“The Cannons’ Flashes Lit Up the Terrible Scene”

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“The Cannons’ Flashes Lit Up the Terrible Scene”

The Breakthrough Trail

At various intervals along their lines, Confederate defenders constructed gun emplacements, called redans, such as the one in front of you. Each redan would hold as few as one or as many as six cannons. Virtually every square inch of ground in front of the works could be fired upon from two redans, creating a deadly crossfire for any attacker.

Cannons in these redans would be positioned in one of two ways. Guns en barbette were fired from raised platforms over the fortification walls allowing the widest field of fire. Some redans contained openings called embrasures through which artillerists aimed their cannon. Embrasures limited the field of fire but protected the artillerymen in the works.

Approximately twenty artillery pieces of various types opened on the Union Sixth Corps on the morning of April 2, 1865. Evidence suggests that two powerful cannons, 3-inch Ordnance Rifles belonging to the Norfolk (Va.) Light Artillery Blues, occupied this redan. The Union Sixth Corps recorded the capture of twenty Confederate cannons on April 2, including the two 3-inch Ordinance Rifles positioned here.

Artillery of the Breakthrough

3-inch Ordnance Rifle

Tube Length: 73 inches

Tube Weight: 816 pounds

Bore Diameter: 3.0 inches

Range: 1850 yards

Material: Wrought Iron

Light 12-pounder Howitzer, Model 1857

Tube Length: 66 inches

Tube Weight: 1227 pounds

Bore Diameter: 4.62 inches

Range: 1620 yards