"Prolonging American Civil War Artillery" Topic

How exactly did prolonging work with artillery in the American Civil War? One faction in our wargaming group claims that prolonging is merely another term for the artillery crew manhandling the artillery piece into a new location when the limber was not available, or there was not enough time to limber the artillery piece, or the short distance you wanted to move the artillery piece did not justify limbering the piece. Another faction says that it is different than merely manhandling the piece and uses artillery horses attached to prolong ropes using special harness to more quickly move an artillery piece than fully limbering it. ("What do you think the rings on the artillery carriage were for? Fashion piercings?")
Also, how far could a field artillery piece – let's say a 12lb Napoleon – be prolonged over level ground in 5 minutes?

I beleive the term really refers to both – manhandling is not likely to get you very far of course, but in the right terrain its certainly possible. The harness comment is correct – there used to be a display at one of the various Imperial War Museums with a full-size diorama of the process (it wasnt the main one in London but for the life of me I cannot recall which it was)

How far would depend on the method used – again, manhandling the gun for five minutes on relatively hard level ground might get you a few dozen yards, or more with a well rested, inspired and healthy crew; the horses could get you more distance in the same time, but you would have to spend time hitching and unhitching the mounts – always fun in a noisy battlefield with horses who might not be overly happy with the environment.

I have never seen any actual references to the effectiveness of Prolonging – usually its just a comment that "the Third Battery prolonged their guns and took the enemy under fire"

A recent issue of CWT had an article on a battery at
G'burg, which included an explanation of prolonging,
the explanation mostly having to do with 'fire and
retire,' wherein the 'prolong' actually extended the
distance the gun recoiled, IIRC, thus hastening the
'retire' part…

Both are correct. The main point of not limbering the gun is to keep it in action, but also move some distance. The concept was a fighting withdrawal, whereby batteries of artillery let the recoil of the gunfire move them backwards, often aided by men and horse pulling an attached rope to aid this process between firings. A good example of prolonging in the face of the enemy was Bigelow's Battery (9th Mass) supporting Sickles III Corps near the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg in 2 July 63. In the face of Confederate Infantry attacks, Capt Bigelow continued to fire in support of the exposed III Corps while moving back toward Union forces near Little Round Top. Issue 261 of Wargames Illustrated has a great article with game on this action.

Mark

"The harness comment is correct – there used to be a display at one of the various Imperial War Museums with a full-size diorama of the process (it wasnt the main one in London but for the life of me I cannot recall which it was)"

Well, there's the main London one in Lambeth, Duxford, IWM North in Manchester, HMS Belfast and the Cabinet War Rooms (last two also in London). I can't imagine such a display would be at either of the last two and I'm sure it isn't at Duxford (that's all 20th century and later stuff). So it was either at IWM North or possibly the Firepower Museum at Woolwich.

I wish I could remember – I was rooting through my JPGs with little luck, but the museum seemed to have an artillery focus to it. I just do not remember visiting a museum outside of the UK like that, but we are talking 10 years ago.

Still, my memory cannot be THAT bad. Os so I hope…

Heh? I always thought that prolonging was the use of men or horses to attach to ropes to pull guns forward and advance them towards the enemy.

link

"http://www.wordnik.com/words/prolongeMilit., a hempen rope composed of three pieces joined by two open rings, and having a hook at one end and a toggle at the other. It is usually about nine yards long. It is used to draw a gun-carriage without the limber in a retreat or advance through a narrow street or defile, or for temporarily attaching the gun to the limber when it is not desired to limber up. It is also employed in getting guns across ditches, for righting overturned gun-carriages, and for any other purpose in which such a rope can be made useful. The prolonge can be shortened by looping it back, and engaging either the terminal hook or toggle in one of the intermediate rings. When not in use, it is wound about and carried on the prolonge-hooks on the trail of the gun. See cut under gun-carriage. "

The prolonge is the actual rope you tug on. Letting the gun recoil backwards and not turning the top of the wheels forward to run it back into the original battery position- that's something else- Does anyone know what it is called?

Dare I say 'bricole'?

Thanks for the responses. In my followup research I found that there seems to be three distinct ways to move an artillery piece without limbering.

1. By hand unassisted

In this method the only tool apparently used is the trail spike. The rest of the crew grabs the gun carriage wheels and away they go. The method is described below in a contemporary artillery manual:
"MOVING THE PIECE BY HAND. PIECE UNLIMBERED.
111. To the front. The instructor commands: 1. By hand to the front. 2. MARCH. 3. HALT. At the first command, the gunner seizes the end of the handspike, and Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 the spokes of the wheels. No. 1, with his left hand; Nos. 2, 3, and 4 with both hands; No. 1 holds the sponge with his right hand, the staff resting upon his right shoulder, sponge head down. At the second command they move the piece forward, the gunner raising the trail until the command HALT is given, when all resume their posts.
112. To the rear. The instructor commands: 1. By hand to the rear. 2. MARCH. 3. HALT. At the first command, the gunner, facing to the rear, seizes the handspike with his right hand; Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 seize the wheels as before, except that No. 1, holding the sponge in his left hand, uses his right at the wheel. At the command MARCH, they move the piece to the rear, the gunner raising the trail, until the command HALT is given, when all resume their posts"

Instruction for Field Artillery, 1861, French, Barry, Hunt

This seems pretty close to manhandled to me.

2. By hand assisted.

As described in General Gibbon's contemporary artillery manual, The Artillerists Manual, this method uses special equipment to accomplish the task. As quoted in the manual:

"Drag-rope, Fig. 227, Pl. 30. -- This is a 4" hemp rope, with a thimble worked into each end, one of the thimbles carrying a hook. Six handles, made of oak or ash, are put in between the strands of the rope, and lashed with marline. It is used to assist in extricating carriages from different positions, by the men, for dragging pieces, &c. Length 28 feet.

