Author Topic: Outstanding artillery book recently published  (Read 474 times)

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Offline cannonmn

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Outstanding artillery book recently published
« on: July 04, 2008, 01:11:56 PM »
I think this has got to be the most value I've ever gotten for a $19. book.

http://www.catskill.net/purple/royalart.htm

This is quite a bit different from the "reference" books I usually recommend.  It tells the story of the British Royal Artillery as it was used in the attempt to take over New York during the Revolutionary War.  It gets right down to the details I'm interested in, like exactly what types of artillery were used, what calibers, what models, and exactly what types of ammunition were used in them, down to how the fuzes were pre-cut on the howitzer shells.  It contains 12 drawings and 42 photos, showing among other things, many of the exact artillery pieces which were captured in that campaign.

This story is told from the British point of view, using hundreds of excerpts from manuscript sources, some of which have never been published before.  So it isn't like some modern historian trying to interpret what went on at that time, it is told in the exact words of the British officers and their Hessian mercenaries.

Offline dan610324

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  • bronze cannons and copper stills ;-))
    • dont have
Re: Outstanding artillery book recently published
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2008, 01:28:52 PM »
seems to be an very interesting book
at least for us who are interested in the older guns
and really cheap
Dan Pettersson
a swedish cannon maniac
interested in early bronze guns

better safe than sorry

Offline seacoastartillery

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Re: Outstanding artillery book recently published
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2008, 11:19:41 AM »
     Once again we tip our hats to Cannonmn.  There are four reasons to buy this book.  One, artillery subject with lots of details.  Two, It is published by an excellent small publisher whose quality is high, (we have purchased two other books from them so we know).  Three, the cost is very low for a "short run" book with it's small, niche subject.  Four, reading the excerpt from Chapter Six, we can see quite a bit of military history of this conflict is included within these pages.  It appears to be written in a lively style, not boring at all.  We are ordering a copy today.

     At just about this time last summer, Mike and I took a bunch of photos around Fort Ticonderoga and it's pretty interesting to see what the various places named in this book look like from the vantage point of Mount Defiance.  Family errand to run; will post pics this evening.

Tracy and Mike

     The history of Ft. Ticonderoga is fascinating.  Very briefly,  it was built by the French who originally explored this area in 1609, the Champlain Expedition and it was the French who realized the significance of this natural "choke-point" and a fort called Carillon was built between 1755 and 1759. 
On July 8, 1758 the Fort was successfully defended by a French army of 3500 soldiers under the command of Louis-Joseph le Marquis de Montcalm despite being severely outnumbered by an attacking British army of 16,000 troops under the command of General James Abercromby. This was France's greatest victory in the Seven Years' War, ( The French and Indian War).  About a year later the persistent British came back, and, with an overwhelming force, caused the French to flee blowing the cannon powder magazine as they left.  It remained in British hands until a ranger force of 60 men, The Green Mountain Boys from Vermont, led by Ethan Allen and accompanied by, then loyal, Continental Commander, Benedict Arnold surprised the Fort's defenders on the very dark night of May 10, 1775, the first major victory of the Revolutionary War up to that time.  Not a shot was fired.  In July of 1777 the fort changed hands again as those pesky British returned with some German mercenaries, the Hessians.


A view of Ft. Ticonderoga from Sugar Loaf Hill, renamed Mount Defiance by British General John Burgoyne in 1777 as his troops gained the summit and began emplacing the artillery they dragged up there.  The LaChute River, (the Falls) named by the French who built Fort Carillon connects Lake George with Lake Champlain and you can see it's channel into Lake Champlain in several of our photos; it looks like a canal carved through the shallow water and marshlands in the bay near the fort.




This map atop Mt. Defiance shows some geography, East Creek, which essentially prevented the Hessians, under British control, from outflanking the Americans at Mt. Independence on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain.




The northern end of the American fortified, Mt. Independence a strongpoint on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain South South East of Ft. Ticonderoga.  The bay beyond the point is the entrance into unfordable East Creek. Boats and Batteaux had to be procured to ferry the Germans across.  Cannon fire from Lakeshore artillery batteries slowed the German progress as well.




South is at the top of this map which has the view you see from the front of Ft. Ticonderoga with Lake Champlain trailing off into the distance toward Whitehall, NY.










Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin'-cool,
I walks in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule,
With seventy gunners be'ind me, an' never a beggar forgets
It's only the pick of the Army that handles the dear little pets - 'Tss! 'Tss!

From the poem  Screw-Guns  by Rudyard Kipling

Offline cannonmn

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Re: Outstanding artillery book recently published
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2008, 02:48:58 PM »
Will be glad to see pix of Ticonderoga.  I took many pictures there long ago but did not have time to take any markings from any of the cannons.  There's one kind of plain bronze early American 6-pounder I'm very curious about as far as markings if any.  Repeated calls to Ft. T. have not gotten results so I may have to go there in person one of these days.  8 hours each way and hundreds of dollars in diesel fuel, ugh!

If anyone is going to Fort T. soon, please let me know, I'd like for you to look at one or two of their cannons.

Offline seacoastartillery

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Re: Outstanding artillery book recently published
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2008, 05:25:09 PM »
Due east of the British Artillery position on Rattlesnake Mountain (French Named) also called Sugar Loaf Hill and Mt. Defiance you can clearly see the long ridge named Mt. Independence.  The Cliffs, against which the Continental Navy rested the masts of it's small fleet, are described in Chapter Six and lie just beyond the silted-in area of marsh flats at Lake Champlain's edge.  In the 1770s the cliff's face would have to be right at the Lake's edge for the rigging of the masts to be possible.  This was done in preparation to have them winched into position and secured in the hulls prepared in Whitehall, NY. at Lake Champlain's southern end.




Looking south we took this photo of Lake Champlain disappearing in the direction of Whitehall, NY where the British had more success against the young Continental Navy, and where we found a 100 Pdr. Parrott Rifle, this past summer, on a cliffside perch.




And finally, this is a view looking north across a naval long 6 Pdr. tube, obviously pulled from Lake Champlain or some other body of water, as Lake Champlain slowly flows north into Canada and finally into the St. Lawrence River. 




     Cannonmn,  we will check our photo file and see what we can find, but neither Mike nor I remember a bronze early American 6-pounder.  I think we took pics like yours, without a complete survey of markings which takes 7 photos to do on a seacoast gun in which we are interested.  We will search the entire file though, just to make sure.


OOPS!  Whaaa-happen?  I thought this was attached to the top section.  Ah well, you can't be perfect; we are reminded of that every day.

Mike and Tracy











Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin'-cool,
I walks in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule,
With seventy gunners be'ind me, an' never a beggar forgets
It's only the pick of the Army that handles the dear little pets - 'Tss! 'Tss!

From the poem  Screw-Guns  by Rudyard Kipling