"Union Horse Batteries - 3in Rifles ?" Topic

When they became widely available, did 3in Rifles (at nearly 400 pounds lighter) get directed to Horse Artillery Batteries, or just get sent wherever needed first?

That was certainly the case with the Army of the Potomac, at least in 1863 – all 50 guns of the Cavalry Corps were 3" rifles.

The horse artillery batteries of the Army of the Potomac were certainly equipped with 3" Ordnance Rifles, but I couldn't tell you if they were issued them prior to any of the field batteries.

Most of the horse artillery batteries were drawn from the regular army, so an argument can be made for some degree of preferential treatment.

The 3" ordnance rifle was the most produced field artillery piece for the union. The napoleon was too heavy for practical use for horse artillery. The 6-pound smoothbore was being withdrawn from use. The 10# parrott rifle ceased production for a time while it was being changed from 2.9" to 3.0" bore so match ordnance rifle ammunition, so outfitting the horse artillery with 3" ordnance rifles was the logical chose by the war department by 1863.

Kim

As embarrassed as I am to cite to Wikipedia, there is a page for the U.S. Horse Artillery Brigade. That source states that horse artillery was generally equipped with the 3" ordnance rifle. The author breaks down the First Brigade Horse Artillery by battery, at Gettysburg, all of which were equipped with the 3" ordnance rifle. There you go, it has to be correct if it is on the internet?

I trust Kim's knowledge on this. In the western theatre this may have progressed slower, I know Eli Lilly's battery had 3 inch Ord. But all my books are gone.

Lilly's battery also had a section of Mountain nowitzers attached. I assume they were the M1841 12lb Mountain Howitzer?

Thanks Guys!

That all fits with what I had assumed. Just one of those things that came to mind after all these years as to whether it was planned or was a practical instance of taking advantage of an opportunity.

Its not really a hard jump to make when you take a close look at a Napoleon. No matter how many horses you put in front of one! 😃

Another aspect may have been how they were used. I think the horse artillery was used in more mobile, long range action while the smooth-bore Napoleon served better for close, massed firing on infantry.

I once saw a 4 horse team trying to pull a 12lb with a limber. I thought the poor horses were going pull a nut. You could tell they were laboring. Especially up small hills.

Having experienced riding on a 6 horse limber with gun on hills in KY, I can say, I prefer to walk. I was middle man on the limber box, arm hooked into the arm of each man beside me. It was at a run too, not a walk.

Riding on a Limber is not for me! Must be like a Horse Drawn Ejector Seat!

According to regulation 12lb were allocated four horses on Garrison Duty, six horses on the March and eight when on Field Duty. A six/eight split on Campaign seems dubious to me unless there were plenty of spares around and it was policy to keep a proportion of horses fresh by rotation.

Red Jacket: Gottfried's "The Artillery of Gettysburg" is a great book for allocation and use of artillery. Just focuses on the one battle but its great on detail of real life use.

Shagnasty: Using 3in Rifles for counter battery work certainly seems to have been popular although the range and accuracy advantage only worked properly if you could observe the fall of shot. Using the term loosely, 3in Rifles only had Case or Shell for longer range work – no Solid Shot.

The shotgun effect of Cannister fire from Napoleons is widely noted but its interesting that only something like 11% of Union first line holdings at Gettysburg (for all kinds of gun) was canister. Where needed, this got used fairly fast.

A lot of anti personnel work was actually done by Case and Shell fused to explode as it came out the barrel – or as near as it could be judged at the time.

Trajanus, thank you. I am actually reading his "Brigades at Gettysburg" which I am finding fascinating. Time to order "Artillery at Gettysburg." The level of detail in the brigades book is amazing. I wish I had the patience and ability to undertake that level of research.

The patience and the time…

The patience and the time…

Not something I could prove--maybe no one could--but I thought it reflected "doctrine" in a way. ACW US cavalry, mostly used for probes or delaying actions, got the longer-range weapons. In 1866 Hanoverian cavalry brigades had smoothbores attached. But they were breaking squares.