Civil War artillery

Hmm. I've got that re-pop kit but it's sitting in my stash. However, having the Vicksburg Nat'l Military Park in my hometown here, all of the cannons on display there are painted, but, AFAIK, nothing on them is made of wood, it's all cast iron or something. I would think the originals would be as likely painted as left unpainted, especially if done as CSA toward the latter days of the War (of Northern Aggression) as we were getting in pretty poor shape. IIRC, the cannons in the VNMP are painted black & dark green & I don't know that it's different for whose they were.

On Jul 19, 8:35=A0am, Don Stauffer wrote:

Take a look at some of the images here:

some other information you might find of interest:

Only to the extent of "never drill into a cannonball that seems unsually light".

As for the lumber, I wouldn't go too much by what you see today. What factors drive a private collector or museum in their preservation and restoration efforts are not neccesarily the same set of driving factors that existed at the time an item was in military use. Today, we place a premium on accurately preserving and restoring things to an extreme that in the past was not always appreciated and practiced even less. More often than not, you just never really can be sure what you're looking at, where it's been, who touched it and why they did what they did. I think we know less about the past than we think we do or as some experts like to let on. Otherwise we wouldn't be enthralled every so often by the latest theory that challenges conventional and often long held beliefs.

My well worn solution in the absence of concrete facts is to use my imagination. On the one hand it isn't hard to imagine CW era manufacturers churning out dispendable war material with little or no concern to appearance or longevity. Pictures exist of depots overflowing with manufactured goods stacked as high as any seen in WWI or WWII. Bare wood would seem logical under harried wartime conditions. On the other hand you might imagine that any cannon operating in a coastal artillery battery or anywhere near salt water would be a good candidate to have received a protective finish. Or not.

As for the gun itself, I can't imagine how you could really go wrong with a blackened cast gun.

WmB

I just did a Google Images search for 'vicksburg national military park cannon' & got a bunch of pics. It indeed shows these being what looks like OD, black & the barrels look like green- weathered bronze/brass/copper color, whether they're painted or not, I dunno. You might do some more Googling in Images to see what you can find about Civil War cannons.

I just did a Google Images search for 'vicksburg national military park cannon' & got a bunch of pics. It indeed shows these being what looks like OD, black & the barrels look like green- weathered bronze/brass/copper color, whether they're painted or not, I dunno. You might do some more Googling in Images to see what you can find about Civil War cannons.

Not sure about this but depending on the wood used it may just have been scraped and coated with boiled linseed oil, that soaks in but as an air drying oil it then forms a waterproof barrier that stops the wood soaking up water in the rain. That'd have the effect of darkening the wood. As I say ACW is not something I know about, but I was at sea for years and thats how we handled exposed wood.

Regards

Mike

There are some noted Civil War artists--Dan Troiani, Mort Kunstler-- who paint for customers who tend to be sticklers for accuracy. I would look up some of their work.

First off the Lindberg kits are terrible - I wouldn't touch them. I discovered 1/16 scale Civil War guns, limbers and caissons that are really remarkable. The wood is painted OD in the instructions and the ones I have seen at Antietam were green.