Technology and the Development of Field Artillery through

TECHNOLOGY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF FIELD ARTILLERY
THROUGH THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1861-65

Judy Ehlen
USA Engineer Research and Development Center
Topographic Engineering Center
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315-3864
tel. (703) 428-6887
FAX: (703) 426-8176
email: jehlen@tec.army.mil

ABSTRACT

The American Civil War was a high point in the development of artillery for warfare. Industrial and manufacturing technologies - some of which had been known for hundreds of years - came together to produce “new breeds” of cannon and ammunition in the 1840s and 1850s, which in turn forced changes not only in the way artillery was used, but in the ways wars were fought in general. For example, better and new manufacturing techniques and advances in metallurgy enabled the use of materials such as iron and steel. These materials are lighter weight than bronze, the traditional material used to make cannon, so cannon become sufficiently mobile to be effective on the battlefield for the first time in history. In addition, these new materials were harder, so weapons made from them could achieve greater ranges and significant increases accuracy. This in turn forced changes in tactics. Coupled with similar advances in small arms, pitched battles between lines of infantry marching toward each other and firing when within range became fewer, and the use of field entrenchments and widely-spaced stationary lines became more common. Furthermore, new methods of cannon manufacture, such as the technique developed by Robert Parrott for reinforcing iron cannon, allowed for greater reliability. These advancements in turn allowed for the successful use of rifling, which, because of enabling greater accuracy and longer range, sounded the death knell for smoothbore weapons.

The period of field artillery can be separated into three periods: 1) the era of stone shot, up to the early sixteenth century, 2) the early sixteenth century to the early- to mid-nineteenth century, and 3) the mid-nineteenth century and beyond. This paper begins with a brief overview of the evolution of ordnance technology first in Europe and then in the United States after the Revolutionary War. A description of the common field artillery pieces used in the Civil War, such as 12-pounder Napoleons and Parrott rifles follows, and how new technologies were used in these weapons is discussed. The ammunition used by these weapons and changes that appeared in ammunition during the Civil War are then described. Finally, changes in tactics - Napoleonic tactics used up to the 1860s were simply no longer applicable - brought about by these new weapons are addressed. It can be said that advancements in weapons technology and tactics between the mid-1860s and the First World War in 1914 were primarily improvements on technologies identified - and sometimes used - in the American Civil War.

Keywords: artillery, history, technology

INTRODUCTION

The development of field artillery was a very long, slow process, occurring over millennia. Many sources, e.g., van Creveld (1989), http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm, suggest that it occurred in three periods, although the beginning and ending dates of these periods vary slightly with the source. For the purposes of this paper, the three periods will be defined as 1) the early period, in which shot was made of stone, ending in the early sixteenth century; 2) the middle period, beginning with the introduction of iron shot and ending in the 1840s and 1850s; and 3) the modern period, characterized by breech loaders, rifling and elongate projectiles (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). In the early period, cannon were made primarily of cast iron. In the middle period, during which little advance occurred, both cast iron and bronze ordnance were in use. In the modern period, technological advances were huge and very rapid - muzzle-loading bronze and iron weapons disappeared from the scene, and were replaced by breech-loading, rifled iron and steel cannon.

THE EARLY PERIOD

Crude artillery pieces have existed since time out of mind if one assumes that a piece of artillery is merely a machine for throwing a projectile that is too heavy to throw by hand. Early examples include the Roman catapult, which could throw a 100-pound stone 600 yards and the medieval trebuchet, which, using a seesaw mechanism, could throw a 300-pound stone 300 yards (Manucy, 1949). Gunpowder was brought to Europe in the twelfth century, probably by the Moors, but metal cannon, iron and bronze tubes fired using a cradle placed on the ground, did not become common until the Hundred Years War (1339-1453) between England and France. Wheeled gun carriages were first used by the Venetians in the siege of Quero in Spain in 1376 (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). These weapons were of no use in the field, but were highly effective in siege warfare and against fortifications (Manucy,1949). An early fourteenth century manuscript in England shows primitive muzzle-loading cannon shaped like vases (Hazlett et al., 1988; http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). Wrought iron and bronze, often called brass, breech-loading weapons are also known from the early- to mid-fourteenth century. These weapons were primarily used by navies, and then usually only in tight spaces where muzzle loading was difficult (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm).

