We fired 17 rounds of Canister from an original Civil War Napoleon Field Cannon for a study on battlefield archeology. Each Canister shell contained 27 steel balls 1.5" in dia that were painted a certain color and then fired out onto a field from various cannon positions. The cannon's coordinates and the balls that were found were all documented using GPS Technology. The cannon was fired at various barrel elevations and at different levels of terrain. The data when analyzed will hopefully help archeologists determine where the cannons may have been placed during a historic battle.
VIDEO HERE (11:38 minutes)
I wasn't aware that they used steel balls in the Civil War; I think lead would give an entirely different trajectory totally invalidating the study
ReplyDeleteThey uses basically ball bearings as the load for canister as the steel would wind up going through people better and doing more damage, they got the idea as a version of the hot shot used in naval battles.
DeleteThe balls would have been iron or low grade steel.
ReplyDeleteBy jingos I enjoyed watching that..thanks Ken
ReplyDeleteWhat /was/ on the other side of those trees?
ReplyDeleteOne of my high school friends, Jay, his dad had a confederate cannon on his front porch. He was in one of the reenactment companies and the proud owner (inherited) of the cannon. I got to see them fire it once, not using a shot canisters, but slugs. At the time it was the loudest thing I had ever heard.
Here is probably the most ruthless use of the cannon...
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/aAbJcKBTqjk