Artillery-- Part 9: Those Brass Napoleons

These were part of the McHenry County Civil War Round Table discussion group meeting on March 26.

**  Batteries:  Union consisted of 6 guns, Confederate of 4 guns.

**  There were two guns in a battery section.

**  Advancement of artillery officers was very slow.

**  Henry J. Hunt organized the Union artillery.

**  During Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, Confederate artillery fire for three hours and mostly stopped firing because the gun tubes were getting too hot.

**  One of the most commonly used cannons was the12-pound brass Napoleon and was accurate to a mile.

--Old Secesh

The Confederate German Light Artillery-- Part 1: With Army of Northern Virginia Seven Days Battles to Gettysburg

In the last post I wrote about Captain Childs delivering infantry accoutrements to this outfit.

The unit was formed in early 1862 in Charleston, S.C..  Captain William K. Bachman was its commander  It was armed with four 12-pounder Napoleon cannons from August 1862 to July 1863.  On May 3, 1864, it was armed with two Blakely Rifles and two 12-pounder howitzers.

This unit served in the Seven Days Battles,  Second Manassas (Second Bull Run),  Sharpsburg (Antietam), Fredericksburg,  and Gettysburg.  It then returned to South Carolina.  It was later in the Carolinas Campaign and surrendered with General Joseph Johnston at Durham  Station in North Carolina on April 25, 1865.

Some Heavy Fighting.  --Old Secesh

Napoleons By-the-Numbers-- Part 2: 1,692, That's A Lot

1,692--  Total number of Napoleons produced during the war, including 1,157 from five private foundries in the North and an estimated 535 from three private foundries and four government factories in the South.

1,227--  Weight in pounds of a standard Union Napoleon.

3,865--  Weight in pounds of the gun, carriage, limber, ammunition and miscellaneous implements required for service.

63.6--  Length of bore in inches.

4.62--  Bore diameter (caliber) of the Napoleon in inches.

1,619--  A Napoleon's range, in yards, when firing a 12-pound solid shot at 5 degrees elevation using a 2.5-pound powder charge.

1,128--  Weight in pounds of the Napoleon's two-wheel carriage.

1,620 Yards--  Where I'd Want To be Standing.  --Old Secesh

Napoleons By-the-Numbers-- Part 1: 8 Men, 6 Horses

From the Fall 2016, Civil War Monitor Magazine.

128--  Number of artillery rounds able to be carried in the Napoleon's caisson and limber.

8--  Number of men assigned to operate the Napoleon.

6--  Number of horses needed to move the Napoleon.

$565-$615--  Cost to produce a standard Napoleon in the North during the war.

--OldNapsech

About Those Napoleons-- Part 2: "They Were Beautiful, Perfectly Plain"

The Model 1857 12-pounder field cannons (12-pounder referring to the weight of a solid projectile they could fire) were popularly referred to as Napoleons.

It was created in response to U.S. Army officers' prewar demands for a lighter 12-pounder, and inspired by a design attributed to Emperor Napoleon III of France (hence the name), the Napoleon became the most widely produced and utilized cannon during the Civil War.

Its mobility, reliability and versatility -- it could fire solid shot (12 pounds), shell, case shot, and canister -- would earn the smoothbore weapon the praise of artillerists on both sides.

As one Confederate gunner noted of his unit's Napoleons,  "We would not have exchanged them for ... any other style of guns.  They were beautiful, perfectly plain ....  We are proud of them and felt towards them almost as if they were human ...."

--Old Secesh

About Those Napoleons (Cannons)-- Part 1: "Nothing Mortal Can Bear a Battery of Six Light Napoleon Guns"

From the Fall 2016 Civil War Monitor Magazine.

"There was one [Confederate] regiment that stood up before the fire of two or three of our long-range batteries and two regiments of infantry, and though the air around them was vocal with the whistle of bullets and screams of shells, there they stood, and delivered their fire in perfect order," wrote Inion Army surgeon Thomas Ellis in his diary about the Battle of Antietam in September 1862.

"[T]here they continued to stand until a battery of six light twelves were brought to bear on them, and before that they broke.  Nothing mortal can bear a battery of six light Napoleon guns...."

He was talking about the Model 1857 12-pounder field gun popularly known as "Napoleons."

A Mean Little Stinker.  --Old SecDuckandCover