Heavy Confederate siege guns North of Dutch gap canal.
With the possible exception of
Charleston at the seaside,
Richmond was the bestdefended city in the
Confederacy.
Vicksburg proved long and difficult of capture on account of the natural formation of the land, and
Petersburg lay behind an army entrenched; but the series of Confederate batteries along the
James River, up which the
Union army and navy were trying to advance, rendered the stream impassable to the navy and the city above impregnable against the army.
These guns look solitary and deserted with no one but the photographer's assistant in the picture.
But each was attended by an eager crew, so long as the
Confederacy held the reaches of the
James.
The serving of these guns marked the last great stand of the
Confederacy.
Union assailants will testify to how bravely and desperately they were fought.
The Confederacy was calling on every man capable of bearing arms.
The Federals could easily have duplicated their own armies in the field.
All of these guns are mounted on old-fashioned wooden carriages.
The elevating device of the gun in the upper picture differs materially from the screws for that purpose in the lower.
The breech was elevated by means of handspikes, using the sides of the carriage as fulcra, and retained in the desired position by the series of checks visible on its breech.
Even with these clumsy devices the guns proved too formidable for the Federal fleet.
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Heavy Confederate siege gun North of Dutch gap canal |
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>Navy broadside 42-Pounder with reenforced breech |
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Heavy Confederate siege gun North of Dutch gap canal |
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