American Civil War Artillery 1861-65 (2): Heavy Artillery (New Vanguard) [Paperback]

Philip Katcher (Author), Tony Bryan (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: New Vanguard | Publication Date: July 25, 2001

Because of the length of the coastline of the United States, from the beginning American ordnance and engineers placed an emphasis on heavy artillery mounted in coastal defences. The Union army organised its 'Heavy Artillery' into separate regiments, uniformed and equipped differently. While the Field Artillery was assigned across the fighting fronts Heavy Artillery units served the big guns in the forts and the defences of Washington. The Confederates did not differentiate types of artillery and those that became known as Heavy Artillery did so through informal association rather than formal designation. This book details the development and usage of the big guns.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The unrivalled illustrated reference on fighting vehicles, transport and artillery through the ages. Each volume is illustrated throughout, making these books uniquely accessible to history enthusiasts of all ages.

About the Author

Philip Katcher lives and works in Pennsylvania USA, and has written over 20 titles in the Men-at-Arms Series including the highly successful five-volume set on Armies of the American Civil War.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (July 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841762199
• ISBN-13: 978-1841762197
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.1 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,285,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Inexpensive introduction to ACW Heavy Artillery, January 24, 2007

By 

Red Harvest (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Civil War Artillery 1861-65 (2): Heavy Artillery (New Vanguard) (Paperback)

This book attempts to fill a missing niche in ACW artillery reviews: the heavy artillery. It does provide some useful information that is difficult to find, and it is inexpensive. Unfortunately, it is incompletely researched. The primary reference work on the heavy artillery is "The Big Guns" by Olmstead, Stark, and Tucker and surprisingly author Philip Katcher seems to have been unaware of its existence.

Katcher sometimes confuses the reader such as when abruptly switching from Dahlgren guns, to Dahlgren rifles. He correctly comments on the failure of some of these cast iron rifles, but leaves the mistaken impression that this might apply to Dahlgren's reliable naval guns. In fact, he seems to have completely overlooked the considerable design improvements that Dahlgren made to improve the casting quality of his pieces.

Similar problems arise in the discussion of the Confederate Brooke rifles. The author neglects to mention their characteristic use multiple 6" bands to form each layer, or the saw tooth rifling method employed. While their notable failure rate is discussed, the major cause, incomplete melting and virtually no hold time, is not.

Katcher correctly downplayed the importance of mortars in the discussion of Pulaski, but unfortunately did not stress their importance in several other operations. By themselves, mortars lacked the ability to force submission or inflict heavy casualties, but were still key components in offense and defense. Mortars were critical to harassing working parties that could not be reached by direct fire. They also proved valuable in fire suppression and demoralization of garrisons. As several CSA commanders commented in different sieges, if they had more mortars/mortar ammunition then they could have better defended their forts from the approaching siege lines.

Several photographs are misidentified, including several 15" Rodman's at Fort McHenry listed as non-existent 16", and what appears to be a wartime photo of a 15" incorrectly listed as being the massive 20" Rodman.

Discussion of ammunition is brief and inadequate, and no range tables are provided--a serious oversight in a book on artillery.

One of the strengths of the book is Tony Bryan's illustration of siege and garrison carriages (the latter with their characteristic center or traversing pintles.) Another strength is in the brief discussion of U.S. and C.S.A heavy artillery organization.

Despite major flaws, for the price and availability, this work is useful. Those considering purchase are advised that there is a volume which includes this book and Katcher's companion work on field artillery for essentially the same price. For those seeking more depth: the aforementioned "The Big Guns" is a much more detailed volume on the variants and design of ACW heavy artillery--but is sparse about carriages and ammunition/range tables. Ripley's book "Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War" also contains more detail on heavy artillery. Coggins "Arms and Equipment of the Civil War" also has credible coverage of heavy and naval artillery.