Muller's design for a 3-pdr 'galloper' from 'A Treatise of Artillery (1757)
"There is one gun carriage more, which is called a Galloper; it serves for a pound and a half gun. This carriage has shafts so as to be drawn without a limber, and is thought by some artillerists to be more convenient and preferable to other field carriages: and… it may likewise serve for our light three and six pounders…"
A popular model for gamers, re-enactors and National Park staff, but sadly, there is no indication any were built, let alone saw service in America.
It seems there were a few 1-pdr 'amusettes,' built on the same principle but of lighter construction, brought over by the Hessians, which saw service with jägers and rangers.
Ewald reported effective use of an 'amusette' in clearing enemy from a strong point in a barn overlooking a creek, enabling his jägers to cross without further trouble.
However, the carriages had a tendency to break down. This was one of the shortcomings of the split-trail design, which repeatedly turned out not to be as convenient as Muller and successive generations of artillerists hoped.
Limitations in firepower and availability of ready to use ammunition were also an issue with these gun carriages, as were instability off-road and the fact that a team attached to a limber proved much more efficient a way of drawing a fieldpiece and carrying ammunition.
After another period of experiment in the 1780-90s using 3 & 6-pdr 'curricle guns', it was accepted in Britain that they were "an inferior type of horse artillery" and that a single trail and limber was the best way to mount guns for rapid movement.
