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Garrison & Ship Cannons
Cannon for permanent fortifications were of various
sizes and calibers, depending upon the terrain that had to be defended.
At Castillo de San Marcos, for instance, the strongest armament was on
the water front; lighter guns were on the land sector, an area naturally
protected by the difficult terrain existing in the colonial period.
FIGURE 28—EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH GARRISON GUN
Before the Castillo was completed, guns were mounted
only in the bastions or projecting corners of the fort. A 1683 inventory
clearly shows that heaviest guns were in the San Agustín, or
southeastern bastion, commanding not only the harbor and its entrance
but the town of St. Augustine as well San Pablo, the northwestern
bastion, overlooked the land approach to the Castillo and the town gate;
and, though its armament was lighter, it was almost as numerous as that
in San Agustín. Bastion San Pedro to the southwest was within the town
limits, and its few light guns were a reserve for San Pablo. The
watchtower bastion of San Carlos over looked the northern marshland and
the harbor; its armament was likewise small. The following list details
the variety and location of the ordnance:
Cannon mounted at Castillo de San Marcos in 1683
Location |
No. |
Caliber |
Class |
Metal |
Remarks |
In the bastion of San Agustín |
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1 |
40-pounder
18-pounder
16-pounder
12-pounder
12-pounder
8-pounder
7-pounder
4-pounder
3-pounder |
Cannon
. . do . .
. . do . .
. . do . .
. . do . .
. . do . .
. . do . .
. . do . .
. . do . . |
Bronze
. . do . .
Iron
Bronze
Iron
Bronze
Iron
. . do . .
Bronze |
Carriage battered.
New carriage.
Old carriages, wheels bad.
New carriage.
do.
Old carriage.
Carriage bad.
New carriage.
do. |
In the bastion of San Pablo |
1
1
2
1
1
1 |
16-pounder
10-pounder
9-pounder
7-pounder
7-pounder
5-pounder |
Demicannon.
Demiculverin.
Cannon
Demiculverin
Cannon
do |
Iron
Bronze
Iron
Bronze
Iron do |
Old carriage.
do.
do.
do.
Carriage bad.
New carriage. |
In the bastion of San Pedro |
1
2
2
1 |
9-pounder
7-pounder
5-pounder
4-pounder |
Cannon
do.
do.
do |
Iron do
do
Bronze |
Old carriage.
Carriage bad.
do.
Old carriage. |
In the bastion of San Carlos |
1
1
1
1 |
10-pounder
5-pounder
5-pounder
2-pounder |
Cannon
do.
do.
do. |
Iron
do
Bronze
Iron |
Old carriage.
New carriage.
Good carriage.
New carriage. |
The total number of Castillo guns in service at this
date was 27, but there were close to a dozen unmounted pieces on hand,
including a pair of pedreros. The armament was gradually increased to
70-odd guns as construction work on the fort made additional space
available, and as other factors warranted more ordnance. Below is a
summary of Castillo armament through the years:
Armament of Castillo de San Marcos, 1683-1763
Kind of gun |
1683 |
1706 |
1740 |
1763 |
|
Iron |
Bronze |
Iron |
Bronze |
Iron |
Bronze |
Iron |
Bronze |
2-pounder |
1 |
.. |
.. |
+ |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
3-pounder |
.. |
1 |
.. |
+ |
2 |
3 |
.. |
.. |
4-pounder |
1 |
1 |
* |
+ |
5 |
1 |
.. |
.. |
5-pounder |
4 |
1 |
* |
+ |
15 |
1 |
.. |
.. |
6-pounder |
.. |
.. |
* |
+ |
5 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
7-pounder |
4 |
1 |
* |
+ |
5 |
2 |
.. |
.. |
8-pounder |
.. |
1 |
* |
+ |
11 |
1 |
5 |
11 |
3-1/2-in. carronade |
.. |
.. |
* |
+ |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
9-pounder |
3 |
.. |
* |
+ |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
10-pounder |
1 |
1 |
* |
+ |
.. |
.. |
6 |
.. |
12-pounder |
1 |
1 |
.. |
+ |
.. |
.. |
13 |
.. |
15-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
+ |
6 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
16-pounder |
3 |
.. |
.. |
+ |
.. |
.. |
2 |
1 |
18-pounder |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
4 |
1 |
7 |
.. |
24-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
2 |
.. |
7 |
.. |
33-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
36-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
1 |
40-pounder |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
24-pounder field howitzer |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
6-in. howitzer |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
8-in. howitzer |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
Small mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
18 |
6-in. mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
9-in. mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
10-in. mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
Large mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
6 |
Stone mortar |
2 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
Total |
20 |
9 |
26 |
9 |
55 |
10 |
40 |
37 |
Grand total |
29 |
35 |
65 |
77 |
Armament of Castillo de San Marcos, 1765-1834
Kind of gun |
1765 |
1812 |
1834 |
|
Iron |
Bronze |
Iron |
Bronze |
Iron |
Bronze |
2-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
3-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
4-pounder |
.. |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
5-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
6-pounder |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
3 |
.. |
7-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
8-pounder |
.. |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
3-1/2-in. carronade |
.. |
.. |
4 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
9-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
10-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
12-pounder |
7 |
.. |
2 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
15-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
16-pounder |
.. |
.. |
8 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
18-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
4 |
.. |
24-pounder |
32 |
.. |
10 |
.. |
5 |
.. |
33-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
36-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
40-pounder |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
24-pounder field howitzer |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
2 |
2 |
6-in. howitzer |
.. |
.. |
.. |
2 |
.. |
2 |
8-in. howitzer |
.. |
2 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
Small mortar |
.. |
20 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
6-in. mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
1 |
.. |
1 |
9-in. mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
10-in. mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
1 |
Large mortar |
.. |
1 |
.. |
.. |
.. |
.. |
Stone mortar |
.. |
.. |
.. |
3 |
.. |
.. |
Total |
39 |
24 |
26 |
8 |
14 |
6 |
Grand total |
63 |
34 |
20 |
*26 guns from 4- to 10- pounders.
