Civil War cannon

[Sailronin]

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At the Chickamauga Battlefield, site of the last major Confederate Victory in the US Civil war.

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[daveleo]

neat photo . . . and now I know how the set the range ! !

 

that's a wood frame, correct ??

[stuny]

Dave -

 

Very nice.

[Sailronin]

Thank you Dave and Stuart,

Yes Dave the carriage is wood and the range adjust thread is called a "coin" (at least it is on a naval carriage). This was a 12 pound cannon with a range of about 1,600 yards.

 

Thanks for looking,

Dave

[soleforeal]

Good crop and sharpness.

I think a touch more contrast in darkness would help. IMHO.

[pauledell]

Dave,

 

A nice shot of the working parts of the cannon. I need to have something like this for self-protection at home but it takes too long to reload. I agree with Solereal that it needs more contrast.

 

Paul

[neal]

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Thank you Dave and Stuart,

Yes Dave the carriage is wood and the range adjust thread is called a "coin" (at least it is on a naval carriage). This was a 12 pound cannon with a range of about 1,600 yards.

 

Thanks for looking,

Dave

actually it is a ten pounder Parrott Rifle, made at the West Point foundry. Designed by Robert Parker Parrott. 2.9 inch bore, (this may be a model 1963 3" bore still classed as a ten pounder, hard to tell from this angle), weight about 890 pounds and mounted on a #1 field carriage. A "coin" was a wedge shaped device used to adjust the elevation on naval guns and earlier field guns, the screw device is simply called an elevating screw. the range of this gun at 5` elevation is about 3000 yards. The front sight is visible mounted on the trunion rimbase, (it's bent over) the rear sight was mounted on the small knob on the re-enforcing band. {BTW I have one of these in my garage.)

http://www.photoneal.com/photos/photos_04/bigrifles1.jpg

the Parrott is in the rear

[Sailronin]

Thank you for the information, sorry I got the info mixed up. It's great that the forum has this depth of knowledge.

 

The Parrott was a major development, a rifled bore wasn't it?

 

I used to be captain of a sailing ship that had four six pound naval guns that we used in mock battles with other vessels and for demonstrations with school students. Of course they were in naval carriages and used coins. Ours were complemented by two two pound swivel guns.

[Sailronin]

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Another view, in color, 3" bore so must be the 1863 version.

[neal]

Yep, that's a model 1863, the earliest one I've ever seen was dated 1864. Mine is a model 1861 2.9 inch dated 1862. The Parrott was a reliable, inexpensive accurate field rifle and was one of the first rifled artillery pieces to see service. Eventually the Parrott field guns were superseded by the 3" ordnance rifle in the foreground of my picture, lighter stronger (made of wrought Iron). I know too much info