Scourge of War Boards

Artillery vs. infantry, especially in canister range, is the subject of a hot debate in the Discussion category these days. Anybody got any good numbers on casualties inflicted by canister? Or even any good episodes in any books where canister inflicted a certain number of infantry casualties in a specified number of minutes?
How about the pattern a canister round would have at 160 yards? How wide?
Anybody got numbers for this stuff?
Throw me a bone here!

Hang on, when the Professor (j) out in Kansas wakes up he will be more than happy to provide all the answers to all your questions.

From Gibbon's artillery manual:

Grape and Canister shot leave the piece diverging from each other, in the form of a cone, the greater part of the balls being in the centre, and the extreme ones separating about one-tenth of the range. When fired at too short a distance, the balls occupy too small a space to produce the proper effect; and at too great a distance they diverge too much, and strike on too extended a surface. Good results can be obtained at from 300 to 600 yards, but the maximum effect is produced at from 300 to 450 yards. When firing at very short distances over hard, dry ground, a suitable dispersion of the balls may be produced by firing very low, and allowing the balls to ricochet.

AJ

Was that article based on smoothbore or rifled cannons? or both?

BOSTON

I think the damage done by artillery and range is fine. I think though, infantry should be able to shoot down the gunners. I believe in the Civil War at 200 yards unsupported artillery against infantry it was deadly for artillery. Infantry in the game should be able to shoot down the gunners easier. I have seen a whole brigade fall back with half regiments routed against 6 lone union artillery pieces. In the Barksdale scenerio if the union artillery is placed where it should be and not in the sunken road Barksdales' Brigade would never accomplish anything. I don't mind the damage I face just let me shoot down the gun crews effectively at lets say 80 yards or 100 yards.
Great game you guys have done. It took me about 10 times to win Barksdale scenerio.

BOSTON wrote:

AJ

Was that article based on smoothbore or rifled cannons? or both?

BOSTON

Smooth or rifled barrels would make a lot of difference with canister. You don't rifled shotguns!
Ron

BOSTON wrote:

AJ

Was that article based on smoothbore or rifled cannons? or both?

BOSTON

Not sure, but here's the link

www.civilwarartillery.com/books/GIBBON.PDF

I'll go through that manual later on, it's too lenghty to read at the moment.

BOSTON wrote:

Hang on, when the Professor (j) out in Kansas wakes up he will be more than happy to provide all the answers to all your questions.

Well...I'm awake and not too happy to see that you called me a "Jayhawker!"

I do not recall ever finding a definitive listing of casualties by weapon type other then a general synopsis stating that approximately 10& of all casualties were caused by artillery. There was, however, a non-scientific study authored by Professor George R. Stewart from the U.C.Berkeley that provided an interesting summation of his research on casualties suffered during Pickett's Charge. (Here is a graph showing some of his data: http://gburginfo.brinkster.net/ChargeCasualties.htm) Much of Professor Stewart's findings are based upon meticulous "speculations" (sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it...something akin to Government Intelligence?). Nevertheless, it does provide for interesting consideration.

The book, published in 1959, is titled Pickett's Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. In Appendix C, Professor Stewart attempts to ascertain the number of artillery casualties suffered by the participating members of Pickett's Charge. Stewart devised a methodology utilizing several base questions. For example:

1. Number of rounds fired.
2. Number of balls in a canister round.
3. Number of troops advancing.
4. Number of troops withdrawing.
5. Accuracy of artillery fired.
6. Number of casualties.
7. Etc.

Based upon the statistical data he acquired, Professor Stewart concluded there were approximately 500 Confederates who were casualties of artillery fire (shell, solid, spherical). He also concludes that approximately 1,000 Confederates were casualties of cannister. All other Confederate casualties he attrributes to small arms fire. (As an aside, he concluded that the vast majority of Federal casualties were caused by small arms.)

Further, there are no definitive medical records extant that can confirm the number of wounds caused by artillery fire.

Does this help? Probably not. It is not conclusive, does not extend beyond a brief few hours of combat, and is not definitive. Yet, it may help to shed a little more light on the the question on this forum.

J (In Nebraskaland) :woohoo:

I must of been thinking of Dorathy before she woke up in the Land of Oz! :laugh: