Confederate Siege Train
The Confederate Army had no siege train per se, as they did not engage in regular sieges. In defending the works that were the objects of Federal siege operations, the Confederates used a hodge-podge of weapons seized from Federal arsenals and fortifications, naval guns, Confederate-made versions of pre-war designs, and imported rifled guns, such as the Whitworth and Armstrong rifles.
The Confederate equivalents to the heavy Parrott rifles were the Brooke rifles. They were cast iron guns with wrought iron breech bands like the Parrott rifles. They generally had a bore of 6.4 or 7 inches, and had single, double, and even triple bands.
During the siege of Petersburg the Confederate Army developed iron 12-pounder and 24-pounder Coehorn mortars. The rough iron pieces served very well.
-
A Confederate iron 24-pounder Coehorn mortar.
-
A double-banded Brooke Rifle of undetermined caliber.
-
English 8-inch Armstrong Rifle at Fort Fisher, North Carolina.
Read more about this topic: Siege Artillery In The American Civil War
Famous quotes containing the words confederate, siege and/or train:
“Figure a man’s only good for one oath at a time. I took mine to the Confederate States of America.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The train rounds, bending to a scream,
Taking the final level for the dive
Under the river—”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)