Manning the Guns

Artillery played a decisive role in many Civil War battles, including Parker's Crossroads, and manning and equipping a six-gun battery involved approximately 150 men, 110 horses and mules, and hundreds of pieces of equipment. A captain commanded the battery, with four lieutenants, one to command each two-gun section and one to command the caissons, along with two staff sergeants, five mechanics, two blacksmiths, two buglers, and a standard bearer. Each gun had one gunner, usually a sergeant, seven artillerists, and at least two horseholders, while almost 70 drivers were needed for the teams that pulled the caissons, limbers, supply wagons, and traveling forge. A full battery consisted of six guns, although four-gun batteries were common, especially in the Confederacy, and the most common field pieces were the 3-inch ordnance rifle, the 10-pounder Parrott field rifle, and the 12-pounder Napoleon, while early in the war 6-pounder bronze field guns and 12-pounder howitzers were common. The Parrotts and the 3-inch ordnance rifles had a range of over one mile, while the Napoleon had less range, .92 mile, but because it was a smoothbore was more effective with canister. On the march, each gun was hooked behind a limber carrying a chest of ammunition, primers, and fuses, along with a tar bucket, canvas water buckets, and a tarpaulin. For each gun there were at least two caissons carrying additional ammunition chests, axes, and a spare wheel and pole. The battery wagon carried over 125 different items needed to keep the battery in running order, including oil, paint, spokes, spare gunners' tools, harness, spades, scythes, picks, carriage makers' tools, and saddlers' tools, while a rack carried forage for the horses. The traveling forge sat on a limber that also carried smiths' tools, spare hardware, nails, and 200 pounds of horseshoes, and there might also be several wagons for extra fodder and supplies. A battery depended on its horses, with a four- or six-horse team needed to pull each caisson, each gun and limber, the battery wagon, the forge, and each additional wagon, while officers rode horses, as did artillerists in a horse artillery battery, and ten or more spare horses were a necessity. Without horses a battery's guns were immobile, and both the horses and the guns they moved became targets in combat.

Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee · United States