Book: Civil War Artillery in the USA (v.1)

In the 1860s, almost before the start of the American Civil War, leading American artillery specialists were on the verge of great discoveries. At the beginning of the 19th century, a great, if not decisive role in the development of American artillery was played by the technology of Great Britain, which historically preceded the war for independence, which happened just a century earlier. At that time, light guns were in service in the British Army, which were mounted on wooden carriages with folding beds. During the war of independence, the continental army received French field guns mounted on gun carriages similar to those of the British.
   Copper was needed in the production of such guns, but there were no large deposits of this ore in America - but cast iron was everywhere. Before the outbreak of the Civil War, gun manufacturing plants spread across the whole of America - from north to south. After 1800, the American army used iron almost everywhere to produce cannon barrels.
   The only exception was that the so-called. “Royal Howitzer”, with which it was possible to fire at the enemy with grenades through a short copper barrel, but at a limited distance. Such a weapon was effective in battles with the Indians in the dense woodlands of the north-west, but it was of little use against organized troops with its own artillery ...