Civil War era fireing mechinism

[bilmac]

I was watching a story on Pickett's charge on the military channel tonight. The cannon they were firing were being fired with a lanyard, but I couldn't see any kind of lockwork on the breech of the guns. I assume they were fired with some sort of percussion cap. Was this recessed into the breech, or just so small I couldn't see it?

[GGaskill]

Most likely they were using friction primers which are not mechanical and also not very big.  See the bottom of this page for some details.

[bilmac]

I believe you are right G.  That table of fire is something. That's a far far cry from shooting a modern cannon. I was in a Guard unit with 155s for awhile. I bet shootin the old babys by the seat of your pants and as an art form would be a blast.

[subdjoe]

I believe you are right G.  That table of fire is something. That's a far far cry from shooting a modern cannon. I was in a Guard unit with 155s for awhile. I bet shootin the old babys by the seat of your pants and as an art form would be a blast.

Laying your gun was a pretty well developed science by the Late Unpleasantness.  There were tables to help you estimate range - troops at 2000 yards looked like this, you could see thus and such at 1500 yards, and so on.  You knew from the table of fire the elevation.  A good gunner could put steel on target within two or three rounds with a rifled gun. 

There were even range finders for sharpshooter.  A brass card with a tapered slot in it and a slider.  I think it was based on a man 5' 8" tall.  There was a string with a button on it. You bit down on the button, extended the card to the limit of the string, moved the slider to where the man you were looking at touched the top and bottom of the slot, then read your range off of it.  Got you close (say within about 20 yards, which was good enough to set your sights) anyway. 

[bilmac]

There was a thread the other day about laser and other range finders and all I could think of was optical convergance finders. The range finder you describe is a good scientific way to estimate range.

[subdjoe]

Here is a link to an image that shows one such thing. This is fancier than what I have seen before, but operates the same way.

http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/silverstadia.jpg


and here is some information on it: http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2008/11/10/a-silver-stadia/#more-2067

[bilmac]

Sophistocated stuff but I imagine the soldier had enough stuff to drag around. And how do you get an enemy soldier to come out and stand up straight with nothing blocking your view.

[GGaskill]

And how do you get an enemy soldier to come out and stand up straight with nothing blocking your view.

He does that by his own volition when he thinks you are not there or out of range.

[Victor3]

And how do you get an enemy soldier to come out and stand up straight with nothing blocking your view.

He does that by his own volition when he thinks you are not there or out of range.

 

 A personal account from a Korean War Vet friend confirms this. It involved a halftrack mounted Quad 50 and a one mile distant cloud of dust.

http://www.antiaircraft.org/aaimages/M16.jpg

[subdjoe]

Sophistocated stuff but I imagine the soldier had enough stuff to drag around. And how do you get an enemy soldier to come out and stand up straight with nothing blocking your view.

Well, since those range finders are about the size of a playing card and were a standard issue with the Berdans, they really weren't a lot to lug around.  Plus I would imagine that people got kind of good at estimating range, and coming up with work arounds (ok, he is kneeling, so he is about half as tall, card says 350 yards, soooo...yeah, sights set to 700, aim for the belt buckle). 

But, more than likely it was mostly done by eye.  You knew that certain things could be seen at certain ranges.  The famous "Dont fire until you see the whites of their eyes" was a kind of standard order.  You can see the whites of eyes at about 20 yards.  You can see the eyes as points at about 100 yards (I think I have that right).  With a bit of practice, you can come pretty close in your estimates.  Good enough to adjust your sights and get hits.

I've played with reproductions and checked what they say against a laser rangefinder, and they were pretty close.  At what the laser said was about 830 yards, I got about 850 with a stadia.  Again, plenty close enough.

[Cannoneer]

And how do you get an enemy soldier to come out and stand up straight with nothing blocking your view.

He does that by his own volition when he thinks you are not there or out of range.

 

 A personal account from a Korean War Vet friend confirms this. It involved a halftrack mounted Quad 50 and a one mile distant cloud of dust.

http://www.antiaircraft.org/aaimages/M16.jpg

I've read a few books on the Korean Conflict, and they've made mention of how "quad fifties" mounted on "deuce and a halfs" (sounds like a math lesson) were used with good effect to clear hillside caves of their Chinese inhabitants.