A Visit to the U. S. Army Field Artillery Museum, Ft. Sill, Oklahoma

James N.

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I recently returned from a visit to the Field Artillery Museum at the U. S. Army's artillery school at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma along with my friend Doug (@1863surgeon); I had visited previously back in 2010 with @mkyzzzrdet and these photos are from both visits. Upon entering the main museum building a life-size diorama depicting a section of Mexican War-era six pounder guns going into action is the first thing the visitor sees.

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The lieutenant commanding the section of two guns watches as one gun is loaded and the other is brought forward by its limber and team. (The gauntlet gloves on the artillerymen is an anachronism; also, my understanding is that the artillery campaign uniforms should be a light blue with yellow trim at this point, unless this really represents artillery closer to the Civil War than the Mexican War.) Both guns are highly polished original tubes; all else is reproduction.

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Next, A look in the galleries
 
Guns of the The Revolutionary War
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The museum is housed in three connected structures: a large, open central one that contains only the large diorama, an information desk area, a tall WWI German artillery periscope, and somewhat incongruously a section of the Berlin Wall. Leading from it are two short corridors right and left, that connect with two other gallery buildings which house the collection. The galleries are arranged chronologically, with the left gallery containing artifacts from ca. the 1500's through the Spanish-American War and Boxer Rebellion. The first real exhibit is the one shown here containing items from the American Revolution; since this is the Civil War Forums I will concentrate my coverage to the earlier displays.

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Two of the guns are British-made trophy guns engraved with the place and date of their capture by American forces during the Revolution. One was a small three-pounder Grasshopper surrendered at Saratoga; the one above is a 24-pounder bearing the large Royal Cypher GR (Georgius Rex) was surrendered at Yorktown. Another trophy gun on display was cast in Britain but captured from the Mexican Army at the Siege of Vera Cruz.

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Two other original guns on replica carriages are the ones above and below.

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The War of 1812
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Above is a handsome example of the type of gun and carriage as well as the uniform and equipments of the artillery at the time of the War of 1812. (At this period and until just before the Civil War yellow, not red, was the branch color of the artillery.)

Inter-War Artillery
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Above is a display devoted to the M.1840 Mountain Howitzer featured in a recent thread; below, a rare example of an 1819 six-pounder Walking Stick:

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The "Walking Sticks" were made of cheaper cast iron which cost 1/4 of good bronze tubes but were also prone to splitting or exploding in service! Cast iron guns remained impractical and dangerous until Robert Parker Parrott developed the Civil War-era cannon that bears his name.

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Below, artillery officer's uniforms and sidearms of the 1820's.
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Below, another look at the M. 1840 Mountain Howitizers:
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Next, Civil War Guns
 
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As befits the subject, the artillery of the Civil War era contains the greatest number of artifacts and display guns in the gallery. Above, a mannikin representing a U.S.C.T. artillery corporal stands guard over a Napoleon and an imported Austrian gun.

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Above and below, two more views of these pieces. The Austrian gun has a gray carriage, whereas U.S. carriages, limbers, travelling forges, and battery wagons were painted a light olive color made by mixing yellow and black pigments together in an oil base.

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In addition to the guns, carriages, limbers, etc. there are many smaller artifacts relating to artillery like the sabers, headgear, and frock of an artillery officer seen here. Note the seldom-worn full-dress plumed and corded shako above!

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The uniforms above are 1850's regulation fatigue jacket or sack coat at left and frock coat for so-called foot artillery at right. Those below are those of enlisted Union mounted or horse artillerymen: at right the fully-laced shell jacket of an artillery trumpeter; at left, the regulation shell jacket with the full-dress shoulder scales attached, topped by the regulation 1850's forage cap..

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The artillery of the Confederacy is also represented; the gun behind the mannikin wearing the uniform of a Confederate sergeant is an imported rifled British Whitworth. On the wall behind is an unissued regulation flag for a regiment of U. S. artillery.

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One of the unusual though effective types of guns were those of the Wiard System like the six-pounder above developed by Canadian Norman Wiard. The interpretive marker below describes Wiard and his guns; perhaps had he not been killed in an accident involving the testing of his guns more of them would have been manufactured and used during the war.

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Next, more Civil War artillery

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Great pictures! I agree they probably got those Mex. War era Artillery uniforms wrong. As for the CW stuff, I wish those Austrians were available/reproduced for reenacting, it'd be cool to man one of those lol.

I've never gotten up there, but I've heard they have a 2.25in Tredegar Mountain Rifle up yonder, do they or don't they? I've been told the one they have was used by Mosby.

