USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Salisbury > Salisbury Connecticut cannon, revolutionary war > Part 4
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A great many swivels were patterned and cast at Salisbury for privateers especially, as shown by records, and were occasionally referred to as a part of the combat equipment of vessels along with the larger guns in battery. It has been difficult at this late day to encounter them (except quite rarely as museum pieces) as they, like many of the heavier cannon, were disposed of as junk and went the way of other cast iron, to the "melting-pot." These small guns could be "swiveled" both horizontally and vertically and were considered quite necessary and effective in close-quarter combat.
Illustrated herein are two swivels that were
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SALISBURY CONNECTICUT CANNON
raised in November, 1934, from the wreck of a British warship sunk near Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.14 It was necessary to photograph one of them upside down, as the shank was encumbered with a portion of the ship's bulwark. The absence of its muzzle and presence of cracks along the barrel possibly indicate the results of an overcharge the last time it was fired. The other illustration shows an almost perfect specimen with the exception of the swivel shank which was apparently corroded off. The tampion or muzzle-plug was found in its place when recovered, as shown.
Another kind of swivel used in Colonial days was the blunderbus or "murtherer" type with bell muzzle for spraying small bullets, also used for repelling boarders. These were equipped with the regulation flint-lock or "snaphance" to be used the same as a musquet, while the rabinet swivel had its own paper cartridge or capsule with wadded grape shot, and was fired from the touch-hole the same as the heavier guns. Two buckets, one containing the powder cartridges and the other the grape shot were provided by the powder boy (or monkey) wherever the gun was required, and oftentimes the gunner would supply his pockets with enough of this small ammuni- tion and wadding for his immediate needs; his only other tools were the short wooden rod containing the sponge and rammer on each end, his "match" and lanthorn.
14 From Mariners' Museum of The Newport News Ship- building & Drydock Co., by courtesy of Mr. Homer L. Ferguson, President.
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SWIVEL GUNS Raised from British Warship sunk at Yorktown, Va., 1781
Courtesy of Homer L. Ferguson, President, Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.
T HE casting of shot at Salisbury was generally a sequence to the cannon casting to use up what spare metal remained in the hearth. This molten iron was run off in leaders to the gangs or batteries of shot molds in the molding house where hundreds of different size shot patterns were in almost constant readiness to receive the overflow. Moldings for "pigs" were also provided by different leaders, so that no waste of the blast occurred. No record has been found relating to the construction of the shot molds, but it is fair to assume that the regulation concaved metal hemispheres were employed as permanent patterns, in gangs, properly distributed according to size for the 3, 4, 6, 9, 12 and 18 pounder guns and the shot piled up in labeled bins when cooled, waiting for requisition. The smaller (or grape) shot would be "run" in the same manner, as specimens of it clearly indicate the gang-casting and crude method of breaking off the sprues.15 These small shot were cast somewhat smaller than the bore of the swivel to allow for easy ramming and vent as well as the roughness of the sprues, but the imperfections of solid shot accounted in many cases for the breaking of the gun by "jamming" when fired. A grape shot in the writer's possession picked up on the shore of Lake Champlain near Fort Amherst (Crown Point) could be described as merely a hunk of iron. The main body of the 15 Dead-heads.
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SALISBURY CONNECTICUT CANNON
shot at one time was nearly spherical, but its sprue was markedly rough at the "break-off" showing the crudeness in the method of production.
On deck, the shot or cannon balls were kept in shot-garlands, racks or troughs, usually secured to the coamings and ledges around the hatchways, or near the guns for quick service. Lead bullets for the musquets and blunderbuses were kept in "shot- boxes" located at convenient places.
The lead mine at Middletown was placed in commission early in the war. It was worked to full capacity until the supply was nearly exhausted. These Lead Works were committed to the manage- ment of Capt. Samuel Russell, and according to the geological survey of the State made by Dr. Charles U. Shepard in 1837, the mine was located directly upon the west bank of the Connecticut River. The lead here occurred in a thin seam of quartz, and had a thickness of from 10 to 20 inches, the strata dipping west between 35 and 45 degrees. The ore was associated with blende, iron pyrites, and rarely with yellow copper pyrites. The excavations that were made there during the early part of the war prove that the mine must have been worked to a very considerable extent. Twenty-six (26) bullets made a pound, and thousands of pounds were deliv- ered from this source of supply both for the military and naval services.
The "Salisbury Furnaces," so-called, performed a very important service during the American Revolu- tion in providing the needed cannon and ammunition
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SALISBURY CONNECTICUT CANNON
supply for the many different branches of defence employed both ashore and afloat, and contributed a large share toward the success of the American arms from 1775 to 1783.
The following is an extract from Exercises of the Small Arms and Great Guns for the Seamen on Board His Majesty's Ships (no publisher or date). The British Museum Catalog of Printed Books gives the title with the date 1765(?) and question mark as indicated. It is not in the Union Library Catalog, so the copy on file in the library of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis is perhaps the only one in the United States. It is evidently a pamphlet printed by the British Admiralty. The pamphlet altogether has 43 pages (Great Guns taking 10 pages).
The extract is supplied by courtesy of Prof. Allan Westcott of the U. S. Naval Academy as character- istic of 18th century practice in naval gunnery and as utilized during the American Revolutionary War.
No record has yet been discovered relating to the number of men per gun or their nomenclature.
EXERCISE OF THE GREAT GUNS.