Men's Harness , Fig. 228, Pl. 30, is made of 4" rope, with two thimbles and a hook like the drag-rope. Six loops, made of bag -leather, are attached to the rope in pairs, by means of knots worked in the rope, or by leather collars sewed to it with strong twine. As implied by its name, it is used for harnessing the men to the pieces, under circumstances where horses cannot be used, as in dragging them up very steep ascents, &c. Length 18 feet."

3. By prolonge

This method is intended to use the prolonge to move the cannon short of limbering them. As described in Gibbon,

"Prolonge Fig. 226, Pl. 30. -- It is made of 3 1/2" hemp rope. A toggle is fastened to one end by three rings and a thimble, which is worked into the rope; another thimble holds a hook at the other end of the rope; the splice at each end is served with marline. Two rings are lashed to the prolonge with ½" marline, for which purpose they have a straight side, which is made to fit the prolonge -rope. The prolonge is used with field -pieces to attach the gun to the limber when firing in retreat, or advancing, instead of limbering up; for the same purpose in
crossing ditches; for slinging a piece to a limber; for righting carriages"
The prolonge could be attached to the rear of the limber and the gun dragged backwards stopping as needed to fire. If the limber was unavailable, the prolonge could be used to attach the gun to the caisson (dangerous, but needs must) or any wagon available in the battery for that matter. The OR mentions an artillery piece attached to the battery forge and prolonged that way. Finally, if no wagons or similar wheeled vehicles were available, the prolonge could be attached directly to an artillery horse's harness trace hooks and moved that way.

Only Louisiana regiments could prolong artillery during the Civil War 'cause no one else could pronounce "bricole" properly.

Isn't a bricole that way-cool pastry you get with breakfast in New Orleans?

I always understood prolonge technically in the sense Mosby describes, moving an artillery piece by ropes, but have used it generically while gaming for any movement of a non-limbered artillery piece

Bricole

* 1/4 inch thick round steak, cut into 4x4 inches square (as many as you like)
* Parsley, basil, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper to taste
* Grated romano and parmesean cheeses
* Italian sausage

Directions
Bricole

1. Sprinkle parsley, basil, chopped garlic, salt, pepper, and a generous amount of grated romano or parmesan cheese on meat pieces.

2. Spread 1 ounce Italian sausage on meat pieces; roll and hold together with toothpicks.

3. Cook in oven with meatballs and sausage. Then simmer in sauce 2-3 hours. The longer you simmer, the more tender the meat.

Seems like pushing the gun around on anything worse than firm level ground would have been very tough going indeed! Back in the day we did not allow prolonging in rough terrain or uphill or downhill (oops there she goes) in our games. After all these were not 18th Century regimental 3lb guns!

You can push guns anywhere you have the will and means to move them.

Capt Smith's 4th N.Y. Battery pushed 4 of their 6 pieces up into the Devils Den at Gettysburg. There was no room for caissons or ammo chests, so each round had to be brought forward up a steep slope from the limbers located further east of the position. Hoods attack eventually over ran the position and the battery was unable to pull the guns out in time.

If you have been to Gettysburg and have seen the guns that are positioned there today to show the batteries location, you simply scratch your head and wonder how the heck did they get those guns here?!

At the MuleShoe at Spotsylvania Courthouse the Confederates manhandled several field pieces in and out of their trenches traversing several until they were in point blank range of the Federal forces. Since a 12lb Napoleon gun tube and gun carriage weights over a ton, that must have been quite a sight; soldiers and crew heaving a field piece up and over the edge of a trench.

Those very big wheels are what makes it possible. The diameter is such that even a 2 foot high obsticle is "downhill" from the center of gravity of the piece. If you hang your weight on the top of the spoke at the wheel rim (say at "11:00 o'clock) you have guite a bit of levarage/lever-arm) to get the bottom of the wheel to advance. They weren't stupid when they designed them.

I believe Smiths NY Btry had enough time and plenty of help from the infantry of Wards brigade to haul up two sections onto Hauks Ridge, before Robertsons and Laws guys even got started! Still took a heck of a lot of effort from a lot of guys I guess. I think the guns were placed a little downslope to avoid recoil backing them off the ridge, but I am not sure about that!

docdennis1968 et al

I always wondered about that and similar feats of strength. But the "man harness" and "drag ropes" that were appearently standard battery equipment makes it more understandable. Nevertheless, it must have still required a considerable effort.

1968 has it right .. they didn't need to be lifted after all …

"Anywhere a Goat can go a man can go, anywhere a man can go he can drag a gun". Col of Artillery 18th C

Major General William Phillips, RA (1731 – May 13, 1781).

Portrait:

picture

Yep, if Phillips had lived Yorktown might not have happened. Great historic quote.

Has anybody seen the RN Field Gun competition, where 2 crews race against each other with a steel carriaged 12pdr field gun? They manhandle it up to, and then across various obstacles, dismantling it as necessary, finally loading and firing it. This is evidence that a crew could manhandle an artillery piece of Civil war weight, I would have thought, as the 12pdr in question weighs a little over a ton.
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Although the racing crews are specially trained, the principle is the same.

I sure am impressed by those guys teamwork and strength, but I must ask does not the size of the piece seem rather small (wheels and such) when compared to say a 12lb Napoleon, or is it just my view?? Doing the drill with one of the ACW Naps might prove a little more stressfull, but if anyone could pull it off , these guys likely are the ones that have the best chance! This prolong thing still baffles and impresses me big time!

Remember that the Field Gun competition is a re-enactment of Naval crews doing it for real at Ladysmith in the Boer War.

Here are some pictures from a re-enactment at Franklin TN a few years ago

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