One of the reasons that the Civil War conrinues to be of interest to the general public and the historian alike is that it was a period of great change in the military. For example, the infantry still used the formations of Napoleon but with weapons and entrenchments which foreshadowed World War I.

In a similar fashion, the artillery was in a state of transition. New inventions changed forever how artillery would be used and how it fit into the mosaic or the battlefield.

The most basic change was how it related to infantry. Before the Civil War the infantry could only shoot out to a range of approximately 100 yards. This meant that artillery could advance right up to infantry and use the artillery's 300-yard range for canister (often called "grape shot") to set up in safety and blast holes in an infantry line.

The "minnie ball" and the rifled musket changed all that. The new range for the infantry for massed effective fire up to 500 yards or further meant that artillery could no longer advance to its own best range in safety. Before the cannons could be unhitched from their horse teams, the crews were being shot to pieces by the opposing infantry.

This meant that artillery was confined to firing in support of attacks from long ranges (for the most part, notable and heroic exceptions aside) with types of shooting described below or in the defense of positions where the guns were already in position to fire when confronting an enemy line.

Two Types of Cannons

The cannons of Gettysburg may be divided into two basic types: smoothbore cannons firing the "classic round" cannon balls, and rifled cannon firing elongated cylinders with rounded noses. Smoothbore cannon are capable of firing three types of round cannon balls. "Solid shot" is exactly as it sounds, a solid piece of metal of the weight and size appropriate for the gun in question. Thus, a 12-pounder Napoleon gun actually fires a 12 pound cannon ball.

"Case shot" or "spherical case shot" is a hollow cannon ball into which a bursting charge of powder is inserted along with a load of musket-tvpe balls which will spray abour when the shell explodes. These exploding cannon balls are set off with a time fuse which is lighted as the cannon fires.

There were many types of fuses of differing rares of success and failure. Much of the "art" of artillery in the Civil War was cutting the fuse co burn exactly so the shell would explode just in front of the target, making the momentum carry the cloud of pieces onto the target.

The last type of round cannon ball is also hollow and very similar co case shot - it is "common shell." Common shell is identical co case skot except that it contains only an explosive charge and relies on the explosion and pieces of the outer casing to cause damage.

Good Ground

Recently, much has been made of the Gettysburg battlefield being "good ground." For artillery, this means that the hills have both the proper shape and clear views to maximize their ability to defend or support attacks. The types of ground needed for artillery varies according to the type and size of guns employed.

Basically, roundshot (classic cannon ball) is skipped along on the ground like a stone on a pond. This means that as long as the hills are high enough to see the target, but low enough to keeps the bounces of the balls under six feet in elevation, roundshot will strike troops anywhere along its line of travel with sufficient force to cause injuries. If the hills are too steep, at long range, the balls will make very high bounces and miss everything in between, or dig into the ground and not bounce at all. Additionally, very steep hills may make it so that the guns cannot be tipped down enough to actually fire in their own defense. Approaches which are unseen or uncovered in this matter are called "dead ground."

Rifled cannon are made with the spiral grooves down their barrels called rifling and, like throwing a spiral pass, use the spin which is imparted to throw their shells farther and straighter than the classic cannon ball.

Consequently, good artillerists can actually hit a single man on a horse at a range of a mile and a quarter.

These shells also come in the same types as the classic cannon ball. Greater use of the explosive shots could be made by knowing that the nose of those elongated shells would hit first, however. In the place of a time fuse could be a "percussion fuse or impact ruse, which would explode a shell when it hit the ground. If the ground was not so soft that the explosion went underground, this was a very useful innovation for the artillery.

Both types of cannons use similar ammunition. Frequently called "grapeshot" because of the older method of packaging, the new ammunition was called "canister" because it came in a can. These can-shaped loads contained differing numbers of metal balls which converted the cannons into gigantic shotguns. At about 300 yards, only one can may be thrown down range. Inside 150 yards, a second can may be loaded over the first and "double canister" if sent out of the guns.

In a smoothbore, the small balls are generally of cast iron and can bounce, just like the bigger balls. This means that the blast can be bounced and flattened out so that less flies off into empty space. However, rifled cannon have delicate rifling in their barrels so that if clusters of hard cast iron were sent through them they would never be accurate at long ranges again.

To procect themselves from infantry, the crews of rifled guns have to fire canister loaded with lead balls. The lead is a soft metal and will not scar the cannon, but it tends to lump together, which made rifled cannon less effective the closer to the enemy it got; while smoothbore cannon became more and more effective at close ranges.

Artillery Batteries: Union vs. Confederate Organization

At Gettysburg it is possible to see the difference in approach to solving the problems of the artillery used by both sides. The Federal army used larger (six gun) batteries as a general rule and these were almost always of a uniform type of cannon to make the resupply of ammunition simpler. In long range fighting over long periods of time, this would serve the Federal artillery well.

However, in the closely wooded ground of the Eastern theatre, artillery would often be called upon for multiple tasks and at different ranges. The Confederate artillery preferred to create smaller (four gun average) batteries of mixed types of guns. This is like a golfer who can reach back for a specialized club in his golf bag rather than having to send back to the club house to have an appropriate tooL

Confederate artillery would almost always have some of their guns able to work to their best ability no matter what the situation with this "golf bag" approach, but had to endure the confusion of ammunition resupply which it created.

Wanted: Horses

Lastly, it must not be forgotten that the artillery service was one of the "mounted" services at Gettysburg. This means horses - many many horses. The cannon, a two-wheel vehicle, does not move by itself Cannons are attached to a limber (two more wheels to make a vehicle with one ammunition chest attached) which is pulled by six horses.

Often, fewer horses have made it to the battlefield, but the ideal number for campaign was six. Behind the cannon was another limber and horse team hitched to a "caisson" which had more ammunition boxes, spare tools, spare parts and a spare wheel. Along with all of this, the sergeant and officers had to be mounted tO use their horses to help coax and calm the team horses.

After all of these were put together in a group it would then be necessary to take care of them and their equipment. So a baggage wagon (with spare parts, tools, and leather work) and traveling filed forge had to be added with up to six horses each.

Generally you may assume that for every cannon you see on the battlefield, there were at least thirteen horses present... and often more. The artillery battery was like a miniature village with its own woodworking, leather, horse care and iron-working shops setting up each night after a long march or fight to makc sure that the horses and equipment would be ready for whatever the next day might bring.

The skilled tradesmen of the artillery were called "artificers" and were given mounts to ride on the march, while most artillery crews (cannoneers) walked along. However, when the cannoneers were able to be resting in camp at night, the wheelwright and farriers and other tradesmen were kept busy.

This little honor was unseen in the horse artillery. The difference between "horse" and artillery and "foot" artillery is how the cannoneers get about on the battlefield. Horse artillery crews all ride horses and have to have additional men to take care of the horses during the fighting, much like the cavalry when fighting on foot. Indeed the horse artillery generally was assigned to keep up with the speedier cavalry.

The artillery at Gettysburg was served by thousands of dedicated men who worked day and night regardless of the weather or lack of supplies to keep their guns and horses ready to respond to any order. The more one learns about the difficulties they overcame, the more one cannot fail to appreciate their skills and sacrifices.

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© Copyright 1996 The American Civil War Society

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