"ACW Gunners in action, dress?" Topic

In the Russian version of War and Peace there is a scene where Russian Gunners are operating in shirts and no headgear at all. I wonder if this was very common in ACW arty btrys especially in warm weather. Anybody know , scholars? re enactors? And does anyone paint up some of their miniatures in the stipped down style for their ACW wargame armies??

I've seen lots of paintings where the gunners were pretty stripped down and have been wondering this myself. I think I'm going to add some artillery crews to my ACW range that are "in the heat of battle" – no caps, sleeves rolled up, that kind of thing.

My father-in-law's best bud was a gunner in WWII, his comment was that, when they were firing, often they wore a tin hat, pants and boots and not much else – sometimes an undershirt – it's hard work lugging those 25 prdr rounds around – when you look at pics of working batteries, the gunners are often stripped down. For my ACW armies, I have a lot of the gunner in "heat of the battle" looks like Mark is suggesting

It is your army. Having worked a gun for a score of years, I work with sack coat and hat. Many is the time I did not want to work in the coat, but always liked the hat. Since I was usually the #1 man, without the coat, I would have ruined several shirts. Gun powder does not show up well on dark blue.

I'm with cwbuff. I've been a gunner for years on CW artillery. A hat or forage cap is something I would always retain, mainly to shade the eyes. The forage cap offers no re protection and you end up with the tops of the ears sunburned.

Then you have the jack – either the tight fitting shell jacket or the looser sack coat. To put it bluntly working the gun is hard work – especially for the #1 man (sponge/rammer)and the number #5 (ammunition runner)- you want to get that jacket off, especially it tempretures over 80 degrees F (21 degrees C).

The one advantage that wool offers is some measure of flash protection various forms of flash that can occur. I've seen accidents with blackpowder in the English Civil War events as a musketeer, slow match and gunpwder always don't mix. Artillery in both periods take a great deal more trouble over safety.

Thats why I go infantry….

As a war of 1812 reinactor ,i had the delightful opportunity to serve in a cohorn mortar crew .The sludge stains on my tunic sleeve attest to the fact that we remained in full kit,ready to get stuck in as infantry.This however attests to the ParksCanada safety regulations which forbid anything more than 1 round every 20 minutes.In the reinacting community it seems that people are constantly forgetting to sponge out…At Fort York,(toronto)a chap was too eager an sent his arm downrange during a public exhibition many years back.The draconian Parks-Canada law was drafted to prevent such reoccurrences ,to the dismay of the viewer audience.We strive for accuraccy but were legislated into obscurity.