[vetvetdoug]

There were two versions of the 1841 12 Pounders, Cast iron founded at West Point and the 1841 12 pounder field guns, bronze, from Alger and Ames. The bronze 1841 12 pounder tube weighed 1800 pounds and took a 3# black powder charge. I used to own one. The carriage was larger than the one for the 12# Napoleon and was a bitch to pull behind a six horse hitch. The dolphins were a nice touch but was just added weight to the tube. We used flour in front of the gunpowder to make the bang louder and give lots of smoke. I lost the gun in a divorce....women take the most valuable thing a man owns...Gee I miss my cannon.

[dts32041]

Should have known somebody would know something about our cannon.

Only on Free republic.

BTW do you how many cranks it takes for a Gatling gun to keep a complete rotation of its barrels?

[ASA Vet]

I lost the gun in a divorce....women take the most valuable thing a man owns

A friend recently commented that my last ex would have taken my sense of humor
if it had been worth anything.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Owned by a 5th Co. member, the bronze heavy 12-pounder shown in this sepia-tinted photograph was originally a Confederate artillery piece. At the end of the War, it was surrendered to the Federal Army and sent to Washington, D.C. as one of the "spoils of war", where it went into storage. The Federal Army stored it in the basement of Ford's Theater, the same theater in which John Wilkes Booth assassinated Federal President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. It sat in storage there for more than 120 years before finally being sold as surplus.

The photograph records the first time since the end of the War Between the States that this specific Confederate piece had been fired. The last man to pull the lanyard on that cannon prior to Private Cangelosi is unknown to us by name; but it was a Confederate private who last stood at that position with that cannon.

When the bronze heavy 12-pounder fires, it rings like an old plantation bell. The resemblance to the sound of the deep, resonant tones of a plantation bell is even more striking when a live round is fired from the cannon.