I think it’s the history of their development and use which originally got my attention. Today it’s pretty much the same when we are not trying to bring a part of that history to life by making scale re-creations of some famous guns. By reading about foreign artillery development, we in the U.S. can understand better how our artillery came to look like it did in the Civil War. From the use of the great bombards of Constantinople against the British fleet to the development of Mallet’s Mortar in England for use in the Crimea, we can begin to have a little understanding of how these giant siege guns were promoted by people with grand designs of conquest and some with kingdoms to lose if they failed to do everything to defend them.
I think the reason that I always return to reading about our Civil War, is the fact that we have a multitude of stories, each with a volume of detail. How could you possibly read about the courageous Confederate Officer who was stationed at the most bombarded place in North or South America, Ft. Sumter, South Carolina and not be interested? His job, in 1863, was to crawl to the back of the powder magazine closest to the Federal batteries on Morris Island and listen for the impact of the heavy bolts and shells from the Parrott 200 pdr. and 300 pdr. batteries. They would smack into the masonry rubble, bore through undamaged masonry, halt, and then, a moment later, the grinding sound of their continued rotation would stop. He would estimate from these sounds how much distance separated these projectiles from the powder magazine. Talk about a scary job!
There are many others, of course, but that’s my favorite.
Tracy
