Coehorn Motar Changes the Outcome of Gettysburg...

5fish

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Picture this at Gettysburg mortar teams following behind Pickette's Charge lobbing shells at the union position along Cemetery Hill and Ridge. How about this at Little Round top if they had these mortar teams, they could have pushed the union soldier from the held positions...

The 12 pound Ceohorn mortar could be carried by two men into battle most likely use four or six men in all to carry the ammo for it. Would the 12 pound Ceohorn mortar have been good for close infantry support weapon or was that a concept before its time in the civil war.

Mortars was used effectively as a weapon in the 20th century why not during the civil war?
 

5fish

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t seems Mortars big use being either small or large in the Civil war was for either as siege weapons or in trench warfare....



Here is a link to a short tale on Coehorn Mortars and states the 12 pound mortars were used mainly by union troops....

Link to a picture mortar shell of a Coehorn Mortar....

http://www.campsiteartifacts.com/images/194_WoodFuseIcon.jpg

Excellent Wood Fuse Plug 12-Pounder Artillery Shell
Here is a very nice condition, wood fuse-plug 12-pounder shell
originally intended for a US Coehorn Mortar ! The iron shows
only very moderate pitting, with no large pieces or divits missing.
Ball was lightly cleaned and coated years ago, and has a a real
sharp excavated look. Likely, many of these lay in Federal arsenals
in the south, before the war, and when needed they could also be
used in the 12-pound Napoleon. This one was recovered years
ago, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Every artillery collection
needs at least one wood fuse plug shell !

Here's another link.... pages 138 and 139

http://books.google.com/books?id=tw...&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
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5fish

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So no one thinks short range mortars could have made a difference at Gettysburg...
 

Jim Klag

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So no one thinks short range mortars could have made a difference at Gettysburg...
Mortars had no value at Gettysburg, an open battlefield where the enemy was always in view. Mortars are/were used to fire from defilade into enemy works. Mortars had short range and would have had to be used right in full view of the enemy with results you can imagine. Field artillery was king at Gettysburg.
 

5fish

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fire from defilade
I see you point but the union was behind static lines and with the mortar moving out behind the infantry and with the fog of war. I bet hundreds of those mortars would have been able to fire off a few shots... Think about LRT mortars at the base lobbing shells into the union troops at the top...
 
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