6 Pounder Cannon Ball - Latham's Battery ANV?

cwbuff

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Virginia
Many years ago I bought a 6 pound cannon ball at the Capital of the Confederacy Show in Richmond. It was dug in the Fredericksburg area. The only battery that I can find that fired a 6 pounder (Model 1841) is Latham’s Battery of The Branch Artillery (North Carolina), Longstreet’s Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. Is that the only battery that used a 6 pounder in this area?
 
Those guns were used in the hundreds during the Civil War. The 6 pounders from 1838 39 and 41 were all in service. Hard to believe only one battery in the ANV used them. Howd you come by it and is there a way to tell what year the shell was made?
 
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I know both sides used them, but I read that the North replaced them early in the war, but the South lacking resources did not. I did some research a while back on which batteries used them at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. I could only find Latham's Battery that used them. I trying to learn which other batteries, if any had 6 pounders in this area. I know there is only one on display at Gettysburg and it is a marker for Latham's Battery.

I know of no way of telling the age of it.

It is also hard to believe that only one battery had them.
 
I'm no historian of military hardware but I can't think that only one battery anywhere would have had a six pounder by Fredericksburg. Think about it. Would ammunition be transported to support a single battery ? Batteries didn't operate entirely unto themselves. I'd think there might have been some of those guns around for a while although they'd likely have been replaced by twelve pounders or rifled guns ASAP. Just some less-than-expert thoughts on the matter.

Way cool, though, that you have such a relic.
 
I'm looking for any good sources that will list the Artillery Order of Battle and the guns they had.
 
Only in part. The best source I found was artillery order of battle for Gettysburg, but I'm looking for something earlier.
 
Try Battles and Leaders. The Orders are somewhat inaccurate, but it is a place to start.

I am convinced that, by Gettysburg, Union batteries did not include 6-pounders. Maybe in the west, but not the AotP. And there were few in the Confederacy, so you might have something there. Any provenance that it was dug at Fredericksburg?
 
Before the war they paired 6 pounder cannon with howitzers in a battery. Maybe look into the howitzer angle to see if it leads you to a battery order of battle.
 
Try Battles and Leaders. The Orders are somewhat inaccurate, but it is a place to start.

I am convinced that, by Gettysburg, Union batteries did not include 6-pounders. Maybe in the west, but not the AotP. And there were few in the Confederacy, so you might have something there. Any provenance that it was dug at Fredericksburg?
That's a pretty safe bet. They had gone mostly to the 1857 12 pounder Napoleons and the 3 inch Ordnance rifles. I have to believe somewhere there was some sort of reserve of them somewhere, though. Or that any number of the guns the Confederates captured earlier in the war would have been used 6 pounders. I really have a tough time believing there was only one battery that used them in an army that kinda relied on captured ordnance.
 
That's a pretty safe bet. They had gone mostly to the 1857 12 pounder Napoleons and the 3 inch Ordnance rifles. I have to believe somewhere there was some sort of reserve of them somewhere, though. Or that any number of the guns the Confederates captured earlier in the war would have been used 6 pounders. I really have a tough time believing there was only one battery that used them in an army that kinda relied on captured ordnance.
I just got this from The Union Drummer Boy, Gettysburg. Disassesioned from The Jenny Wade Museum, and National Soldiers Museum. 6lb Solid Shot from the battlefield.
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A note about 6 pounders.
Tredegar Iron Works stopped casting 6 pounders in July 1862 by order of the Confederate Ordnance Department, and they cast only 12 pounders from that point.
In December 1862, Robert E. Lee recommended that all of the 6 pounders in the AoNV be melted down to cast 12 pounders. This was carried out, and by mid 1863 the 6 pounder was out of service in that army. I believe the 6 pounder of Lathams battery at Gettysburg was the last one.
 
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