Field and Heavy Artillery Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cascabel

It is the knob that they use to pull the newly poured tube from the mold. The knobs on the sides of the tube where it is connected to the carrige are called trunions. The cap squares hold the trunions to the carrige.

Answer: Lanyard

When the order "fire!" was given the lanyard was pulled, pulling the friction primer out so that it caused a spark, igniting the powder and firing the gun.

Answer: Sabot

Sabots were used on all case-shot rounds, shrapnel shell, grapeshot, and canister were all three case-shot rounds. And some solid shot rounds, it comes from the French meaning wooden shoe, pronounced "sabow".

Answer: Lunette

In a regular field battery, the men who did not ride on the horses rode three abreast on the limbers and/or on the caissons, which held the gunpowder and the rounds for the gun. They also carried gunpowder and rounds for the infantry. The gun was attached to the pintle hook on the limber by the lunette on the end of its trail. Later on in the war, most men would walk to save the horses.

Answer: Mountain Howitzer

It was used mostly in the western theater, because its limited range made it vulnerable to counter-battery fire. It was most often used against the Indians who had no artillery.

Answer: Columbiad

Columbiads were most commonly used in fixed sea-coast positions. They came in calibers of 8, 10, and 15 inches. The 15-inch version weighed nearly 50,000 pounds, and fired a 320 pound shell.

Answer: Mortar

The "Dictator" was mounted on a rail-car outside Petersburg, and it was on a section of curved track that gave it an extended range of fire from side to side. It was allso called the "Petersburg Express". The mortar with its high trajectory was very useful in firing over walls of forts, or into towns that had built up fortifications around them.

Answer: Napoleon

The Napoleon was a gun-howitzer that could be fired as either which made it very well liked by the cannoneers. It is named for Louis Napoleon III of France.

Answer: Canister

When the enemy would get in close the guns would be loaded with double and triple canisters, making them very deadly killing machines. As a Union artillery officer said after "Pickett's Charge" at Gettysburg, "They came on so close that we could not help but to hit them with every shot, our canister tore great gaps in their ever thinning lines."

Answer: 2

The two 11-inch Dahlgrens were mounted on a revolving turret that gave the Monitor a 360-degree firing range. And even with this advanage it could only duel the "Virginia" to a draw. It later sank in a storm off of Cape Hatteras, on December 31, 1862.

Answer: 770 pounds

Even though the shells were so large, the Confederates trapped inside of Petersburg during the siege, got used to the relentless barrage of the Federal guns. The "Petersburg Express" fired 45 rounds of this size into Petersburg. Still the Confederates went on with their daily routines as best they could. Even though McClellan had batteries of the 13-inchers pointed at Yorktown on the peninsula, he did nothing.

Answer: A flying battery

The guns of a flying battery were usually rifled 10-pounders , and all the cannoneers were mounted on horses, making its redeployment faster.

Answer: Grapeshot

Used in smoothbore guns as an anti-personnel weapon, grape shot and canister turned cannons into large shotguns.

Answer: Enfilade

At the battle of Stones River, Breckinridge saw that a charge would be under enfilade by the Federal cannon. But Bragg ordered the charge anyway, and the Union guns cut the rebels to pieces.

Answer: Daniel Hough

Anderson had asked permission to fire a 50-gun salute to the American flag as he lowered it, during which a stockpile of ammunition was inadvetently detonated killing Hough.

Answer: New Orleans

When asked if he could use a couple of guns not in use at Fredericksburg, Edward Porter Alexander said, "General Lee, we comb the ground so well now as with a fine tooth comb that a chicken could not live upon that field when we open on it." Of its five companies, four stayed in the west and one went east remaining with Lee throughout the war, becoming one of the premier artillery units in his army.

Answer: Whistling Dick

The Federals adopted this gun as their own after the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. One report stated that when the rebels would fire, "Whistling Dick" the Yankees would hear it coming and they would cheer.

Answer: John Brooke

The Virginia carried four rifled guns (two 6.4-inchers, and two 7-inchers) and six 9-inch smoothbores, ten in all. A 1,500-pound iron ramming prow projected from her bow. After the fight with the Monitor, she guarded the mouth of the James River. The "Virginia" was scuttled by her crew early on May 11, 1862 at Craney Island, when she had no base to return to, and no way to run up the shallow James River because of her deep draft.

She was a steam-battery therefore unfit for a sea voyage.

Answer: Stafford Heights

Within easy range of the Federal guns Fredericksburg was decimated by the guns, but they could not reach the rebel stronghold on Marye's Heights. After the battle with all the destruction from the artillery and the Yankee looting, when ask what should be done to the Yankees for all this, "Stonewall" Jackson said, "Kill-em, kill-em all."

Answer: Swamp Angel

The gun, fired from Morris Island at a range of 7,900 yards, blew up after the 36th round.