6 pdr. Smoothbore Field Gun
- Type: Smoothbore gun
- Rarity: Common to Uncommon
- Years of Manufacture: 1841 to 1863
- Tube Composition: Bronze or cast iron
- Bore Diameter: 3.67 inches
- Standard Powder Charge: 1.25 lbs.
- Projectiles: 6 lb. round balls
- Tube Length: 60 inches
- Tube Weight: 884 lbs.
- Effective Range (at 5°): up to 1,523 yards
- No. in North America: approx. 700
- Special Notes: Workhorse of Mexican War, but considered obsolete by Civil War
More about the 6 pdr. Smoothbore Field Gun
The 6-pounder field gun was a lightweight, mobile piece that was a favorite of the field artillery in the first half of the nineteenth century. This popular workhorse of the Mexican War era was regarded as obsolete by the Union army, but was still heavily employed by a Confederate army that could not afford to pass up any opportunities.
This gun shows the last vestiges of the highly decorated artillery profiles that had prevailed until the beginning of the century: breech band, cascable fillet, fillet and roundel at the throat, and an echinus on the muzzle face were also features of the M1841 12-pounder. All were dispensed with on the M1857 Napoleon that displaced both these weapons as the smoothbore of choice for both armies. Attempts to convert some of these guns to rifles, using the James system of rifling, had only marginal success.
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