EDIT: Some details of their Confederate uniforms look a little of to, mainly the belts.
 
Great stuff, you should see the stuff that they keep in the Dirigible Hanger over by the airfield that they don't have room to display. And, the Whitworth appears to be one of the rarer Confederate Whitworths that wasn't a breechloader.
 
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Great pictures! I agree they probably got those Mex. War era Artillery uniforms wrong. As for the CW stuff, I wish those Austrians were available/reproduced for reenacting, it'd be cool to man one of those lol.

I've never gotten up there, but I've heard they have a 2.25in Tredegar Mountain Rifle up yonder, do they or don't they? I've been told the one they have was used by Mosby.

EDIT: Some details of their Confederate uniforms look a little of to, mainly the belts.

I believe THIS was what you were looking for! (Photographed just for YOU.)

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I believe THIS was what you were looking for! (Photographed just for YOU.)

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Thank you, I love the thought and appreciate it, but that's not a Tredegar....

I don't know what that is.
The design is very unfamiliar to me, and isn't the "M1862".
Although it could be something similar, all of them were bronze except one, which supposedly was wrapped in wire to make more stable and I'm not sure it ever left Tredegar and was probably a prototype. Perhaps this is it? Also the whole British Blakely thing never occurred to me as being an inspiration.

Not knocking the pictures in the least, I really appreciate the thought though!
 
Still More Civil War Artillery
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This 10-inch mortar marks the effective end of the Civil War display; the uniforms in the cases at left are those of the 1872 regulations and at far left the 1890's.

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One of our all-time favorite guns, the ten-inch Parrott developed by R. P. Parrott and cast in the Cold Spring Foundry, New York, right across the Hudson River from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Although new at the time of the war, the State of Virginia had already ordered and taken possession of a battery of them which saw service with Stonewall Jackson at VMI and Bull Run.

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Below, the sharp or business end of another Parrott:
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Thank you, I love the thought and appreciate it, but that's not a Tredegar....

I don't know what that is.

Sorry - I probably got confused about it because it was displayed along with THIS and I remembered you saying in a previous post that there was supposed to be one here! This was all I saw though.

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Post-Civil War Pieces
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Among the interesting artillery and related pieces that were between the Civil War and World War I were the Gatling Gun at center above, and the Hotchkiss Rifle below.

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The final object on this side of the museum was the black-painted limber and caisson used for the funeral of American notables like President Franklin Roosevelt:
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Sorry - I probably got confused about it because it was displayed along with THIS and I remembered you saying in a previous post that there was supposed to be one here! This was all I saw though.

Oh there is no need for you to be sorry, I just really, really hated to say that wasn't it. You posted those pictures and my thought was "Oh no, I really don't want to tell him that isn't it!". But I had heard there was only three surviving, two in West Point, and one there, and there are pictures of the West Point ones in a book somewhere, still in some storage crate. I'm gonna have to look around to see if that gun in that museum is really there, because I feel really bad now. But that one gun you took pictures is a completely new one on me, so nothing wrong with those pictures.

But I'm really enjoying the pictures of the other stuff, mainly the Rev. War howitzer and the 30-pounder Parrott. I've always wanted to shoot a 30-pounder Parrott.
 
The World Wars Gallery
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The very first display on the right-hand gallery is this life-size diorama showing an American-crewed French 75 in action. Another European piece was the German WWII howitzer below:

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In the opposite end of the gallery is another large diorama, this one depicting a U.S. self-propelled gun known as a priest in action during the Battle of the Bulge.

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Okay I got to looking, (google), and I heard wrong! My info was bad!

The gun exists, its just in a different museum, specifically the 45th Infantry Division Museum. So yeah the Mosby cannon is out there, in Oklahoma, but I was told the wrong museum. So yeah I should confirm things I hear before asking, I just trusted the source I heard from, bad call lol.
 
Great Thread. Thanks for all the GREAT photos. Been in that museum many times when I was stationed there. Ft Sill has is a special place for me as my Dad did his Officer Advanced course there. He went on to command the 750th FA in Germany where I was born in Ansbach.
 
Okay I got to looking, (google), and I heard wrong! My info was bad!

The gun exists, its just in a different museum, specifically the 45th Infantry Division Museum. So yeah the Mosby cannon is out there, in Oklahoma, but I was told the wrong museum. So yeah I should confirm things I hear before asking, I just trusted the source I heard from, bad call lol.
Glad to hear both that you weren't imagining it and that I didn't miss it!
 
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