"17th century 'galloper' guns" Topic

I'd be grateful for guidance as to where I might find reference for the use of 'galloper guns' in the ECW and 30YW- both the hardware itself, a fieldpiece with its trail formed by a pair of shafts in order for a horse to be harnessed directly to the gun, i.e. without a limber, as well as the English term.

A supplementary question: if similar pieces were used on the Continent, what were they called, in French, German, Spanish, Swedish- etc?.

N.B. I am up to speed for the mid-18th century onwards regarding 'galloper guns', 'amusettes.' etc. I am now casting off into uncharted waters of the C17th and would appreciate comments from those who know this period.

Will crosspost to Renaissance general thread.

JF

The Royalist cavalry from Oxford that rode to Roundway Down to break the siege of Devizes had a pair of galloper guns with them. I'm fairly sure I've read that they used them to fire a signal to Hopton indicating that they had arrived.

I've never seen a drawing of such a gun but am sure one exists somewhere.

What sort of information are you after?

You may find the article below useful – it discusses the use of several types of light ordnance in the period in a specifically Scottish context:

PDF link

Some pictures of what remains of these light guns are included although not of the carriages.

A quick note as to the two shafted "galloper gun" illustrated in Muller's Treatise. It was probably never made!

Similar pieces were used in Europe. A contemporary description of the SYW Austrian Netherlands' artillery near Torgau describe a two shafted regimental gun painted blue (the rest of the Austrian guns were yellow ochre).

The earliest illustration of a Swedish "galloper" I know of is from 1706

This type of gun carriage was known as a "Kärrlavett" in Swedish which roughly translates to "cart carriage", the type was supposedly known during the 17th Century but I have found no evidence for it's actual use during the 1620-1660 period. Both leather cannon and regimental 3-pounders used ordinary field carriages and limbers. It could be that the "galloper" style was only for temporary use in special circumstances much like the various sled mounted gun carriages that were developed.

But actual hard evidence for the use of the "kärrlavett" I have only seen from the 18th C.

Thank you gentlemen. I am interested in how the term 'galloper' entered military usage in the C18th; whether the C17th guns ever in fact moved at a gallop; if so, whether the concept of a compact, fast-moving light field piece, shaft mounted, was adopted across north-western and central Europe, and what terms were used to describe such a piece in other languages.

22nd, I couldn't find a reference to galloper guns in the PDF article.

Thank you Daniel. That's a substantial looking piece! "Kärrlavett" is very useful to know; similar to the British "curricle gun" and French "voiture canon."

Tricorne, indeed. Much has been made of the Muller design, but that does date to the 1750

42flanker,

You're right, the article does not refer to "gallopers" as such but reference is made both to Hamilton's guns – "brass pieces, which one horse may easily draw" (page 303) and Wemyss's guns serving under Waller (page 305) – "One horse may draw a peece".

Ok. Thanks for guiding me to those.

Does anyone know of an early use of the specific term 'galloper'