Also known as: gunnery, ballistics.
| Concern | The flight of the projectile from muzzle to target |
|---|---|
| Tools | Range tables, elevation by screw or quoin, and the line of sight |
| Factors | Charge, elevation, projectile weight, windage, and drift |
Hitting the target
Ballistics governed how far and how truly a gun would shoot. The gunner set the range by the charge and the elevation of the piece, reading published range tables that gave the elevation for a given distance with a given projectile, and allowing for the fall of the shot along its curved trajectory.
Rifled guns, spinning their elongated projectiles, flew flatter and farther and with less windage than smoothbores, but introduced a slight sideways drift from the spin. Mastery of these effects, together with time-fuze settings for air-bursts, was the art of Civil War gunnery.
On this site
Sources & further reading
- Benton, James G. A Course of Instruction in Ordnance and Gunnery. 2nd ed. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1862.
- Gibbon, John. The Artillerist's Manual. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1860.