Artillery Target Practice, How Often & Where?

[Rhea Cole]

During the winter & spring of 1863, there was an entertainment that drew great crowds of soldiers & civilians to where Stones River NB's visitor center is now. The attraction was artillery batteries drilling & firing signal charges (blanks.)

It must have been quite something to see. Nose to supply wagon, a six gun battery in column was (+/-) a mile long. To establish the gun line, a guideon was planted where the noses of the limber horses should stand. The burglar would sound the order & the great caterpillars would wheel into position & drop trails. The gun crews would huddle inside the wheels of their cannon. 48 iron shod hooves & iron tired wheels in motion were no place for toes to be.

"With signal round, load!" Was echoed by the gunners, triggering choreographed movements that 500 years of practice had scraped clean of a single wasted motion.

"Battery, fire by piece from the left!"…""Fire!" … "If I wasn't a gunner I wouldn't be here, Fire!" The shots rang out in a steady rhythm. #1's & #3's immediately stepped in to stop vent & sponge. #1 taped the muzzle with the rammer head. #2 pivoted to face #5 as he open the haversack to reveal the round. #2 placed the round on not the muzzle & stepped out. #1 pointed his left hand at the far trunnion, looked back down range, bent his left knee & used his body weight to force the round to the breech in one smooth motion. As soon as he steps clear of the wheel, #3 pivots to his right & uses his knee to make any adjustments following the gunner"s tap on the left or right of the trail. Gunner gives a two handed touchdown sign & both men step to their ready positions.

"Ready!" #3 & #4 step in to insert the priming wire & then the friction primer. #4 side steps until the lanyard is taught, nods to #3 to step clear & awaits the gunner's order to fire.

"Limber to the front!" "Limber to the rear!" Officers & NCOs spur their horses, the men trail behind the gun in a column of twos… 100 horses wheeling & stoping with balletic exactness. Taking up a space (+/-) the length length of a football field & twice as deep, a battery drilling would have been really something to see.

Back in the heroic days of the 1970's, Stones River living history volunteers fired homemade timed 12 pound balls from an original Napoleon 4 times a day all summer long. It was fascinating to watch the white plaster ball arcing toward a TVA tower 800 yards away. (We only managed to hit it once. The bent structural angle iron is in the STRI museum collection.) the ball would explode in midair, "Pock!"

After the park closed during the annual battery program, a sheet of plywood was leaned against a cedar tree (+/-) 700 yards from the gun line. The solid 12 pound grazing fire solid shot leapt across the cotton field like a Nebraska jack rabbit. The rooster tail of plants & dirt sprayed up at every skip must have been down right terrifying to see coming at you. A single ball could strike down six men at a time.

Absent the horses, I am very familiar with what six or eight guns in battery firings are like. Sadly, enlightened adult supervision has ended the admittedly hippy-dippy raining down of fire onto a public park. For example, one beautiful July evening a family of four rolled out of the cedars down range on the tour road. Who knew our late friend Ranger Betty Cook could move anything like that fast?

We have all read endless argument about how much target practice Civil War infantry engaged in. Some proponents would have us believe that veteran infantrymen couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Out of the mouth of babes, a middle schooler asked me, the know-it-all-expert, what kind of target practice did the artillery do? "Uhhh…"

I have no idea how many Civil War personal accounts, manuals, histories I have read & how many hours of discussion with deeply knowledge historians / comrades. I do not recall a single instance where batteries engaged in live fire target practice. Rationally, it must have happened. We did it, How have I missed this? I should know all about this! This is embarrassing.

The question is, how was routine artillery target practice conducted? Where are the citations? Does anybody have letters home or journal entries? Help me out here, please.

 

[Tanglewood]

The book Siege Train by Edward Manigault, edited by Warren Ripley, is a first person account of the Confederate siege artillery protecting Charleston. It has detailed accounts of artillery practice, firing at large board targets erected in the marshes, including range, how many shots, accuracy, and so forth. It is a fascinating book for artillery enthusiasts (and shell diggers), and is available in paperback now.

I have read, but don't recall the details, of various river batteries in the south firing at small islands for practice, to learn to estimate distances.

It is an interesting topic that you raised, made me realize that I've read little to nothing about field artillery practice.

 

[BuckPvt]

I had read a brief account of live fire training from the Baltimore Light Artillery (USA) just recently. In the fall of 1862 they joined the AoP with 6lb. smoothbores, and exchanged them for 3 inch rifles in late November.

We had been using an old oak tree some eight hundred yards distant for a target. With the old brasspieces we would make a hit one in four, then if the tree was fairly hit the ball would rebound as if made of india rubber. With the new gun we hit the target the first shot, which buried itself deep in the oak. This gave us great confidence in these guns, which subsequent events showed was not misplaced. They shot so much further than the old brass pieces that had been discarded, that we had to give up practice on that field for fear of doing harm. -Memoirs and History of Capt. Alexanders Baltimore Battery of Light Artillery

 

[Rhea Cole]

The book Siege Train by Edward Manigault, edited by Warren Ripley, is a first person account of the Confederate siege artillery protecting Charleston. It has detailed accounts of artillery practice, firing at large board targets erected in the marshes, including range, how many shots, accuracy, and so forth. It is a fascinating book for artillery enthusiasts (and shell diggers), and is available in paperback now.

