Chapter III: Part 3

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

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

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

FIELD CANNON

The field guns were the mobile pieces that could travel with the army and be brought quickly into firing position. They were lighter in weight than any other type of flat trajectory weapon. To achieve this lightness the designers had not only shortened the guns, but thinned down the bore walls. In the eighteenth century, calibers ran from the 3- to the 24-pounder, mounted on comparatively light, two-wheeled carriages. In addition, there was the 1-1/2-pounder (and sometimes the light 3- or 6-pounder) on a "galloper" carriage--a vehicle with its trail shaped into shafts for the horse. The elevating-screw mechanism was early developed for field guns, although the heavier pieces like the 18- and 24-pounders were still elevated by quoins as late as the early 1800's.

In the Castillo collection are parts of early United States field carriages little different from Spanish carriages that held a score of 4-pounders in the long, continuous earthwork parapet surrounding St. Augustine in the eighteenth century. The Spanish mounts were a little more complicated in construction than English or American carriages, but not much. Spanish pyramid-headed nails for securing ironwork were not far different from the diamond-and rose-headed nails of the English artificer.

Each piece of hardware on the carriage had its purpose. Gunner's tools were laid in hooks on the cheeks. There were bolts and rings for the lines when the gun had to be moved by manpower in the field. On the trail transom, pintle plates rimmed the hole that went over the pintle on the limber. Iron reinforced the carriage at weak points or where the wood was subject to wear. Iron axletrees were common by the late 1700's.

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

The single-trail carriage (fig. 13) used so much during the middle 1800's was a remarkable simplification of carriage design. It was also essential for guns like the Parrott rifles, since the thick reinforce on the breech of an otherwise slender barrel would not fit the older twin-trail carriage. The single, solid "stock" or trail eliminated transoms, for to the sides of the stock itself were bolted short, high cheeks, humped like a camel to cradle the gun so high that great latitude in elevation was possible. The elevating screw was threaded through a nut in the stock, right under the big reinforce of the gun.

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

_Ranges of Parrott field rifles (1863)_

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

10-pounder 890 Shell 9.75 5° 2,000 3-pounder.
do 9.75 20° 5,000
20-pounder 1,750 do 18.75 5° 2,100 6-pounder.
do 18.75 15° 4,400
30-pounder 4,200 do 29.00 15° 4,800 9-pounder.
do 29.00 25° 6,700
Long shell 101.00 15° 4,790
do 101.00 25° 6,820
Hollow shot 80.00 25° 7,180
do 80.00 35° 8,453

Amazingly enough, these ranges were obtained with about the same amount of powder used for the smoothbores of similar caliber: the 10-pounder Parrott used only a pound of powder; the 20-pounder used a two-pound charge; and the 30-pounder, 3-1/4 pounds!

HOWITZERS

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

English howitzers of the 1750's were of three calibers: 5.8-, 8-, and 10-inch, but the 10-incher was so heavy (some 50 inches long and over 3,500 pounds) that it was quickly discarded. Müller deplored the superfluous weight of these pieces and developed 6-, 8-, 10, and 13-inch howitzers in which, by a more calculated distribution of the metal, he achieved much lighter weapons. Müller's howitzers survived in the early 6- to 10-inch pieces of United States artillery and one fine little 24-pounder of the late eighteenth century happens to be among the armament of Castillo de San Marcos, along with some early nineteenth century howitzers. The British, incidentally, were the first to bring this type gun to Florida. None appeared on the Castillo inventory until the 1760's.

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

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

Caliber Elevation Range in yards

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

From earliest times the usefulness of the mortar as an arm of the artillery has been clearly recognized. Up until the 1800's the weapon was usually made of bronze, and many mortars had a fixed elevation of 45°, which in the sixteenth century was thought to be the proper elevation for maximum range of any cannon. In the 1750's Müller complained of the stupidity of English artillerists in continuing to use fixed-elevation mortars, and the Spanish made a _mortero de plancha_, or "plate" mortar (fig. 37), as late as 1788. Range for such a fixed-elevation weapon was varied by using more or less powder, as the case required. But the most useful mortar, of course, had trunnions and adjustable elevation by means of quoins.

