ANV Ordnance

[Hoplite]

So the ANV operated at a disadvantage with the types of guns it had vs AOP.
Alot of 6-pdrs and howitzers.

I know they sent 6-pdrs back to Richmond to be melted down and recast as 12-pdrs, though I think a couple were still around for Gettysburg.

Also at Gettysburg they still fielded a decent number of 12lb and 24lb howitzers which when reading accounts of the battle were hardly used, due to range limitations, in an offensive mode. They would have probably been of use should the AOP have attacked, but that did not happen. So why if they melted down and recast 6-pdrs would they not have done the same thing with the howitzers?

This left them having to depend upon imports which was problematic of course due to the blockade and battlefield captures- like the 20ish pieces they captured at Second Winchester.

 

[Scott1967]

AoNV at Gettysburg comprised from memory a good selection of cannon a third being rifle pieces mainly 3 inch and 10Lb Parrot another third were 12pdr Napoleons Lees personal favourite and the rest a Hodge podge of 6Lb smoothbore and 12Lb howitzers and a few 24LB Howitzers.

The Tredegar Iron Works were producing 12Lb Smoothbore and 10Lb Rifled cannon but good grade iron was a real issue.

A few Whitworth cannon might have been imported although evidence is thin on the ground we know the AoP had a battery of Whitworth's at Gettysburg a gift from American's living in England.

 

[Frederick14Va]

While suggestions and directives to return the 6lb to Richmond for recasting was done. Abet fragmented and sparse evidence that this was actually done to any scale. Numbers of both the 6lb and 12lb Howz were still around through the rest of the war. Most appeared to have been relegated to secondary defensive works, but some of both saw action in 1864-65 in many areas of Va still. In the post-war images around Richmond that included the gathered up captured artillery, you can see quite a few of them still present.

 

[Cavalier]

Wasn't a battery of howitzers supposed to accompany the great assault on July 3rd.?

John

 

[rpkennedy]

Wasn't a battery of howitzers supposed to accompany the great assault on July 3rd.?

John

They were howitzers that had been "borrowed" from their units to join in the attack. During the bombardment, General Pendleton sent them to the rear and they could not be located by Alexander's staff in time to move with the men.

Ryan

 

[Cavalier]

@rpkennedy Than you. I thought it was something like that.

John