"French cannon used in the AWI?" Topic

Which one of these French cannon would be the ones used in the Continental army during the AWI:

link

"The French supplied thirty-one 4-pounders which Knox found very useful as field pieces. These were of the Swedish design. They also sent other guns of the Valliere system in the four pound size. These guns Knox found to be so heavy and over cast that he had them melted down and recast into light 6-pounders. Each four-pounder made three light 6-pounders."

link

From the National Park System Springfield Armory

"Melted down and recast"?
He bored out the 3pdrs that were captured at Trenton into 6 pdrs.
That's a much simpler process, and besides, recasting ( I thought we were not allowed to discuss recasts…) into 6 pdrs also requires boring.

Put the barrell on a lathe, spin it, and shove the bar down the barrell. Ask Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. That's how he developed the caloric theory, the forerunner of our Laws of Thermodynamics!

He was also a prominent Loyalist…

EDIT: And apparently also a "scoundrel".
link

If the barrells of the 4 pdrs were simply bored out, the outer design remains unchanged.
I would go with the 4pdr design, myself.

It appears that both were used by the Continentals, but maybe more so of the Swedish 4-pounders. I might offer both versions in the Fife & Drum range. Thus, one could also use them for SYW French armies that use the Minden range of figures or the RSM range of figures.

The two first images of the Springfield Armory page clearly show two Swedish-type Brocard barrels of 18 shots length not the Valliere range 4-pdr which would have been much longer. The copy-text is altogether fine but uses wrong images. The short Brocard barrels did not come with the sculptured cascabel mentioned in the text (Face in a sunburst which I have illustrated with the long 4-pdr). I should note also 7YW Prussians seem to have fielded 20 or so Brocard guns in 1761 or 1762. They were found stored in Magdeburg and were also rebored to Prussian 6-pdr calibre. In fact, also the French themselves started doing so during the Revolution period. After Prussians and Austrians removed the 3-pdr in favour for 6-pdr bataillon guns only, also French thought of following suit and skipped casting 4-pdr. Trouble was, that so many were around that 4-pdr continued to be fielded till 1806.

Cheers,
Christian

I visited a military park with AmRev and War of 1812 cannon on display. One thing that was very interesting, the carriage for both the 6pdr and the 3pdr were the same size. So the gun looked strange with the big 6pdr barrel and the tiny 3pdr barrel.

I'm not sure, but there are some on display at Yorktown.

I don't recall them having really short barrels, but I'm no expert on period cannons.

If I had to guess, I'd say they were the longer ones, but it's been a number of years since I've seen them.