Canister shot video

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17 rounds of canister fired from an original Civil War 12 pounder Napoleon for a study on battlefield archeology. Each canister shell contained 27 steel balls 1.5" in dia that were painted a certain color and then fired out onto a field from various cannon positions. The cannon's coordinates and the balls that were found were all documented using GPS Technology. The cannon was fired at various barrel elevations and at different levels of terrain. The data when analyzed will hopefully help archeologists determine where the cannons may have been placed during a historic battle.

 
17 rounds of canister fired from an original Civil War 12 pounder Napoleon for a study on battlefield archeology. Each canister shell contained 27 steel balls 1.5" in dia that were painted a certain color and then fired out onto a field from various cannon positions. The cannon's coordinates and the balls that were found were all documented using GPS Technology. The cannon was fired at various barrel elevations and at different levels of terrain. The data when analyzed will hopefully help archeologists determine where the cannons may have been placed during a historic battle.

Thanks I've only shot solid rounds so this was very cool to see.
 
Interesting... though do they have any links to their results?

Also interesting to see a shiny Napoleon... since most of the originals aren't so shiny anymore.
 
The later war Federal 12 pdr Napoleon canister contained 72 three ounce balls per Henry Hunt's circular of Dec. 17, 1863. The change was ordered since the extra range of the sparser 27 ball canister was not nearly as useful as a denser pattern of 72 smaller balls.
 
This is the most graphic demonstration I have seen of what the horror must have been for an attacking infantry to charge into the teeth of cannister fire. It would likely be even more devastating with the 72 ball load and a full battery of Napoleons. It makes my spine tingle to think what it must have been like for my ancestor who was in the charge at the Crater to have Confederate cannister shell raining down on him from the surrounding hills!
 
Thank you so much. We're about to get to the war in two classes. They won't forget this. You don't always get math, science and history combined so effectively in one video!
 
Here you can see the effects of the modern day canister round fired by an M1 Abrams tank. The 50 pound shell contains 1150 .40 caliber tungsten pellets launched at 4500 fps, with an effective range of 500 yards.

A 10-pounder Parrot rifle firing. I've noticed it doesn't have that nice ring after every shot like the good old 12 pounder Napoleon does.

And a vid from a Mythbusters episode. Its been awhile since I've seen the episode, but I think they were originally testing if you could fire silverware out of a cannon when you ran out of ammo, but they ended up firing a few more things besides just silverware.
 
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Here you can see the effects of the modern day canister round fired by an M1 Abrams tank. The 50 pound shell contains 1150 .40 caliber tungsten pellets launched at 4500 fps, with an effective range of 500 yards. One shot from that and a whole regiment would go down in a second.

Heres a vid of a 10 pounder Parrot rifle firing. I've noticed it doesn't have that nice ring after every shot like the good old 12 pounder Napoleon does.

Thanks. We love artillery videos. The closest we're gonna get in real life is when the Sophomores see if their catapult will work. :smile: I have a couple of girls who aspire to become Henry Hunt or Porter Alexander. :smile:
 
Ersatz canister, aka "Langrage" canister in the Confederacy (a French term) could be anything hard and able to be stuffed down the muzzle in quantity. Rocks, blacksmithing tools, trace chains, spikes, nails, nuts, bolts, rivets, furniture skids, wrought iron fence parts, door hinges, shell fragments, slag, cut up pieces of bar stock, boiler plate punch outs, and more have been found or reported by users or targeted individuals during the war as canister shot.

One of the things I noticed in the first video is a zipping sound that I suspect is the canister base plate. It could be the balls themselves, but it sounds like a singlet to me.
 
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When I finally buy that winning lotto ticket I'm headed down to West Texas' Davis mountains to buy about 20,000 acres for my observatory on a mountain (already know which one as I've observed and camped there before), and an ACW cannon firing range... Wouldn't mind having some horses again either.
 
I think that is what Mark was noting. In the video they commented about it being a Steen reproduction that replaced a South Bend or some other iron repro. (It was fairly early in the video.)

Yeah, sorry; I was unclear. It's interesting to see things how they would have looked at the time, rather than how the ones that have survived look now. Although the ones that had been through a few battles may not have been quite that shiny. :wink:

(Along the same lines... this may only occur to a non-reenactor, but I thought it was neat that the gun crew was appropriately dressed. Wasn't specifically necessary for the test, but still neat. Also interesting to see the recoil; you don't get that kind of reaction from a blank charge.)
 
17 rounds of canister fired from an original Civil War 12 pounder Napoleon for a study on battlefield archeology. Each canister shell contained 27 steel balls 1.5" in dia that were painted a certain color and then fired out onto a field from various cannon positions. The cannon's coordinates and the balls that were found were all documented using GPS Technology. The cannon was fired at various barrel elevations and at different levels of terrain. The data when analyzed will hopefully help archeologists determine where the cannons may have been placed during a historic battle.


Those guys are just having way too much fun!!! :smile: I would have like to have seen a regiment of jelly figures, like you see on Mythbusters, standing on the other side to see what canister fire did to them. I'd assume that the budget was awfully tight though. Great video!!!
 
Thought the following account of the Sunken Road at the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg would be of interest.


The Yankees rushed forward into the sunken road, firing into the backs of the retreating Confederates. The Rebels drew forward their artillery to halt the onslaught. About seventy rounds of canister were poured into the Federal line which was less than seventy yards away. As artillerymen went down, infantry men, even General Longstreet and his staff, served the guns. It was obvious to all that the centre must not be broken. The batteries were soon firing double charges of canister from the red hot barrels. Gunners avoided the time consuming task of swabbing the barrels after each discharge by “thumbing the vents”, a dangerous process by which a Gunner kept his thumb over the gun vent to prevent oxygen from entering the chamber and setting off the charge prematurely while the loaders tamped in powder and shot. When the gunner removed his thumb the cannon immediately fired. Firing these heavy double canister loads, made the gun recoil four or five feet and the gunner who was firing with his thumb had to ride the gun back. A commander of a Federal regiment facing this onslaught commented later that the artillery fire coming out of the orchard was the most effective he had ever experienced and that no one could survive its’ fire.[1]

[1]“Warrior In Gray – General Robert Rodes of Lee’s Army” by James K. Swisher, page71
 
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