Year: 1861




era artillery was fully considered The eciu
rer commenced by remalking that it wa:
impossible TO go much into the details of his
subject in the brief time proper for lecture


but he determined to avoid technical terms
and in plain talk to give some general ideas
leaving particulars to be sought in books by
those who wanted tie facts. Heavy ordinance
comprised four kinds of destructive means


guns, hogitzers, columbads aud mortars-
Their respective spheres of service were sea
coasts, field garrison aud battery. :. Calibcr,


meant the diameter oil the bore Of gun, and
aud hot the weight. 4 ten inch mortar
charged with three and halt pounds Of pow.
der, would throw a she'll one mile in about
nineteen seconds. There was good deal o
uncertainty about the fuses, however, especially
in water, and much attention was devoted by
experienced gunners to insure the burning o
the fuse so that it could be relied on in cacu-
ations OF time and distance Rechochetine
shots were thrown at a slight elevation, and
intended by their irregular and bounding course
to break away opposing obstacles of the enemy.
Columbiads were the guns at the present day
and were used both for solid shot and SHE'LL
The various patterns and forces Of the gun
were described Mortars were used for reach
ing out of the way places. At the siege Of
Monterey, the Mexicans gathered within the
city, in the plaza, and one she'll thrown among
them killed twenty-siX men. The effective
range Of a twenty-five pound gun was about a
a mile. The capacity of a gun to impel pro
jecte three or four miles did not make il
servisable at that distance. A mile was about
the longest range for destruction. The Cap
tain gave accounts of attempts to cast very
large guns. The difficulty was in casting the
iron. Captains Rodman and Dahlgreen, the
very best American gunners, were experiment
ing upon the plan Of cooling the inside part oil
the cannon first, which was done by casting it
with core and letting water wash through
the opening, keeping the outside hot mean
while. The old mode. and which is yet fol-
lowed, is to cast the cannon solid, and bore ii
after cooling. In casting very large guns in
this way, too much expansion was given 10 The
iron in cooling, to make them strong in pro
portion to the size. At Fort Monroe success
fnl experiments were being made with q gun
sixteen feet long, and weighing twenty-five
tons. 1t was designed TO carry ball of from
three hundred and five to four hundred aud one
pounds, requiring charge of thirty five to
forty pounds of powder. 1t was found that
such quantity of powder was too powerful
for the iron, but very large grained ard easily
compressed powder, which would create gas
less instantaneousy than the fine material
acted satisfactorily, BY this means the pro
jectile was moved and helped on its journey
through the bore, instead Of the shock being
all expended in one prodigous blast that would
tear away whatever opposed it and was not
strong enough to resist its stupendous power.
He gave an idea of the caliber of shells by
stating that a 10 inch Que would weigh one
thousand pounds, and 20lneh one three or
four thousand pounds, or sufficiently large TO
crush large ship so badly as to sink it at
once. After referring TO the power Of the
Armstrong gun, he interested the audience a
good deal by describing the effect Of shot. a
shot did not make hole Of its own size
through the wood, but indeuted it, the Gbres
springing back after the shock Generally,
the course Of shot could only be traced by a
wire, sometimes by hole as large as a mans
finger TIE damage most onea happened in
the inside Ct a vessel in spiiuterng and break
ing the wood, after the main force Of the shot
was spent. Forts Hamilton and Richmond,
which are about mile apart, with a vessel
living between them, could not with their guns
send shot through two feet of It's timber
There was rarely an instance where a vessel
was sunk by solid shot. Hot shot and shells
did the mischief; the latter would sometimes
make aperures of several feet in extent through
the vessels He mentioned several instances
where vessels had gone through hours Of can
nonade and came off unsuuk. The latest was
that Of tie Agamemnon, which was under the
fire Of a Russian battery, at the distance Of
eight hundred yards, for FIVE hours, without
being sunk or having her engines or her bat
teries damaged, aud lost only tweaty-uire men,
although an enormous quantity OF shot was
thrown into her. The Emperor Napoleon had
built war vessel with sides covered with steel
five inches thick. The speaker believed this
vessel would prove inyulnerable TO present class
of guns, as Armstrong, whose guns had carried
shot FIVE and half miles, had been unable to
drive shot through the steel coating at a
greater distance han TWO hundred yards. lie
thought that against such vessels the guns
about our harbor could play away without cf-
fective damage The Fort Monroe big gun,
however, might crush tie steel all up. lie
then gave considerable attention to the weak
ness of the American service in respect TO ar
tilerists. The remedy rests with the people
In New York men could readily be found to
go into the forts for service in case of emer-
gency, but while they could be getting ready
to FIRE, the enemy's vessels would get beyond
reach of the guns Raw men at the guns
would take as long TO fire once as practiced
,r,,nnars ,r,orId tn fire forty times