Need help with siege artillery

[Billy1977]

I think I found a line drawing of the other 18-pdr., it looks like the description of the Model 1845 rather than the Model 1840.

 

[Billy1977]

According to this here
https://archive.org/stream/artilleryforland00mord#page/n0/mode/2up

Alfred Mordecai's Artillery of the Land Service of the United States published in 1849 is supposed to be chock full of plates showing the artillery pieces and supposedly on Plate III (3) it shows a "Siege and garrison 12-pounder gun", precisely what I'm looking for. I just can't find Mordecai's book anywhere. Does anyone have it and could maybe scan me a copy of Plate III?

 

[Billy1977]

I think I found a picture of a 12-pounder siege gun Model 1845. It's at Vicksburg at the upper water battery. Here two ladies are painting it.

 

[drezac]

Take a look at the Artillery Reserve Manuals page:

http://www.artilleryreserve.org/

They have The 1861 Ordnance Manual and plates, it might help.

I checked my normal sources for scanned books, found the Artillery of the Land Service of the United States in a few places, but each one is a scan of the same copy that is missing the plates...it is on google books, if you want to read it. (no plates)

 

[drezac]

I finally found the copy of the plate with the 12 and 18 pdr siege guns. I can't find the link or original, but here is a scanned copy of the print I made....

 

[Billy1977]

Thank you Drezac, those are great! I think the 12-pdr. Model 1840 and 1845 were very similar. Robinson's Battery has it that only 20 of the former were made and only a little over twice that amount of Model 1845s were. There's only one known Model 1840 survivor and I presume it's the one that's black and white picture has it sitting on a concrete base unfortunately.

 

[drezac]

Thank you Drezac, those are great! I think the 12-pdr. Model 1840 and 1845 were very similar. Robinson's Battery has it that only 20 of the former were made and only a little over twice that amount of Model 1845s were. There's only one known Model 1840 survivor and I presume it's the one that's black and white picture has it sitting on a concrete base unfortunately.

I found these while trying to research the rifle conversions I found. Its hard to tell but I think the 2 rifle conversions may be the 1840 due to the shape of the sleeve that was added. Its possible that a majority of the 1840's were converted to rifles which would explain the few survivors. The rifle conversions were used in till new production guns were available then scrapped. I suspect the 2 I found were converted but not issued, and when someone wanted display pieces after the war they were given these.

 

[Billy1977]

Anybody have any idea what this gun is in the foreground of this picture? Is it a 12-pdr. siege gun? The carriage seems different to me. It's supposed to be the gun on Morris Island that fired over 1,200 rounds at (rebel occupied) Fort Sumter.

 

[drezac]

It is hard to tell, but I think it's a 12-pdr or 18-pdr siege gun. There was only 6" difference in length and 2" in breech diameter - no way to tell which one it is in that photo. That's a good photo of a siege carriage. There seems to have been a variety of designs for the carriages. It's possible it could have been mounted on an older carriage.

 

[Billy1977]

Here's another photo of the same gun, this time with an artilleryman standing next to it for scale purposes.