The first use of truly mobile artillery was during the Hussite Wars in Bohemia (1419-1424) between the Catholic Church and the followers of Jan Hus, a Protestant reformer and martyr. Iron cannon balls were invented by the French in the early part of the fifteenth century as well and slowly began replacing stone shot as the preferred projectile (Manucy, 1949; Manchester, 1968). In addition, the art of casting began to improve after 1470, and with this improvement came better and lighter weapons. Prior to this time, cannon were made like barrels (and hence the name) - the tube consisted of long staves held together with hoops (van Creveld, 1989; http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). An outgrowth of improved casting was the introduction of trunnions (the protrusions on the sides of the barrel that balance the weapon on a carriage) formed with the gun (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). Artillery pieces, although common and mobile, were still too heavy to be moved easily, and the main goal of ordnance manufacturers was thus to make cannon lighter, and more mobile.

THE MIDDLE PERIOD

In the sixteenth century trunnions were normally cast onto barrels making cannon easier to move, and crude, cumbersome carriages with trails and wheels were in regular use. Manucy (1949) states that, although cannon were lighter, it took 23 horses to pull a heavy English cannon. The first cast bronze cannon were produced in England in 1521, and cast iron cannon, in 1540, also in England (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). Ammunition was moved in carts, wheelbarrows, or on a man’s back. The limber, a two-wheeled vehicle attached to the gun carriage that carried ammunition, was invented by the French about 1550. The use of iron projectiles allowed artillery pieces to become smaller - a smaller weapon using iron shot was as effective as a larger one using stone shot (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). The six-teenth century was also notable because it heralded the beginning of the science of ballistics with the publication of the first scientific treatise on gunnery by Niccolo Tartaglia in 1537 (Manucy, 1949). Rifling, the cutting of spiral grooves in the bore of a gun to impart spin to the projectile, was also introduced during the sixteenth century. Although rifling had been used in small arms since about 1480, the earliest known cannon with rifling, an English gun at Woolwich arsenal, dates from 1542 (Manucy, 1949; http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). The first attempt to produce steel guns also occurred in the sixteenth century - this was cast steel, however, and the castings were not sound (Manucy, 1949). Artillery was the dominant weapon of warfare in the early part of this century, but by the mid-sixteenth century the combination of musketeers and heavily armed pikemen became dominant, and the use of field artillery declined: Artillery was best used for defense.

The situation began to change in the seventeenth century under the Swedish King, Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), another religious war fought primarily in northern Europe. He recognized the need for mobility, and banned any gun heavier than a 12-pounder on the battlefield (Manucy, 1949). He invented a leather gun, but soon abandoned it for very light four- and nine-pounder iron cannon that could be pulled by two horses. The four-pounder weighed about 500 lbs. These small cannon were manned by three men, and combining the charge with the projectile speeded the operation of loading, and thus the effectiveness of these field pieces (Manucy, 1949). Gustavus Adolphus also changed the way field ordnance was used by assigning two cannon to each regiment, and used massed artillery in strong batteries. These new tactics were proved at the Battle of Breitenfeld that took place near Leipzig in 1631. Armies from other European countries soon followed his lead, and service as a gunner in the artillery became a proud military profession. Prior to this time, artilleryman were civilians hired for the occasion.

Even though Gustavus Adolphus had shown the way, field artillery was still primarily used for protecting infantry during deployment and for barrages prior to infantry advances even in the eighteenth century. Most artillery was still heavy artillery used against fortifications. One technological advance during this century was the introduction by Maritz of Switzerland of cannon bored from solid metal in 1739 (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). The use of breech-loading weapons declined primarily because the mechanisms could not stand up to improvements in gunpowder (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm).

In the Seven Years War (1756-1763), Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was forced to develop effective use of field artillery due to the heavy infantry losses. He invented horse artillery - small, light guns that could be carried on horseback and that traveled with cavalry - which allowed him to establish batteries quickly at crucial points in a battle and then move the guns elsewhere as needed (van Creveld, 1989). This latter ability was significant. Frederick would send his light field artillery ahead of the infantry. The gunners would dismount 500 yards from the enemy and then push the guns ahead manually, firing continuously, until the infantry passed through the line of artillery and began firing their muskets (Manucy, 1949). This tactic was very effective. The Frenchman, Jean Baptiste de Gribauval, who served under Frederick, improved upon these tactics when he became Inspector General of the French artillery in 1776. By going into action at a gallop, he was able to overpower enemy artillery with overwhelming fire power. He also reduced the size and weight of field artillery pieces and improved windage (the gap between shot and bore). Napoleon later used these same tactics with great effectiveness.

