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The first lesson in Civil War artillery is on the broad categories of artillery used in the war.
The artillery was broken into four basic types. Light, horse, siege and sea coast.
The first category is the light artillery, sometimes called the field artillery. This artillery used lighter guns that could keep up with the infantry Column. Examples of this are the 10 and 20 pound Parrott rifle, 12 pound Napoleen and 3 inch ordnance rifle. In the field artillery most of the men marched.
Horse artillery was very similar to field artillery, using the same types of guns. The primary difference was that all men had horses. This allowed them to keep up with the cavalry.
Siege artillery or heavy artillery started with guns the size of the 30 pound Parrott rifle and went up to guns firing up to 200 pound projectiles. Guns in this category could not keep up with the army and were thus brought into action only when the army needed to destroy fortifications. Most guns above the 30 pound size remained in forts and this were fortification guns.
Sea coast artillery were the heaviest of all. These guns were used exclusively in fortifications as they were too heavy to move once in place. The projectiles they fired ranged from 200 pounds to 1000 pounds in weight and up to 20 inches in diameter. With few exceptions, guns of this caliber in Union forts did not fire their weapons in anger while Confederate guns were used extensively.
Next time we will discuss the more common guns in the artillery in greater detail. Until then, class dismissed.
The first lesson in Civil War artillery is on the broad categories of artillery used in the war.
The artillery was broken into four basic types. Light, horse, siege and sea coast.
The first category is the light artillery, sometimes called the field artillery. This artillery used lighter guns that could keep up with the infantry Column. Examples of this are the 10 and 20 pound Parrott rifle, 12 pound Napoleen and 3 inch ordnance rifle. In the field artillery most of the men marched.
Horse artillery was very similar to field artillery, using the same types of guns. The primary difference was that all men had horses. This allowed them to keep up with the cavalry.
Siege artillery or heavy artillery started with guns the size of the 30 pound Parrott rifle and went up to guns firing up to 200 pound projectiles. Guns in this category could not keep up with the army and were thus brought into action only when the army needed to destroy fortifications. Most guns above the 30 pound size remained in forts and this were fortification guns.
Next time we will discuss the more common guns in the artillery in greater detail. Until then, class dismissed.
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