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

The mortar did not use a wad, because a wad prevented the fuze of the shell from igniting. To the layman, it may seem strange that the shell was never loaded with the fuze toward the powder charge of the gun. But the fuze was always toward the muzzle and away from the blast, a practice which dated from the early days when mortars were discharged by "double firing": the gunner lit the fuze of the shell with one hand and the priming of the mortar with the other. Not until the late 1600's did the method of letting the powder blast ignite the fuze become general. It was a change that greatly simplified the use of the arm and, no doubt, caused the mortarman to heave a sigh of relief.

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

About 1750, the French mortar had a bore length 1-1/2 diameters of the shell; in England, the bore was 2 diameters for the smaller calibers and 3 for the 10- and 13-inchers. The extra length added a great deal of weight to the English mortars: the 13-inch weighed 25 hundredweight, while the French equivalent weighed only about half that much. Müller complained that mortar designers slavishly copied what they saw in other guns. For instance, he said, the reinforce was unnecessary; it "... overloads the Mortar with a heap of useless metal, and that in a place where the least strength is required, yet as if this unnecessary metal was not sufficient, they add a great projection at the mouth, which serves to no other purpose than to make the Mortar top-heavy. The mouldings are likewise jumbled together, without any taste or method, tho' they are taken from architecture." Field mortars in use during Müller's time included 4.6-, 5.8-, 8-, 10-, and 13-inch "land" mortars and 10- and 13-inch "sea" mortars. Müller, of course, redesigned them.

The small mortars called coehorns (fig. 39) were invented by the famed Dutch military engineer, Baron van Menno Coehoorn, and used by him in 1673 to the great discomfit of French garrisons. Oglethorpe had many of them in his 1740 bombardment of St. Augustine when the Spanish, trying to translate coehorn into their own tongue, called them _cuernos de vaca_--"cow horns." They continued in use through the U. S. Civil War, and some of them may still be seen in the battlefield parks today.

Bombs and carcasses were usual for mortar firing, but stone projectiles remained in use as late as 1800 for the pedrero class (fig. 43). Mortar projectiles were quite formidable; even in the sixteenth century missiles weighing 100 or more pounds were not uncommon, and the 13-inch mortar of 1860 fired a 200-pound shell. The larger projectiles had to be whipped up to the muzzle with block and tackle.

In the last century, the bronze mortars metamorphosed into the great cast-iron mortars, such as "The Dictator," that mammoth Federal piece used against Petersburg, Va. Wrought-iron beds with a pair of rollers were built for them. In spite of their high trajectory, mortars could range well over a mile, as witness these figures for United States mortars of the 1860's, firing at 45° elevation:

_Ranges of U. S. Mortars in 1861_

Caliber Projectile Range
weight (pounds) (yards)

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

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

PETARDS

"Hoist with his own petard," an ancient phrase signifying that one's carefully laid scheme has exploded, had truly graphic meaning in the old days when everybody knew what a petard was. Since the petard fired no projectile, it was hardly a gun. Roughly speaking, it was nothing but an iron bucket full of gunpowder. The petardier would hang it on a gate, something like hanging your hat on a nail, and blast the gate open by firing the charge.

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

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

PROJECTILES

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

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

SOLID SHOT

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

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

Shot was used mainly in the flat-trajectory cannon. The small caliber guns fired nothing but shot, for small sizes of the other type projectiles were not effective. Shot was the prescription when the situation called for "great accuracy, at very long range," and penetration. Fired at ships, a shot was capable of breaching the planks (at 100-yard range a 24-pounder shot would penetrate 4-1/2 feet of "sound and hard" oak). With a fair aim at the waterline, a gunner could sink or seriously damage a vessel with a few rounds. On ironclad targets like the _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_, however, round shot did little more than bounce; it took the long, armor-piercing rifle projectile to force the development of the tremendously thick plate of modern times.

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

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

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

EXPLOSIVE SHELLS

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

The first recorded use of explosive shells was by the Venetians in 1376. Their bombs were hemispheres of stone or bronze, joined together with hoops and exploded by means of a primitive powder fuze. Shells filled with explosive or incendiary mixtures were standard for mortars, after 1550, but they did not come into general use for flat-trajectory weapons until early in the nineteenth century, whereafter the term "shell" gradually won out over "bomb."

In any event, this projectile was one of the most effective ever used in the smoothbore against earthworks, buildings, and for general bombardment. A delayed action shell, diabolically timed to roll amongst the ranks with its fuze burning, was calculated to "disorder the stoutest men," since they could not know at what awful instant the bomb would burst.

