Artillery has long been known as the queen of battle. Cannons first came into their own around the start of the nineteenth century. On Napoleonic-era battlefields all across Europe cannons devastated attacking infantry and it changed the course of a number of battles. The biggest limitation of the pieces was that they were large, heavy and cumbersome to move. The 1841 Mountain Howitzer, the smallest artillery piece and the one most neglected by historians, was invented by the French to fill the role of a lightweight, easily moveable gun that could keep up with infantry more easily than the bigger cannons. This gun has long been ignored, and yet the concepts that it embodied, including light weight and ease of movement, are in use even to today. Part of the reason it has been long ignored is that professional artillerists, such as the Army of the Potomac's commander of artillery Major General Henry J. Hunt, felt that the howitzer was so outclassed that it was essentially useless. However, soldiers of other branches of the service were not as concerned with its short range as they were with its ability to magnify their own firepower in close-range duels between cavalry or infantry units.
The 1841 Mountain Howitzer was the smallest artillery piece to see any widespread use by the United States in the Mexican, Civil and Indian Wars. It was of light weight, but its short range turned many military officials against the gun. The mountain howitzer was most often made of bronze, with the barrel being 37 inches long and weighing only 220 pounds. By comparison the 12-pound Field Howitzer's barrel weighed 788 pounds, and the 1857 12-pound Napoleon Field Gun weighed 1,200 pounds. The howitzer was a 12-pounder, shooting the same projectiles as bigger 12-pounders, such as the Field Howitzer or the Bronze Napoleon,but it used less powder per round giving it a shorter range than that of other 12-pounders. It used half a pound of powder per round, as opposed to two and a half pounds in the Napoleon and a pound in the Field Howitzer. The Napoleon could fire a solid shot 1,619 yards at an elevation of 5 degrees, and the Field Howitzer could fire a shot 1,072 yards, while the Mountain Howitzer could only fire 970 yards. Rifled pieces outranged all of the smoothbores, with the 10-pound Parrot Rifle firing rounds 2,000 yards and the 3-inch Ordinance Rifle hitting targets up to 1,835 yards away. This short range quickly lead to the Mountain Howitzer's replacement in most units on both sides in the Civil War.(1)
However, in spite of its limitations, the Mountain Howitzer saw service in the 1846-1848 Mexican/American War and in various Indian conflicts both before and after the Civil War, in which it saw action in every theater. The Howitzer's 700+ pound weight meant it could keep up with fast-moving cavalry units. The piece was designed with two different carriages to allow it to be flexible for the army's changing needs. The Pack Carriage was designed so that three horses or mules with special saddles could transport the gun. One animal carried the barrel, another carried the carriage and a third carried the ammunition. The Prairie Carriage was similar to the carriages used by all the other field pieces. It was designed to be towed behind a two-wheeled cart, called a limber, by one or two animals, as opposed to the six that were required to move the Napoleon or the rifled guns. This conservation of horsepower made the piece popular in the South where horses were often hard to come by, and the ones on hand were in limited supply and often undernourished.(2) This versatility made it very popular with the cavalry leaders on both sides, such as Confederate commanders Nathan Bedford Forrest, John Singleton Mosby and John Hunt Morgan and with Union leaders John Chivington, Abel D. Streight, and James H. Wilson.
The mountain howitzer had a long duration of service, and served over much of the American continent. It was introduced to Federal service around 1840. The cannon was used in various Indian conflicts before 1846 and with numerous American units in the Mexican War. It resumed fighting in the Indian conflicts after 1848, serving almost continuously against various tribes until the end of the Indian Wars in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The howitzer was widely used by both sides in the bloody American Civil War. It saw action in conflicts over many thousands of square miles, ranging from Honduras to the Canadian border and from California to the defenses of Washington, D.C.
As a result of these factors the author has structured this thesis to present the record of the howitzer in the most concise manner, broken down by year and region. This will help to follow the evolution of its usage from a front-line artillery piece to its specialized use as a support for infantry and cavalry.
Primary sources were most important in identifying the usages of the mountain howitzer. Most historians neglect to distinguish between various types of artillery. They usually only refer to "artillery" or "cannons." The men who actually used the howitzers are usually the only ones who thought the mountain howitzer was important enough that it deserved specific identification. They also give insights into why the mountain howitzer was preferable in some situations to the bigger artillery pieces. Many of these cannoneers loved their howitzers, and did not want to exchange them for bigger cannons. They were the ones who had to haul them up the sides of steep mountains or keep up with swift-moving cavalry raids, and they appreciated the howitzer's light weight. Infantry and cavalry units that had attached mountain howitzers fought to keep them. They appreciated the extra firepower it brought to their skirmish lines. There is no shortage of first-hand accounts from all areas of the Civil War, and most who dealt with the howitzer had few complaints about its abilities and service.
1. Dean S. Thomas, Cannons: An Introduction to Civil War Artillery (Gettysburg: Thomas Publications, 1985), pp. 28-41.