M1841 mountain howitzer
M1841 mountain howitzer | |
---|---|
M1841 12 pounder mountain howitzer on display at Fort Laramie in eastern Wyoming. | |
Type | Mountain gun |
Place of origin | United States |
Service history | |
In service | 1841–1865? |
Used by | United States |
Wars | American Indian Wars, Mexican–American War, American Civil War |
Specifications | |
Mass | 220 pounds (100 kg) (barrel weight only), 500 pounds (227 kg) with carriage |
Caliber | 12 lb (4.62 in) |
Carriage | pole trail |
Traverse | 0° |
Effective firing range | 1,005 yards (919 m) |
The M1841 mountain howitzer was a mountain gun used by the United States Army during the mid-nineteenth century, from 1837 to about 1870. It saw service during the Mexican–American War of 1847–1848, the American Indian Wars, and during the American Civil War, 1861–1865 (primarily in the more rugged western theaters).
The howitzer was a bronze smoothbore 12-pounder weapon, optimized for firing explosive shells as well as spherical case and canister. Its range was 1,005 yards (919 m) at +5° elevation with a charge of 0.5 pounds (0.2 kg) of black powder when firing shell. The original carriage design allowed the piece to be broken down into three loads for pack animal transport: the tube carried on one animal, carriage and wheels by another, and ammunition on the third.
The mountain howitzer was designed to be lightweight and highly portable. Because of this, and its ease of disassembly, it did not require roads for transportation making it well suited to Indian fighting and mountain warfare. In addition to the pack carriage, a prairie carriage was also created for traditional draft pulling using only two horses. This versatility permitted their use with mounted forces in areas where roads were little more than paths. These small howitzers provided artillery support for mobile military forces where it would otherwise be unavailable. However, their shorter range made them unsuitable for dueling with other heavier field artillery weapons.
The first 13 units of this weapon were manufactured in 1837 at the U.S. Watervliet Arsenal in Troy, New York; one of these was carried on John C. Frémont's Second Expedition to explore and map the Oregon Trail in 1843–1844. Frémont had to abandon the howitzer in late January 1843 in a canyon on the east side of Sonora Pass, in what is now a part of Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest near Burcham Flat, when exhaustion of the expedition's food supplies forced a risky decision to make a winter crossing of the Sierra Nevada to reach Sutter's Fort near Sacramento, California. A few wrought iron parts of Frémont's howitzer, including one of the two axle trunnion assemblies and three iron wheel tires, were found by search teams using metal detectors in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These parts have been authenticated by U.S. Army historian Lieutenant Colonel Paul R. Rosewitz as belonging to a pre-Civil War model M1841, and from the location of the find, could only have come from the Fremont Second Expedition howitzer. It is possible that the barrel was found in 1960 by Francois Uzes, but it was not recovered at that time, and has not been re-located as of 2015 despite several search efforts. The parts that have been recovered are on display at the U.S. Forest Service Ranger office in Bridgeport, California.
References
Bibliography
- Grizzell, Stephen, "Bull Pup: The 1841 Mountain Howitzer."
- Hazlett, James C., Edwin Olmstead, and M. Hume Parks. Field Artillery Weapons of the American Civil War, rev. ed., Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-07210-3.
- http://www.batteryb.com/mountain_howitzer.html
- Ripley, Warren. Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War. 4th ed. Charleston, SC: The Battery Press, 1984. OCLC 12668104.
