This article is a part of large review of miniature guns, that copy ancient artillery firearms. In this chapter we will show and describe some popular French and English cannons, that were used in naval and field battles during the first decade of 19th century.
12 Pounder Miniature Howitzer
This 1790 howitzer was made shortly after the Revolution and is representative of howitzers of that era. It had a relatively short barrel and fired at high angles, somewhere between the relatively level fire of a field piece and the forty-five degree angle of a mortar. It was useful for dropping shells on the enemy when said enemy was behind a hill or if it was desired to shell a fort. This gun had the usual split trail and ammunition box of that period. Because of the short barrel, it was somewhat lighter and easier to handle than a field piece.
2500 Pound Gyn
A gyn, or gin, the word is derived from the Old French engin, or engyn, meaningjust that, engine or machine. (Gyn is the English spelling, gin the American) is basically an apparatus of three poles fastened at the top to make a tripod. A block and tackle fastened at the top made a rough and ready crane used to mount and dismount cannon barrels. When one thinks of a cannon, the picture usually brought to mind is that of a field gun in position and firing, or rolling down the road behind a multi horse hitch. Whatever the picture, the barrel is always in place. One never thinks about the fact that somehow it has to be put in place. And even though over the centuries barrels tended to be streamlined by removing excess metal, the fact remains that barrels were heavy. The common three inch Parrott rifle of the Civil War had a barrel that weighed 890 pounds. Depending on the era and conditions, field cannon could weigh up to two to three tons! Gunners needed some help.
Barrels had to be put in place or removed for various reasons, usually because of the need for repairs to the carriage, or, if the carriage was smashed, the barrel would be placed on a new carriage. Siege carriages were not meant to travel great distances — when they were moved, the barrel was dismounted by means of a gyn and then picked up by a sling cart, a sling wagon or a devil’s carriage. Gyns came in three categories; field and siege, garrison and casemate, the first being the lightest duty. The garrison and casemate were very similar but since the casemate gyn had to work in the sometimes cramped confines of a fort and under a ceiling, the height was restricted to about 15 feet (the same as a field gyn) as compared to 22 feet for the garrison model. The usual field gyn was equipped with heavy rope, going up to as large as four inches. Our model is made with builtin handles on the winch. Most gyms, however, were made with socket holes into which the hand spikes used on the gun were inserted and which were then used to turn the winch‘s drum.
Naval Gun from Nelson’s “Victory” – 12 Founder
One of the famous naval battles of history, if not the most famous of all times, was the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In which the English soundly defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets, thus helping in the eventual overthrow of Napoleon. The English were led by Lord Horatio Nelson in his flagship “Victory”, who was opposed by the French Admiral Villeneuve.
Toward the end of the battle, Nelson was struck by a sharpshooter’s bullet and died two hours later, knowing at the end that his fleet had been victorious. This model recreates a 12 pdr. deck gun and a portion of the deck of the “Victory”.
The miniature gun on the picture is shown ready for firing. The cypher on the barrel shows that it was cast in the reign of King George II and the broad arrow directly behind this shows that it was government property. The vent pick or pricker used to puncture the powder bag and thus insure positive ignition should be in the gun’s vent but is lying on the deck.
In action, after the gun was fired, the hooks on the ends of the breeching (the rope that goes around the cascabel to restrain the recoil) would be cast off. The gun would then be pulled back for loading by means of the back haul tackle fastened to the rear of the carriage, the other end of which would be hooked into a ringbolt fastened to the deck. The bore would be sponged out with a wet sponge so that no sparks remained in the barrel to ignite the fresh powder charge. The sponge was kept wet by being dipped in the water bucket at the rear of the gun.
A young boy called a powder monkey would bring up the powder charge from the ship’s magazine. It was carried in a covered leather bucket, which was just one of the steps taken to keep any iron or steel away from the powder, since such materials could introduce the possibility of a disastrous spark. The powder charge and shot were then pounded home with the rammer (the three marks on the handle helped tell if the correct charge had been put in, or if double charges of powder or shot had been inadvertently loaded). The gun was then run into firing position in the port by means of the training tackles on each side of the gun and the breeching was again hooked to the bulwarks.
