page_title: Field artillery in the American Civil War
section_title: Smoothbore guns
hierarchical_section_title: Field artillery in the American Civil War / Weapons / Smoothbore artillery / Smoothbore guns
caption_attribution_description: English: •Fires 6 lb. projectiles •Workhorse of Mexican War, but considered obsolete by Civil War •Weight: 1,784 pounds •Range: up to 1,523 yards
context_page_description: Field artillery in the American Civil War refers to the artillery weapons, equipment, and practices used by the Artillery branch to support the infantry and cavalry forces in the field. It does not include siege artillery, use of artillery in fixed fortifications, or coastal or naval artillery. Nor does it include smaller, specialized artillery classified as small arms.
context_section_description: Smoothbore guns were designed to fire solid shot projectiles at high velocity, over low trajectories at targets in the open, although shell and canister were acceptable for use. The barrels of the guns were longer than corresponding howitzers, and called for higher powder charges to achieve the desired performance. Field guns were produced in 6-pounder (3.67 inch bore), 9-pounder (4.2 inch bore), and 12-pounder (4.62 inch bore) versions.  Although some older iron weapons were pressed into service, and the Confederacy produced some new iron field guns, most of those used on the battlefields were of bronze construction.
  The 6-pounder field gun was well represented by bronze Models of 1835, 1838, 1839, and 1841 early in the war. Even a few older iron Model 1819 weapons were pressed into service. Several hundred were used by the armies of both sides in 1861. But in practice the limited payload of the projectile was seen as a shortcoming of this weapon. Six pounder guns had mostly disappeared from the Union armies by 1863 but the Confederates continued using them until the end of the war.
  The larger 9-pounders and 12-pounders were less well represented. While the 9-pounder was still listed on Ordnance and Artillery manuals in 1861, very few were ever produced after the War of 1812. Nine-pounders were universally gone well before the Mexican War, and only scant references exist to any Civil War use of the weapons. The 12-pounder field gun appeared in a series of models mirroring the 6-pounder, but in far less numbers. At least one Federal battery, the 13th Indiana, took the 12-pounder field gun into service early in the war. The major shortcoming of these heavy field guns was mobility, as they required eight-horse teams as opposed to the six-horse teams of the lighter guns. A small quantity of 12-pounder field guns were rifled early in the war, but these were more experimental weapons, and no field service is recorded.
  By far the most popular of the smoothbore cannon was the 12-pounder model of 1857, Light, commonly called "Napoleon". The Model 1857 was of lighter weight than the previous 12-pounder guns, and could be pulled by a six-horse draft, yet offered the heavier projectile payload of the larger bore. It is sometimes called, confusingly, a "gun-howitzer" (because it possessed characteristics of both gun and howitzer) and is discussed in more detail separately below.
caption: 1841 Model Gun, Fires 6 lb. projectiles, Workhorse of Mexican War, but considered obsolete by Civil War, Weight: 1,784 pounds, Range: up to 1,523 yards
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