+8 guns from 2- to 16-pounders.
This tabulation reflects contemporary conditions
quite clearly. The most serious invasions of Spanish Florida took place
during the first half of the eighteenth century, precisely the time when
the Castillo armament was strongest. While most of the guns were in
battery condition, the table does have some pieces rated only fair and
may also include a few unserviceables. Colonial isolation meant that
ordnance often served longer than the normal 1,200-round life of an iron
piece. A usual failure was the development of cracks around the vent or
in the bore. Sometimes a muzzle blew off. The worst casualties of the
1702 siege came from the bursting of an iron 16-pounder which killed
four and seriously wounded six men. At that periods incidentally,
culverins were the only guns with the range to reach the harbor bar some
3,000 yards away.
Although when the Spanish left Florida to Britain in
1763 they took serviceable cannon with them, two guns at Castillo de San
Marcos National Monument today appear to be seventeenth century Spanish
pieces. Most of the 24- and 32-pounder garrison cannon, however, are
British-founded, after the Armstrong specifications of the 1730's, and
were part of the British armament during the 1760's. Amidst the general
confusion and shipping troubles that attended the British evacuation in
1784, some ordnance seems to have been left behind, to remain part of
the defenses until the cession to the United States in 1821.
The Castillo also has some interesting United States
guns, including a pair of early 24-pounder iron field howitzers (c.
1777-1812). During the 1840's the United States modernized the defenses
of Castillo (then known as Fort Marion) by constructing a water battery
in the moat behind the seawall. Many of the guns for that battery are
extant, including 8-inch Columbiads, 32-pounder cannon, and 8-inch
seacoast and garrison howitzers. St. Augustine's Plaza even boasts a
converted 32-pounder rifle.
FIGURE 29—VAUBAN'S MARINE CARRIAGE (c.1700).
Garrison and ship carriages were far different from
field, siege, and howitzer mounts, while mortar beds were in a separate
class entirely. Basic proportions for the carriage were obtained by
measuring (1) the distance from trunnion to base ring of the gun, (2)
the diameter of the base ring, and (3) the diameter of the second
reinforce ring. The result was a quadrilateral figure that served as a
key in laying out the carriage to fit the gun. Cheeks, or side pieces,
of the carriage were a caliber in thickness, so the bigger the gun, the
more massive the mount.
A 24-pounder cheek would be made of timber about 6
inches thick. The Spaniards often used mahogany. At Jamestown, in the
early 1600's, Capt. John Smith reported the mounting of seven "great
pieces of ordnance upon new carriages of cedar," and the French
colonials also used this material. British specifications in the
mid-eighteenth century called for cheeks and transoms of dry elm, which
was very pliable and not likely to split; but some carriages were made
of young oak, and oak was standard for United States garrison carriages
until it was replaced by wrought iron during the Civil War.
For a four-wheeled British carriage of 1750, height
of the cheek was 4-3/4 diameters of the shot, unless some change in
height had to be made to fit a gun port or embrasure. To prevent cannon
from pushing shutters open when the ship rolled in a storm, lower tier
carriages let the muzzle of the gun, when fully elevated, butt against
the sill over the gun port.
On the eighteenth century Spanish garrison carriage
(fig. 28), no bolts were threaded; all were held either by a key run
through a slot in the foot of the bolt, or by bradding the foot over a
decorative washer. Compared with American mounts of the same type (figs.
30 and 31), the Spanish carriage was considerably more complicated, due
partly to the greater amount of decorative ironwork and partly to the
design of the wooden parts which, with their carefully worked mortises,
required a craftsman's skill. The cheek of the Spanish carriage was a
single great plank. English and American construction called for a
built-up cheek of several planks, cleverly jogged or mortised together
to prevent starting under the strain of firing.
FIGURE 30—ENGLISH GARRISON CARRIAGE (1756). By substituting wooden
wheels for the cast-iron ones, this carriage became a standard naval gun
carriage.