THE MODERN PERIOD

Advancements in Europe

The use of field artillery as an offensive weapon came to prominence in the nineteenth century with the development of new methods of gun construction, improvements in breech-loading mechanisms, and innovations in materials and metallurgy that allowed long-known, but until then unusable, techniques, such as rifling, to be utilized (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). Rifling improved accuracy and increased range (Table 1) because the tight fit of the projectile in the barrel reduced windage (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). The first successful rifled, breech-loading cannon made its appearance in the 1840s - it was produced independently by the Sardinian Major Giovanni Cavalli (or Cavelli) in Italy in 1845 (http://www.mtsu.edu/~cwtech/techwar) and by Baron Wahrendorff who worked at the Åker foundry (the forerunner of the modern Bofors) near Oslo in 1846 (Manucy, 1949). Cavalli’s gun, with a 6.5 inch bore, had two grooves with a uniform twist, which fit matching lugs on the projectile. Wahrendorff’s gun was similar with two grooves, but had a 6.37 inch bore. Wahrendorff also experimented with lead-coated projectiles to decrease windage (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm). Both guns were iron, probably wrought iron, a material just being introduced into the manufacture of field artillery. It was less brittle than cast iron, and thus safer to use (Hazlett et al., 1988). In 1855, Lord Armstrong produced a revolutionary rifled breech loader in England. This rifle had many grooves, but its effectiveness derived primarily from its construction - iron hoops were shrunk onto the steel barrel significantly increasing strength (Manucy, 1949). In addition, the breech mechanism was much simpler than those introduced by Cavalli and Wahrendorff (http://32.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORDNANCE.htm).

The German Alfred Krupp produced the first successful all steel cannon, a three-pounder, in 1847 (Manchester, 1968). It was made from crucible steel, or cast steel, as the Germans called it (http://www.mtsu.edu/~cwtech/techwar). Crucible steel - so called because it was made in air-tight clay crucibles - was actually an English development, but the English did not foresee its use in cannon (Manchester, 1968). Krupp displayed a six-pounder at the Crystal Palace exhibition in London in 1851, and produced a 12-pounder in 1855 (Manchester, 1968). Steel was also used in the English Blakeley, but the reinforcement on this rifle was cast iron. The British breech-loading Whitworths (Figure 1), introduced in 1857, mainly for long-range use (Katcher, 2001), were technologically ahead of their time. Not only were they breech loading and made of steel, they required precision tooling in their manufacture. Because of their precision manufacture, Whitworths were able to hold tolerances not previously obtainable which significantly increased both accuracy and range (Hazlett et al., 1988). The ammunition used in the Whitworths was also of an advanced design (Figure 2): In his experiments, Sir Joseph Whitworth had discovered that tapering the back end of a projectile increased its range (Hazlett et al., 1988). Whitworth also devised a new type of rifling - the bore of the gun was hexagonal (as were the projectiles) and the hexagonal pattern was twisted (Hazlett et al., 1988). Krupp also produced a breech loader, but the mechanism was faulty (Manchester, 1968).

Field Artillery in the United States

There was little use of artillery in the United States in the eighteenth century simply because the cannon on their heavy carriages were too cumbersome to use in fighting Indians. In addition, the Colony was heavily wooded, which made the use of the cumbersome field pieces of the day almost impossible, and the dissected terrain of New England and the Coastal Plain was not conducive to the movement of such weapons. When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Americans had a small, polyglot collection of artillery pieces of many different caliber. As a colony, all artillery had been imported from Britain, and there had been no need to establish gun foundries - and all the big wars up to that time had been fought in Europe. With no possibility of importation, at least in the early stages of the war, the few foundries that existed began casting cannon using both bronze and iron. These foundries were small, and those capable of producing cannon were located primarily in Pennsylvania, the Hopewell Furnace being the best-known example. Most cannon were siege guns for protection of naval fortifications (Manucy, 1949).

