Revolutionary War Artillery Essay

Sometimes artillery is known as “The Queen of the Battlefield” (Revolutionary war antiques). Artillery served as a vital role in the actions at Valley Forge due to the weapons power and range. Given the weigh and bulkiness of the cannons, it was very tough to move them from battlefield to battlefield without numerous amounts of personnel. The main cannons used during the Revolutionary War were the “mobile three pounder and the six pounder” (weapons used in the Rev. War). One of the major leaders of the artillery during the battle at Valley Forge was General Henry Knox. By the end of the war, he was promoted to Major- General, due to his outstanding leadership and ability to move his artillery pieces. One of the very first pieces of artillery …show more content…
Smoothbore means that the barrel of the cannon has no rifling to spin the cannon ball which reduced the effectiveness of the ball at long ranges. Meaning the smoothbore has less effective range than the muzzle loader. Muzzle loading means that the cannon crew had to load it from the front putting them in the line of enemy fire. While in front of the cannon there was no cover and many members would be shot and killed during the cleaning and loading of the barrel. Artillery could fire a variety of different kinds of balls. One is known as the grape shot, that was used with a hollow iron ball that was full of gunpowder and had a fuse attached to them. The second type of ammunition they cannon crews could use is the “Bar” shot. It is basically two cannon balls connected by a bar that could be up to two feet long. At times, when the cannon crews would run out of actual cannon balls to fire, they would fire anything that they could find that would fit into the cannon and fire. For example, if they could find chains and use them in the same manner as the Bar shot and when fired the chains would fly across the battlefield and sever the enemy