Civil War Artillery

[Borderruffian]

Nice site concerning Civil War Artillery:

http://www.civilwarartillery.com/basicfacts.htm

Main Page:
http://www.civilwarartillery.com/default.htm

 

[Cajun Navy]

Borderruffian,

I have this memory of reading or hearing that someone is reported to have said "If I had the Union Artillary and the Confederate Infantry I could conquer Europe" or something to that effect. Are you familiar with anything like that?

Regards,

Cajun Navy

 

[Borderruffian]

Sounds familiar but I can't place it at the moment. Someone will though, of that I have no doubt.

 

[Bomac]

Nice site concerning Civil War Artillery:

http://www.civilwarartillery.com/basicfacts.htm

Main Page:
http://www.civilwarartillery.com/default.htm

Yessir, nice site indeed.

Thanks.

 

[Bomac]

Borderruffian,

I have this memory of reading or hearing that someone is reported to have said "If I had the Union Artillary and the Confederate Infantry I could conquer Europe" or something to that effect. Are you familiar with anything like that?

Regards,

Cajun Navy

Together, and with an adequate navy, the armies could have conquered the world.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[jenkingish]

Borderruffian,

I have this memory of reading or hearing that someone is reported to have said "If I had the Union Artillary and the Confederate Infantry I could conquer Europe" or something to that effect. Are you familiar with anything like that?

Regards,

Cajun Navy

I believe that was General D.H. Hill.

 

[Bob Owen]

Southern artillery was no slouch!

 

[ole]

A few units weren't. the rest of them sucked.

 

[Bob Owen]

A few units weren't. the rest of them sucked.

Sounds like an opinion.

 

[DWMack65]

A few units weren't. the rest of them sucked.

I think the rpime example of the rebel artillary sucking was the 3rd day at Gettysburg. didn't most of the barage sail over most of the Union lines?

 

[prroh]

The very nice site states that case and shell with timed fuses were the majority of ammunition used by both sides as opposed to percussion or concussion types of fuzed ammunition. Anybody have an idea as to how big a majority timed fuses were? Gary Gallagher and the park Ranger at Antietam who gives artillery lectures say almost all were timed fuses which gives off air bursts.

The site says percussion fuses were 83% reliable. I wonder how they came up with that number. I heard that they were very unreliable.

 

[ole]

Have long felt that the Confederate artillery suffered because it couldn't afford to practice.

 

[richard]

According to what I have read that the fuses that were used by the confederates were replacment fuses from a different armory. At Gettysburg, I think that was the prime cause of the artillery over shooting the Union Lines, not poor aim. The fuses that they used on the 3rd day burned longer.

 

[ole]

A second is a long time.

If they could see, or knew that the shells were exploding long, trimming them a bit shorter would have worked wonders.

Problem is, with that many guns, no one knew which shell was theirs. Too much smoke.

 

[prroh]

Have long felt that the Confederate artillery suffered because it couldn't afford to practice.

It has been said that CSA live firing was done in combat. Federal artillery had lots of practice. As an old cannoner I know that hours of "cannoner hop" with simulated firings is useful practice, but actually cutting and loading live ammunition gives the crew confidence.

 

[johan_steele]

It wasn't just at Gettysburg, the CS Arty at Allatoona were missing the mountain w/ the US positions on it... they used up all their ammo except canister and had no appreciable effect upon the US works or battle.

As Ole said there were some really good CS arty units and then there were those that couldn't his a barn. At Fredricksburg CS Arty was devestatingly effective.