Rifled "cannons"

[Dave A]

I did not discover this until a visit to the city park in Denver. There they have a rifled muzzle loading "cannon". I have always assumed all such guns were smooth bore. I do not recall the exact bore diameter but it seemed to be about 8 inches or so. Does anyone have any information on how these guns were loaded, what the projectiles were like? A patched ball seems rather unlikely.

 

[Jim Watson]

There were a lot of designs, the Civil War was a time of intensive development in weaponry.
See several types of rifled artillery projectiles at
http://www.inert-ord.net/19cent/shells/rifled.html

 

[rcmodel]

Rifled cannons such as the Parrott Rifle were common in the civil war, and even before.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrott_rifle

See this about how they did it.

http://www.thepirateking.com/historical/cannon_rifling.htm

rc

 

[jamesinalaska]

The Arms of Krupp

For a great read on the early development of artillery, particularly the technology that lead the transition from bronze, smooth bore cannon to steel cannon, then breach loading cannon and then rifled, breech loading cannon I recommend William Manchester's excellent book, The Arms of Krupp. It details the generations of the Krupp family of Essen, Germany, their family owned armaments business, and how they eventually armed all parties of both world wars.

Long book but an incredible story. Every gun owner will have his eyes opened.

 

[Patocazador]

Thanks for the links and info about rifled cannons .. very interesting.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Suggested reading

Round Shot and Rammer. Most libraries have it or can get it via inter-library loan
Artillery Through The Ages. Small National Park Service booklet that cost me fifty cents back in the '60s and is probably $5.00 today. Plenty of info on artillery.
The Artillerist Treatise by John Gibbon. It was manual for artillerists during the late unpleasantry.

Rifled artillery spelled the end for brick fortifications like Fort Pulaski (GA), Fort Sumter (Charleston) and all the other brick masonry forts. Shells fired from rifled artillery had higher velocity and demolished the brick walls. Rifled artillery fought alongside smoothbores during the ACW and became standard for all armies soon after that war. Breechloaders followed.

 

[jaxenro]

The 3" ordnance rifle was (if I remember correctly) the second most represented cannon at Gettysburg after the 12 pounder napoleon.