ARTILLERY PROFILE
- Model: Model 1841 12-pdr. "Heavy" Smoothbore Field Gun
- Type: Muzleloading Smoothbore Gun
- In Service With:
- United States Army (Pre-War)
- Confederate States Army
- Purpose: Support the infantry and cavalry forces in the field
- Invented By: U.S. Army Ordnance Board
- Rarity: Rare
- US Casting Foundries:
- N.P. Ames, Chicopee, Massachusetts
- Cyrus Alger & Company, Boston, Massachusetts
- CS Casting Foundry:
- Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, Virginia
- Years of Manufacture: 1841-1861
- Tube Composition: Bronze
- Variants: Some 12-pdr. Heavy Field Guns were rifled to extend their useful life at the beginning of the war, using 12 or 18 groove right-hand twist rifling
- No. Purchased Prior to, and During the Civil War: 63
- No. of Surviving Pieces Today: 28
WEIGHTS & MEASURES
- Bore Diameter: 4.62 inches
- Bore Length: 74 inches
- Rifling Type: no grooves
- Trunnion Diameter: 4.62 inches
- Barrel Thickness: at Muzzle Swell - 2.86 inches; at Vent - 3.64 inches
- Tube Length: 85 inches
- Tube Weight: 1,757 lbs.
- Carriage Type: No. 3 Field Carriage (1,175 lbs.), 57" wheels
- Total Weight (Gun & Carriage): 2,975 lbs.
- Horses Required to Pull: 8
- No. of Crew to Serve: 8
AMMUNITION
- Standard Powder Charge: 2.5 lbs. Cannon Grade Black Powder
- Projectiles Types: 20 round balls, 8 case shot, 4 canister
- Projectiles Weights: 12 lb. round balls
- Weight of each Limber Chest: 499.8 lbs.
- Typical Number of Projectiles Per Gun: 128 - Loaded in 4 - 32 Round / Mixed Ammo Chests
PERFORMANCE
- Rate of Fire: 2 rounds per minute
- Muzzle Velocity: 1,486 ft/sec.
- Effective Range (at 5°): 1,663 yards (0.94 miles)
Notes about the Model 1841 12-pdr. "Heavy" Smoothbore
A foreruner to the 12-pdr. Napoleon, and veteran of the Mexican War era, this weapon was one of the most widely used cannon in the United States during the 1840s and '50s.
Packing a solid punch and having a respectable 1600-1700 yard effective range, the 12-pdr was a much better weapon than its little brother, the M1841 6-pdr. But its weight of 1800 lbs was a liability, just about at the top limit for the requirements of mobility in the field.
With the easy to transport 12-pdr. Napoleon entering service, and the advent of lighter weight and longer range rifled iron guns, most of these heavy pieces were quickly retired or melted down.
Some of these smoothbore guns were rifled with 18-grooves at the beginning of the Civil War. Alger and Ames each made one as 4.62-inch rifles with 12 grooves in 1861. The Tredegar Foundry produced at least eight of these guns for the Confederate army.
FOR FURTHER READING
- Civil War Artillery at Gettysburg, Cole, Philip M, Da Capo Press, New York, N.Y., 2002.
- Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War, by Olmstead, Hazlett, & Parks, Univ of Delaware Press, 1988.
- Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War, by Warren Ripley, Battery Press, 1984.
12-pdr Field Gun Model 1841
From the time of the Revolution, the 12-pdr gun was the largest of its type in the American field artillery batteries. Guns of the caliber saw wide use in the siege & garrison and naval gun r…
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