ARTILLERIST'S MANUAL, COMPILED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, THE AND ADAPTED TO THE SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS. BY BRIG.-GEN. JOHN GIBBON, U. S. VOLS., CAPTAIN FOURTH ARTILLERY, U. S. ARMY. SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. TO THE OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES ARTILLERY, THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE GUNPOWDER.............................................................................. 9 CHAPTER II. ORDNANCE................................................................................ 41 CHAPTER III. FORM OF ORDNANCE.--MATERIALS................................... 79 CHAPTER IV. RIFLES,...................................................................................... 109 CHAPTER V. PROJECTILES........................................................................... 138 CHAPTER VI. ARTILLERY CARRIAGES, MATERIAL, ETC.,......................158 CHAPTER VII. THE THEORY OF FIRE............................................................ 201 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII. PAGE THE PRACTICE OF FIRE,......................................................... 230 CHAPTER IX. FUZES, ....................................................................................... 256 CHAPTER X. ARTILLERY IMPLEMENTS,.................................................... 285 CHAPTER XI. AMMUNITION,.......................................................................... 300 CHAPTER XII. FIELD ARTILLERY .................................................................. 339 CHAPTER XIII. ATTACK AND DEFENSE OF FORTIFIED PLACES............... 385 APPENDIX, ................................................................................. 417 PREFACE. This work, originally designed as a book of instruction for the cadets of the Military Academy, has, since my separation from the department of artillery, been extended beyond the limits at first proposed, with a view of spreading information not popularly accessible, upon a subject of the first importance to our national defence. It is submitted to my brother officers, trusting that many allowances will be made for its defects, and that some one more capable of doing justice to the subject will be induced to offer to the service, and to our militia -- on whom, in the event of war, the principal defence of our large fortifications must devolve -- a more complete system of instruction than I have been able to furnish. Where translations have been made, it has been my endeavor to select such portions as are or may be applicable to our own service, leaving out those peculiar to the foreign. J. G. WEST POINT N. Y., August 14, 1859. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE first edition of this work having been entirely exhausted, and a second having been called for, I have endeavored to make such alterations and improvements in the work as seemed to be necessary, and the exigencies of active service would allow. The chapter on Rifled Ordnance is partly taken from Captain Benton's Course of Instruction in Ordnance and Gunnery. April, 1863. THE ARTILLERISTS' MANUAL. CHAPTER I. GUNPOWDER. The inflammable property of a mixture of nitre, charcoal, and sulphur, was known long before its projectile force was discovered. Used in the form of dust, it is supposed by many to have been the substance of which the rockets and Greek fire of the ancients were made. Discovery .-- Gunpowder is said to have been discovered in Europe somewhere about the XIII. century; but a somewhat similar compound is supposed to have existed many centuries before, in China. Until towards the close of the XV. century, it was used in the dust form; but about that time it was discovered that when formed into grains, its force was very considerably increased. Ingredients .-- The ingredients used in the manufacture of gunpowder are charcoal, nitre (or saltpetre), and sulphur; and in order to explain the phenomena of explosion, a short description of each of these substances will be given. Charcoal.-- If charcoal is heated to a certain temperature, combustion takes place, and if perfectly pure, no ash will remain. The charcoal will be converted into an invisible gas. Placed under the receiver of an air -pump, and the air removed, it will not burn. There is, therefore, needed for its combustion, an ingredient of common air -- oxygen -- and it will presently be shown how this element is combined with the charcoal so as to produce combustion in vacuo. The power of oxygen to support combustion is very great. This may be seen by a simple experiment. A piece of steel wire having any inflammable substance placed 10 GUNPOWDER. on the end of it and lighted, when dipped in a jar of oxygen gas is rapidly consumed. This being the case with regard to iron or steel, it may readily be imagined how much more rapidly charcoal immersed in the gas would disappear, from what is called combustion -- really uniting with the oxygen -- forming carbonic acid gas. Now, if instead of presenting th e charcoal in a solid mass to the action of the oxygen, it, in the form of a