External links
- http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada-and-west/parts-real-fremont-cannon-found-near-nevada-border Article on the recovery of parts of the John C. Fremont Second Expedition M1841 Mountain Howitzer
- http://longcamp.com/guest/deep_creek.html Article on the recovery of parts of the John C. Fremont Second Expedition M1841 Mountain Howitzer
- http://www.longcamp.com/bridgeport_2008/bridgeport_2008.html Article on the authentication of the recovered parts of the Fremont howitzer by Lt. Col. Paul R. Rosewitz, U.S. Army
- v
- t
- e
- Arkansas toothpick
- Bayonet
- Bowie knife
- M1832 foot artillery sword
- M1833 dragoon saber
- M1840 army noncommissioned officer's sword
- M1840 cavalry saber
- M1840 light artillery saber
- M1850 army staff & field officer's sword
- M1852 naval officer's sword
- M1860 cutlass
- M1860 light cavalry saber
- Mameluke sword
- USMC noncommissioned officer's sword
- Adams M1851 revolver
- Allen & Thurber M1837 revolver pepperbox
- Allen & Wheelock M1861 revolver
- Beaumont–Adams M1862 revolver
- Butterfield M1855 transitional revolver
- Colt M1836 Paterson revolver
- Colt M1847 Walker revolver
- Colt M1848 Dragoon revolver
- Colt M1849 Pocket revolver
- Colt M1851 Navy revolver
- Colt M1860 Army revolver
- Colt M1861 Navy revolver
- Colt M1862 Police revolver
- Colt Root M1855 revolver
- Deringer M1825 Philadelphia caplock pistol
- Elgin M1838 cutlass caplock pistol
- Harpers Ferry M1836 and M1842 pistol
- Kerr M1855 revolver
- Lefaucheux M1854 revolver
- Lefaucheux M1858 revolver
- LeMat M1856 revolver
- Moore M1864 revolver
- Remington M1858 revolver
- Remington M1860 Elliot revolver pepperbox
- Savage-North M1861 Navy revolver
- Smith & Wesson Model 1
- Smith & Wesson Model No. 2 Army
- Spiller & Burr M1861 revolver
- Starr M1858 and M1863 revolver
- Tranter M1856 revolver
- Volcanic M1855 repeating pistol
- Walch M1859 revolver
- Wesson and Leavitt M1850 Dragoon revolver
- Whitney M1857 revolver
- Augustin M1842 musket
- Ballard M1861 rifle
- Brunswick P1836 and P1841 rifle
- Burnside M1855 carbine
- Charleville M1816 and M1822 musket
- Colt M1855 revolver carbine and rifle
- Deringer M1814 Common rifle
- Deringer M1817 Common rifle
- Enfield P1853 rifled musket
- Enfield P1861 musketoon
- Fayetteville M1862 rifle
- Gallager M1861 carbine
- Hall M1819 rifle
- Hall-North M1843 carbine
- Harper Ferry M1803 rifle
- Henry M1860 repeating rifle
- Jenks M1841 Mule ear carbine
- Joslyn M1855, M1861, M1862, M1864, M1865 carbine and rifle
- Lorenz M1854 rifled musket
- Maynard M1851 carbine
- Merrill M1858 carbine
- Mississippi M1841 rifle
- P1839 and P1842 Brown Bess musket
- Potzdam M1831 musket
- Richmond M1861 rifled musket
- Sharps M1848, M1850, M1851, M1852, M1853, M1855, M1859, M1863, M1865 carbine and rifle
- Sharps & Hankins M1862 carbine
- Smith M1857 carbine
- Spencer M1860, M1865 repeating carbine and rifle
- Springfield M1795 musket
- Springfield M1812 musket
- Springfield M1816 musket
- Springfield M1822 musket
- Springfield M1835 musket
- Springfield M1840 musket
- Springfield M1842 musket
- Springfield M1847 musketoon
- Springfield M1855 rifled musket
- Springfield M1861 rifled musket
- Springfield M1863 rifled musket
- Starr M1858 carbine
- Tarpley M1863 carbine
- Volcanic M1855 repeating rifle
- Wesson M1859 carbine and rifle
- Whitworth P1857 rifle
- Adams grenade
- Coach gun
- Congreve rocket
- Double-barreled shotgun
- Hale rocket launcher
- Ketchum Grenade
- Rains grenade
- Rains landmine
- Sea mine
- Winans Steam Gun
and equipment