The gun was aimed by raising or lowering the breech with the quoin (wedge) under the breech. Handspikes were put on the steps at the rear of the carriage and under the breech of the gun to raise the barrel so that the gunner could more easily slide the quoin to whatever position he felt was best. At this point, the gun was again ready for firing.
English Bronze 6 Founder Field Cannon
This cannon is a miniature of an English 6 pdr bronze field gun that was produced and saw service about 1810 to 1820. The clean lines of this gun shows that the makers really meant business when it came to the design of the barrel and carriage of this gun. The barrel is straight forward but does have a bit of ornamentation. While most of the ornamentation, if you can call it that, serves as decoration, at the same time it does serve a useful purpose.
Starting at the rear of the barrel, the vent has a floral design surrounding it that serves as decorations, but at the same time acts as a pocket to hold the priming powder for firing the gun. Next on the first reinforce comes the crest of King George, the Third, with the king’s motto, “Honi soit qui mal y pense” followed by the English broad arrow on the second reinforce signifying that the gun is part of the British Army wares, and lastly comes the monogram of the Master General of the Ordnance. Henry, lst Earl of Mulgrave, with an “M” encircled by a laurel wreath. You can see that these markings form somewhat of a code, telling who was responsible for the gun, that it was English and giving a rough idea as to when it was made.
For elevating and depressing the barrel, the gun has a square thread screw at the rear of the barrel. The nut to activate the screw has four spokes to enable the gunner to turn it to the desired height. The gun has the usual ammunition and parts box fitted into the back of the trail for tools, powder and shot, which in this case means that the box is holding a cluster of nine cannon balls. Also, as usual, the box is made of wood with brass nails and a leather cover to forego any chance of a spark that might occur if iron parts were used A covered brass powder pail and a wooden water bucket hang beneath the axle. A rammer and a sponge are fastened to one side of the carriage while a prolonge is wound around cleats on the other side. All in all, a well constructed and efficient engine of war.
Block Trail Pattern Carronade – 18 Pounder
Since carronades were fired with light charges of powder, they had less side-wall thickness of metal than other guns. They were normally of about seven calibers in length in the barrel and had a cylindrical powder chamber. Usually they had a sort of bell-shaped cup at the muzzle to make it easier to load the powder and shot. Although their range wasn’t too great, within that range the small windage they were designed with made them quite accurate.
Almost all carronades were cast with a mounting lug on the bottom of the barrel, which secured the barrel to the carriage by means of a bolt. Major General W. Bentham, however, designed a carronade with trunnions for mounting. Possibly he felt that this would give a more secure seat for the barrel and thus improve the accuracy. This model shows one such a carronade and carriage.
The rise and fall of the carronade was rather swift. The first ones were made in 1779 and by the start of the Civil War, the smaller caliber models, below the 24 pounders were, for all practical purposes, considered obsolete and the rest of them didn’t last much longer. Of course by 1865 at the end of tile Civil War, most of the smooth bore muzzle loading guns, including the carronade, were on the way out.
This miniature model carronade has, for accoutrements, a water bucket, a powder bucket containing a powder bag charged with powder, a rammer-sponge, two shells with sabots and a rack containing eight solid shot. The sabots were discs of wood strapped to the shell with two tin straps, so that the fuses stayed upright when the shell was slid down the muzzle. Before the time of the sabots, there was always a chance of the shell turning over as it rolled down the tube. If this happened, the fuse could be blown into the body of the shell with immediate ignition, probably bursting the barrel. This tended to cause extreme irritation among the gunners clustered around the gun. The rack containing the shot was technically called a shot garland and could consist of almost anything from some planks nailed together to some timbers like railroad ties formed into a rectangle to hold the shot.
Congreve 12 Pounder Rocket
In the War of 1812, when the British Fleet attacked Baltimore, Francis Scott Key was inspired to write “The Star Spangled Banner” but when singing it now, how many people know the story behind it. When it comes to the part about “The rocket’s red glare”, most people, if they think about it at all, might wonder how fireworks got mixed up in this event. A reasonable question deserves a reasonable answer. The rockets referred to were Congreve war rockets, which had as ancestors the Chinese fireworks rocket and which also were the forerunners of the bazooka of today’s armies.