Iron replaced bronze as the preferred material for gun manufacture in the early nineteenth century, because resources of copper, needed for making bronze, were very limited (Katcher, 2001). Most field artillery pieces used in the War of 1812 were small, iron, smoothbore, muzzle-loading cannon, usually six-pounders (Figure 3), as were those used in the Mexican War (1846-1848). Bronze was re-adopted as the preferred material in 1836 because of the brittleness, and hence the unreliability, of cast iron guns (Katcher, 2001). In 1857, the U.S. Army adopted the bronze, smoothbore muzzle-loading Light 12-pounder or “Napoleon” (Figure 4) as the standard. This gun was a copy of a French weapon designed by and named for Napoleon III (Katcher, 2001). The Napoleon was somewhat unusual because it could fire shot, shell, and canister, unlike the six-pounder that only fired shot (Katcher, 2001). The Napoleon was the most common weapon for Union armies at the beginning of the Civil War; the six-pounder was never a front-line weapon for northern armies except in isolated locations, e.g., the far west (Katcher, 2001).

The six-pounder, however, was the most common field piece in southern arsenals (Figure 3; Katcher, 2001). Confederate foundries had great expertise in making these small field pieces, and continued to do so in the early years of the war. When Confederate armies discovered how ineffective their six-pounders were against the superior Union 12-pounders, however, many were returned to the foundries for recasting into Napoleons. With the loss of their supply of copper at Ducktown, Tennessee in late 1863, Confederate foundries began producing iron Napoleons. These weapons were found to be equally effective to the bronze guns (Katcher, 2001).

Like the Europeans, Americans were also experimenting with the new materials and manufacturing techniques. By mid-century, field artillery pieces were again being made of cast iron and sometimes even steel (Manucy, 1949; Ripley, 1970), rather than the traditional bronze (Table 1) as noted above. The Wiard, for example, invented in 1863, was made from puddled “semi steel” - a low-carbon cast iron with scrap steel replacing pig iron in the charge (Ripley, 1970). Because of the great tensile strength of this material, larger charges could be fired using smaller barrels (Katcher, 2001). This rifle was invented by Canadian Norman Wiard (http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html), who was Superintendent of Ordnance Stores for the U.S. Army during the Civil War (Katcher, 2001). All Wiards were cast at his Trenton, New Jersey foundry. Although highly successful, Wiards never became a standard weapon.

The U.S. had begun experimenting with rifling in the late 1850s and a few weapons were manufactured at that time by the South Boston Foundry and the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, New York. The three-inch wrought iron rifle that appeared in 1861 was the first such weapon to be produced in quantity. This rifle was developed by John Griffen at the Phoenix Iron Company in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. According to Manucy (1949, 14-17), this rifle “. . . was made by wrapping sheets of boiler iron around a mandrel. The cylinder thus formed was heated and passed through the rolls for welding, then cooled, bored, turned, and rifled.” Few of these weapons were produced by the Confederacy, although several foundries produced bronze versions (Katcher, 2001).

Robert Parker Parrott, Superintendent of the West Point Foundry, received a patent in 1861 for a far superior method of reinforcement - the cast iron breech was wrapped with a wrought iron coil hammered into a welded cylinder. The cylinder was then bored, and the band was cooled in place as the gun was rotated (Manucy, 1949; Thomas, 1985). This process was simple and highly effective, and made Parrott rifles stronger and much more reliable than other iron cannon, reinforced or not (http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html; Katcher, 2001). The ten-pounder Parrott with three lands (the raised bits between grooves) and grooves was the standard field piece. The 30-pounder was usually too heavy and awkward for field use, and the 20-pounder was less reliable than either the ten- or 30-pounder (Figure 5). Although these rifles had muzzle velocities similar to smoothbores, the striking velocity was about three times greater because the more streamlined rifled projectiles lost speed much more slowly than smoothbore projectiles (Manucy, 1949). Rifles used in the Civil War had ranges up to 6,200 yards (http://civalwarartillery.com/tables.htm).

