek firing a 3-pounder Whit-worth gun struck the target 10 of 10 times at 600 yards and won the Breech loading rifled Mountain Guns category.

Stafford wheeland carriage llc

Restoration and reproduction of Civil Warcannon carriages, wheels and rolling stock

Jeff Stafford

1019 Lieds Road, Coatesville, PA 19320www.StaffordWheelandCarriage.com

(610) 486-0567

Five of the shots from the3-pounder Whitworth rifle.

In January of 1861, while in camp at Bacon Creek, Ken-tucky, the original Loomis’ Battery was under the com-mand of General Ormsby McKnight Mitchell of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mitchell, a West Point graduate of 1828, was the old-est West Point graduate to return to service as a General Officer during the Civil War. He was an astronomer and mathematician. Mitchell encouraged artillery target prac-tice and made his own scientific study of rifled guns.

A period newspaper account recorded that the Mitch-ell’s battery was firing at newspaper sheets at 1,000 yards and hitting them. Our Bacon Creek Memorial Match uses copies of a Civil War period Cincinnati newspaper as a tar-get. These papers are mounted on a 4-foot by 6-foot backer placed at 1,000 yards. The winner must have 3 out of 10 rounds as hits entirely within the newspaper. This match has not been won by any cannon team since 2005.

The Artilleryman30

The Grayling Open was won by Dave Seedenburg shooting a bronze 24-pounder Coehorn mortar. Dave is from Pennsylvania.

Artillery DrawingsContact us for a catalog sheet. Drawings with dimensions of carriages, limbers, ammunition chests and more.

PO Box 610434 • Port Huron, MI [email protected] • (810) 987-7749

Antique Ordnance PublishersArtillery Drawing Reference Guides

Fire! Gun crew watches for the hit of their round from this3-inch Ordnance rifle made by Historical Ordnance Works.


Battery I, 1st US Artillery,12-pounder Mountain Howitzer.

Jason Grimm, Grand Marais, Minnesota

Crews in Action


Keuskii Support Artillery3-inch Russian GunPeter Stockfish, Huntington, Indiana

Michigan Legionary Corps., 4-pounder Bronze GunBruce BreuggeOwosso, Michigan

4th Indiana Light Artillery3-inch Ordnance Rifle

Marion TownsendMuncie, Indiana

Bacon Creek Memorial Match utilizes uses copies of a Civil War period Cincinnati newspa-per as a target. John Wells, rep-resenting the 3rd U.S. Artillery shooting a 3-inch Parrott rifle, won this year. See the rifle in ac-tion, left, and the winning target, above.

Promoters of Quality Shows for Shooters, Collectors, Civil War and Militaria Enthusiasts

Military Collectible &Gun & Knife Shows

Presents The Finest

Rev War Civil War World War I & IIModern Gun & Knife Shows

Mike Kent and Associates, LLC • PO Box 685 • Monroe, GA 30655(770) 630-7296 • [email protected] • www.MKShows.com

Northwest Georgia Trade Center2211 Dug Gap Battle Road

Dalton, GA 30720February 6 & 7, 2016

Chickamauga (Dalton)Civil War Show

Richmond International Raceway600 East Laburnum Avenue

Richmond, VA 23222November 14 & 15, 2015

Capital of the ConfederacyCivil War Show

Williamson County Ag Expo Park4215 Long Lane

Franklin, TN 37064December 5 & 6, 2015

Middle TN (Franklin)Civil War Show

Myrtle Beach Convention Center 2101 North Oak Street

Myrtle Beach, SC 29577Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, 2015

Myrtle Beach Gun & Knife Show

Exchange Park Fairgrounds9850 Highway 78Ladson, SC 29456

September 12 & 13, 2015November 28 & 29, 2015

Charleston Gun & Knife Show

Florence Civic Center3300 West Radio Drive

Florence, SC 29501September 19 & 20, 2015

Florence Gun & Knife Show

lll l

To enter the match, a gun crew must pay a fee. A por-tion of the fee goes to support the match and the balance becomes prize money. If the match is not won, the prize money carries over to the following year. This year’s prize money was $2,320 and was won by John Wells representing the 3rd U.S. Artillery shooting a 3-inch Parrott rifle. Con-gratulations to John and his crew from Pennsylvania!

Dave Seedenburg won a money prize match for mor-tars —the Grayling Open—shooting a 24-pounder Coe-horn mortar. Dave is also from Pennsylvania. Both regular matches and the prize money matches were won by John and Dave. Congratulations!

Another match in 2016 depends upon permissions from the Michigan National Guard, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Federal Aviation Administration, and the members of Loomis’ Battery. We will keep all current and past cannoneers posted!