This rocket system was developed by an Englishman, William Congreve, in 1804 and, as he envisioned it, would consist of rockets of various sizes from six pounds to three hundred pounds in weight.
To hear Congreve tell it, his rocket practically rendered all artillery obsolete. They were readily portable and could be fired under almost any conditions. While they did their best with a special launcher, they could be fired by laying them on the ground, by laying them on a slope or on a bank for elevation, or by nailing two boards together to form a trough, putting this trough’s front end on a ladder and laying the rocket in the trough for firing. While he enthusiastically extolled all of these virtues, his rockets had some faults that he was unable to overcome. They were erratic, making them difficult to aim accurately and they needed so much powder for propulsion that they couldn’t carry much in the way of a bursting charge. The result was that they couldn’t do much once they landed on the target. They were used by the British in quite a few engagements; Boulogne, Copenhagen, Walcheren, Leipsic and Baltimore, but it wasn‘t until World War Two that rockets really came into their own.
This rocket tube launcher is modeled after a similar model in the USMA Museum at West Point. There is a great many notes on the construction of this model. The West Point model was a beautifully made affair and in addition to the launcher had a cart and limber to carry the launcher and a large supply of rockets. It was believed that Congreve had the model made to demonstrate his system and whoever made it did a fine job. But let’s get back to our model.
The head of the rocket was made of sheet metal. The black painted section held the propulsion powder and the red nose pan held the explosive charge. The stick that guided the rocket was screwed into the rear of the head after which the head of the rocket was inserted into the end of the launcher. Since the launcher was a light affair, it could be moved around easily to get the proper direction, and the elevation was controlled by the adjustable rod at the rear of the tube.
There is a sight on the tube, but I believe the gunner went more by guess on the first shot and then corrected following shots by noting the fiery trail of the rocket. Since there was no recoil, it was easy to change the aiming point, since the carriage hadn’t moved after the last shot. And once you were on target, all you had to do was feed rockets into the launcher, whereas with a cannon, you always had to move it back into its tracks after firing.
Packing the launcher was simplicity itself. The clamp holding the elevating rod was loosened and the rod was pulled out of the clamp. The rod was folded against the barrel. The fork at the end of the back support was rotated 180 degrees so that it would fit around the bottom of the barrel after which the clamps holding the legs were loosened. The three legs were swung up to the barrel alongside the elevating rod, and all four parts were held firmly by a strap around them and the barrel.
While Congreve’s rockets weren’t exactly a failure, they weren’t exactly a huge success, either. If he had had the use of some of our modern powders, his rockets would have burgeoned into an important arm of the artillery.
24 Pounder Flank Defense Carronade
As mentioned before, the carronade, developed by the Carron Foundry in Scotland, was a large bore “smasher” that fired a large, heavy ball with a relatively light powder charge for short distances. It was originally made for naval use for close-in fighting. However, fortification builders saw a use for them, even if they didn‘t have the long range capabilities that fortress work required.
This miniature gun shows such a use, where a carronade was mounted to cover the approaches and main gate of a fort. In a case such as this, the short range of the gun was no drawback. It would have been loaded with grape shot or cannister and used strictly for anti-personnel work. The frame holding the gun carriage is a front pintle mount (the pintle is the pivot on which the front of the frame rotates). With the back of the frame swinging on two wheels rolling on a track, this allowed the gun to be easily traversed.
As for the gun carriage, it was a four wheeled arrangement with the barrel held to it by a bolt through a lug on the bottom of the barrel, the common way to mount a carronade. Elevation was adjusted by a screw at the rear of the barrel that ran from the cascabel to where the screw was fastened to the base. Recoil was absorbed by tightening the screw at the rear end of the carriage. This forced a pad against the bottom of the rails of the frame and acted as a brake. This screw was loosened when the gun was run up into firing position on the four wheels of the carriage and then tightened down before firing. A pin ran through the front of the gun carnage, down between the timbers of the framework holding the gun and through a washer, where it was secured by a nut. This prevented the gun from jumping off the carriage when it was fired.
With the drawbridge and gate of a fort protected by one or two of these carronades, it would take a very determined foe to try to gain entrance by a direct frontal attack.
Resourse: “The Wonderful, Wacky, Terrible World of Artillery in Miniature” by Ralph Koebbeman