Müller furnished specifications for building truck
(four-wheeled) carriages for 3- to 42-pounders. Aboard ship, of course,
the truck carriage was standard for almost everything except the little
swivel guns and the mortars.
Carriage trucks (wheels), unless they were made of
cast iron, had iron thimbles or bushings driven into the hole of the
hub, and to save the wood of the axletree, the spindle on which the
wheel revolved was partly protected by metal. The British put copper on
the bottom of the spindle; Spanish and French designers put
copper on the top, then set iron "axletree bars" into the bottom.
These bars strengthened the axletree and resisted wear at the spindle.
A 24-pounder fore truck was 18 inches in diameter.
Rear trucks were 16 inches. The difference in size compensated for the
slope in the gun platform or deck—a slope which helped to check recoil.
Aboard ship, where recoil space was limited, the "kick" of the gun was
checked by a heavy rope called a breeching, shackled to the side of the
vessel (see fig. 11). Ship carriages of the two- or four-wheel type
(fig. 31), were used through the Civil War, and there was no great
change until the advent of automatic recoil mechanisms made a stationary
mount possible.
FIGURE 31—U. S. NAVAL TRUCK CARRIAGE (1866).
With garrison carriages, however, changes came much
earlier. In 1743, Fort William on the Georgia coast had a pair of
18-pounders mounted upon "curious moving Platforms" which were probably
similar to the traversing platforms standardized by Gribeauval in the
latter part of the century. United States forts of the early 1800's used
casemate and barbette carriages (fig. 10) of the Gribeauval type, and
the traversing platform of these mounts made training (aiming the gun
right or left) comparatively easy.
Training the old truck carriage had been heavy work
for the handspikemen, who also helped to elevate or depress the gun.
Maximum elevation or depression was about 15° each way—about the same as
naval guns used during the Civil War. If one quoin was not enough to
secure proper depression, a block or a second quoin was placed below the
first. But before the gunner depressed a smoothbore below zero
elevation, he had to put either a wad or a grommet over the ball to keep
it from rolling out.
Ship and garrison cannon were not moved around on
their carriages. If the gun had to be taken any distance, it was
dismounted and chained under a sling wagon or on a "block carriage," the
big wheels of which easily rolled over difficult terrain. It was not
hard to dismount a gun: the keys locking the cap squares were removed,
and then the gin was rigged and the gun hoisted clear of the carriage.
A typical garrison or ship cannon could fire any kind
of projectile, but solid shot, hot shot, bombs, grape, and canister were
in widest use. These guns were flat trajectory weapons, with a
point-blank range of about 300 yards. They were effective—that is,
fairly accurate—up to about half a mile, although the maximum range of
guns like the Columbiad of the nineteenth century, when elevation was
not restricted by gun port confines, approached the 4-mile range claimed
by the Spanish for the sixteenth century culverin. The following ranges
of United States ordnance in the 1800's are not far different from
comparable guns of earlier date.
Ranges of United States smoothbore garrison guns of 1861
Caliber |
Elevation |
Range in yards |
18-pounder siege and garrison |
5° 0" |
1,592 |
24-pounder siege and garrison |
5° 0" |
1,901 |
32-pounder seacoast |
5° 0" |
1,922 |
42-pounder seacoast |
5° 0" |
1,955 |
8-inch Columbiad |
27° 30" |
4,812 |
10-inch Columbiad |
39° 15" |
5,654 |
12-inch Columbiad |
39° 0" |
5,506 |
Ranges of United States naval smoothbores of 1866
Caliber |
Point-blank
range in yards |
Elevation |
Range in yards |
32-pounder of 42 cwt |
313 |
5° |
1,756 |
8-inch of 63 cwt |
330 |
5° |
1,770 |
IX-inch shell gun |
350 |
15° |
3,450 |
X-inch shell gun |
340 |
11° |
3,000 |
XI-inch shell gun |
295 |
15° |
2,650 |
XV-inch shell gun |
300 |
7° |
2,100 |
Ranges of United States naval rifles in 1866
Caliber |
Elevation |
Range in yards |
20-pounder Parrott |
15° |
4,400 |
30-pounder Parrott |
25° |
6,700 |
100-pounder Parrott |
25° |
7,180 |
In accuracy and range the rifle of the 1860's far
surpassed the smoothbores, but such tremendous advances were made in
the next few decades with the introduction of new propellants and
steel guns that the performances of the old rifles no longer seem
remarkable. In the eighteenth century, a 24-pounder smoothbore could
develop a muzzle velocity of about 1,700 feet per second. The
12-inch rifled cannon of the late 1800's had a muzzle velocity of
2,300 foot-seconds. In 1900, the Secretary of the Navy proudly
reported that the new 12-inch guns for Maine-class battleships
produced a muzzle velocity of 2,854 foot-seconds, using an 850-pound
projectile and a charge of 360 pounds of smokeless powder. Such
statistics elicit a chuckle from today's artilleryman.
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