Don Lutz, Loomis’ Battery Commander & 2015 Match Director. Don started his lifelong interest in cannons since age 10 when he built his first tube using a pipe to shoot marbles using powder from firecrackers. He graduated in 1958 from White Pigeon, MI, and in 1962 from Michigan State University - College of Chemical Engineering. He acquired his first full size cannon in 1962 [a 3-inch Parrott Rifle] and went on to acquire 12+ more. Antique Ordnance Publishers formed in 1968 with his wife Jan. Don retired in 2003 and has spent the years since that time developing AOP and rebuilding cannon carriages for his collection with the continue daily help from Jan. Don can be reached at [email protected].

The Artilleryman34

Promoters of Quality Shows for Shooters, Collectors, Civil War and Militaria Enthusiasts

Military Collectible &Gun & Knife Shows

Presents The Finest

Rev War Civil War World War I & IIModern Gun & Knife Shows

Mike Kent and Associates, LLC • PO Box 685 • Monroe, GA 30655(770) 630-7296 • [email protected] • www.MKShows.com

Northwest Georgia Trade Center2211 Dug Gap Battle Road

Dalton, GA 30720February 6 & 7, 2016

Chickamauga (Dalton)Civil War Show

Richmond International Raceway600 East Laburnum Avenue

Richmond, VA 23222November 14 & 15, 2015

Capital of the ConfederacyCivil War Show

Williamson County Ag Expo Park4215 Long Lane

Franklin, TN 37064December 5 & 6, 2015

Middle TN (Franklin)Civil War Show

Myrtle Beach Convention Center 2101 North Oak Street

Myrtle Beach, SC 29577Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, 2015

Myrtle Beach Gun & Knife Show

Exchange Park Fairgrounds9850 Highway 78Ladson, SC 29456

September 12 & 13, 2015November 28 & 29, 2015

Charleston Gun & Knife Show

Florence Civic Center3300 West Radio Drive

Florence, SC 29501September 19 & 20, 2015

Florence Gun & Knife Show

lll l

This 3-inch Ordnance Rifle produced by the Phoenix Iron Company in 1863 is one of a pair positioned in front of the Old Court House Museum in Vicksburg.

F rom my first visit in 1975, the Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi became my favorite Civil War site. In the following forty years I have

returned several times but, like most visitors, I never really looked around the city itself other than visiting the historic old courthouse overlooking the city and Mississippi River.

Vicksburg, in the early years of the war, was strategi-cally important due to its position, surveying and control-ling the river traffic, thereby blocking Federal use. More a siege than actual battle, the Vicksburg Campaign consisted of two major assaults by the Union as well as conflicts to the south and east of the city resulting in a ring around the Confederate positions. Unable to physically occupy the city, the Union settled into a six-week siege in which Vicksburg was bombarded continuously until the starving residents were forced to live in dirt caves.

With the detested surrender on July 4, 1863 the residents returned to the now-occupied city to survey the damage and begin rebuilding.

Today, some 152 years later, Vicksburg still shows many of those scars as well as considerable ordnance displayed outside the Vicksburg National Military Park. In fact, there is so much artillery presence and history located inside the city that a full day is required to inspect it. Yet the over-whelming number of visitors make a quick tour of the bat-tlefield and continue on their trips – as I did for so many years.

But artillery is embedded deeply into the history of the city – both literally and figuratively. Cannonballs can be found in walls at several locations including the parlor of a historic bed and breakfast as well as in wrought-iron fencing.

Although many of the attractions are located on Wash-ington Street near the waterfront, any visit of the city should start a couple of blocks above at the command-ing 1858 courthouse. And the courthouse is commanding – perched on the highest point of Vicksburg overlooking the city and the waterfront – even the steps to the building require climbing stairs from the street.

But flanking that steep staircase are two 3-inch Ord-nance Rifles made by the Phoenix Iron Company in 1863.

Over a thousand of these 820 pound tubes were produced by the Pennsylvania foundry during the Civil War and the two at the courthouse are in good condition with the no-menclature – including the trademark PIC (Phoenix Iron Company) – clearly legible. Donated when the old court-house was being renovated as the current museum, there is no history of where or how these two pieces were used but they were “probably Union.”

The two-story courthouse itself has been rated one of the twenty most outstanding courthouses in America by the American Institute of Architects. With thirty-foot Ionic col-umns, it defines Southern architecture and history. Today it operates as the Old Court House Museum owned by the Vicksburg and Warren County Historical Society.

Inside, two floors of Civil War and Southern history are displayed. Those interested in artillery shells and ordnance from that period will find an excellent collection. The 1998 best seller Confederates in the Attic unfairly characterized the museum as “the most eccentric – and politically incor-rect – collection that author had visited in the South. I cer-tainly didn’t find that to be the case on my visit but make

The Artilleryman36

Once again guarding the waterfront, this IX-inch Dahlgren Shell Gun was buried for decades in a flower garden.

