Solid Shot, the modern day perspective.

Take a look at Red Leg Eye Candy that I posted. It was pure serindipity, but the images are extraordinary.




Lih
I've read that 6-pounders were sometimes melted down to make 12pdrs. Probably true of other older weapons also.
Three six pounders returned to the arsenal & recast as two 12 Napoleon gun-howitzers. The resulting gun used the same number of horses & men while, thanks to Mr. Newton's laws, providing a massive increase in hitting power.
 
Returning back to December 12, 1860, the testing of rifled cannon had taken place and is mentioned in Series 3, Volume 1, page 12. At that time W. J. Hardee was Lt.-Col, First Cavalry and wrote John B. Floyd, the Secretary of War, stating;

"General Semmes, agent to purchase arms for the State of Georgia...desires to know what kind of projectile you would recommend for rifled cannon; also the weight of the field gun and size of the bore. We know that many experiments have been made under your orders and direction, and if any satisfactory results have been arrived at we should be pleased to get them....".

Two days later Floyd replies (page 14);

"...I have to state the results of trials of rifled cannon and projectiles...indicate a superiority of James' projectiles for such cannon. The regulation field 6-pounder, with rifled bore (weight 884 pounds), caries a James projectile of about 13 pounds; but you can have a field gun made to carry a 6-pound James projectile and not to weigh over 700 pounds."

The modifications and testings of course, continued through the Civil War.
Lubliner.
We have both the beautiful James Rifles & Rifled James 6 pounders at Stones River N.B. The Chicago Board of Trade had... either four James or smoothbores & two of the other, can't recall... There was one battery in the Army of the Tennessee that had James Rifles right through to the end of the war. Go figure the logistics of that one.

IMG_5207 copy.jpg


The story of the CBT Battery is one we tell with an annual program. They captured a gun off the battlefield, repaired the carriage & had in line for the rest of the battle. After that, it was a nine gun battery.
 
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