The Artillery

The Artillery. . , Fort Richardson was designed with emplacements for nine guns. The armaments of the Defenses of Washington were chosen for their range of fire and positioned to ensure that the line of defenses had no gaps. By 1865, Fort Richardson had placed for 15 guns, including a 100-pounder Parrott Rifle., Fort Richardson's Artillery in 1861, What is Artillery? , Operated by a crew of soldiers, artillery consists of a variety of large-caliber weapons, collectively known as cannons. Guns, howitzers and mortars fire ball-shaped ammunition from barrels with smooth interior bores. Rifles shoot elongated, bullet-shaped projectiles from barrels with spiral-grooved bores. Typically, rifled artillery is more accurate and can fire longer distances than smooth-bore weapons., 1 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle , 2 24-Pounder Gun , 3 24-Pounder Gun , 4 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle , 5 24-Pounder Gun , 6 24-Pounder Gun , 7 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle , 8, 9 10-inch mortars (located on the platform near the guard house), Over the course of the war, artillery pieces were added, moved and re-arranged in the fort and between forts as needed. Fort Richardson's inventory later included a 100-pounder Parrott rifle, two 24-pounder field howitzers and one 24-pounder Coehorn mortar., The Big Guns: 100-Pounder Parrott Rifles , The 100-pounder Parrott rifles added later in the war to Fort Richardson, Fort Worth, Fort Ellsworth, and Fort Ward provided the Alexandria and Arlington Lines with long distance overlapping fields of fire from the Virginia side of the Potomac. The 100-pounder Parrott rifle could accurately fire a 90-pound exploding shell over a practical range of nearly two miles., (caption) 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery , Matthew Brady photographed the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery drilling at Fort Richardson in February of 1862. Library of Congress