Legio3arty,
I agree with you, that there is a lot more fantasy than fact involved in believing that heat from the Confederate shell caused the deformity in the bore of the gun.
Do you know of any first hand accounts that tell how long the gun had been firing, or that give an estimated number of charges fired before it became disabled?
The author writing in the (link) document I’m posting seems to be saying that the “Gettysburg Gun” started counter battery fire at around 1:15 pm, but he doesn’t report the time when the gun was put out of commission by the rebel shell.
http://www.gdg.org/Research/MOLLUS/mollus14.htmlhttp://archive.org/stream/gettysburggun00rhod#page/n5/mode/2upAt one o'clock in the afternoon a cannon shot from the enemy's line, from the Washington Artillery, was fired on our right followed by another at an interval of a minute, breaking the silence brooding over the scorched battlefield.
It was a signal well understood, and the smoke of those guns had not dispersed before the whole rebel line was ablaze, and over one hundred cannon sent forth a concerted roar, that rivaled the angriest thunder. Our cannoneers jumped to their places at the pieces, the drivers to their horses, waiting the order to commence firing.
It was ten or fifteen minutes before we received orders to fire. Then at the command, the shrieking shot and shell were let loose upon their work of destruction, proving to be one of the most terrible artillery duels ever witnessed.
Then came Pickett's grand charge to break the Union centre, sweep the Second Corps from their path and then on to Washington. How Lee succeeded history tells.
It was during this fierce cannonade that one of the pieces of Battery B was struck by a rebel shell which exploded and killed two cannoneers. The men were in the act of loading it. No. 1, William Jones, had stepped to his place between the muzzle of the piece and wheel, right side, and had swabbed the gun and reversed sponge staff, which is also the rammer, and was waiting for the charge to be inserted by No. 2. Alfred G. Gardner, No. 2, had stepped to his place between the muzzle of the piece and wheel, left side, facing inward to the rear, taking the ammunition from No. 5 over the wheel. He turned slightly to the left, and was in the act of inserting the charge into the piece when a shell from one of the enemy's guns, struck the face of the muzzle, left side of the bore and exploded. William Jones was killed instantly by being struck on the left side of his head by a fragment of the shell, which cut the top completely off. He fell with his head toward the enemy, and the sponge staff was thrown forward beyond him two or three yards.
Alfred G. Gardner was struck in the left shoulder, almost tearing his arm from his body. He lived a few minutes and died shouting, "Glory to God! I am happy! Hallelujah!" his sergeant and friend bending over him to receive his dying request.
The sergeant of the piece, Albert A. Straight, and the remaining cannoneers tried to load the piece, and placing a charge in the muzzle of the gun. They found it impossible to ram it home. Again and again they tried to drive home the charge which proved so obstinate, but their efforts were futile. The depression on the muzzle was so great that the charge could not be forced in, and the attempt was abandoned, and as the piece cooled off the shot became firmly fixed in the bore of the gun.
This piece is the so called Gettysburg gun of Battery B, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery.(3)
By this letter it proves that the piece and carriage were struck three times, and that there was an explosion, for the sergeant says that his piece was struck three times by shot or shell before they exploded. Now they must have been shell which struck to have exploded. The writer distinctly remembers seeing the explosion at the piece when the two men were killed, but at the time thought that the piece had been fired, until told that it was struck by a rebel shell. And again if they had been solid shot which had struck it the piece would have been dismounted.
The letter also with other statements of several of the cannoneers, proves that it was the fourth piece of the battery, and that the gun was disabled by being struck by a rebel shell that exploded and killed two men that were in the act of loading it; that the sergeant and other cannoneers, after it was struck, tried to load it but failed, and the charge was placed in the bore by the sergeant and stuck there. (There is no proof to show whether it was the same charge which Gardner had taken to put in or another one; but there was no ammunition found on the ground after the piece was withdrawn from the field.) And so the shot of that charge which was placed in the gun by the sergeant remains firmly fixed in the muzzle, and not a rebel shot, as some have claimed it to be, and shot in there by one of the enemy's guns during the cannonading of July 3, 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg.
Sergeant Straight finding that the piece could not be loaded reported it disabled, and was ordered by Lieutenant Perrin to have it withdrawn from the field to the rear, where the battery wagon and forge were stationed."
“The fourth piece of the battery (the so-called Gettysburg gun), upon examination showed that the gun and gun carriage had been struck three times with shell, and also showed thirty-nine bullet marks, which serve to remind those who may look upon it of the ordeal through which it passed in that fearful strife. This gun with other condemned ordnance was sent to the Arsenal at Washington, D. C., there placed on exhibition, where it remained until May, 1874.”
