The Continental Army

During the Revolutionary War, the Artillery assets that were available were a combination of cannons, mortars and howitzers. There were two types of cannons used at this time. The Field Guns, which were lightweight and easier to move, and the Siege Guns, which were much heavier and less mobile. The cannons utilized

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

Washington was aware that he and the militia’s needed the artillery to be successful. Many people thought the 300 mile journey was impossible and that the crew and leader would surely die. Washington decided to choose one of his own, Major General Henry Knox, to do the job. Knox and his crew “...traveled 300 miles in the dead of winter to transport over 120,000 pounds of artillery including 59 mortars and cannons, a large supply of gunpowder, and numerous weapons…“ (Strum, 33) that would help the militia defeat the British. So Knox was assigned to move artillery when the funny thing is that Knox actually focused on artillery, “...with a focus on artillery.” (American Revolution: Major General Knox). Knox once said on his journey, “... It is not easy [to] conceive the difficulties we have had in getting them [the artillery] over the lake owing to the advanced season of the year and contrary winds,

Washington fires the first shot with a mortar hitting a house with British soldiers eating starting the siege. Cornwallis had to rely on his ten forts called redoubts to defend Yorktown. General Washington knew he had to take out redoubts nine and ten in order to get close enough to attack Cornwallis. On one moonless night with Jupiter and Venus glowing brightly 400 French soldiers attacked redoubt nine while 400 (with one soldier thinking it was the signal to attack) American soldiers attacked redoubt ten. In an attempt to turn the tide Cornwallis sent the British army to attack the nearest allied troops in an attempt to spike (to take a spike usually made of iron pounded into the hole where the fuse in the cannon goes requiring the army to have to drill it out damaging the weapon) or fill the cannons with dirt rendering them useless until the cannons can be cleaned. The attack was doomed form the start, and the British were pushed back after a brief battle, and the allied army shortly repaired the cannons and put them back into the fight. After a few days of fighting the Cornwallis ran away to hide in Yorktown’s cave. Not really inspiring for the British army to have their general run and hide in a cave for that is very embarrassing for a

“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 Union forces also produced many long range artillery weapons. Unlike the Confederates, who used Howitzers; the Union Army used mortars. The short-squat mortar, as it was called, was originally used by the Ottoman's in 1453. The mortars operated by the Union were primarily used to hurl shells over walls or into large concentrations of enemy soldiers. In addition to lobbing bombs over walls, the mortars were also extremely effective in dismantling naval forces. The mortars could be shot from miles inland, therefore Confederate naval forces never saw the bombs coming. The mortar weighed 17,120 pounds and could fire a 220 pound bomb 4,325 yards. There were smaller versions of these mortars (the 300 lb Coehorn mortar with a 5.8 inch bore that hurled an 18 pound shell), but they saw very little activity on the battlefield.8

In 1901, Field Artillery divided into 126 companies of Coastal Artillery, also known as the Seacoast Artillery and light field artillery. Air Defense took its first leap by using cannons from forts to shoot at invading ships. The men needed to be highly skilled and trained rigorously in order to hit a

The Union soldiers were more likely to carry the U.S. Model 1861 Springfield Rifle-Musket than any other weapon. These guns were not the easiest or most convenient weapons even if they were the most common. The Model 1861 was a .58 caliber gun, was 58.5 inches long, and weighed in at a heavy 9.25 pounds. This rifle was nicknamed "The Widow Maker." This nickname was made with great thanks to the minie` bullet which was an integral part of this rifle-musket. The combination of the rifle-musket and the minie` bullet forever changed the face of warfare; thus because for the first time ever, men could aim at a distant target, and have a decent chance of hitting it. This luxury allowed the gun-bearers to hide in a safe place, yet still be able to knock down their target. Colonel George Hanger, an American Revolution officer, wrote in 1814:

All firearms larger than small arms are known as artillery or cannon. Although there were dozens of different types of cannon used during the Civil War, they all fell into one of two categories: smoothbore or rifled cannon. They were further designated by the weight of their projectile (12-pounder, 24-pounder, 32-pounder, etc.), the caliber or size of their bore diameter (3-inch, 8-inch, 10-inch), method of loading (breech or muzzle), and often their inventor or the factory in which they were made (i.e. Dahlgren, Napoleon, Rodman, Parrott, Whitworth). A further distinction involved the path of their trajectories: guns had a flat

During the time of the Civil war, Pistols, and other basic handheld, guns were very popular, for a soldier to have. It was known for its capability of hitting a target from a short distance. Before people started changing the way weapons were, a small handheld pistol gun, that held one bullet, was considered, “the best” before, innovations, were performed. infantry soldiers would use muskets with one bullet at a time, shooting as far as 250 yards. However, if exact persistent location for the bullet to hit is needed, 80 yards would be the furthest distance to shoot from. If a soldier had a pistol as his main weapon, commanders, and generals, taught them different war tactics on getting closer, to your target to be within the 80 yards, with a pistol.

The American and French Artillery where the prime component that led to the triumph over the British during the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. Both the Americans and the French utilized their seasoned gunners to fire over fifteen thousand rounds during the nine day siege. The precision and lethalness of the Allied artillery was one of the key factors that led Lord Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown.

     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).

Some hundred men ran and hid in the Chew house, a large stone building, and returned fire from the second story. Instead of by-passing the building, Colonel Knox believed that they should destroy the house with the redcoats in it. Knox 's fired cannons at the home, which merely bounced back at them. The fog and smoke caused massive confusion for several others of Washington 's columns. All of a sudden two American divisions collided and fired upon each other. More and more mishaps followed, and finally Washington ' men retreated.

Before they use rifle the soldiers were using old smooth-bore muskets. The problem with muskets was that they were rely hard to shoot with because the bullets were round ball that didn't shoot straight and had a short range. On the other hand the rifle had new types of bullets that looks pretty much like nowadays bullets. In addition to new bullets the rifle also had a new barrel that had grove in it to grip the ammunition and shoot at longer distance. during the civil war many other weapons like land mines and naval mines or even the gatling gun (the first machine gun) were created, but they weren't rely used during the civil war.

Prior to 1897, technology had made leaps and bounds and the construction of the French 75mm had been upgraded from a 57mm to the 75mm as well as outfitted with a long hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism. The recoil system proved to be unmatched by any other weapon system of the time. It had the ability to stay trained on its target after firing. This would enable a gun crew to fire rounds more rapidly than an enemy could. A proficient crew could fire, in succession, 10 to 15 rounds a minute, before an enemy’s artillery could fire its second round. This cannon would be the base for a lot of the French Artillery guns that came later such as the Canon de 75 Modele 1912 and 1914