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Some very interesting information just prior to the Wilderness. Especially note the new type of canister.
I. You will at once take the necessary steps to put your brigade in condition to take the field, and for this purpose direct requisition for the necessary number of horses and other materials to be made out.
II. Should you consider it advisable, the number of horses in a six-gun battery may be carried up to 116, and for a four-gun battery 88, but the number of spare horses should not be carried beyond the possible wants, as the supplies for the number we have are limited.
III. The ammunition Should, so far as practicable, be made to conform to the proportions directed in General Orders, No. 5, of 1863, from these headquarters, viz, 12 to 16 solid shot, 12 to 8 shrapnel, 4 shell, 4 canister to each chest for 12-pounders; 25 to 30 shell, 20 to 15 shrapnel, 5 canister to each chest for rifle guns.
IV. Care should be also taken that both Hotchkiss and Schenkl shell, or Hotchkiss and Schenkl shrapnel, should not be used in the same battery. Where such mixtures have taken place the batteries should exchange with each other and with the train, and reduce so far as possible the kind of ammunition which they do not habitually use.
There is scarcely any occasion on which the percussion-fuse is not superior to the time-fuse shell. It would be a good rule to use only the percussion. Every effort is now being made to provide a concussion shell for the light 12-pounder to supersede the time-fuse.
V. When requisitions are hereafter made for one kind of ammunition another kind will not be received until it is ascertained that the Artillery Reserve train cannot furnish it, nor even then, except in very urgent cases, will a different kind of ammunition be received than that asked for.
VI. By a circular from these headquarters, dated December 17, 1863, paragraph I, you were notified that a supply of new canister for light 12-pounders had been ordered (72 3-ounce balls to the canister), and you were requested to make requisition for it at a rate not to exceed 10 rounds per gun. Will you please state in your report of your train if such canister has been received, and call special attention to it with a view of obtaining a report as to its efficiency in our next battles?
VII. When proper ground can be found in the vicinity of a corps, a course of target practice should be entered upon, of which careful records should be kept and a copy sent to these headquarters. (See Article XI, page 16,Revised Regulations.) In this practice batteries should use only the kind of ammunition they use in battle. Application must be made to the chief of artillery for permission to practice, stating the day and hour at which it is to commence, in order that notice may be given to the other corps and to prevent alarm.
VIII. The trains will be immediately inspected, and a report of their condition and that of the ammunition made to the chief of artillery, in order, if there are deficiencies, that steps be taken to supply them.
The allowance of wagons is as follows: Brigade headquarters, two wagons; brigade medical department, one wagon; brigade transportation of subsistence for sales to officers, one wagon; each four-gun battery, four wagons; each six-gun battery, five wagons; to every twenty-five ammunition wagons, five additional ones for transportation of forage for the teams.
By command of Brigadier-General Hunt:
JNO. N. CRAIG,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
(To chiefs of corps artillery, artillery reserve, and horse brigades.)
O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XXXIII [S# 60]
UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA, VIRGINIA, WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND PENNSYLVANIA, FROM JANUARY 1 TO APRIL 30, 1864.--#16
[CIRCULAR.] ARTILLERY HDQRS., ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
March 14, 1864.
I. You will at once take the necessary steps to put your brigade in condition to take the field, and for this purpose direct requisition for the necessary number of horses and other materials to be made out.
II. Should you consider it advisable, the number of horses in a six-gun battery may be carried up to 116, and for a four-gun battery 88, but the number of spare horses should not be carried beyond the possible wants, as the supplies for the number we have are limited.
III. The ammunition Should, so far as practicable, be made to conform to the proportions directed in General Orders, No. 5, of 1863, from these headquarters, viz, 12 to 16 solid shot, 12 to 8 shrapnel, 4 shell, 4 canister to each chest for 12-pounders; 25 to 30 shell, 20 to 15 shrapnel, 5 canister to each chest for rifle guns.
IV. Care should be also taken that both Hotchkiss and Schenkl shell, or Hotchkiss and Schenkl shrapnel, should not be used in the same battery. Where such mixtures have taken place the batteries should exchange with each other and with the train, and reduce so far as possible the kind of ammunition which they do not habitually use.
There is scarcely any occasion on which the percussion-fuse is not superior to the time-fuse shell. It would be a good rule to use only the percussion. Every effort is now being made to provide a concussion shell for the light 12-pounder to supersede the time-fuse.
V. When requisitions are hereafter made for one kind of ammunition another kind will not be received until it is ascertained that the Artillery Reserve train cannot furnish it, nor even then, except in very urgent cases, will a different kind of ammunition be received than that asked for.
VI. By a circular from these headquarters, dated December 17, 1863, paragraph I, you were notified that a supply of new canister for light 12-pounders had been ordered (72 3-ounce balls to the canister), and you were requested to make requisition for it at a rate not to exceed 10 rounds per gun. Will you please state in your report of your train if such canister has been received, and call special attention to it with a view of obtaining a report as to its efficiency in our next battles?
VII. When proper ground can be found in the vicinity of a corps, a course of target practice should be entered upon, of which careful records should be kept and a copy sent to these headquarters. (See Article XI, page 16,Revised Regulations.) In this practice batteries should use only the kind of ammunition they use in battle. Application must be made to the chief of artillery for permission to practice, stating the day and hour at which it is to commence, in order that notice may be given to the other corps and to prevent alarm.
VIII. The trains will be immediately inspected, and a report of their condition and that of the ammunition made to the chief of artillery, in order, if there are deficiencies, that steps be taken to supply them.
The allowance of wagons is as follows: Brigade headquarters, two wagons; brigade medical department, one wagon; brigade transportation of subsistence for sales to officers, one wagon; each four-gun battery, four wagons; each six-gun battery, five wagons; to every twenty-five ammunition wagons, five additional ones for transportation of forage for the teams.
By command of Brigadier-General Hunt:
JNO. N. CRAIG,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
(To chiefs of corps artillery, artillery reserve, and horse brigades.)
Brian Koenig
SGLHA
Hedgesville Blues
SGLHA
Hedgesville Blues
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