This rare A. B Reading & Brother bronze 3-inch rifle is dis-played at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

no mistake about it – it is a museum of Southern history with items such as a Confederate flag never surrendered to the Union and the tie Jefferson Davis wore at his inaugura-tion. The museum does have a research area available for a nominal and reasonable fee that includes information about the artillery around the city and inside the national park.

George “Bubba” Bolm, the current Curator/Director of the Old Court House Museum is a very helpful resource. I was particularly interested in a massive artillery tube that had been featured in Confederates in the Attic. Driving into the city on Washington Street, I had seen it positioned below the courthouse.

Vicksburg pharmacist and local historian Joseph Ger-ache for many years owned the Corner Drug Store across Washington Street and was featured in the book.

The account in Confederates in the Attic was essentially correct Bolm stated. “Mr. Gerache did find part of the bar-rel sticking out of the ground in a woman’s garden. Un-able to convince her to let him have the cannon dug up, he ended up buying the home and land basically to excavate the barrel.”

What had appeared to be the “edge of a cannon barrel” slowly became the tube of a 9,200 pound IX-Inch Dahlgren. “Mr. Gerache mounted and displayed the cannon barrel then resold the land it had been on for a profit,” Mr. Bolm pointed out. “Confederates in the Attic claimed it was a Par-rott Gun, but it is indisputably a Dahlgren IX-inch Shell Gun,” he adds.

Backtracking down to Washington Street, there was no question the tube was a Dahlgren, and an excellent exam-ple. The piece is in good condition and features the “shark jaw” cascabel which is usually missing from the remaining guns today. The plaque attached to the exhibit states 1,185 were manufactured and only 48 were known to exist (in 2012). At the time Mr. Gerache displayed this piece, it was one of the very few known to exist in private ownership.

This particular tube was cast at the Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburg. The barrel is almost identical to the IX-inch Dahl-gren dredged up from the Houston Ship Channel recently (The Artilleryman, Vol. 35, No. 4, Fall 2014).

Mr. Gerache passed away in 2012 and the Corner Drug Store, once a Civil War museum in itself, is closed and shut-tered. Upon his death, Mr. Gerache donated the Dahlgren exhibit to the Vicksburg and Warren County Historical Society.

From this exhibit, I headed to the Vicksburg Convention Center. I was aware that Vicksburg had a temporary can-non foundry during the war and Mr. Bolm gave me some printed information and pointed me to one of the very few locally-manufactured cannon tubes known to exist – a bronze piece cast by A. B. Reading & Brother of Vicksburg.

Always in short supply of raw materials, the Con-federacy attempted to utilize scattered, local foundries to produce ordnance during the war. One of those was the Vicksburg facility of Abram Breech Reading and his brother. A wealthy and prominent Vicksburg business-man and landowner, A. B. Reading owned a plantation, foundry, brick mill and sawmill.

It was the foundry, however, that drew the interest of Confederate officials, and in 1861 the facility was converted from producing water and gas pipe to the manufacture of smoothbore and rifled cannon. Initially, lofty production goals were set that never materialized but from December 1861 until April 1862, the A. B. Reading & Brother Foundry produced 45 cannon for the Confederacy. Most were 6-pounder bronze guns but also some lighter 3-inch rifles. Two 12-pounder howitzers were also produced.

All tubes were cast in bronze and given the limited num-ber produced very few exist today. Some of the 3-inch rifles are exhibited at the Petersburg National Battlefield Park and a 6-pounder is located in the West Point Museum.

Located in Vicksburg, completely hidden behind


A. B. Reading and Bro. only produced 45 cannon at its Vicksburg foundry including this 3-inch bronze rifle tube displayed at the city convention center.

LOW MOOR / 10 61 / 1861 is stamped on the left trunnion of the English made 7.5-inch Widow Blakely rifle.

Bear River PowderEst. 1999

GOEX Black PowderAvailable in 1F – 4F, cannon and reenactor grade

American-made Visco Cannon Fuse – any length up to 10,000 feet

25’ of Visco fuse free with order of 25 lbs of powder

Craig Kirkland – GOEX Master DistributorPO Box 2853, Evanston, WY 82931

[email protected]

convention center promotional materials, is an amazingly pristine bronze 3-inch rifle. After peeling back a convention center room-divider screen, I could inspect the piece and expecting a hastily forged small-town foundry product, I was surprised at the quality and craftsmanship. Both trunnions were stamped “A.B.R. and BRO., V.Burg, 1862, No. 3.” The stamping has the A.B.R. and “and” nearly running together and has led to searches for the non-existent A. B. RAND foundry. It was an unexpected discovery of a very unique and quality cannon.

Between the convention center and the Mississippi Welcome Center (located where I-20 crosses the river into Louisiana) are three other sites and exhibits. These sites are attached to the NPS but are not part of the actual Vicks-burg National Military Park and therefore are usually not viewed by park visitors.

