"3-Rank Infantry disordered by Artillery" Topic

Here is enemy Orange infantry formed up in 3-rank line formation being Disordered by artillery.

Three Orange infantrymen were definitely killed from the serious wounds that the cannonball inflicted.

YouTube link

This was fun!

God bless,
John T.

I would use a looser order to attack it.

An instant classic!

Loved the slow-mo replay too – no doubt a few carrot tops were sacrificed during this demonstration (and thank you for your service).

How many of those carrots were hit by the shot and how many were knocked over by other falling carrots?

Bill, from my analysis, three (3) were hit by the shot. The three (3) were knocked over by those hit. A couple of carrots in the center of the 1st rank were moved but didn't topple. In the last photo, the hit carrot with side damage closest to the camera was in the 1st rank, the middle hit carrot (the one with a hole and cracked lengthwise) was in the 3rd rank, and the other hit carrot with side damage furthest away was in the 2nd rank.

Notice all the carrot gore?

Thanks for your question.

God bless,
John T.

Do not forget that a round hitting a bunch of humans will scatter their remains to the detriment of their neighbours. Struck by a chunk of your best mate, full in the face, will discourage you from further participation in the following conflict.

Most of these carrots are less pristine than they started.

Roundshot does not have to hit you directly to spoil your entire day. A close miss, by a few inches, may have done for de Lancey.

Turning a line, in front of you, into bone fragments, meat pate, chunks of weaponry and kit…all travelling towards you at quite some velocity….that is the effect of a solid metal ball hitting human or vegetable flesh.

But, the award for the most imaginative (and thought provoking) posting this week must surely go to…………?

It looked like the three-rank formation wasn't correct with the middle rank offset in relation to the front and rear. The ranks should have all the men (carrots) aligned. Not sure if that would alter the results.

Scott, you are very observant and correct. The ranks were staggered. I had 14 carrots, so five where in the 1st rank, four in the 2nd, and five in the 3rd rank.

3rd rank: 10 11 12 13 14
2nd rank: 06 07 08 09
1st rank: 01 02 03 04 05

Carrots 04, 08, & 13 were the ones hit by the ball. 04 was hit on his right, 08 hit on his left, and 13 hit centered.

Thanks for you observation.

God bless,
John T.

Thanks John.

Give me a break. Everyone KNOWS that carrots stopped using three ranks well before that model of cannon was invented. Lord! I wish Hollywood would get this sort of thing right….for once!

Dn Jackson, you scamp! You've ratted me out. The manufacture date on my little cannon is imprinted on the bottom of the trail; "06/18."

That was a lot of fun. Thanks, John.

Next, a square. This is a posting that merits taking further. Really inspired.

Thanks, deadhead. Your comments are well said and I appreciate your positive response.

As to the square, I'd have to up the cannonball velocity since in the video above the ball actually bounced off the carrot in the third rank, although it did cause the carrot to split lengthwise. I doubt that would have happened with men in battle. Still, I found the video revealing. I had no idea what would happen.

Thanks again for your comments.

God bless,
John T.

I can just see Drouot in the film (half way through the HD version tonight and boy is it better) apologising to Rod Steiger that he cannot fire on those squares for this reason.

Roundshot was meant to bounce. Are you a man or a mouse?

This is the best posting here in ages. Any fool can paint up a bunch of Perry marvels (and I surely do). What we see here is so much better

This took great imagination.

Any chance of case/canister? (please do stand well back if so)

I have thought of canister. I have some .22 Long Rifle cartridges that have #12 rat shot. I've thought about taking apart one of these cartridges and using the rat shot in my cannon.

I load my cannon with 4 grains of FFFg powder, over powder paper towel wading, ball, and over ball paper towel wadding. So, I'm not sure how accurately the #12 shot will spread.

I do think I'll try it though. :-)

God bless,
John T.

Grape shot might well result in shredded carrot.

Which unit do the carrots belong to? May I respectfully suggest 'Regiment Julienne?'

herkybird, I thought maybe they belonged to "Bylandt's Brigade." ;-)

God bless,
John T.

Too many blatherskeits think that they can spout out Jomini this, or Ewald that and think it settles things.
Original research like this is greatly needed.

Did the carrots make their morale roll?

Alright deadhead, I've posted a video of the carrots getting blasted by canister.

TMP link

God bless,
John T.

He did and it is brilliant

WHERE CAN I GET THAT CANNON?

Widowson,

You can get this cannon at:
link

A well made little gun. And a lot of fun too!

God bless,
John T.