Evolution Of Cannon Essay

Field Artillery “The King of Battle” dates back as far as the birth of the United States Army itself. The Battle at Bunker

“At the time of our entry into World War I America was ill prepared for large scale warfare with large movements of whole Armies. The U.S. Army was not prepared with its Artillery and had no heavy artillery guns to speak of” (Hartwell, 2017). During World War I, the Coast Artillery Corps was subject to rapid changes and unit realignments. This signified the beginning of a seamless transition to what would eventually give birth to Air Defense Artillery. The French and British had provided the United States Army with its initial Artillery weapons resulting in no American Artillery brought to the front. Production quickly started on American versions of their foreign Artillery counterparts currently used in action. The American 8

The American Civil War was a turning point in American history. Not only for the United States government and shifts into more progressive values, but also the advancement of military weaponry used in the armed forces. Perhaps the most progressed branch during this time was the field artillery. The field artillery of the well-funded Union army was not accomplishing the extensive damage that was expected of it but under the faith of Union Captain Quincy A. Gillmore (Lane, 2001), the 30 pound Parrot Rifled Cannon was deployed specifically for use against the impenetrable walls of Fort Pulaski. For the Union army, the capture of Fort Pulaski was an important battle that utilized the technological advancements of rifling of field artillery cannons in order to render the stone walls of the fort indefensible.

The Union army, unlike the Confederates, had multiple companies that provided simple, yet devastating weapons. One of these weapons was the .52 caliber breech-loading Billinghurst-Requa battery; it was produced only 50 times. This weapon consisted of 25 rifled barrels side by side that, when primed, were set off by a lanyard to inflict massive damage over a small range of territory.7

     Riffles were another major contribution to the war, as far as weapons were concerned. The union forces had One of the most popular riffles was the Model 1861 Springfield Musket. The Springfield Musket weighed 9.25 pounds, had a twenty-one inch socket bayonet, and fired a .58 caliber mine ball traveling 950 feet per second. Riffled Muskets, which were also known as Enfields, were the second most popular riffles in the war. These Enfields, had a bore diameter of .557 inches, and weighed nine pounds three ounces. They were accurate at 800 yards, and could travel up to 1,100 yards without any difficulty. During the course of the war, 400,000 Enfields were sold to the Union troops, whereas a mere 20,000 were purchased by the confederate army. Although this weapons wasn’t as popular as the Springfield, the Enfield still packed a powerful punch at 1,100 yards (Ripley 43).

Antiaircraft in the early twentieth century comes out of a rich pedigree of coastal defense and to a lesser degree field artillery. To trace air defense artillery’s

“It was not war-it was murder” (M.G. D Hill 1862). July 1st 1862, held one of the bloodiest battles during our civil war. Throughout the battle we have learned the importance of understanding your terrain and surroundings. Confederate also realized the relevance of controlling Malvern Hill from a military stand point. Throughout the mistakes of this battle it has taught us over time better ways to communicate, emplace, and maneuver artillery units as a whole. This battle plays a key role in the advancement of our military tactics and execution in the ways that we use artillery today.

Early bullets were designed to be placed in this new loading system. The classic way of having the powder and pellets separate was too slow and messy. This early design of the bullet is very similar to the simple modern one. It had a metal casing with powder placed behind the pellets or in some cases one large pellet (Hogg 54). With these being loaded from the side on the new rifles they were capable of firing a shot much faster then the gun of a hundred years earlier. Even though the gun had become more powerful the Civil War was still a political war.

The deployment of Field Artillery has been the deciding factor in almost every major conflict since the inception of Field Artillery. The Battle of Pea Ridge is no different. This conflict serves as a perfect example of how the proper use of terrain and well-placed artillery can alter the course of battle. Despite overwhelming opposition, the Union Army was not only able to stop the advancement of enemy troops but forced their retreat.

considered in the design and placement of artillery positions by the Confederates at Fort Hill and the river batteries along the waterfront. The Confederates placed additional obstacles in the

A few years of development and a patent later, the minie` ball was ready for combat. In the 1850's, James H. Burton, a master of arms, made a few alterations such as slightly lengthening the bullet and thinning the walls of the hollow base. These alterations made the minie` ball much easier and cheaper to mass-produce; this is what was used by the blue and gray's out on the battlefields.

The Civil War of America has been discussed as the first modern war of the new industrial age. Army’s of such a large size had yet to meet head on, face to face in the battle field with weapons of such mass destruction and deadly force. America had not yet seen casualties of this magnitude to

Light machine guns and sub-machine guns were invented during World War I as small arms, but the larger machine guns were modernized as well. Flame throwers were used as an offensive attack against trench warfare.[ix],[x]

The long range infantry weapon of the 1700’s was the musket. The musket is stronger than the bow and arrow. The kinetic energy and momentum of an 18mm musket ball shooting from a Brown Bess musket are 1460 joules and 9.36 kg*m/s. The kinetic energy and momentum of an arrow being shot from a bow are 16.5 joules and 1.15 kg*m/s. The musket ball clearly has a much stronger momentum and kinetic energy than the arrow, which means it has more stopping power. Firearms of the 1700’s also have much greater maximum range than bows and arrows. If a Brown Bess was fired at a forty five degree angle in a frictionless environment, the musket ball would travel 9783 meters. If a bow fired it’s arrow at forty-five degrees in a frictionless environment, it would travel only one hundred and nineteen meters. The musket has more than eighty-two times the maximum range of the bow and arrow. Some might say that bows and arrows are stronger than muskets, but that is not entirely true. Most people refer to muskets and rifles of the eighteen and nineteenth century only as smooth-bore barrel muskets. Muskets barrels later became rifled in the nineteenth century and are much more accurate than their smooth-bore relatives. Not only are muskets more lethal than bows and arrows, but cannons and artillery are more lethal than medieval catapults.

In total, there were over 370 Union Army artillery units at Gettysburg during the battle on November 19th, 1863 (Newton, 2005). This gave the Union Army a stout advantage over the Confederate Army, who only had about 280 artillery unit’s available (Newton, 2005). Of the different pieces used, the 12 pound smooth bore Napoleon was the most common. With a range of 1,300 yards, this artillery piece was used for direct fire on enemy troops and advancing artillery (Newton, 2005). In most cases, the Napoleon used a canister shot, which consisted of one round and one charge (Newton, 2005).When massing artillery fires on enemy artillery, it was common for artillery sections to use a double canister, a canister with two rounds and one charge (Newton, 2005). This was done to increase the chance of critical damage to enemy pieces. Often times when engaging enemy artillery directly, Union artillery would focus the battery on one enemy piece at a time, using the double canister (Newton, 2005).