British Field Artillery in North America

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Description

William Pitt served as the Secretary of State for the South Department from December 1756 - April 1757 and then from June 1757 until October 1761. In this position, Pitt directed Britain's war effort. For Army use, Pitt strongly favored brass and the truly massive siege trains sent to the Americas starting in 1757 were overwhelming brass for all classes of artillery — siege cannon, field cannon, mortars, and howitzers. Pitt would append the ordnance lists directly to his letters to his theater commanders. Showing this distinct preference, Pitt sent large numbers of heavy brass guns to the Americas plus a near equal number of light brass guns (Cubbison 2010, Page 27; Pargellis 1933, Page 233; and Cubbison 2014, Page 103). The heavy brass 24-pdrs (pounders) would have weighed about 5,940 pounds with the heavy brass 12-pdrs weighing about 3,250 pounds, barrels only. A review of Cubbison's works suggests that Pitt was sending both brass and iron 13-inch mortars to North America for use in Army siege trains — a 13-inch iron mortar had double the range of the much lighter 13-inch brass mortar (2,700 yards and 1,300 yards, respectively; Hughes 1969, Page 37). By this time, the British Navy was "iron". In the mid-1700s, the 9-pdr was rarely cast in brass, so it is often entirely absent from British Army siege trains and field artilleries, but 9-pdrs were used on campaign in Flanders during the late 1740s (Muller 1768, Page 179-192).

Pitt was a deep strategic thinker, long-term. Pitt's keen focus was on stripping France of her overseas colonies before the inevitable peace would be signed, effectively removing them as bargaining chips in the negotiations. Under the protection of the British Navy, Pitt would overwhelm France's colonial holdings. In July 1757, there were sixteen battalions of British regulars sitting at Halifax (Nova Scotia) ready to proceed against Louisbourg, but a French Fleet blocked the move north. The 78th Fraser’s Highlanders would arrive at Halifax later that August. This was the last time the French Navy was able to project enough power to interrupt and thwart the British Navy. The British would take Louisbourg in 1758.

British Ordnance in North America (Pitt's Guns)

Ordnance	Louisbourg 1758	Philadelphia 1758	Duquesne 1758	Ticonderoga 1758	Lake Champlain 1760
Heavy Brass 24-pdrs	26	18		6	6
Heavy Brass 12-pdrs	12	12		6	3
Light Brass 12-pdrs		4	6		6
Light Brass 6-pdrs	6	14	8		4
Light Brass 3-pdrs		4
Brass 8-inch Howitzers	2	4	2		4
Brass Royal 5½-inch Howitzers	4	4	2	4	2
Iron 13-inch Mortars					2
Brass 13-inch Mortars	2	2
Brass 10-inch Mortars	2	2		2	2
Brass 8-inch Mortars	7	4	1	2
Brass 5½-inch Mortars	10		2		8
Brass Coehorn 4 2/5-inch Mortars	30	30	12	20	omitted?

Louisbourg = Duncan 1879, Page 198; Philadelphia and Duquesne = Cubbison 2010, Page 27; Ticonderoga = Nester 2008, Page 77; Lake Champlain = Cubbison 2014, Page 104. Ordnance arriving at Philadelphia was used in the Duquesne Campaign, but it is likely that the other pieces were then shipped north for Abercromby's failed Ticonderoga Campaign. Only the Louisbourg and Philadelphia shipments were distinct and separate. Here, Pitt sends some 199 pieces of brass ordnance to North America including 60 coehorn mortars. However, most of these Louisbourg guns arrived at Halifax in July 1757. Additional ordnance, particularly larger mortars, would be sent to Quebec (1759).

In North America, the Colonial Expeditions utilized some half-dozen iron 8-inch howitzers. These were old patterns probably dating to the 1720s or earlier. By the 1750s, these pieces would have been considered obsolete. These 8-inch iron howitzers are absent from any of the standard artillery reference texts.

Braddock lost four 8-howitzers at the Monongahela (1755). At least two, if not three, of these pieces were subsequently recaptured at Québec (1759).

References

Cubbison, Douglas R. 2010. The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne. McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina.

Cubbison, Douglas R. 2014. All of Canada in the Hands of the British: General Jeffery Amherst and the 1760 Campaign to Conquer New France. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman.

Cubbison, Douglas R. 2015. On Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: The Braddock and Forbes Expeditions, 1755-1758, through the Experiences of Quartermaster Sir John St. Clair. McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina.

Duncan, Francis. 1879. History of the Royal Artillery, Volume I, 3rd Edition. John Murray, London.

Muller, John. 1768. A Treatise of Artillery. John Millan, Whitehall, London. Online. (First edition is 1757, available online as well. Not identical, notable in the Introduction).

Pargellis, Stanley 1936. Military Affairs in North America, 1748-1765. "MANA". Selected Documents from the Cumberland Papers in Windsor Castle. American Historical Association, 1936. Reprinted: Archon Books, 1969. Online.

Acknowledgements

Kenneth P Dunne for the initial version of this article