A couple of months ago I posted a naval gun crew painting and received much helpful guidance and advice. Here we go again.
In the old days the guys who keep muzzle loading cannons would go up to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, every year of two and spend a weekend having a grand old time shooting them off. Typically the target was a refrigerator carton set about 400 yards down range. The one thing I noticed was the recoil. The service load for one of these things was from 1/4 to 1/3 of the weight of the shot – so a ten pound shot took about 2 to 3 pounds of black gun powder. When the gun went off the piece would jump in the air and roll to the rear for up to 10 feet, depending on the slope and how hard the ground was. That, with the flash and the billow of grey smoke and the report of the gun, was very impressive. Interestingly a 12 oz beer can filled with concrete made an excellent projectile for the 3 inch iron rifles. I’m not sure what was used for the 12 pounder guns, probably as somewhat larger can.
In the little Ohio town where I grew up the was as group of graves in the old part of the cemetery, all marked with government monuments. There were 25 or 30 of them. They were always called the Shiloh Graves. They were the graves of the men and boys from the township who were killed at that Civil War battle in April 1862. The town had raised the money to have the bodies that could be identified shipped back from Tennessee and buried on the hill over their home town. Stuff like that stays with you even into your extremely late middle age.
So here is the start on a picture of a 12 Pounder light field gun in full recoil. Oil on board, 24" x 18". Comments and guidance welcome.
Linear Mode
