Author Topic: Civil War Mortar Data  (Read 544 times)

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Offline Parrott-Cannon

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Civil War Mortar Data
« on: August 11, 2012, 07:10:09 AM »
This article has som excellent data on the accurcy and the impact of chamber shape on the range of seige mortars.  I am currently analyzing the data and will provide a detailed report of my findings.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Siege_artillery_in_the_campaigns_against.html?id=1HMDAAAAYAAJ
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security. (Thomas Jefferson)

Offline Cannoneer

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Re: Civil War Mortar Data
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2012, 09:56:18 AM »
Good find, Parrott-Cannon; thanks for the link.
RIP John. While on vacation July 4th 2013 in northern Wisconsin, he was ATVing with family and pulled ahead of everyone and took off at break-neck speed without a helmet. He lost control.....hit a tree....and the tree won.  He died instantly.

The one thing that you can almost always rely on research leading to, is more research.

Offline The Jeff

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Re: Civil War Mortar Data
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2012, 10:43:36 AM »
Interesting stuff! I never knew there were experiments to use Napoleons and 8" siege howitzers as mortars. Page 24 for the curious.

Offline shred

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Re: Civil War Mortar Data
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2012, 07:07:27 AM »
Great find!  I hadn't realized they were playing with illumination rounds for the mortars as well as corrugating the insides of the shells to make them burst more effectively.  Nice line drawing of the 13" Seacoasts at Yorktown too... looks like it could have been drawn from the famous photograph.

Brings home even more how the Civil War was the test-bed for WWI.   On a tour of the Fredericksburg works (Marye's Heights, Sunken Road), the guide noted that a lot of European observers came over to study how the improvements in firearms changed the traditional old marching-around-in-lines tactics into trench warfare.
 

Offline Artilleryman

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Re: Civil War Mortar Data
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2012, 04:07:21 AM »
Very informative, thanks for posting.
Norm Gibson, 1st SC Vol., ACWSA