"Prussian Model 1859 12pdr Smoothbore" Topic

Does anyone have a photo of this gun they would be willing to share? I am not sure if any survive in museums, given their very brief time in service (1860s)I wouldn't be surprised if the barrels were all melted down. I wonder if any pictures survive from Schleswig-Holstein or the Austrian-Prussian War? All pointers gratefully received.

Was hoping for a answer by now as you have my curiosity up. Would guess it would be close to a ACW Napoleon 12pdr as that was a copy of European

I checked several technical works of Prussia published in the 1860s – the most valuable is the "Handbuch für die Offiziere der Königlich Preußischen Artillerie" of 1860. Its over 1.000 pages have lots of useful lists and the list of all cannon tubes in use state the so-called "heavy 12 pounder" tubes of model 1859.

Gun carriage and limber of the 1856 system was quite similar to the 1842 ordnance.

To give a feeling of the appearance I prepared a pdf with two plates, the first shows the "old" 12-pounder of the 1842 ordnance with carriage and limber and the second (part of plate) shows the new 1858 model of the (heavy) 12-pounder.

You find this pdf at PDF link

Greetings from Berlin
Markus Stein

P.S. the distribution of the several models during the 1866 campaign will surely be examined as preparations for a larger work about these armies (similar to the FPW-work) are going on

Wow, thanks Markus, I was hoping you would chip in! But I am left possibly more confused than ever. In 1866 the 12pdr equips the Prussian horse artillery batteries, as well as some of the Corps Artillery reserve. Is this really a ‘heavy' gun? I have also seen it described as a ‘short' 12pdr, and a ‘shell gun'. Such types also seem to be in service with the Saxon, Bavarian and Hanoverian armies. Do you know what it is that in 1866 makes all these guns suitable for horse artillery batteries?

Yours, a very confused Andrew!