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

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

FUZES

The eighteenth century fuze was a wooden tube several inches long, with a powder composition tamped into its hole much like the nineteenth century fuze (fig. 42c). The hole was only a quarter of an inch in diameter, but the head of the fuze was hollowed out like a cup, and "mealed" (fine) powder, moistened with "spirits of wine" (alcohol), was pressed into the hollow to make a larger igniting surface. To time the fuze, a cannoneer cut the cylinder at the proper length with his fuze-saw, or drilled a small hole (G) where the fire could flash out at the right time. Some English fuzes at this period were also made by drawing two strands of a quick match into the hole, instead of filling it with powder composition. The ends of the match were crossed into a sort of rosette at the head of the fuze. Paper caps to protect the powder composition covered the heads of these fuzes and had to be removed before the shell was put into the gun.

Bombs were not filled with powder very long before use, and fuzes were not put into the projectiles until the time of firing. To force the fuze into the hole of the shell, the cannoneer covered the fuze head with tow, put a fuze-setter on it, and hammered the setter with a mallet, "drifting" the fuze until the head stuck out of the shell only 2/10 of an inch. If the fuze had to be withdrawn, there was a fuze extractor for the job. This tool gripped the fuze head tightly, and turning a screw slowly pulled out the fuze.

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

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

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

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

A Hotchkiss front percussion fuze (fig. 42e) had a brass case which screwed into the shell. Inside the case was a plunger (A) containing a priming charge of powder, topped with a cap of fulminate. A brass wire at the base of the plunger was a safety device to keep the cap away from a sharp point at the top of the fuze until the shell struck the target. When the gun was fired, the shock of discharge dropped a lead plug (B) from the base of the fuze into the projectile cavity, permitting the plunger to drop to the bottom of the fuze and rest there, held by the spread wire, while the shell was in flight. Upon impact, the plunger was thrown forward, the cap struck the point and ignited the priming charge, which in turn fired the bursting charge of the shell.

SCATTER PROJECTILES

When one of our progenitors wrathfully seized a handful of pebbles and flung them at the flock of birds in his garden, he discovered the principle of the scatter projectile. Perhaps its simplest application was in the stone mortar (fig. 43). For this weapon, round stones about the size of a man's fist (and, by 1750, hand grenades) were dumped into a two-handled basket and let down into the bore. This primitive charge was used at close range against personnel in a fortification, where the effect of the descending projectiles would be uncommonly like a short but severe barrage of over-sized hailstones. There were 6,000 stones in the ammunition inventory for Castillo de San Marcos in 1707.

One of the earliest kinds of scatter projectiles was case shot, or canister, used at Constantinople in 1453. The name comes from its case, or can, usually metal, which was filled with scrap, musket balls, or slugs (fig. 41). Somewhat similar, but with larger iron balls and no metal case, was grape shot, so-called from the grape-like appearance of the clustered balls. A stand of grape in the 1700's consisted of a wooden disk at the base of a short wooden rod that served as the core around which the balls stood (fig. 41). The whole assembly was bagged in cloth and reinforced with a net of heavy cord. In later years grape was made by bagging two or three tiers of balls, each tier separated by an iron disk. Grape could disable men at almost 900 yards and was much used during the 1700's. Eventually, it was almost replaced by case shot, which was more effective at shorter ranges (400 to 700 yards). Incidentally, there were 2,000 sacks of grape at the Castillo in 1740, more than any other type projectile.

Spherical case shot (fig. 41) was an attempt to carry the effectiveness of grape and canister beyond its previous range, by means of a bursting shell. It was the forerunner of the shrapnel used so much in World War I and was invented by Lt. Henry Shrapnel, of the British Army, in 1784. There had been previous attempts to produce a projectile of this kind, such as the German Zimmerman's "hail shot" of 1573--case shot with a bursting charge and a primitive time fuze--but Shrapnel's invention was the first air-bursting case shot which, in technical words, "imparted directional velocity" to the bullets it contained. Shrapnel's new shell was first used against the French in 1808, but was not called by its inventor's name until 1852.