Mid-nineteenth century smoothbore field or ‘light’ artillery consisted of guns that had relatively flat trajectories and howitzers that had high trajectories. Ripley (1970, 15) defines guns as “...long-barreled weapons designed to throw a solid shot with a heavy charge of powder at long range using a low angle of elevation.” Guns and howitzers had comparable elevations, ranging from 3.5° to 5° (Ripley, 1970). The shorter barrels of the howitzers and the presence of a chamber at the base of the bore allowed for the higher, arced trajectories (http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html). These weapons comprised the majority of those on hand at the beginning of the Civil War.

The U.S. Ordnance Board determined in the late 1850s that their supply of bronze guns should be rifled, and 50% were scheduled for rifling in 1860. The gun barrels were rebored, which virtually doubled the weight of the shot that could be fired. (Manucy, 1949). Rifling was not very effective for bronze guns, however, because the metal was too soft to withstand the friction from repeated firings (Manucy, 1949; http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html). Many of these rifled bronze guns ended up in Confederate hands.

Smoothbore weapons were named according to the weight of the solid shot they fired, e.g., a six-pounder would always have a bore diameter of 3.67 inches and would fire shot that weighed six pounds (http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html). This relationship did not hold for rifles, so there is a mix of terminology, e.g., a 20-pounder Parrott rifle (Figure 5) had the same diameter bore as a six-pounder smoothbore gun, but fired a shell that weighed 20 lbs (Ripley, 1970). In other words, there was no relation between bore diameter and the size of the shot for rifles (http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html). Further confusion arises from the rifling of smoothbore guns. Referring to rifles by diameter of the bore was more reasonable, but the old ways continued in many cases (e.g., the Parrotts).

Most weapons, such as the early- to mid-nineteenth century workhorse, the six-pounder, were muzzle loading (Table 1). The first modern breech-loading field guns, the British-made Clay (no surviving examples; Hazlett et al., 1988), and the Whitworth (Figure 1) and Armstrong rifles, were used by both Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, although most were imported and used by the Confederates (Hazlett et al., 1988), because the number of foundries capable of producing artillery pieces in the south was limited. The long range of the Whitworths (Table 1) made them difficult to use in wooded terrain (Katcher, 2001). Furthermore, the breech-loading mechanism was not easily operated, particularly be artillerymen unfamiliar with mechanical devices (Katcher, 2001). Whitworths were available throughout the war, and steel Armstrong rifles also from Britain were available in late 1864.

In general, Union armies were more likely to have the more modern weapons and more of them than Confederate armies, with the exception of British rifles. The smoothbore weapon of choice for both armies was the Light 12-pounder Napoleon (Figure 4). The cast iron 10- and 20-pounder Parrotts (Figure 5) were probably the most common rifles along with the bronze James rifles (Figure 6), but the wrought iron three-inch ordnance rifle (Figure 7) rapidly became more popular with artillerists than the Parrotts after its introduction in 1861 (http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html) - more than 1,100 weapons were provided to the Union armies by war’s end (Katcher, 2001). James rifles were somewhat unusual, because these weapons were developed to fire a particular type of projectile rather than the other way around. General Charles T. James of the Rhode Island militia and a retired Rhode Island Senator, was the inventor (Thomas, 1985). None were produced after 1862 when James was killed testing a new projectile (Ripley, 1970). Napoleons, ordnance rifles, James rifles, and the various Parrotts are common features of Civil War battlefield parks today and many have large collections of original artillery pieces, e.g., Shiloh National Military Park has 218 pieces of field artillery (http://www.cwartillery.org/wsshi.html).

Civil War Ammunition

Four types of projectiles were commonly used in Civil War smoothbore field artillery, all of which were iron - solid shot, shell, spherical case shot, and canister. More unusual types of projectiles included chain, bar, and elongated shot (Ripley, 1970). All smoothbore projectiles were mounted on a wooden based called a sabot (Figures 8 and 9). Union and Confederate armies used the same types of ammunition for the same purposes, but northern-manufactured projectiles were far superior to those produced in the south (Katcher, 2001).

Solid shot, introduced by 1400 (Manucy, 1949), was spherical and exactly that - solid cast iron balls (Figure 8). It carried no explosive and was designed to cause damage purely by its weight and impact. The diameter of solid shot was about one- to two-tenths inch smaller than the bore diameter of any given weapon (Ripley, 1970). Chain and bar shot, most often used by the navy, were variations of solid, round shot - a bar or chain linked two projectiles (Manucy, 1949). Chain shot was first used in the sixteenth century (van Creveld, 1989).