From the convention center, all three are located along

Washington Street (also listed as U.S. Business 61) and offer excellent views from the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River and illustrate the extreme danger and frustration Fed-eral gunboats experienced trying to “run the gauntlet” dur-ing the war. All three are worth a visit for a perspective of the blockade and siege that can’t be found in the Vicksburg National Military Park itself.

One of those locations, the Louisiana Circle, was manned by the 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery which during the campaign included a 10-inch Columbiad smoothbore but today exhibits one of the more famous “named” can-nons of Vicksburg.

Theophilus Blakely was a free-lance cannon designer in Britain, using a half-dozen foundries to produce his unique hook-slant rifling technique for several types of weapons. He had accused Sir William George Armstrong of stealing his design and when Armstrong became the superinten-dent of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, Blakely stopped

selling his designs to the British army. The Confederacy became a ready

source of orders but only one, a 7.5-inch rifled gun, was known to have served at Vicksburg – hence the term “Widow Blakely.” The piece at Vicksburg was founded in the Low Moor Iron Company in Britain and was heavily involved in the bombarding of Union gunboats – landing three shots on the U.S.S. Lafayette in April of 1863. A month later, a shell exploded in the tube requiring 24 inches be removed from the barrel and the Widow Blakely served

The Artilleryman38

This stub-nosed Blakely was cast at the Low Moor Iron Com-pany in Britain. As the only such gun used at Vicksburg, artil-lerymen named it the “Widow Blakely.” Originally a 7.5-inch rifled gun, an explosion required 24 inches of barrel removal but the piece continued as a mortar for the last two months of the Vicksburg Campaign.


After surrender and Union occupation, the Widow Blakely was sent to West Point as a war trophy where it remained for 96 years before being returned to the city.Union and West Point guardians marked the Widow Blakely as Trophy #170 as seen on the top of the breech.

Special Offer 2-issue Free Trial Subscription to

Civil War News

(800) 777-1862 � [email protected]

www.civilwarnews.com

The monthly current events newspaper features:

Call or go online for FREE 2-issue Trial Subscription

� Calendar of events

� Book reviews, letters

� News, photos & features

� Col umns about medicine, preservation, firearms, images,

round tables, The Watchdog

� Display & classified ads

� Digital edition with active links

55,000+ Likes on Facebook! Facebook.com/CivilWarNews

the remaining two months of the campaign as a mortar.

After Vicksburg surren-dered on July 4, the Widow Blakely was taken as a Union war trophy to West Point where it remained for 96 years before being returned to the battlefield. Exhib-ited today in the Louisiana Circle, the Blakely was actu-ally positioned about a mile north of its current position during the war. In excellent condition despite its short-ened barrel, the tube retains its West Point trophy plaque indicating trophy #170.

Two other Park Service sites located outside the park involve dueling Federal and Confederate artillery posi-tions about a half-mile apart and worth visiting.

South Fort was a Con-federate stronghold de-signed to keep Union Forces from entering Vicksburg

via Warrenton Road while the Federals at Battery Benton (known today as Navy Circle) were tasked with keeping Confederates from escaping on that same road.

Both were armed with heavy artillery and their close proximity meant both positions were under constant heavy fire from each other. The Union position at Navy Circle is today almost an extension of the Mississippi Welcome Cen-ter. An elevated walkway from the welcome center leads directly up and into the area where Battery Benton an-chored the Union siege in 1863. The excellent views of the Mississippi River illustrate just how strategically important this position was to the Union.

Here, Battery E, 1st Missouri Light Artillery supported by a detachment of the 34th Iowa Infantry manned two 42-pounder rifled smoothbore cannon and traded fire with the Confederates at South Fort. On July 1, three days before the surrender, the position, named after the Union gunboat Benton of Admiral Porter’s river fleet, took a direct hit kill-ing two and wounding four of the Iowans.

That direct hit came from the Confederate position at South Fort. Originally manned by the 14th Mississippi Light Artillery with two 12-pounder howitzers and later reinforced by the 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery with a 10-inch Columbiad, this strategic Confederate position not only defended Warrenton Road but also prevented Union movement on the Mississippi River.

The Artilleryman40

Battery Benton, listed today as Navy Circle, represented the Union’s northernmost advance position during the siege of Vicksburg. Just prior to the July 4 surrender, Missourians and Iowans traded heavy artillery fire with the Confederate South Fort a half mile to the north.

37mm anti-tank gun WWllor

French 25mm anti-tank gun

Wanted

Leonard Draper - Phone: 404-401-5591Email: [email protected]

The City of Vicksburg outside the national park is an un-explored artillery enthusiast’s paradise – not surprising since for 47 days the citizens of the city endured constant bom-bardment making cannon an indelible part of their history.

