The Role Of Field Artillery In The Civil War

The Battle of Gettysburg took place during the American Civil War between the Armies of the Union and the Confederacy. The bloodiest battle of the Civil War took place in the fields of Pennsylvania starting the morning of the first of July 1863, ending on the third of July. Over 600 Field Artillery pieces were used in the conflict on both sides (Coco, 2004). The Battle of Gettysburg played a key role in the evolution and incorporation of Field Artillery on the battlefield.
In the decades leading up to the Civil War, American artillery was primarily composed of smooth-bore, muzzle-loading cannons that shot iron balls commonly known as cannon balls. These weapons were highly inaccurate due to the unpredictable nature of the cannon balls’
Rifled weapons were stronger than smoothbore because a greater stress was inflicted on the gun by a tighter seal necessary for the projectile to take the rifling, resulting in vastly greater pressures in the breech to overcome the friction between the projectile and the rifled bore (Hricz, 2018). The Whitworth Rifle was an advanced breech loading artillery piece imported by the Confederacy from England in the beginning of the Civil War (Hawks, 2018). Primarily loaded from the breach, the Whitworth could also be loaded from the muzzle with traditional cannon shot. The Whitworth was the only breech-loading rifle to be used in the Battle of Gettysburg (Schwartz,
Each Army’s artillery ranks were made up of many different cannons. The Confederate Army had many rifled cannons imported from Great Britain to include a number of Whitworth and Blakely rifles. Napoleon 12-pounder Field Guns were developed in France in the 1850s and were named for Emperor Napoleon III. At Gettysburg, the Napoleon 12-Pounder Field Gun made up 39% (107/272) of the total Confederate field pieces (Schwartz, 2001). During the battle the 3-inch ordinance rifle was the Union’s most common field piece, making up 146 out of the 360 cannons fielded that day by the Union Army (Schwartz, 2001). The Union’s superior infrastructure allowed them to be more efficient in producing artillery for their military. The West Point Foundry was one of the larger factories that gave the Union this advantage. The foundry helped create the new breach-loading piece that was the Parrott Cannon (Hricz, 2018). During the battle of Gettysburg Union artillery was very effective during General Buford’s delaying action with the skillful employment caused Generals Heth and Pender’s Divisions large number of casualties on July 1st (Steve, 2014). Union Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard chose Cemetery Hill to serve as the headquarters for his Eleventh Corps. His decision to fortify Cemetery Hill earned