A shell was a hollow projectile filled with black powder that was fused (Figure 9). It was designed to break into fragments either in flight or upon impact (Thomas, 1985). It could be either round or conical in shape. Shells could be fired from most types of weapons, and were generally more effective than solid shot even though they used low-yield black powder as the explosive (Ripley, 1970). Explosive shells were first used by the Venetians in 1376 (Manucy, 1949). After 1550, shell was standard for use in mortars, but did not become common for flat-trajectory weapons until the nineteenth century (Manucy, 1949). Spherical case shot, a type of shell, was the forerunner of the shrapnel of World War I. A hollow, cast iron container filled with lead or iron musket balls and powder exploded in flight, using a time fuse, so that maximum casualties would occur (Figure 10). The balls were held together with melted sulphur or resin (Katcher, 2001). Case shot was designed to extend the range and lessen the dispersion of canister and grape shot (see below; Ripley, 1970). With a Bormann fuse (Figure 11), the range of spherical case shot was roughly 1,200 yards (Ripley, 1970). This fuse was screwed into the shell, and the timing was controlled by its length. There were marks on the fuse indicating where it should be cut by the gunner to obtain the desired delay in the explosion (Katcher, 2001). As with projectiles and cannon, Confederate fuses were inferior to Union fuses. Bormann fuses were somewhat unreliable and made firing over the heads of advancing infantry a tricky operation (Katcher, 2001). With the increased range of modern weapons, however, these fuses rapidly became obsolete.

Canister was used at short range, 300 to 600 yards - the larger the container, the greater the range (Figure 12; Ripley, 1970). One of the first recorded uses was in Constantinople in 1453 (Manucy, 1949) as a result of which the Ottomans completed the destruction of the Byzantine Empire (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles_1401-1800). Canister was basically a tin can filled with large, cast iron balls - the size and number of balls determined the caliber (Figure 12 [right]; Ripley, 1970): Light 12-pounder (Napoleon) canister had 1.5 inch diameter balls. When fired, the container was ripped open, and the balls spread like a shot gun blast. Canister was highly effective against infantry and cavalry. Grape shot, similar to canister, also consisted of a container filled with small iron balls. The balls were tied together and separated upon firing. It was discontinued for use in field artillery by the U.S. Army before the Civil War (Ripley, 1970). There are, however, many references to grape shot in letters of the time, in memoirs written by participants, and in the Official Records; one must assume the authors were referring to cannister. Table 2 shows which of the common types of projectiles were fired from several common cannon.

Because effective rifling was relatively new, there were an incredible variety of commercial and experimental rifle projectiles (Ripley, 1970). A solid rifle projectile was called a “bolt” (Figures 2, 13 [top]); the many different projectiles, both bolt and shell, were typically called by the inventor’s name, e.g., Schenkl (Figure 14) or Hotchkiss shells. Some projectiles were specific to a particular weapon, e.g., James shells were used exclusively in James rifles (Figure 15). All rifle projectiles were elongate in shape, and not necessarily interchangeable among the different types of rifles. The differences between the various projectiles lay primarily in the method by which rotation was achieved (Ripley, 1970), e.g., different shapes and numbers of grooves. Projectiles shot from rifles had flatter trajectories (and thus greater range) and more impact when they hit than those from smoothbore guns. The pointed, cylindrical shape of rifle projectiles also increased accuracy. Rifles used percussion fuses, a development of the early nineteenth century. These fuses caused the projectile to explode immediately upon impact (Manucy, 1949). They were mounted on the tip of the projectile, so didn’t require a timing device, making them much safer to use (Katcher, 2001).

Changes in Tactics During the Civil War

Artillery was used differently than it had been in the past during the American Civil War. Artillery batteries were traditionally attached to specific military units, usually brigades. Individual artillery companies were called batteries (Figure 16). At the beginning of the Civil War, each Union battery usually consisted of six cannons, often all of the same type, whereas four cannon, most often of different types, typically comprised a Confederate battery (Thomas, 1985). Batteries were commanded by captains, with lieutenants in charge of two-gun sections. A platoon, commanded by a sergeant, consisted of one gun. There were seven men in a platoon, in addition to the gunner. Each battery thus consisted of more than 100 men and officers (Thomas, 1985).