At the corner of Clay and Moore Streets, behind the old Vicksburg Hotel, sits a field piece with no nomenclature obvious under multiple coats of paint and no historical plaque explaining its role. NPS Park Interpreter Will Wil-son explained it is a reproduction, unorthodox in design and showing evidence of never have been machined or oth-erwise finished. It is moved around occasionally and just simply sits there almost as a symbol of the city itself.

A block from that field piece, a large antique emporium features in the front window a carronade exhibited for sale. A hand written note explains “Revolutionary/Civil War carronade recovered from Confederate ship sunk in Savannah River (Georgia/South Carolina).” When I asked the emporium manager about it, he replied: “The owner doesn’t really want to sell it but would take $10,000 for it. There’s always interest in old cannons around here.”

There is an interest in old cannons around Vicksburg and for those with that curiosity, the city holds excellent examples of Civil War cannons not even mentioned in the Vicksburg National Military Park brochures.

Gary Brown is a frequent contributor to The Artilleryman magazine. Over the years, Gary has had articles published in The Artilleryman about historical cannon on every continent except Antarctica.


South Fort, on the Southern perimeter of Vicksburg defenses, commanded a strategic position over the Mississippi River and the main road into Vicksburg from the south. It is located on Washington Street and is approximately 1/3-mile north of I-20. The carriage is incorrect for this 1863 dated Confederate Bellona Foundry 10-inch Columbia cannon, reg. #13.

W hy does a men’s supper club founded in 1769 have a cannon? Indeed,

there is an answer to that question, unlike the meaning of life or political questions. The cannon is a ceremonial gun. This has to do with a celebra-tion in Plymouth that the Old Colony Club began in 1769. That celebration is called Forefathers’ Day. The day the passengers on the Mayflower stepped off into Plymouth. The Old Colony Club celebrates this day by tradition on December 22 every year. The cannon display is indeed part of that glorious day. To begin the day there are three discharges at six in the morning on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock. This is always early, cold, and dark.

It is thought by some, but not all, that the loud gun re-ports could wake some sleeping Plymouth residents at 6:00 AM, but that may also because of the music of the brass band that accompanies the march of the Club members to the ceremonial spot. As we all know, industrious folks have been up for hours before six anyway.

The cannon was fabricated from a very large forged brass propeller shaft blank donated by George Davis, a yachtsman. He also owned a boat yard.

In 1982 several members of the Club, Walter Shobbrook, Robert McKenna, and Chester Motyka began machining the shaft into the shape of a gun used in the late 18th century. At least that is what they thought they had accom-plished and it’s probably not too far removed from fact. The turned piece was 42 inches long of beautiful shiny brass. After creating the outside of the gun the turning was bored to 1 and ¼ inches. At this point it is evident to the sophisticated reader the question,

“Why didn’t they bore the shaft blank first to make the bore exactly centered when the shaft blank was uniformly circular?” Yes this same view became apparent to those members after the fact. This is not something entirely new with engineering projects. How-ever, the bore was so close to being

perfectly centered, this idea of bor-ing prior to turning was insignificant. And besides, the gun was only made to make noise at a happy celebration, not accurate shots of projectiles in a life and death struggle.

The carriage was made by Clifford Sampson. He was an industrial arts teacher at the Plymouth Carver High School. Fortunately, teachers have some enthusiastic students and Clif-ford was the very standard of this con-cept. The young lads under the careful

tutelage of Clifford took good white oak and fashioned it into the trail stock, the cheeks, and the axle box. The trunnion hold-ers, axles and other iron parts they also fashioned. The only items that were bought were the two wheels. Apparently the need for training wheelwrights was not a high priority of the Plymouth Carver School ad-ministration. The completed carriage was lovingly sanded and finished with a high gloss

varnish. The gun was mounted. The first shot from the gun took

place at Whittington’s horse field. Of course the group dedicated to testing the new cannon made certain that the field was devoid of any animal life, es-pecially horses. Some unknown amount of powder was put down the bore and

The Artilleryman42

Forefathers Day 2013 6:00 AM Display. Early, Cold and Dark. Photography by R. Vanozzi.

Master Distributor for GOEX POWDERS

GOEX l SCHUETZENSKIRMISH l KIK l SWISS

We ship mixed 5, 10 & 25 lb. casesCap and Ball Pistol Loaders

RWS Musket, #11 caps, Schuetzen musket caps and Friction Primers

[email protected]

toll-free (877) 833-1799

Powder Inc., 1861 North College Ave., Clarksville, AR 72830

a ton of paper wadding jammed lov-ingly into the tube. A firecracker fuse was inserted into the vent which was bored to accept this type of device. The fuse was lit. The group ran away. The gun discharged. All was right.

