AWI 6-prd guns

[maciek]

Pendraken offers two types of 6-prd guns for AWI, "normal" or "unnamed" 6prd and "battalion 6prds".
What was the difference between these two types ?
I know what is different in the model (ammo boxes), but on the battlefield - which type was more frequently used (considering there were no permanent battalion guns attached to infantry) ?
Were there any differences in missile weight, barrel lenght, range ? Or limbers, number of horses ...

[maciek]

Hmmm ....
I thought that you, guys know what you are selling ...

[Leon]

I think that one's out of my league, I've passed it on to someone with more AWI knowledge.

[Leon]

Here's some info from our friend:

Just consulted the monograph, curiously to hand on my work desk, dealing with the British/Hessian artillery in the Saratoga campaign and there is little specific discussion as artillery allocation. Basically when war broke out there was a shortage of material (absolutely typical) so there was a scramble to provide it. In particular there was a scramble to provide 3lb guns developed post-1763 with a view to being of more use in America. It was at this time that the so-called light 6lber was developed. The lightness describes its weight or mass, so that a light 6lber had a lighter carriage than a medium or normal 6lber. Thus the advantage (barely measurable in wargames terms) was in handling.

There was no perceived difference in the performance of the barrels, the name 6lber gives it away, it fires a 6lb shot thus ballistically they perform identically, range etc. is the same. Gun drill, ammunition and allocation and equipment is exactly the same for both pieces and the essential wargames difference is in terms of the look or aesthetics. The 6lb field gun was the work horse of the Royal Artillery during the AWI, for example there were 18 6lb field guns in Burgoyne's artillery train on the Saratoga expedition as opposed to 4 3lbers (the new innovation for America!), 4 medium 12 lbers and 2 24lbers (both really siege pieces not field guns). Curiously only 3 are known to survive, all cast in the 1750s or 1761. Now in a directive concerning ammunition allocation Burgoyne's 6lbers are referred to as being light which with barrels of this vintage suggests the key difference is in the weight of the carriage. In the list of Ordnance surrendered at Yorktown (by then a major depot) listed 12 3lbers and 12 6lbers as the most numerous category of brass ordnance in Cornwallis' artillery park so again an idea about how widespread the 6lber was as a field piece.

In terms of the equipage, a brief perusal of Muller's artillery treatise (essentially the RA instruction book published in a number of editions, there is a 1772 facsimile of the 1759 edition available in Canada IIRC) and the diagrams of the carriages looks to be identical, just sized up or down according to the piece.  so again An early form of modular design? Obviously this does not include the light 6lber carriage, for that one would have to look at the monograph written by Adrian Caruana on it. So no real differences overall look of the kit other than size and that is governed not by just the dead weight of the barrel but also by the shock/stress the carriage would need to withstand i.e it is more for a 6lber, than a 3lber and likewise greater (not necessarily a linear relationship) for 12 & 24 lbers and very different for howitzers and mortars.

Artillery provision was pretty ad hoc for the rebels, they just used stuff captured from us. A good example is the train brought from Ft Ticonderoga to the siege of Boston in 1776 that caused the evacuation of the city when it wa placed on the Dorchester Heights. So with an American battery the guns (although there was an offical establishment) could be 3, 4 or 6lbers as needs be. It would be unusual to mix say 1 4lber and 1 6lber in a battery as that would double the headaches in terms of ammunition supply. The ttwo US artillery companies at GCH both 6lbers (two to each company). Of the artillery captured from Gates at Camden the list for brass ordnance is "Six pounders, 4; three pounders, 2; two pounders, 2. Total, 8." There is also a mix of small iron guns (none approaching 6lbers.

The Hess Hanau company with Burgoyne received British equipment and guns, the Hesse Kassel boys hung on to their Swedish (about 4lb) battalion guns but not sure about their heavier field ordnance. British provision was about what could be got from store pending provision of new kit.

Things change for the rebels when France enters the war and starts shipping over thier older pattern ordnance at that stage being replaced by the Gribeauval system. Have not gone into that side much yet. But essentially they swap from British captured pieces etc for French cast offs. The papers of one of the senior RA bods (Pattinson?) have been published by the NY History society and it reveals the scale of the operation and diversity of material needed to for a Park of Artillery for a major theatre of war.