The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
Showing posts with label Whitworth Gun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whitworth Gun. Show all posts

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Civil War Technology-- Part 7: Longstreet, Railroads and Cannons

**  General Longstreet was able to move his corps from Virginia to Georgia by rail and took Union forces by surprise which led to victory at Chickamauga.

**  Improvements were made in steam engines plus safety measures.

**  Smoothbore cannons were best against infantry.  

**  Whitworth cannons had a range of 5 miles.  There were some at Fort Fisher.

**  Two main Union foundries:  West Point and Pittsburgh.

**  Trench warfare.

--Old Secesh


Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Artillery-- Part 10: Talking Whitworths and Rodmans

Col. William Lamb at Fort Fisher had a battery of long-range Whitworth guns that could fire four to four-and-a-half miles out to see.  He had them hooked up to horses and were his "Flying battalion" and would go out to keep blockaders away from stranded blockade runners.

Heavy artillery  generally manned  coastal or river  fortifications and mounted  large immobile guns like Rodmans or the larger Parrott guns.  

During the war, many Union "Heavies" served in the Washington, D.C. defenses and there were a lot of forts around that city.

Some foot batteries were equipped with medium-sized  pieces known as siege guns like 30-pounder Parrotts.  They were mounted on heavy, but relatively  mobile siege carriages which allowed them to follow in the wake of armies and be emplaced in temporary positions whenever the troops were likely to remain in one place for a while.

The Saturday, April 30th discussion group topic will be about "Spies."  It is moved to this date because if the DuPage Civil War Show,

--Old Secesh


Monday, March 15, 2010

Shorpy's Whitworth Gun

The March 9th Shorpy old picture site featured a picture taken in April 1865 of Union soldiers guarding a captured Confederate Whitworth gun with its breech open.

A sign on it said "Richmond Arsenal 1864."

This is a very good photograph of a weapon way ahead of its time. One that had an amazing distance that it could fire a shell, around 4 to 5 miles.

Several readers commented on it. Rip Tragle said it was a 2.75 inch Whitworth Rifle imported from England bu both the Union and Confederacy. (I thought just the Confederacy). It was designed by Sir Joseph Whitworth and fired elongated 12-pound shells up to 2,800 yards.

Two were used by an Alabama battery at Gettysburg, where even during the horrendous bombardment preceding Pickett's Charge, their shrill whine could be heard distinctly.

They were very accurate but has serious problems in their breech mechanisms. Their great distance was hurt by lack of artillery spotting at the time.

One Wondrous Weapon. --Old B-Runner

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Armstrong Gun at Fort Fisher, NC

Armstrong guns were developed by Englishman Sir William Armstrong (1810-1900).

He also established the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing empire. Both the Armstrong and Whitworth guns were very advanced examples of artillery and both used at Fort Fisher and the defense of the Cape Fear River. The Whitworths were especially useful in driving off blockaders when blockade-runners ran aground.

He first got involved in artillery during the Crimean War.

The company had problems building breech-loading cannons. In 1859, tests were conducted that showed breech-loading cannons were not powerful enough to penetrate iron.

Actually, I wasn't able to find too much on Sir William.

Make me a Big Gun. --Old B-Runner.