Just because you can make a can-non can you shoot it? This question was not really addressed by the Club for years. Robert Holden was given the title of “Cannoneer.” For a long number of years he operated the gun by himself under a similar method as described in the preceding paragraph. Someone suggested swabbing the gun between shots would be a good idea. This procedure probably came from watching pirate movies. A wet swab was fashioned from an old rag. On one occasion during a multiple display while he and the gun were mounted on a truck during the July 4th parade in Plymouth, Mr. Holden experienced a pre-mature discharge. The ramrod sailed without harm over the entire crowd of parade participants and the watching crowd. Doctors managed to


March to Coles Hill on Independence Day 2015. Shown L to R Hap Messier, Wrestling Brewster, Tim Shobbrook, and the author, Greg White. Photography by Jan Tarbox.

re-attach the skin and other bits that were shredded from his hand by this accident. The details of this event can be reviewed in the writings of The Ar-tilleryman. Mr. Holden continued op-erating the gun in the same manner on Forefather’s Day until his peaceful passing. No longer was the gun acti-vated in a parade.

The passing of Mr. Holden left the Old Colony Club with no hero. Four members stepped forward to be cer-tified by the Commonwealth of Mas-sachusetts as competent. God save the Commonwealth. After passing the rigors of examination, the group was considered qualified. After studying the methods of Mr. Holden, these men discharged the gun in a like manner. One Forefather’s Day morning the fuse would not fit into the vent. The gun did not fire. It was a safe morn-ing. Certain questions, comments and observations began to fester. At this point in time, the gun crew began to learn about the correct methods to dis-charge cannons. This gun crew now has the title of the “Artillery Company of the Old Colony Club.”

A standard four man group with specific duties, well known to artil-lery men, is stationed around the gun with tools appropriately made to per-form safely their appointed duties.

A gun commander carefully reminds the assembled group of their duties and keeps an eye out for safety. Safety officers are dispatched to make sure that the enthusiastic photographers do not get that perfect picture just in front of the muzzle at the time of dis-charge. Don Brown leads the safety officers who determine when the gun should be fired. Two men monitor the charge box and one of these ad-vances the charge upon command. So the charge doesn’t get lost in the as-sembled crowd of happy Old Colony Club members. Finally, red ribbons adorn the black top hats of the men of the “Artillery Company of the Old Colony Club.”

Behind the scenes charges are now made by filling aluminum foil tubes with a measured amount of black powder. These are easy to make, store and transport. The days of cutting the toes from nylon stockings and filling this little bag with some undetermined amount of powder has been banished forever and ever. Jamming paper wad-ding, once thought to produce a larger noise, has gone away. Wadding, as every member of the gun crew knows, is somewhat dangerous and doesn’t improve the bang. This noise is the sole reason for the existence of the gun. The brilliant light of knowledge

shone upon the “Artillery Company of the Old Colony Club” and guided it to the happy harbor of enlightenment.

After the firecracker fuse incident, we bored the vent from whatever the firecracker fuse size was to .25 cali-ber and cleaned the vent with a .22 caliber brass brush. In addition, it was determined to ignite the cannon charge with powder and a linstock. This method would have been used in the eighteenth century. Therefore, the method had what could be called “historical accuracy.” Hap Messier, a dentist, was extremely talented in this form of giving fire. Tim Shobbrook, retired Lieutenant Colonel USMC, operated the vent and primed the gun with some fine powder in a beautiful little black lump. This method of firing was done for several years. The only drawback was when the command to fire was given; it sometimes took a little extra time before the gun would explode. Remember those photogra-phers? Let it be said, wind, rain and snow are not your friends when using this method of fire.

The group decided that a friction primer would be a more efficient way to discharge the gun. The knowledge-able reader now would say, “Why don’t these people use squibs?” The simple answer is that squib manufac-ture is for the very dexterous members of the human race. This quality of nim-bleness is not a shining star of quality among the members of the “Artillery Company of the Old Colony Club.” Furthermore, it took a little while to develop a technique just to pull the lanyard. Several primers were pulled from the gun without igniting. These would fall harmlessly by the feet of the gun commander. He would point out where an errant primer landed. This caused some embarrassment and humility to the fusilier. The gun now fires on command and all the photog-raphers are much safer. We think.

Another item has been added to the routine. Like any other musical instrument, one must practice. The “Artillery Company of the Old Colony

The Artilleryman44

Club” practices twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. The fall shoot is a festive party with clam chowder, slow smoked ribs, cheeses and desserts too numerous to men-tion. Restorative beverages are served to the greatly fatigued gunners after the completion of their duties. Anyone not shooting a gun can be a happy par-ticipant in the consumption of adult refreshments at any time in order to facilitate their understanding of how the cannons are discharged. There are about 150 joyful people in attendance

and sometimes other artillery compa-nies participate. In 2014, the “Artillery Company of Newport” graced the practice with noise, smoke and good fellowship. The Newport Company’s guns were cast by Paul Revere in 1797 or thereabouts.

The spring practice is hot dogs only.

