"The Big Guns " Topic

Seeing this beautifull pictures and work…

From
link

… wonder to ask if the Confederation also had big guns as those or big siege guns also.
If the answer is yes, were they used them?

Finally, which of both sides in the ACW had the biggest gun?

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

Amicalement
Armand

Those guns were NOT field pieces, they were siege guns. Both sides had them but less so with the Rebs. The North produced the largest amount of guns but the Rebs had similar types.

Don

actionfront.blogspot.com

"Who ever saw a dead cavalryman?"

Both sides had Siege guns of various calibres as both sides had or took over pre-war federal arsenals before hostilities commenced. The South tended to mount a lot of the heavier guns on wooden carriages of different types due to there lack of iron. Most were situated in forts along the coast or at strategic points along the important rivers, such as Fort Wagner, Fort Fisher, at Vicksburg and at the siege of Petersburg.

The Confederates also were supplied by the British a number of 8"/150 Pounder Armstrong guns they mounted on wooden carriages which were in some of their coastal forts such as Fort Fisher on the Cape River in North Carolina.

The largest gun of the war was the 20" Rodman smoothbore of which the Union had two, although I think one of them was only fired in anger once. Much more numerous was the 15" Rodman smoothbore, which again was used for the defence of forts by both sides.

The largest guns that were habitually used in the field (albeit in small numbers) were the 20lb Parrot rifle and the 24lb howitzer. In the Army of the the Tennessee, for example, there were two batteries of 20lb Parrots (3rd Independent Batt., Ohio L.A. and Batt. H, 1st Indiana L.A.) and one of 24lb howitzers (Batt.D, 1st Indiana L.A.). Each battery was of four tubes.

My Great-Great Grandfather, George Washburn, was a captain in the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery during the peninsular Campaign. At the siege of Yorktown his company (battery) contained 5 x 100 pound Parrot Rifles and 2 x 200 Pound Parrot Rifles!

As noted, both sides had the big guns – but most of them for both North and South spent the war in fortifications

The Union had a huge number of guns and men guarding Washington for most of the war

The Army of the Potomac had some 4.2 inch rifles on the Gettysburg Campaign but they never made it to the battlefield. Both sides had a 24 pounder gun (not the howitzer which they also had) but they were rarely used except during sieges. The reality was that the 10 pounder Parrot, 3 inch and 12 pounder Napoleon were more efficient field pieces. The big guns were used for sieges. The 20 inch, or more correctly XXinch Rodman was destined for the newer Monitors as it was determined that it could penetrate any ironclads that the Royal Navy was planning. As British intervention became less likely, so did the need for these guns. Monitors typically carried one XI inch and one XV inch, the XI inch being used as a sighting piece.

Many thanks for your guidance guys!.

Amicalement
Armand

Shame that the modeler left such a nasty mold line across the muzzles (and didn't drill them deeper).

Battery M 4th US had 4x 24-pdr howitzers at Chickamagua. I don't know when they started using them, or if or when they switched to another type.

At 1st Bull Run battery G, 1st US artillery had a 30 pdr Parrot rifle called "Long Tom"

There are a number of the larger guns still deployed in the remains of the forts south of Washington DC. You stumble through the woods and find 300lb Smoothbores pointing down the river. The county must come out and paint them once a year, but nothing else is done for them.

This piece is at Chatham Manor across the river from Fredericksburg. I'm sorry, but I can't recall the size other that it is big.