In the Field What's it like under fire?

[Peace Society]

thanx, @gary

watching from the target i wonder why once they have the range they don't hit it every time.

watching from the cannon i wonder how they can even tell if they hit anything or how they ever can hit anything

what is the distance - 1 mile?

 

[Peace Society]

Prairie Grove, AR
12-7-1862

20 WI
Confederate shells were "exploding over our heads and tearing through the treetops" - and most of the men were asleep. "The men's clothes, soaked in wading the creek [Illinois River], which was waist deep, froze to them, but still they slept as if they would never wake, while the shells burst over their unheeding heads."
Wm. S. Pierce

Hindman tells his generals to stop wasting ammunition, so the Confederate guns cease firing.
"Nothing makes a man shoot so coolly as not being shot at in return. …the Federal batteries were as undisturbed as if practicing at a target."
A Confederate officer

p. 161 Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign, William L. Shea, 2009, U of NC Press, Chapel Hill

 

[bankerpapaw]

January 17, 1863



The time between the bursting of a shell in front of you & the striking of the fragments on the ground, short as it is, gives rise to the most peculiar feeling I have yet experienced. To get the full benefit you should be standing or lying perfectly idle on the ground in the direction from which the shell is to come. First the sound of the gun, instantly followed by a noise between a whiz & a yell, then say 20 rods [330 ft.] in front and 100 feet in the air, there is the prettiest globe of dense, white smoke the size of a small haycock, eddying & unfolding in all manner of graceful shapes.

This is all you see but you know that from 10 to 200 musket balls and ragged pieces of iron will strike within the next two seconds on the acre of ground on which you stand. You hear the explosion, not so loud as the cannon but a round compact noise, then come the fragments each one according to its shape singing a different note, varying from a sharp whiz to a low, heavy bass. The senses are so wonderfully acute that you seem to hear each one distinctly. There is no use of dodging or moving about. But where will they all strike? Will that little bullet with the shrill, piping voice pierce your body? Will that triangular chap which screams so tear out your bowels with one of his sharp points? Will that big fellow which makes that low, rushing sound be satisfied with an arm or a leg or will he take your head? Will they skip you & take someone else? Perhaps they will go too high - no - too low - no. It is soon decided - thump, rattle, bang, smash, dirt & splinters fly on every side. You are safe but looking around you see from one to a dozen poor fellows rolling headless, or writhing in agony on the ground.

One could not write in all day the thoughts which pass through his mind in those two seconds. One does not need a better opportunity to test his religion. Misdeeds are sure to find their way to the surface. These two seconds explain his spiritual condition better than all the sermons ever preached. If he is afraid to die he knows it & he knows the reason with a certainty which admits of no doubt. Those two seconds may be worth more to a man than all his previous life. If one has done his duty toward himself and he has kept within the limits of his code of morals he will be very thankful. If he has not he will be more careful afterwards how he walks.

While this is passing through your brain you still see and hear all that is going on around you & have the most perfect presence of mind. Perhaps 10 seconds after you are laughing to see a comrade scratching the dust out of his eyes. What would I give if such activity of the mind & such clearness of perception could be continued & I had the power to express my thoughts in language. If you are in motion at the time or busied about anything you will feel nothing like this. It comes & goes instantly.

I don't remember the exact quote, but Winston Churchill said, " How exhilarating to be shot at without any results!!"





Journal entry, Charles B. Haydon, 2 MI infantry, 9th​ corps, Army of the Potomac



For Country, Cause & Leader:

The Civil War Journal of Charles B. Haydon

Ed. Stephen W. Sears

Ticknor & Fields, NY, 1993

p. 306-307



I made an effort to get hold of the printer/editor for permission to post. The publishing company is no longer in operation. It has been more than a year since I wrote for permission to the address in the book, hoping someone was still able to forward, or would at least have the editor still on file.

 

[gary]

thanx, @gary

watching from the target i wonder why once they have the range they don't hit it every time.

watching from the cannon i wonder how they can even tell if they hit anything or how they ever can hit anything

what is the distance - 1 mile?

Dunno. Almost 3 second flight time.

 

[Old Soldier]

thanx, @gary

watching from the target i wonder why once they have the range they don't hit it every time.

watching from the cannon i wonder how they can even tell if they hit anything or how they ever can hit anything

what is the distance - 1 mile?

The smoke of discharge would be in the way, but from behind the gun, it is possible to see the shell go on it's way - at least to top of trajectory. However, it was not the gunners job to see if they hit the target - that was the job of the fire direction officer who would be watching fall of shot - often with small field glasses - binoculars, even opera glasses! - and a stop watch, if he knew his job. He would issue corrections to ensure they hit the target. If it was a target for multiple batteries, it was no easy task. Hitting it again was not so easy as powder charges varied and, like the rifle, there would be an oval impact area around the target, long axis towards the gun.

This is for canister, but ball or shell would be similar at longer ranges.

 

[1st Section]

thanx, @gary

watching from the target i wonder why once they have the range they don't hit it every time.

watching from the cannon i wonder how they can even tell if they hit anything or how they ever can hit anything

what is the distance - 1 mile?

With solid shot it can be extremely difficult to follow a ball downrange beyond just a few hundred yards, even when the field is clear of smoke. Now add in the smoke and the fact that the piece has to be completely repointed every time it recoils out of battery and it starts to get difficult repeating shots.

On a positive note, Civil War combat targets tended to be very large.

 

[Peace Society]

3 second flight time might be a little more than one half mile, going by the speed of sound

sure looks farther in the video

guess it depends on muzzle velocity?

3 seconds at a muzzle velocity of 1400'/sec = 467 yds or about 1/4 mile +

they should be able to shoot up to 1600 yds or nine tenths of a mile

 

[Peace Society]

1st Missouri Engineers
New Madrid, March 1862

As E.M. raised his arm "to point and direct the moving of a keg of powder, a cannon ball passed under his arm and the swift motion of the ball so close to him whirled him round, dazed for a moment. That same ball killed a man of an Ohio regiment who was some distance behind E.M. and cut off the legs of another man. Our boys laid themselves flat and hugged the ground close, but they stored the powder in a safe place. …It was not a funny experience at the time, but years after, E.M. and Charlie and others of the officers would laugh over it and at each other at the blue funk they were in, when the shot and shell began to fall around them and they dared not run or even flatten themselves to the ground as they so much wanted. ..E.M. said he was so terrified that he was sick, but the only coherent thought he had was to get that powder in a safe place before it was exploded by the fire from the enemy. When he looked at Charlie Thompson the young fellow's face was blue, and Charlie said E.M. was blue too, and his eyes like coals of fire. He watched for E.M. to hunt a safe spot so he could go too, but E.M. kept on like a man hypnotized, and he had to stay, too."

Mrs. Hill's Journal: Civil War Reminiscences, Sarah Jane Full Hill, p.83
Ed. Mark M. Krug, The Lakeside Press, Chicago, 1980
E.M. is her husband Capt. Eben Marvin Hill