I have read, but don't recall the details, of various river batteries in the south firing at small islands for practice, to learn to estimate distances.

It is an interesting topic that you raised, made me realize that I've read little to nothing about field artillery practice.

Me, too.

 

[Belfoured]

During the winter & spring of 1863, there was an entertainment that drew great crowds of soldiers & civilians to where Stones River NB's visitor center is now. The attraction was artillery batteries drilling & firing signal charges (blanks.)

It must have been quite something to see. Nose to supply wagon, a six gun battery in column was (+/-) a mile long. To establish the gun line, a guideon was planted where the noses of the limber horses should stand. The burglar would sound the order & the great caterpillars would wheel into position & drop trails. The gun crews would huddle inside the wheels of their cannon. 49 iron shod hooves & iron tired wheels on motion were no place for toes to be.

"With signal round, load!" Was echoed by the gunners, triggering choreographed movements that 500 years of practice had scraped clean a a single wasted motion.

"Battery, fire by piece from the left!"…""Fire!" … "If I wasn't a gunner I wouldn't be here, Fire!" The shots rang out in a steady rhythm. #1's & #3's immediately stepped in to stop vent & sponge. #1 taped the muzzle with the rammer head. #2 pivoted to face #5 as he open the haversack to reveal the round. #2 placed the round on not the muzzle & stepped out. #1 pointed his left hand at the far trunnion, looked back down range, bent his left knee & used his body weight to force the round to the breech in one smooth motion. As soon as he steps clear of the wheel, #3 pivots to his right & uses his knee to make any adjustments following the gunner"s tap on the left or right of the trail. Gunner gives a two handed touchdown sign & both men step to their read positions.

"Ready!" #3 & #4 step in to insert the priming wire & then the friction primer. #4 side steps until the lanyard is taught, nods to #3 to step clear & awaits the gunner's order to fire.

"Limber to the front!" "Limber to the rear!" Officers & NCOs spur their horses, the men trail behind the gun in a column of twos… 100 horses wheeling & stoping with balletic exactness. Taking up a space (+/-) the length length of a football field & twice as deep, a battery drilling would have been really something to see.

Back in the heroic days of the 1970's, Stones River living history volunteers fired homemade timed 12 pound balls from an original Napoleon 4 times a day all summer long. It was fascinating to watch the white plaster ball arcing toward a TVA tower 800 yards away. (We only managed to hit it once. The bent structural angle iron is in the STRI museum collection.) the ball would explode in midair, "Pock!"

After the park closed during the annual battery program, a sheet of plywood was leaned against a cedar tree (+/-) 700 yards from the gun line. The solid 12 pound grazing fire solid shot leapt across the cotton field like a Nebraska jack rabbit. The rooster tail of plants & dirt sprayed up at every skip must have been down right terrifying to see coming at you. A single ball could strike down six men at a time.

Absent the horses, I am very familiar with what six or eight guns in battery firings are like. Sadly, enlightened adult supervision has ended the admittedly hippy-dippy raining down of fire onto a public park. For example, one beautiful July evening a family of four rolled out of the cedars down range on the tour road. Who knew our late friend Ranger Betty Cook could move anything like that fast?

We have all read endless argument about how much target practice Civil War infantry engaged in. Some proponents would have us believe that veteran infantrymen couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Out of the mouth of babes, a middle schooler asked me, the know-it-all-expert, what kind of target practice did the artillery do? "Uhhh…"

I have no idea how many Civil War personal accounts, manuals, histories I have read & how many hours of discussion with deeply knowledge historians / comrades. I do not recall a single instance where batteries engaged in live fire target practice. Rationally, it must have happened. We did it, How have I missed this? I should know all about this! This is embarrassing.

The question is, how was routine artillery target practice conducted? Where are the citations? Does anybody have letters home or journal entries? Help me out here, please.

There are some accounts of this (while not on active campaign), IIRC. I'd have to check my notes to confirm.

 

[Lampasas Bill]

In Missouri, the Federals built an entrenched camp near Otterville, on the Lamine River. It was intended to protect the Pacific Railroad, which was being extended from Jefferson City to Sedalia. When I lived in Missouri I was told that near the camp there was a bluff where one could find fired artillery rounds. Evidently, artillerymen from the camp used the bluff as a backstop for firing practice. Have any Missourians on this site heard of this place?

 

[Dan Kohli]

The U.S. regulations does go over this. I can't remember reading anything about actual target practice.

 

[Rhea Cole]

The U.S. regulations does go over this. I can't remember reading anything about actual target practice.

It is passing strange. The mathematics & physics of cannon fire were well understood. The angles & time of flight were on the lid of the ammunition box. There were no secrets.

Not in the diagrams was the gunner squinting through the pendulum hass / Hausse pendulum sight & the front blade as he tapped the trail to draw a bead on the target. We know that veteran gunners could be very good. After every shot, the recoiled gun was rolled back into line & relaid… there are certainly plenty of instances where the artillery popped away without effect.

Makes ya' think.