"US-Mexican War cannons - help with information" Topic

Can someone help me with sources of what guns were used by bouth sides in US-Mexican War? If if possible with limber and carriage coulours please :)

I can help with the US side of things:

Field Guns
Model 1841 6lbs (bronze)
Model 1841 12lbs (bronze)

Mountain Guns
Model 1841 12lbs Mountain Howitzer (bronze)

Siege Guns
Model 1839 18lbs (iron)
Model 1839 24lbs (iron)

Howitzers
Model 1841 12lbs (bronze)
Model 1841 24lbs (bronze)

Mortars
Model 1841 10inch (iron)

Carriages could have been olive, or gray/blue depending on the paint on hand in the battery. Hope that helps. All info is from "Mr. Polk's Army" by Richard Winders.

Billy Yank

Billy Yank has it and from a good source. I would suggest that the olive paint was the "new" color but older equipment may still be "blue".
The Mexican soldier was brave and stalwart but labored under two difficulties: weak leadership and old equipment. Much equipment was "war surplus" British stuff from Napoleonic Wars: Baker rifles, Tower muskets, and 9 pdrs. Not well recorded that I have found but I believe Hefter suggests artillery carriages were still in British blue-gray. Definitely had 16(?) pdrs since US capture them. Did you ever see the History Channel piece on Mexican Artillery using copper cannon balls?
TVAG may have better info.

WOW! Thanx for helping! Thanx for thouse gun types and colours!

"British stuff from Napoleonic Wars: Baker rifles, Tower muskets, and 9 pdrs."

Are you saying the Mexicans had single trail guns?

Everything I have seen up till know has them with double trail gun carriages.

11thACR: I never thought about that when I first read about surplus weapons. Since there was a limited manufactory in Mexico (but it was shut down, apparently), carriages may have been locally fabricated in the old style.
Again I hope TVAG sees this and can offer better answers.

Everything I had seen previously was that the Mexican Army had old double trail Spanish Napoleonic guns.

But if they had old used British long arms then I guess they could have picked up some Artillery on the market as well.

I believe that most Mexican gun carriages at the time of teh Mexican-American War were Gribeauval system – and also that most were unpainted wood

Thats my understanding.
And how i have mine painted as well.

Since I've been invited to comment, I will!

1) The Mexican Artillery was all but entirely the remnants of Spanish Artillery left in Mexico after the War of Independence. This artillery was of the Gribeauval system, unchanged from Napoleonic practice by Spain in Europe.

2) The only Mexican "factory" which maintained the carriages and could have built new ones was closed years before the War of '46-48. There were no facilities for casting new barrels.

3) Mexican Batteries were repaired and kept by their own resources. As there was virtually no practice for crews at any time, guns and limbers tended to sit in for months or years at a time, and suffering genteel decomposition.

4) Gun tubes may or may not have been painted on a per battery--or even per gun--basis. There seems to have been no established practice of any kind. The original Spanish Army colors of carriages and limbers were allowed to wear off to a worn, natural wood appearance. If available, sometimes some varnish or paint might be applied to help preserve the aging wood.

5) There is honest debate about how many British single-trail 9-pdrs were bought and delivered shortly before the war of '46-48 began. At least one contemporary painting shows such pieces in Mexican use. However many there may have been, they hardly characterize the Mexican Army and would have been no more effective than any other pieces as crewed by Mexican gunners. Speaking from a wargamer's perspective, do not bother to collect any such models.

The entire matter of armaments in the Mexican Army, particularly in the wargamer's periods of interest--1836 and 1846-48--is a remarkable subject in and of itself. But if it could be summed up (possibly too simplistically) in one sentance, it would be poorly armed with many issued weapons incapable of being fired by men mostly without effective training.

TVAG

Hi

I think a problem is with the game design. That is, it is difficult to have rules that reflect not only the American Regular arty, but the way the milita work, and then have a second set of rules that basically plant the mexican arty in place, and give them such a poor rate of fire that they are hopeless.

In my group, we don't have "that guy" to argue with, but I can see this issue as a real problem. "What you racist, do you hate mexicans">

R

See, i told you TVAG would have the good info!

Dear Rocky,

Well, the intention of "Gone To See The Elephant" is to represent all these issues--including those that work against the Yanqui's.

I have to finish the new Campaign book by Padre Paul Wright for his "Funny Little Wars" first, but the Mexican War Rules are next and should still be out this year.

TVAG

Hi

but you see my point! Truth in advertising, spent a bit of my childhood in the rural south west hearing an alternate version of the mexican war. I have not gamed the era, but I have the mexican army! Love the look of the troops.

R