- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
The above simply can't be taken at face value: For one thing, considering the peculiar and very specific ammunition of a Whitworth it's highly unlikely it was a REAL charge they fired; more likely, it was merely a pound or so of black powder the Good Ol' Boys had brought for the occasion. Although there are verified stories about cannon being loaded from the war - like the well-known story of the Napoleon in the Rhode Island or Connecticut statehouse - it's highly unlikely and almost impossible that any of the guns placed on the battlefield during the creation of the park would have been. As for there being no recoil ("kick" in the article), that's normal, considering there was NO projectile! Recoil is the result of resistance to the force of the charge by the weight of the projectile, causing the gun to rock back or "kick": therefore, NO shell, NO recoil. Also notice the positioning of the Whitworths on Seminary Ridge instead of Oak Hill as discussed in a previous post.