Very early in the war, it became apparent that some organization above battery/brigade level would be useful, so the Union army decreed that batteries should be assigned to divisions, four batteries to each division, that one battery should consist of regular army personnel, and the captain of that battery would be the division Chief of Artillery. If divisions were combined into corps, at least half the division artillery was to act as the reserve artillery for the corps. In addition, there was to be an artillery reserve for each army consisting of 100 guns (Katcher, 2001). Organization was slightly different for the western armies where three or four batteries were typically assigned to each division and were commanded by a Chief of Artillery. In practice, however, the batteries still tended to function on the brigade level (Katcher, 2001).

The Confederate armies also changed the organization of their artillery as the war progressed. In 1862, artillery batteries in the Army of Northern Virginia were reorganized into battalions that were commands independent of infantry. Similar actions were taken by the western armies, but not until 1864 (Katcher, 2001). These actions allowed the use of massed artillery, which was used during the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862 by the Confederate army to quell Union resistence at the Hornet’s Nest (http://www.civilwar.bluegrass.net/battles-campaigns/1862/620406-07.html); 62 cannon were involved. Although first introduced by Gustavus Adolphus in the seventeenth century, this was the first time massed artillery was used on the battlefield in modern warfare. Massed artillery was also used to good effect by the Confederate Army of Mississippi during the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky in October 1862.

Napoleonic tactics were no longer practical by the time of the Civil War. Guns could no longer be rushed across the battlefield to open huge holes in the ranks of enemy infantry to be filled with infantry using bayonets followed by cavalry (van Creveld, 1989). The longer ranges of both small arms and field artillery meant that the infantry was usually able to keep enemy artillery far enough away so that case shot and cannister were no longer effective in an opening barrage. Bayonet charges became rare because opposing infantries usually did not get close enough to use them. As a result, when one line of infantry advanced, the enemy infantry and artillery were still fresh and able to fire upon them with overwhelming force from point-blank range. Linear tactics of the past began to change to tactics of dispersal (http://www.mtsu.edu/~cwtech/techwar).

Another effect of improved field artillery was the change in the use of entrenchments - frontal assaults were no longer practicable. As van Creveld (1989, 172) puts it, “. . . low was safe and tall was dead . . .” Prior to the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, entrenchments were only found in and around fortifications or other permanent establishments, not on the battlefield. During this battle, General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson encouraged his men to dig entrenchments to protect themselves from the increased fire power - both field artillery and small arms - of the Union army. As the war progressed, entrenchments were also used for offensive, as well as defensive, purposes on the battlefield (http://www.mtsu.edu/~cwtech/techwar/strategy.html). The ultimate use of entrenchments was, of course, during World War I in battles along the French-Belgian border, e.g., Ypres, the Somme.

Another change in tactics brought about by increased fire power was dispersion of forces, as noted above (van Creveld, 1989; http://www.mtsu.edu/~cwtech/techwar). Van Creveld (1989) discusses dispersion of forces in terms of men per square meter. In ancient Greece, the ratio was 1:1. This slowly changed until it reached 1:25 in the Civil War. Dispersion then increased ten-fold by World War I. The more widely spaced the men were, the greater the likelihood of survival. Increased fire power was not alone in producing this change, however: The invention of the telegraph and other means of rapid communication enhanced dispersion of forces (van Creveld, 1989).