One year the great Town of Plym-outh did not have its July 4 parade. Several members of the Old Colony Club were in profound discussion con-cerning this great remiss. No one could

ever recall when the Town of Plym-outh did not have an Independence Day parade. The late Peter Gomes, Ninth Professor of Christian Morals of Harvard University and others felt that the Old Colony Club would pa-rade to Coles Hill say a few words of a patriotic nature and discharge the cannon three times. This has been a continuing celebration for years. The Mayflower Compact and the Declara-tion of Independence is read. Rever-end Gary Marks, a foremost scholar of the Mayflower Compact, comments on its origin. The Declaration of Inde-pendence is read its entirety. Speak-ers are invited to say a few patriotic words. The gun is discharged. It is not early, not cold and not dark.

The remaining question is how many other supper clubs discharge black powder cannons?

Mr. Greg White is a new member of only 20 years with the Old Colony Club. He grows cranberries and makes clam broth when not discharging cannons. There is a 400th celebration of the founding of Plym-outh in the planning. We would like to see many artillery groups participate.

For more information contact the author at [email protected]


Independence Day 2015. Getting Ready. Photography by Jan Tarbox.

Independence Day 2015. A Happy Report. Photography by Jan Tarbox.

News from the U.S. Army Artillery Museum In April, the museum installed a new ex-hibit case containing a scarce Pattern 1832 ar-tillery captain’s coatee. The case also contains a General Staff Officer’s Chapeau d’Bras, two sabers, an officer’s mahogany secretary and red Moroccan leather mapcase. This beautiful grouping was acquired through the generosity of the Friends of Fort Sill, The Gentleman Sol-dier and Mr. Stan Hurt. In late May we mounted a two-man balloon gondola over the World War I foward observ-er’s case. This wicker basket was the platform for many field artillery aerial observers dur-ing the war. Suspended beneath a 32,000 cubic ft. hydrogen balloon, these forward observers provided the most timely and long distance observations for field artillery. On 2 June, the M1898 5-inch siege rifle was in-stalled in the museum’s South Gallery. This 8,000 lb. piece was moved here in two

loads from the Fort Douglas Museum, Salt Lake City by our hard-driving volunteer John Rogers. Rotted and damaged portions of the wheels were replaced in the Exhibits Shop by Exhibits Specialist Zane Mohler and Volunteer Harry Shappell assisted by our Special Duty (temporary assignment) Soldiers. The res-toration included returning everything on the gun to full operation including the interrupted screw breech.

Gordon A. BlakerDirector/CuratorUS Army Artillery Museum238 Randloph Road, Fort Sill, OK 73503. (580) 442-1819http://sill-www.army.mil/[email protected]

New Exhibit CaseP1832 Artillery Officer’s Coatee World War I Balloon Gondola

Mounting the 5-inch tubeCompleted M1898 5-inch Siege Rifle Siege Rifle Breech

A History of the Organizational Development of the Continental Artil-lery during the American Revolution

By Major William C. Pruett,Master’s Thesis

U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Published 2011.

T he original 13 rebelling States scarcely had the resources to field the infantry it did let alone

expensive artillery and the attendant trained personnel and supply tail. Gen-eral Washington knowingly stated that artillery is a combat arm that is not easily raised and fielded and requires much ef-fort. The records of the Continental and state artillery units left behind were not abundant and were commensurate with the limited resources available at the time. Subsequent loss due to fires since that time have not helped. The surviving records are far less than the enormous legacy left by the Civil War; there is not an equivalent of the Official Records for the Revolution.

One of the principal published sources of information has been William Birkhim-er’s Historical Sketch of the...Artillery (1884, reprinted 1968), who almost certainly had access to some of the original records now stored in the National Archives. The other early published work is the comprehen-sive technical treatise, American Artiller-ist’s Companion (1809, reprinted 1969) by Louis de Tousard. The small booklet Artil-lery of the American Revolution, by Michael McAfee, American Defense Preparedness Association (1974) is an old stand-by fo-cusing on the weapons of the artillery. The Continental Army, by Robert Wright, U.S. Army Center of Military History (1983) has some idealized tables of organization of artillery organization and related informa-tion. Published works on just the artillery are few and far between and delving into

primary sources of the Revolution is most difficult.

This master’s thesis for the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, has made good use of the published material without merely copying and repeating the same information again. The author makes his case that the Continental artillery, despite many challenges, developed into a profes-sional organization almost from scratch by the end of the War and capable of at least holding its own in battle against the pro-fessional European opponent. That is no mean feat considering the challenges Gen-eral Washington mentioned. The author presents his evidence in four main chap-ters – each chapter representing a different line of evidence. It is not an operational history of the artillery nor is it a history of battles.

Chapter one lays out the structural framework and statutory authorizations for the Continental artillery as it formed in part from separate State units. The second chapter describes the slow shift from sin-gularly independent, small State-based mi-litia units to broader and somewhat larger Continental-based units under the profes-sional unified command of a proper chief

of artillery. The organizational struggles concerning the higher control of the field artillery in the Revolution would repeat themselves some eighty years later in the Civil War.

