Great Artillery photo

[Lazarus Driver]

This is a great photo I found in the LOC. Collection. It states that it is a NY battery June 1862 near Richmond
The detail is great in the photo. There is a gunners haversack hanging on the second limber. You can see the top of the battery wagon and a baggage wagon in the background . Also check out the “duffel bag” on the offside horse wheel team on the first gun. This battery has also been through some serious mud looking at the wheels.
The drivers are wearing sabers. The first gun looks like it has rope traces at least the wheel team!
Take a look and see what else you can find!!


Bill Thomas
Driver
Lazarus Battery

[Forquer]

Re: Great Artillery photo

Is that a cookpot hanging off one of the sponge/rammers of the first piece?

[Secesh]

Re: Great Artillery photo

I believe it's the water bucket used for swabbing the barrel...?

[Forquer]

Re: Great Artillery photo

I believe it's the water bucket used for swabbing the barrel...?

No, if you look a little closer, it appears to be a cookpot/kettle that is actually forward of the sponge bucket.

[Fauxban]

Re: Great Artillery photo

Well spotted Greg!!

I’m inclined to see it as a tarred canvas bucket, hung on the sponge-rammer.

Judging from its size, I would expect a cookpot THAT big to bend the staff of the sponge-rammer. We all know how heavy the sheet iron sponge bucket itself is, & that thing’s at least twice the size. Others with more advanced culinary skills than mine might recognize a specific size or type of issue vessel & could tell us what it weighs. It certainly isn’t cast iron!!!

[Forquer]

Re: Great Artillery photo

On 2nd, 3rd, and 4th look, I'm thinking now that it might be another gunner's haversack. Especially when I look over at the next piece to its right.

[marine05]

Re: Great Artillery photo

Greg,

I too thought it looked like a tin cook pot, it does appear to have a rounded edge on top. The picture of the piece next to it is unclear as to what the object is.

Very nice picture too I might add.

S/F

DJM

[Lazarus Driver]

Re: Great Artillery photo

Has anyone noticed that the first gun's limber is marked with the number 20. It looks like a gunners haversack on the box, the same as the second gun.

Bill Thomas
Driver
Lazarus Battery

[Ringgold]

Re: Great Artillery photo

"Has anyone noticed that the first gun's limber is marked with the number 20."

Bill,

That would be due to the fact that this is a battery of 20 pdr guns. The limber chests would be labeled as such.

Nice image and thanks for posting it!

[2nd Lt. Samuel Teague]

Re: Great Artillery photo

I can see how the one bucket looks like a canvas bucket, but referencing the gun right in the center front, I am 99% positive that the two buckets are a water bucket 9for the wet sponge) and the other is a tar bucket used to keep the wheels greased.

http://www.cwartillery.org/artequip.html

~Matt Wood

[Fauxban]

I am 99% positive that the two buckets are a water bucket (for the wet sponge) and the other is a tar bucket used to keep the wheels greased.
~Matt Wood

Why would ya tote the tar bucket anywhere but on the limber, where its 'sposed to be & there's a place for it? Its certainly NOT something you need access to in any big hurry, as anyone who has actually greased wheels in the field (or even the ballroom of a resort hotel...) knows. Then too that object in front of the water bucket appears far too big to be a tar bucket. If someone can show me the chain suspension of it I'll agree with ya immediately.

On 2nd, 3rd, and 4th look, I'm thinking now that it might be another gunner's haversack.

Gonna hafta disagree again Greg. There's no flap visible, as we can clearly see on Gun # 2 (2nd from left), & since I see what Bill mentioned, that there's already one dangling from the ammunition chest on the limber of Gun # 1 , another seems unlikely, though not impossible. The lip around the top inclines me to correct myself, & agree with Dan that your original assessment was right!!! Whatever it is, to my imperfect eyes it ain't flat.

I too thought it looked like a tin cook pot, it does appear to have a rounded edge on top.
S/F DJM

Now that I study it further there is a definite lip, making canvas unlikely. I'm gonna reverse myself, agree with both of you & say its a sheet iron cookpot, though the scorching/soot seems remarkable even...

That would be due to the fact that this is a battery of 20 pdr guns. The limber chests would be labeled as such.

Well now, here's a voice from the past!! Its always good to hear from The Big Dutchman!!! But please be gentle with Bill. He's no longer the best gunner in the hobby, but a lowly driver. As a result his faculties, never generous to begin with, have, of necessity, eroded. To a fellow charged with care & feeding of TWO horses, the mere number 20 assumes monstrous proportions... Its inconceivable for the drivers I know to manage digits in excess of, much less multiples of, ten. Two, four or eight are much more comfortable for them, proximity to same being their normal state. That, coupled with the necessity of being mounted in FRONT of the box, ensures that, however good Bill wuz with letterin' & cipherin', he'd miss reference to the ordnance he's draggin' with his nags.

So Mark, when ya comin' outa retirement? When's the book gettin' published? Time to get back involved!!!

[Lazarus Driver]

Re: Great Artillery photo

That would be due to the fact that this is a battery of 20 pdr guns. The limber chests would be labeled as such.

Welcome back Mr Dutchman,
I am so glad that you can id one of the few field pieces that are bigger than yourself!
Having served on 20 pdr parrotts I know that I would not like to pull one through mud that deep.
Thanks for adding to the discussion on a worthwhile photo rather than a bogus reenactment snapshot.
As Lead I follow the first rule of Italian driving "whats behind me she's not important", its the wheeler job to miss the trees.

Bruce, just wait till the next ditch we cross!

Bill Thomas
Driver
Lazarus Battery

[Danny]

Re: Great Artillery photo

Greg, I too thought it looked like a tin cook pot, it does appear to have a rounded edge on top. The picture of the piece next to it is unclear as to what the object is. Very nice picture too I might add. S/F DJM

Dan M., all -

If it helps, click on enlarged detail here (I clipped it from the hi-res LOC download).

Both guns appear to have their water buckets, but next to the w.b. on the front gun is large pot hung from carriage hardware, looks like a cooking pot. Next to the w.b. on the far gun is either a badly dented pot or more likely a haversack of some sort, with it's strap buckled around the axle.

I suppose neither is a standard practice, just a matter of convenience. Today we hang insundry items on various parts of the carriage (! !_temporary only and not when they are in battle or inspection mode_!!).

BTW we maintain an original 20 pndr. Parrot (tube once used on a gun boat) and it is a monster for we shorter #1 0r #2 guys to serve.

Dan Wykes

[lazarus]

Re: Great Artillery photo

Well, I'll tell you this, I ain't eating out of that pot until it is clearly boiled in lava! Think about all the dirt, dust, and horse leftovers falling into that. I wander if it is just another bucket for horse water? As for the second bucket, it is canvas. Man, I like how they work those horses, everything is loading on all them carriages and horses and they gots a heavier gun to boot. Ole' Captain wouldn't approve of working them horses so hard, would he?

Cheers!

BTW, isn't time for a reunion boys of the battery?

[cannoneer]

Re: Great Artillery photo

Looking at Danny's enlargements the second object hanging next to the water bucket looks like a leather water bucket. From what I have read in the 1861 Ordinance manual there should be two leather buckets as part of the equipment allotted to a gun.
Is this possibly a well worn leather water bucket?