Tell me more! Spiking The Guns

[Pollaco]

 

[FedericoFCavada]

I was under the impression it was the real gun and not a mock up. The original was recovered off of the wreck of the ship that sank in Matagorda Bay. I think the spelling of the ship is the Helen Tooker. The Spaniards took the gun to San Antonio. (Texas beloved to Spain at the time). The Mexicans took it from them and The Texicans took it from the Mexicans .

Yes, yes, and yes. You are precisely correct about that gun, and the illustration is of that gun.

That gun is original, and was indeed apparently taken from the wreck of a privateer in Matagorda Bay from when the pirate/corsair/privateer Aury was backing Xavier Mina in 1817. It is thought that that gun was on the northwest bastion, not too far from the north wall where Travis was killed early in the final battle. The gun carriage is of a basic "field type" but it did put the gun at an exaggerated height for display purposes so people can't try to climb on it. (guilty confession: Once, while visiting 1898 battlefields in eastern Cuba, I scaled a monument and hopped on a cannon for a photo opportunity at El Caney...)

The modern reproduction gun is at a temporary exhibit that will eventually be removed/ taken down. It's at the site of the southwestern bastion, while the original gun in your photo is near the main entrance, the Shrine of Texas Liberty/ old Mission chapel, and the Long Barracks.

Here's the temporary 18-pounder (reproduction)
https://www.thealamo.org/visit/calendar/18-pounder-losoya-house-exhibit

The thing is so heavy that the wheels of the carriage have to be rotated periodically to avoid a "set" in the axle and other parts of the carriage. The carriage was hand made by an outfit in South Dakota, which caused some issues, because when the gun tube arrived from Ohio, there were variances in where the trunnions were, along with other now-forgotten "fitting" issues between gun and carriage.

Thanks for the picture of the original gun.

 

[14NYSM]

Regarding spiking muzzle loading cannon - They were all pulled by horse and horse shoe nails were abundant. Larger nails would be carried by the forge team and artificers. The notion of using a bayonet to spike a gun refers to infantry over running an artillery position and the men wanting to disable the guns and so cease their firing.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Spiking a gun was a method of temporarily disabling a cannon by hammering a barbed steel spike into the touch-hole; this could be removed only with great difficulty. If a special spike was unavailable, spiking could be done by driving a bayonet into the touch-hole and breaking it off, to leave the blade's tip embedded.Guns could also be rendered useless by burning their wooden carriages or blowing off their trunnions.

Can someone post a photo of the spike nails used for spiking the guns in the Civil War?

Does anyone know of a detailed account written by an artilleryman describing how they spiked their cannon in the midst of battle? Does anyone know of an instance where bayonets were used to spike the guns?

Artillerymen dreaded leaving their guns to the enemy. It was considered a loss of honor, as well as a possible court-martial offense, not to mention a handover of firepower to the enemy.

In circumstances where there was an immediate danger of being overrun and infantry support had suddenly collapsed, artillery crews would continue to man their cannon as long as possible, if they could not get them away.

Before abandoning their weapons, however, they would usually endeavor to render the guns inoperable by the enemy. They might spike their cannon. Or instead of spiking them, they may have removed the firing tools (friction primers, sights etc). For example this occurred with Captain Smith's three guns above Devil's Den, at Gettysburg.

 

[alan polk]

Another simple way was to fire the last round into the enemy then quickly reload it — but this time without a powder charge attached to the projectile. Problem solved (at least long enough to make a clean escape before the enemy figured out the problem).

 

[drezac]

I have always thought that you could easily disable a gun by removing the cap squares - as long as you had an ax to break the small chain attaching them to the carriage -

 

[Rhea Cole]

I have always thought that you could easily disable a gun by removing the cap squares - as long as you had an ax to break the small chain attaching them to the carriage -

The chains are attached to wedges that lock the caps in place. No axe necessary, they are intended to be removable. The chain is there to keep them from getting lost.

 

[drezac]

The chains are attached to wedges that lock the caps in place. No axe necessary, they are intended to be removable. The chain is there to keep them from getting lost.

