"AWI guns comparison" Topic

I've got problem with clasifying non-British guns in AWI.
On Alte Fritz blog I've found an information that "French pound was heavier than British" thus French 3-pounders were a lot bigger than British and resembled more 6-pounders.
It bore more questions – how comparable were these guns in ter of firepower and maneuverability ?

Let's take the "classic" British 3-pdr, 6-pdr and light 12-pdf as reference, and try to compare other guns:

French 3-pounder: less maneuverable than British 3-pdr, closer to 6-pdr (how many horses requires); more firepower than 3-pdr and less than 6-pdr (am I right ?)

French 6-pounder: no idea

Hessian "Swedish" 4-pounder: no idea

Could you help me in this matter ?

And to complicate things a little bit more, Knox had the Hessian 3 pdrs captured at Trenton rebored into 6 pdrs.

Maciek: I think that you have a typo there. The French had 4-pounders as their smallest conventional cannon, excluding the little Rostaing 1-pounder. So no French 3-pounders.

I'd recommend visiting Christian Rogge's blog as my cannon are based off of his diagrams and Christian has an extensive discussion of the various French cannon.

There were no French 6-pdrs. French field guns came in 4, 8, and 12-pdr sizes.

To add even more confusion, both regular French Valliere pattern 4-pdrs and French light 4-pdrs "ala suedoise" were sent to America, since both were being phased out in favor of the new Gribeauval pattern guns, which probably equipped the French units.

The Valliere guns were definitely heavier than British 3-pdrs, and probably than British light 6-pdrs, while the "Swedish" guns were actually pretty similar to the Gribeauvals. The latter were still in service during the French Revolutionary Wars and on into the Napoleonics Wars.

And remember that the British guns were available in a number of patterns, so saying "3-pdr" is not really adequate to determine mobility, since a heavy 3-pdr might weigh twice what a light one did. And there were several patterns of carriage for each as well.

As far as firepower, the 3-pdrs and 4-pdrs were pretty similar.

There wasn't a French 3-pdr around at that time. It was a light "Swedish" 4-pdr battalion gun as well as a long barrel field gun 4-pdr in service in America. The Hessians should have had "Swedish" 3-pdrs, if not furnished with British guns in the first place. Also the light short barrel British guns fielded are really "Swedish" type. I'd say no more then 2, 3, or 4 horses needed for the 3, 6, and light 12-pdr respectively.The draught often varied depending on how much ready ammunition was carried in the boxes. All that may have changed from campaign to campaign.
Some answers you will find on my blog.
Cheers,
Christian
crogges7ywarmies.blogspot.com

Christian,
I know your blog, and I even copied all posts about SYW artilery on my hard drive, but you don't have many info about British guns, apart of one post about light 12-pounders if I remember well. It would be great to compare your excellent drawings of French guns with British ones, but so far only former are covered.

Which French guns were used in AWI ?
Did you refer Brocard M1740/56 as "Swedish 4-pdr" and Valliere M1732 as long barreled 4-pdr ?
Also, one can find Hesse Kassel 3-pdr SYW gun "based on M1770" – is this the type of guns used by Hessians in AWI ?

Yes, the Brocard 4-pdr is the the Swedish-type battalion gun, and the long 4-pdr is the Vallière M1732 piece. Both certainly saw service in America, given the many surviving originals on display in many US museums nowadays. I don't know in what quantities. Certainly a typical Continental Army's artillery train was found very heterogenous in terms of models. Possibly even Spanish or Dutch cast pieces were found. Anything that was at hand, I would believe.
More on British artillery you'll find here:
PDF link

Great link. Thanks !
Could you also answer my question about Hessian 3-pdr ?

link

here is a interesting site that shows some of the guns

Sorry, I forgot about your Hessian gun question.
I had a quick read on the period of the Hessian troops assembly and marches to the ports in order to embark for America. Apparently, they did leave with their battalion guns. I wasn't so sure here, but it seem they did take them overseas including an initial 150 rounds per piece.
So, yes, at least a good number if not all would have been to this design. Possibly also some older models still being found.

Cheers,
Christian
crogges7ywarmies.blogspot.com

Christian,

I think it was the Hesse Hanau company under Pausch that was issued British (and possibly also French) guns from the Quebec Arsenal – 6-, 4- and 3-pdrs I believe. The 6s were given to the park/reserve half of the company, with the 4s and 3s going to the Grenadier Battalion Breymann and the Light Battalion Barner respectively.