Chapter three describes some of avail-able drill manuals at the time although the impact they might have had on larger tac-tics is very limited as there was little need for massed field artillery in the Revolu-tion. The first American drill manual, A system for the discipline of the artillery of the United States, by William Stevens, would not be published until 1797. According to de Toussard, each Continental or State unit often had its own procedures, nonetheless; professional training made its first tenta-tive contributions to a unified force. The fourth chapter uses a collective biographi-cal approach to show organizational de-velopment through the careers of twelve selected leaders from bombardier to Lieu-tenant Colonel. These biographies are quite fascinating in that, besides supporting the thesis, the reader sees a human side of the artillery arm commanded by American revolutionaries some 225 years ago.

The author’s conclusion is that the Con-tinental artillery, with much hard work, eventually did pass muster and did its part to win the war militarily. Hard proof of that is the use of field artillery at Sara-toga, New York, in 1777, and particularly the siege artillery at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781; two decisive actions that secured American Independence. Unfortunately many of the lessons learned, especially concentration and unification, were com-pletely forgotten and had to be re-learned all over again during the Civil War.

Recommended for anyone inter-ested in the Revolution or history of American artillery. This thesis can be downloaded at www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA547586.

By Peter A. Frandsen


antedCivil War Artillery Implements,Sights, Fuzes, Tools and Projectiles

David Kornely ~ [email protected] • (910) 540-6540

W

REPRINTED EARLY 20th century U.S. Army coast artillery ordnance manuals for sale. For list send two first-class postage stamps to Peter A. Frandsen, 9900 Georgia Avenue #302, Silver Spring, MD 20902-5242.

TRAIL ROCK Ordnance offers metal parts for the #1 and #2 Field Carriages, Field Limber and 1st Model Prairie Carriage. Color catalog available for $7 ppd. Steve Cameron, 1754 Little Valley Rd, Blaine TN 37709, 865-932-1200, [email protected],www.trailrockordnance.com.

TWO SPONGE buckets, close reproduc-tions, $95 each postpaid. 1841 Mountain Howitzer pendulum sight, $75 postpaid. Call Len, 1st St. Paul Artillery 651-799-6299.

NUMBER ONE LIMBER new condition walnut ammunition chest with copper top, built correct and very good $6,500. Leon-ard Draper, Cedartown, Ga . 404-401-5591, email: [email protected].

NAVAL CO LINE THROWING GUN: Dated 10.2.44. Comes with watertight container for .32 blanks, lanyard, firing

mechanism, rammer, wrench and 1 origi-nal projectile. $3,750.00. If interested please contact: Bill Anderson 757-870-5493.

12-POUNDER MOUNTAIN HOWITZER PLANS FROM OFFICIAL US ORDNANCE DRAWINGS Barrel plans and pack carriage plans that you can read+ photographs of a surviving carriage with an original gun tube. Price is $30.00 including USPS priority mail postage. Don Lutz - Antique Ordnance

Publishers. PO Box 610434, Port Huron, MI 48060. Email: [email protected]

REPRODUCTION OF BRITISH 3 LB BAT-TALION CANNON ON CARRIAGE. Tube is 46”, weighs 373 lbs. and has a stainless steel sleeve. 3-inch bore. Wood carriage. Local pickup only. $7,000 OBO. Call or email for photos and details. Steve Kapp, 704 West 5th St., Grove, OK 74344. Cell: 918-791-1262; [email protected]

1. Trade in #1 Field Carriage: $3,5002. Steel mold for a 3-inch Parrott Bolt: $7503. Steel 12-Pdr. Round Shot Mold: $7504. King howitzer, steel barrel on split trail carriage. Complete with sponge & rammer: $3,0005. Type II Ordnance Rifle pendulum hausse (with the diamond shaped apertures): $3006. Bronze US Golf Ball Mortar: $300 delivered7. Steel CS Model Golf Ball Mortar: $200 delivered8. Steel CS Mortar, 3-inch bore on wooden bed: $450 delivered9. Steel 12-Pdr. Mortar on wooden bed: $1,80010. 6-Pdr. Solid Shot, Zinc: $1511. CS Steel 12-Pdr. Mortar on oak bed, new: $1,60012. Used US Artillery Captains Frock Coat, Excellent Shape Size 46: $125

Artillery Goodies For Sale

Trail Rock Ordnance1754 Little Valley Rd • Blaine TN 37709 • 865-932-1200 • [email protected]

www.trailrockordnance.com

Call or email for more details and pictures.

The Artilleryman48

11311 S. Indian River Drive • Fort Pierce, Florida 34982770-329-4985 • [email protected]

George Weller Juno

Bronze mortar from the Georgius Rex period of

King George II (1727-1760)