Missouri Emmaline
Fenner's Battery has a 12 Lb Mountain Howitzer, mounted on an 1851 Prairie Carriage. The prairie carriage is driven with one or two horses when attached to its limber caisson. If a single horse the limber is configured using a double shaft.
1841 -- 12 - pounder, Mountain Howitzer
The 1841 Mountain Howitzer was invented by the French during the Napoleonic-era it was designed to fill the role of a lightweight, mobile gun allowing it keep up with the cavalry and infantry units of the time. It was the smallest fielded artillery piece , and is one of the most neglected by historians.
The 1841 Mountain Howitzer is a 12-pounder, smooth bore, chambered, and uses the same ball/projectiles as the larger guns such as the Napoleon and the Field Howitzer, it however, uses less powder than its larger cousins, ˝ pound per round verses 2-1/2 and 1 pound for each piece respectively.
By comparison the following applies for solid steel shot:
Piece Weight Range (yards @ 5 deg el)
12-pounder Mountain Howitzer 220 (barrel) 970
12-pounder Napoleon Field Gun 1,200 (barrel) 1,619
12-pounder Field Howitzer 788 (barrel) 1,072
10-pounder Parrot Rifle 1,800 (barrel) 5,000 @ 20 deg el
All of the above smooth pieces were outranged with the invention of the rifled pieces such as the 10-pound Parrot Rifle and the 3-inch Ordinance Rifle (1,835 yards). Many of the larger guns remained in service along with the rifled guns, however the Mountain Howitzer was now doomed, due to it short range, and was replaced in many artillery units, however, it was used extensively with mounted infantry and cavalry.
In spite of its limitations, the Mountain Howitzer saw extensive service before, during and after the Civil War. The howitzer’s 750 pound total weight allowed it to keep up with fast-moving cavalry and mounted infantry units. The unit was deployed on two types of carriages, the Pack Carriage and the Prairie Carriage. The Pack carriage was designed to be loaded out on three pack animals, one for the barrel, one for the carriage and one for the ammunition. The Prairie carriage was similar to the field gun carriages of the day and designed to be towed behind a tow-wheeled caisson as used by the larger guns. However due to its light weight it could be towed using one or two horses verses the six to eight required by the larger guns. This conservation of horsepower made this piece very popular in the Confederate Armies where horses were hard to acquire.
The gun’s versatility made it a very popular piece among the cavalry and mounted infantry on both sides, leaders such as Nathan Bedford Forrest, John Mosby, and John Hunt on the Confederate side and John Chivington, Abel D. Streight, and James H. Wilson on the Union side.
More information can be found in the following book, Cannons: An Introduction to Civil War Artillery, by Dean S. Thomas among others to numerous to mention.
Typical Ammunition
Shell
-
as its name implies, is a hollow iron projectile filled with a bursting charge
of black powder. All round shell, and some rifle shell, used a time fuse to
ignite the bursting charge; Rifle shells could also use percussion fuses.
˝ lb powder
12-1/2 inches in length
4 – 3/8 inches in diameter
12 lbs 8 oz
Case Shot - also called shrapnel or shrapnel shell after its inventor, British artilleryman Henry Shrapnel, case shot was an improvement on the simple shell by the addition of small lead or iron balls to the interior of a thinner-walled projectile. The balls were embedded in a matrix of sulphur or coal-tar. Case shot was designed to explode in the air, so nearly always used time fuses.
˝ lb powder
8 – 3/16 inches in length
4 – 3/8 inches in diameter
15 lbs 5 oz
Canister - is simply a tinned-iron can full of iron or lead balls packed in sawdust. When fired, the effect is that of a giant shotgun blast. Canister is essentially short-range anti-personnel ammunition.
˝ lb powder
14 – 3/8 inches in length
4 – 3/8 inches in diameter
148, .69 caliber shot
14 lbs 3 oz
Grape Shot - is similar in concept to canister, but has fewer and larger balls, held together with iron rings or trussed up with fabric and twine. (The latter is "quilted grape shot", sometimes referred to as "quilted grape" or "quilted shot".) It is often erroneously stated that this was purely naval ammunition, but grape was at least occasionally issued to field and foot artillery.
˝ lb powder
Length, diameter and weight similar however, with less shot.