Men's harness

[cannoneer]

I am in the process of trying to recreate a "Man harness" for pulling our cannon. With a lack of horse power I want to try to use something from the manual.
The 1861 Ordnance manual p132 lists a man's harness with 10 leather loops attached to a 4 inch rope.

I was wondering if there is any photographic evidence of one. Or has anyone else made one.

I have figured out the rope, thimbles and hook. I am still working out "bag-leather"
and securing with two knots on the rope.

I am sure once I get a better handle on the leather, I can figure the rest out.

Respectfully,
Tedd

[Light 6 Pdr]

Re: Men's harness

Tedd,
I made a couple of men's harnesses a few years back. It is a lot of work, but worth it. You get a lot of snide comments from the peanut gallery commenting on the team of horses, or A-- pulling the gun. But as to moving the guns around it is much easier than crew pulling on the pole, pushing on the wheels etc.
Actually the whole reason I built mine was we moved our mountain howitzer around the field alot by hand. At one reenactment, we worked hard that battle, and were coming back to camp. I was in front pulling on the pole. It seemed like I was working harder and harder and getting nowhere. When I looked back I was the only one working at all. I fixed them with the men's harness. It eliminated a lot of shirking. If the rope is slack they are not pulling.
From experience a few pointers:

1. Always have someone outside the harness to help brake the wheels.

2. The wheel team ( nearest the limber) does 75% of the work pulling and All of the work stopping. Put your strongest and most concenscious crew members there. When going down hill they need to push against the pole to act as brakes. If they do not you have a pile of people We almost got ran over by gun and limber once going down a little hill. The wheel pair did not hunker down, they sped up to get out of the way!!!!! I was in the front and we were all pushed along, luckily a very small hill and it was ok. Did I mention not to put idiots in the wheel team?

3. Crew can be supervised as to who is pulling and who is shirking. If the rope is slack they are not pulling. Horses that are not pulling are whipped, your mileage may vary with this approach.

4. Position yourself either in the wheel team or outside of the harness to work as brakes.

5. Put the rope underneath the limber pole. That frees the wheel team up from having to hold it up with their hands.

For construction, I used harness leather for the shoulder straps. Make them longer than the specs. We are bigger then they were. I made the 1st pair to spec and they are small. Add at least a foot to the required length. Have you gotten the 4 strand rope? 3 strand is easy to find, 4 is harder. As an aside, I made mine with 6 loops instead of 8, as we did not have that much crew at the time. We have since moved on to horse drawn. Much more work!
If you need some of the leather straps I can help with that. I may have part of a side of leather around here the right size.

Best of luck to you!

Steve Cameron
akm556@aol.com

[sedlakchristopher]

Re: Men's harness

Ted and Steve,
Very interesting. A remnant of the Rev. War days?

I have seen the description also in the past, but have not seen or read any first person accounts or documentation of CW use.

Is it out there? I'd love to see it.

Can either of you post any pictures of your harness?

Any one have documentation that these things existed in the CW?!?

Either of you going into business making them? Might be interested...

Best luck on the work!

Chris Sedlak

[cannoneer]

Re: Men's harness

Well it turns out that our sister battery, Taylors battery, has one?!?! Go figure, it has been under my nose all this time.

I have been in contact with one of there members who saw this thread. I will see about getting photos to post here. It may be a little while since every thing is bedded down for the winter months.

I have had good luck tracking down the leather too, thanks to Duvall Leatherwork.

Respectfully,
Tedd