Mike6158
18th of January 2007 (Thu), 07:17
I wonder if the origin of that phrase is from sailing warships... fire in the hold?
Anyway... During numerous visits to civil war battle sites I collected a few images of cannon. Civil war cannon came in two flavors. Green and black. Green ones were made of bronze and black ones were made of steel or cast iron. The "flavors" can be further divided into smoothbore and rifled and those can be further designated by the weight of their projectile (12-pounder, 24-pounder, 32-pounder, etc.), the caliber or size of their bore diameter (3-inch, 8-inch, 10-inch), method of loading (breech or muzzle), and sometimes their inventor or the factory in which they were made (i.e. Dahlgren, Napoleon, Rodman, Parrott, Whitworth). A further distinction involved the path of their trajectories: guns had a flat trajectory, mortars a high, arching path, and a howitzer a trajectory between the other two. Civil War artillery was also classified according to its tactical deployment, including field, seacoast, and siege artillery. Cannon were made of steel, bronze, or iron, depending on the availability of material. Mexican war and most civil war cannon were smoothbore weapons. The Napoleon, a smoothbore, muzzle-loading, 12-pounder was the favorite of the civil war artillerymen. It was reltively light and portable and it was used as an offensive and defensive weapon by both armies. Initially it was made of bronze but when the south started running low on copper it was cast in steel. Maximum range was about 1700 yards but it was most effective when firing cannister at around 250 yards. Cannister is a particularly deadly load of small iron balls encased in a metal container and it probably caused the most death and injury of any weapon used in the civil war. Essentially, with cannister loaded, the cannon became a very large sawed off shotgun when fired at troops 250 yards away or less. Cannister, by the way, is not grapeshot. Grapeshot used larger iron balls wrapped in cloth. Artillery ammunition included solid shot, grape, canister, shell, and chain shot. Most civil war cannon were muzzleloaders as the breech loaders of the time were not that reliable. (most of the above information was found here (http://www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarweapons.htm) and in brochures that I picked up at the NPS sites.)
http://images9.fotki.com/v185/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_001-vi.jpg
http://images14.fotki.com/v379/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_003-vi.jpg
http://images14.fotki.com/v378/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_004-vi.jpg
http://images19.fotki.com/v381/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_006-vi.jpg
http://images20.fotki.com/v384/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_007-vi.jpg
http://images19.fotki.com/v365/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_008-vi.jpg
http://images19.fotki.com/v365/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_009-vi.jpg
Anyway... During numerous visits to civil war battle sites I collected a few images of cannon. Civil war cannon came in two flavors. Green and black. Green ones were made of bronze and black ones were made of steel or cast iron. The "flavors" can be further divided into smoothbore and rifled and those can be further designated by the weight of their projectile (12-pounder, 24-pounder, 32-pounder, etc.), the caliber or size of their bore diameter (3-inch, 8-inch, 10-inch), method of loading (breech or muzzle), and sometimes their inventor or the factory in which they were made (i.e. Dahlgren, Napoleon, Rodman, Parrott, Whitworth). A further distinction involved the path of their trajectories: guns had a flat trajectory, mortars a high, arching path, and a howitzer a trajectory between the other two. Civil War artillery was also classified according to its tactical deployment, including field, seacoast, and siege artillery. Cannon were made of steel, bronze, or iron, depending on the availability of material. Mexican war and most civil war cannon were smoothbore weapons. The Napoleon, a smoothbore, muzzle-loading, 12-pounder was the favorite of the civil war artillerymen. It was reltively light and portable and it was used as an offensive and defensive weapon by both armies. Initially it was made of bronze but when the south started running low on copper it was cast in steel. Maximum range was about 1700 yards but it was most effective when firing cannister at around 250 yards. Cannister is a particularly deadly load of small iron balls encased in a metal container and it probably caused the most death and injury of any weapon used in the civil war. Essentially, with cannister loaded, the cannon became a very large sawed off shotgun when fired at troops 250 yards away or less. Cannister, by the way, is not grapeshot. Grapeshot used larger iron balls wrapped in cloth. Artillery ammunition included solid shot, grape, canister, shell, and chain shot. Most civil war cannon were muzzleloaders as the breech loaders of the time were not that reliable. (most of the above information was found here (http://www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarweapons.htm) and in brochures that I picked up at the NPS sites.)
http://images9.fotki.com/v185/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_001-vi.jpg
http://images14.fotki.com/v379/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_003-vi.jpg
http://images14.fotki.com/v378/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_004-vi.jpg
http://images19.fotki.com/v381/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_006-vi.jpg
http://images20.fotki.com/v384/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_007-vi.jpg
http://images19.fotki.com/v365/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_008-vi.jpg
http://images19.fotki.com/v365/photos/4/42560/4515091/Cannon_07_28_06_009-vi.jpg