I should clarify this - I meant to break the chains that held the cap square to the carriage ( They were also attached to the carriage with a chain) , then either take it with you or throw it away somewhere away from the gun. You could easily find a replacement for the pin, but not for the cap square.

 

[Lampasas Bill]

I was just reading the diary of a Union artillerymen at Vicksburg. At one point he mentions that in preparation for the possibility of a Confederate attempt to break out, sergeants in command of guns were directed to equip themselves with spikes to disable their guns if overrun.

 

[wtexas]

Once a decision was made to spike a cannon, was it pretty much a done deal? Or, given the fact that you were in a battle and about to be overrun, was there a fair chance that it would not succeed? (It sounds like a fairly simple process but . . . )

 

[Dan Kohli]

Once a decision was made to spike a cannon, was it pretty much a done deal? Or, given the fact that you were in a battle and about to be overrun, was there a fair chance that it would not succeed? (It sounds like a fairly simple process but . . . )

It depends on how well the spike is seated and what material its made with. It can vary from simply blowing the spike out, to completely melting the tube down to recycled the metal. Ordnance and artillery men were mostly the ones trained in un-spiking artillery pieces.

 

[Rhea Cole]

The difficulty in returning a spiked cannon to service depends.

A bronze gun like this Model 2 Ames has a brass touch hole plug.

At roughly 1,500 rounds, the vent is oversized from erosion. It is then unscrewed & replaced. This is a routine procedure. A threaded bolt is screwed into the vent & then used to unscrew the vent plug. The new vent plug is cast with a square bolt head. After the plug is seated, the bolt head is cut off & filed down flush.

The same procedure can be used to remove a spike.

An iron cannon does not have a vent plug. A pilot hole can be drilled into the spike. It is then threaded & a screw seated home. The spike can then be pulled out of the vent.

I have personally used a punch & hammer to clear a vent. A drill can also do the job.

Loading a solid bolt or ball & then wedging it is an alternative way to spike a cannon. Needless to say, clearing it was a job for the ordinance artificers.

In a hurry, #3 could drop the priming wire into the vent. #1 could then bend it over with the rammer head. On the spur of the moment, that would secure the piece.

At Nashville, as a Confederate redoubt was about to be overrun, the man with the friction primers legged it out the back. A glance at the jet of super hot gas erupting from the vent indicates that igniting a cannon without friction primers would be highly entertaining… for the observers at a respectable distance that is.

This 12 pound Napoleon on display at Gettysburg may have been deliberately slighted. The bulge in the chase could have been caused by loading a charge & then wedging a ball inside the muzzle. The expansion of the gas in the blocked void is extraordinarily violent. This could have been done deliberately or by happenstance.

 

[wtexas]

Thanks folks! My question deals more with--given the surrounding battlefield chaos and that fact that you were about to be overrun--would many attempts to spike a gun be unsuccessful or was it fairly "easy" to get done?

 

[Rhea Cole]

Thanks folks! My question deals more with--given the surrounding battlefield chaos and that fact that you were about to be overrun--would many attempts to spike a gun be unsuccessful or was it fairly "easy" to get done?

I mentioned the man with the friction primers beating feet as the redoubt was being overrun at Nashville. That is about as easy as it gets. Artillery crewmen fighting hand to hand as they were being overcome had other things on their minds than spiking the guns. On the other hand, during a planned retreat, the artificers would use a purpose made Christmas tree looking nail to spike the guns. Once driven home, the serrations prevented its easy removal.

Keep in mind, we are talking about driving a nail into a hole… a chopstick would do in a pinch.

 

[alan polk]

In an emergency, and for whatever reason unable to spike the cannon, artillerymen could fire the cannon then ram home a new round without its powder charge, rendering it useless—at least for the time being.

 

[Rhea Cole]

Another quick way to disable a gun was to remove the cheek caps.

All they had to do was pull the keys & throw the caps away. That happened at Gettysburg. It would be an adventure to fire one round… Using the handspike as a lever, it is simplicity itself to stand the gun onto its muzzle & push it over on the ground.

At Stones River, as part of our artificer program, we stood our 1841 model 6 pounder up on its muzzle & rolled the carriage back three times a day. It sounds awkward as all get out, but is actually easy-peasy. The carriage pivots on its axil.