INCENDIARIES AND CHEMICAL PROJECTILES

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

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

Loading hot shot was not particularly dangerous. After the powder charge was in the gun with a dry wad in front of it, another wad of wet straw, or clay, was put into the barrel. When the cherry-red shot was rammed home, the wet wad prevented a premature explosion of the charge. According to the _Ordnance Manual_, the shot could cool in the gun without setting off the charge! Hot shot was superseded, about 1850, by Martin's shell, filled with molten iron.

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

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

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

FIXED AMMUNITION

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

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

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

ROCKETS

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

Artillery manuals of very early date include chapters on the manufacture and use of fireworks. But in making war rockets there was no marked progress until the late eighteenth century. About 1780, the British Army in India watched the Orientals use them; and within the next quarter century William Congreve, who set about the task of producing a rocket that would carry an incendiary or explosive charge as far as 2 miles, had achieved such promising results that English boats fired rocket salvos against Boulogne in 1806, The British Field Rocket Brigade used rockets effectively at Leipsic in 1812--the first time they appeared in European land warfare. They were used again 2 years later at Waterloo. The warheads of such rockets were cast iron, filled with black powder and fitted with percussion fuzes. They were fired from trough-like launching stands, which were adjustable for elevation.

Rockets seem to have had a demoralizing effect upon untrained troops, and perhaps their use by the English against raw American levies at Bladenburg, in 1814, contributed to the rout of the United States forces and the capture of Washington. They also helped to inspire Francis Scott Key. Whether or not he understands the technical characteristics of the rocket, every schoolboy remembers the "rocket's red glare" of the National Anthem, wherein Key recorded his eyewitness account of the bombardment of Fort McHenry. The U. S. Army in Mexico (1847) included a rocket battery, and, indeed, war rockets were an important part of artillery resources until the rapid progress of gunnery in the latter 1800's made them obsolescent.

TOOLS

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

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

_The wormer_ was a double screw, something like a pair of intertwined corkscrews, fixed to a long handle. Inserted in the gun bore and twisted, it seized and drew out wads or the remains of cartridge bags stuck in the gun after firing. Worm screws were sometimes mounted in the head of the sponge, so that the piece could be sponged and wormed at the same time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Common practice for sighting, as late as the 1850's, was to find the center line at the top of the piece, mark it with chalk or filed notches, and use it as a sighting line. To find this center line, the gunner laid his level (fig. 47) first on the base ring, then on the muzzle. When the instrument was level atop these rings, the plumb bob was theoretically over the center line of the cannon. But guns were crudely made, and such a line on the outside of the piece was not likely to coincide exactly with the center line of the bore, so there was still ample opportunity for the gunner to exercise his "art." Nonetheless the marked lines did help, for the gunner learned by experiment how to compensate for errors.

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

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

THE PRACTICE OF GUNNERY

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

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

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

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

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

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

Approved aiming procedure was to make the first shot surely short, in order to have a measurement of the error. The second shot would be at greater elevation, but also cautiously short. After the third round, the gunner could hope to get hits. Beginners were cautioned against the desire to hit the target at the first shot, for, said a celebrated artillerist, "... you will get overs and cannot estimate how much over."

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

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

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

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

Twelve rounds an hour was good practice for heavy guns during the Civil War period, although the figure could be upped to 20 rounds. By this date, of course, although the principles of muzzle loading had not changed, actual loading of the gun was greatly simplified by using fixed and semi-fixed ammunition. Loading technique varied with the gun, but the following summary of drill from the United States _Heavy Ordnance Manual_ of 1861 gives a fair idea of how the crew handled a siege gun:

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

The crew consisted of a gunner and six cannoneers. At the command _Take implements_ the gunner stepped to the cascabel and handed the vent-cover to No. 2; the tube-pouch he gave to No. 3; he put on his fingerstall, leveled the gun with the elevating screw, applied his level to base ring and muzzle to find the highest points of the barrel, and marked these points with chalk for a line of sight. His six crewmen took their positions about a yard apart, three men on each side of the gun, with handspikes ready.

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

_Load_ was the second command. Nos. 1, 2, and 4 laid down their spikes; No. 2 took out the tompion; No. 1 took up the sponge and put its wooly head into the muzzle; No. 2 stepped up to the muzzle and seized the sponge staff to help No. 1. In five counts they pushed the sponge to the bottom of the bore. Meanwhile, No. 4 took the passbox and went to the magazine for a cartridge.

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