Rhea Cole
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2019
- Location
- Murfreesboro, Tennessee
This is an 1841 model Six Pound smoothbore Cannon loaded with 10 ounces of black powder. The number four man, camera left, has placed a friction primer into the vent. A friction primer is essentially a .22 blank with a wire kitchen match passed through the base. The number three, camera right, has punctured the powder bag. Number four has placed the friction primer with the lanyard hook attached to a loop in the priming wire. Number three is holding the lanyard against the side if the breech as number four steps out & takes a strain on the lanyard. Civil War drill had number three put the palm over the primer in the vent. He jumped away when the gunner, camera center, orders fire. The modern day National Park drill carefully follows the Civil War practice, however, now Number three holds the laynyard beside the vent & steps out before the order to fire. I know a man who found out why we do it that way. Fortunately for him, the primer tube missed any bone & exited through the flesh between thumb & forefinger.
The Stones River Living History Volunteer crew have placed their piece where the six pounders of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery stood on December 31, 1862. The photos were taken on the anniversary of the Battle in 2018. The far tree line, about 800 yards away is where General Raines led his men out of the tree line.
At the gunner's order of fire, the number four bends a knee, the lanyard goes taught, stretches, springs back yanking the wire cleanly through the primer. In this extraordinary image, you can see a fine horizontal line above the breech. That is the jet of fire shooting out through the tiny hole where the priming wire was. Camera left, the lanyard is springing toward number four. The light from the ignition of the charge has left the muzzle, but the expanding gas of the explosion, traveling at just below the speed of sound has not traveled the 5 feet to the open air.
The small vertical object above the breech is the primer tube. The time line can be calculated by the tube's velocity, around 800 mph.
Camera left, the springing lanyard gives you an idea of the time line. The expanding gas of the charge has reached the open air & is creating an oxygen fueled fireball. If you look carefully, the friction primer's copper tube is visible above the jet of flame rising through the vent. Two seconds later, a six pound ball would have grazed the ground & bounded into Raines' tight packed line along the edge of the cedars. General Raines only survived the first few steps into the cotton field. Over fifty guns would have flogged the advancing infantry in gray.
Camera left, the squiggly line of the lanyard has yet to reach number four's hand. The enormous plume of white smoke is due to 60 percent of the solids in a blackpowder explosion exiting the bore as a solid.
Firing live, the gun crew would have grabbed the wheels & rolled the gun back into line. The recoil would have been three or four feet. The gunner would have aimed the piece as the crew reloaded. Once reloaded, he would have waited for the order to repoint the piece or fire at the same target. Each cannon had roughly 200 rounds readily available. Fire was deliberate in order to hit the target. Even in an extreme situation a rate of no more that a round a minute was allowed. Any faster than that & it was impossible to aim. In addition, not properly sponging the bore could result in the traumatic amputation of Number one's arm.
Note the position of the cannoneers. These are the postures ordered by the manual. The exaggerated, bent over hands on ears posture of some reenactors is a modern affectation. The often dramatic flailing antics of cannoneer number one seen at reenactments is also not historic. The number of reenactors who have suffered injuries from premature detonation over the years is Testiment to the hard won wisdom of the deliberate pace of fire during the Civil War. I don't intend this as a criticism of reenactor drill, I just want to point out the difference between what spectators see at a reenactment & the actual historical practice.
Images made by the author. I was number six & placed my iPad atop the limber chest. Photos taken in National Parks are public domain. You are welcome to use them, please credit me & Stones River N.B.
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