minute powder, be brought in contact with a substance similarly prepared, and containing a large quantity of oxygen, the combustion, when fire is applied, will be much more rapid, producing deflagration. Charcoal made from light, quick -growing wood is most easily pulverized, and the best for making gunpowder. In the United States willow and popular are used. It should be sound, about an inch in diameter, and not more than three or four years old. The largest limbs are split up before burning; the smallest branches are used for fine sporting -powder. The wood should be cut in the spring, when the sap is running freely, and the bark at once taken off may be charred in the ordinary way, in pits; but the most usual way of preparing it for making gunpowder is by distillation. This process consists in placing the wood in iron cylinders, to which pipes are fitted to carry off the liquid and gaseous products. Heat is then applied to these cylinders and kept up for a number of hours. The fires are then allowed to go down, and when cool, the charcoal is taken out. This method has the advantage over the common way of making charcoal, of performing the operation of charring more completely, and of saving the ingredients which by the common process are lost. Acetic or pyroligneous acid, tar, and wood naphtha are thus obtained. This charcoal is also said to be freer than any other from potash. Another process has lately been introduced in France by M. Violette, and considered a great improvement. This consists in transmitting through the wood high -pressure steam, producing more effectually even than fire, the desired result. It should retain a certain degree of elasticity, have a brown color, present the fibrous appearance of the wood, and its fracture be iridescent. Wood contains, about fifty -two per cent. of carbon; but this process furnishes only about thirty or forty per cent. The coal is NITRE. 11 usually made in the immediate locality Of the powder -factories and) as it readily absorbs moisture, and is liable to Spontaneous combustion, is made only as it is wanted. In sticks its specific gravity is about .300, which is increased by pulverizing to 1.380. Nitre.-- Nitre is the substance which, possessing such a large percentage of oxygen in a solid form, gives charcoal the ability to burn whether in contact with the air or not. Sulphur adds consistency to the mixture, and the result is gunpowder. The quality of powder depends very much upon the intimate mixture and proper proportions of the ingredients -- or in other words, on our ability always to have in contact with the inflammable materials (charcoal and sulphur) the necessary oxygen in the form of nitre to support combustion, and change all the solid mass into gases. Charcoal by itself, i.e. in vacuo, will not burn, nor will nitre either in that way or in the open air; but together they burn in vacuo, and intimately mixed, deflagrate. The finer the gunpowder and more intimately mixed the ingredients, the nearer it approaches a detonating powder. In large aid compact charges, however, the reverse is the case, as then the powder itself forms an obstacle to the transmission of the flame, and it burns slowly and in-successive layers. As a general rule, and before coming to the limit of dust, the smaller the grain the snore rapid the combustion, and the greater the bursting force of the powder. This is the reason that in small arms the small -grained powder is used. It has but a shor t distance in which to act on the projectile, and being in small quantity, its bursting force is not such as to injure a gun; while in large pieces the charges are so great, that, did they burn fast, no metal could withstand the shock. In these, too, as the time which the powder has to act on the projectile is greater than in small arms, the whole force of a slow -burning powder will be produced before the projectile leaves the muzzle; and from the great heat evolved by the large charge, the largest grains will be consumed. Nitre or saltpetre, the nitrate of potassa, is a natural salt found in many localities, especially in the East Indies, where it exists in great abundance on the earth's surface, and where it is natural to suppose its peculiar properties when combined with carbon were first observed. It is also found in other warm countries, and in limestone caves in the States of Virginia, 12 GUNPOWDER. Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky; and in this last in the form of rock ore, a sandstone containing a very large proportion of the salt. It may also be produced artificially in what are called "nitre beds," by exposing animal and vegetable substances together to the action of the air in moist situations. This method, although not first discovered, was perfected by the celebrated Berthollet, at a time when France, cut off from communication with other nations, was driven to these beds, or walls as they are sometimes called, to obtain supplies of an article so absolutely necessary to her defense. Characteristics .-- This salt when pure, has a clear, white, crystalline appearance, a specific gravity of 2.090, melts at 660° F., and decomposes at a red heat.