Cavalry tactics also changed in the mid-nineteenth century. Traditionally, cavalry had been used in charges against infantry, but the increased accuracies and longer ranges of modern field ordnance forced change in cavalry tactics (van Creveld, 1989). The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in October 1854 during the Crimean War (1854-56) was the last big cavalry charge - brigade strength was 673 (http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/history/crimea/chargelb.html). The brigade rode down the axis of a valley with Russian guns on both sides as well as in front. The gunners along the sides of the valley were sufficiently impressed with the audacity of the British that they did not fire during the charge. Only the 14 guns at the end of the valley did fire, reducing brigade strength to about 200 upon its return to British lines (http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/history/crimea/chargelb.html). Modern artillery wreaked havoc among both men and horses, and the charge at Balaclava was the beginning of the end for the cavalry. There were several small cavalry charges during the Civil War, such as those at Brandy Station, Virginia in June 1863 and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July 1863 (http://www.civilwarhome.com/cavalrybattles.htm), but these charges involved no more than several hundred men. During the Civil War, cavalry was used primarily for intelligence purposes, reconnaissance, and raids behind enemy lines. When cavalry took part in a battle it was usually as mounted infantry - their horses took them rapidly to the fighting, whereupon the cavalrymen would dismount, seek cover, and fight as infantrymen: Swords were no longer their principle weapon (http://www.mtsu.edu/~cwtech/techwar/strategy.html). It is also possible that the undeveloped, often heavily-wooded, dissected terrain of the United States - compared to the more open, highly-developed agricultural landscapes of Europe - assisted in this transition.

Although modern, technologically-advanced weapons were available, muzzle-loading smoothbores probably performed more effectively throughout the Civil War than rifled cannon (Manucy, 1949). This was because so much of the fighting occurred in wooded areas (e.g., The Wilderness, Spotsylvania County, Virginia) where the longer ranges of the modern weapons were of little use. In addition, rifle projectiles were not as damaging in these circumstances as the canister smoothbores shot at close range. The Civil War, however, with the rapid advances in materials and metallurgy, e.g., the use of steel in field artillery, and the development of effective rifling and breech loaders, was the last war in which smoothbore weapons were dominant.

CONCLUSIONS

Centuries of technological advance in field artillery seem to come together at the time of the American Civil War. Wrought iron and effective reinforcement technology (Parrott’s 1861 patent) allowed the development and deployment of strong, yet light-weight, weapons. The development of crucible steel allowed the successful introduction of steel rifles in 1857 (i.e., the Krupp rifle). The use of wrought iron and steel combined allowed manufacture of efficient rifled weapons. Successful breech loaders had also just come available with the Armstrong rifle in 1855. Both Union and Confederate armies took advantage of these technological changes and thus not only forced changes in tactics, but also laid the basis for the field artillery of today. During the remainder of the nineteenth century, many improvements were made in field artillery, but they were just that - improvements on technologies that were first used, however ineffectively, in Civil War ordnance. It is as Dupuy (1980, 196) states “Many historians have termed the American Civil War the last of the old and the first of the modern wars. This does not overstate the case: in this war occurred the revolution in weaponry and tactics which . . . was to come to bloody fruition in 1919.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would specially like to thank Jack Melton for not only giving me permission to use me to use his photographs of ammunition, but also for re-photographing each piece to provide me with higher resolution images than published on his excellent website (http://www.civilwarartilery.com). I would also like to thank Douglas R. Caldwell for his assistance, encouragement, and helpful comments during preparation of this paper.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Ehlen is a geologist with additional degrees in German, history, and geography. She has been employed by the USA Engineer Research and Development Center in Alexandria, VA since 1971. Her areas of interest include fractures in granite (field study, 3-D modelling), weathering (primarily of granites), terrain analysis, and military geology, geography, and history. She is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, currently chair of the Engineering Geology Division, and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. She is also an active member of the Geological Society of Washington and the American Rock Mechanics Association. She belongs to the British Geomorphological Research Society, the Ussher Society, the Association of Engineering Geologists, the International Society for Rock Mechanics, the International Association of Engineering Geologists, and Sigma Xi. Dr. Ehlen resides in Fredericksburg, VA.

REFERENCES

van Creveld, Martin. 1989. Technology and War, from 2000 B.C. to the Present. New York: The Free Press.

Dupuy, Trevor. 1980. The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc.

Hazlett, James C., Olmstead, Edwin, and Parks, M. Hume. 1988. Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War (2^nd edition). Newark: University of Delaware Press.

Katcher, Philip. 2001. American Civil War Artillery 1861-65 (1) Field Artillery. Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd.

Manchester, William. 1968. The Arms of Krupp 1587-1968. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.

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Ripley, Warren. 1970. Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War. New York: Promontory Press.

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http://www.civilwarhome.com/cavalrybattles.htm; updated 11/26/02 (Accessed 10/15/02

http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html; updated 10/31/01 (Accessed 8/15/02)

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