If you think that the cannon used in The Revolutionary War looks like the guns from the US Civil War, you're wrong.
Portable guns were in the 4-lb. range.
The stereotypical Civil War gun is a 12-lb. gun.
Once again it is GURPS that taught me this, well gaming led me to learn this.
I looked up what the British would be using on the ground if they attacked the pirate stronghold overland from the rear and was very disappointed in the size of the guns. Barely larger than a ship's-rail mounted swivel gun!
The artillery in both wars ranged greatly in size. And an artillerist from Gustavus Adolphus' army could have worked a gun at the siege of Petersburg in 1864 with very little trouble. Until breech loaders came in, artillery didn't change a lot. But when it did---! One thing that screwed Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian war was that he was using artillery of the old sort, while the Prussians had a lot of new-fangled breech loaders.
ReplyDelete"For you all love the screw-guns — the screw-guns they all love you!"
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