The guns are to be loaded with powder and shot, the water-tubs in their places, the matches lighted, the crows, hand spikes, spunge staves, and rope spunges placed in order by the guns, and the men at their quarters.
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Words of Command, and Observations.
1. Take Heed.
2. Silence.
3. Cast off the Tackles and Breechings.
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SALISBURY CONNECTICUT CANNON
4. Seize the Breechings.
5. Take out the Tampion.
6. Take off the Apron.
7. Unstop the Touch-hole.
8. £ Handle the Priming-wire.
9. Prick the Cartridge.
10. Handle the Powder-Horn.
11. Prime.
12. Bruise the Priming.
13. Secure the Powder-Horn.
14. Take hold the Apron.
15. Cover the Vent.
16. Handle your Crows and Hand-spikes.
17. Point the gun to the Object.
18. Lay down your Crows and Handspikes.
19. Take off the Apron.
20. Take your Match and Blow it.
21. Fire. (You must take care that the Guns do not touch the side of the Port, when you fire.)
22. Stop the Touch-hole.
23. Handle the Spunge-Staff.
24. Spunge the Gun. (In spunging the gun, the Spunge is to be drawn backwards and forwards two or three times, as well as pushed home strongly, and in taking it out, turn it around two or three times in the gun. Observe to strike your Spunge well on the Muzzle of the gun, to cleanse it. If you make use of a Rope Spunge, observe to Shift Ends, and have your Rammer Head at hand.)
25. Handle the Cartridge.
26. Put it into the Gun. (You must put the Cart- ridge in as far as you can Reach with your Arm, the lower end first, and Seam of the Cartridge downward.)
27. Wad to your Cartridge.
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SALISBURY CONNECTICUT CANNON
28. Handle the Rammer.
29. Ram home Wad and Cartridge. (Observe to give two or three strokes to ram it well home.)
30. Unstop the Touch-hole.
31. Handle the Priming-Wire.
32. Try if the Cartridge be home.
33. Draw the Rammer.
34. Shot the Gun.
35. Wadd.
36. Ram home Wad and Shot.
37. Draw the Rammer.
38. Stop the Touch-hole.
39. Lay on the Apron.
40. Run out the Gun.
If you exercise the Lee Guns, and it blows fresh, you must keep one Tackle hooked to the Ring-bolt on the Deck, near the Comings, and other Tackle hooked to the Ring, in the Train of the Carriage. But if you exercise the Windward Guns, keep both Tackles hooked to the Ship's side, and the Train of the Carriage.
When you exercise the Lower Deck Guns, have your Port Ropes or Port Tackle Falls clear, to let fall your Ports in case of too much Wind, and Laniards to make them fast.
Always after the Exercise is over, take care to have the Decks Clean Swabbed, that no scattered powder be left.
"An iron hand is a velvet glove." -Charles V.
NOTES .- A "crow" was a bar of iron with a beak, crook or claw-to be used as a lever.
An "apron" was a leaden plate for covering the touch-hole. A "handspike" was a bar, generally of wood, used as a lever A "tampion" was a stopper or plug for the muzzle of the gun.
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INDEX
Allen, Col. Ethan, 1, 2, 4, 11, 24. Anable, Abraham, 43. Ancram, N. Y., 10. André, Major John, 2. Aspel, Philip, 43.
Babcock, Adam, 1, 3.
Bailey, Ephraim, 17.
Banksmen, 18.
Barkhamsted, 13.
cross-bar shot, 36.
Barnet's Saw Mill, 16.
double-headed shot, 36.
Bates, John, 14.
drilled, 28.
Bates, Martin, 43, 44.
Beebe, David, Jr., 43, 44.
Beebe, William, 43, 44.
Bellows, Samuel, 9.
Berry, James, 43. Bethrong, Abraham, 43, 45. Betts, John, 43.
Bignall, Richard, 43.
Bissell, Asahel, 43, 45.
Bissell, Daniel, 7, 8, 9.
Bissell, Joseph, 43.
Bishop, Samuel, 3.
Blacklead, 19.
Bliss, Timothy, 19, 20, 43. Boring, Method of, 37, 38. Boring tools, 38.
Boring mill, 19, 20, 21, 27, 39.
Bostwick, Daniel, 44.
Bridge House, 21, 44.
Bryant, Lemuel, 15, 43. Buslı, John, 43.
Caldwell, Charles, 12. Caldwell, George, 12. Calkins, Ebenezer, 18. Calkins, Seth, 17. Camp, Joel, 18, 19. Campbell, Duncan, 43.
Canaan, 17. Canaan Forges, 9. Cannon,
baskets, 36.
bored, 28. breechings, 37.
bridge-barrels, 36.
carriages, 40.
cartridges, 33. cracks, 30, 31.
field, 30.
flaws, 30, 31.
grape-shot, 53.
gunner, 36.
honey-combs, 30, 31.
in-and-out men, 36.
ladles, 34. lengths, 30.
linstock, 34.
loader, 36.
"matches," 34, 36.
patterning, 26.
priming-irons, 36.
powder-boy, 36.
quoins, 36. rammers, 33, 34. ship's, 30. shot, 36, 53.
shot, size of, 33.
six-pounder, 47, 48.
sponger, 36.
sponges, 33, 34.
table of sizes, 35. tackles, 37.
truly bored, 31, 32. tubs, 36. water buckets, 36. words of command, 56, 57, 58.
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INDEX
Cannon-casting : banksmen, 24. borers, 24. carpenter, 24. clay spankers, 24. colliers, 24. draughtsmen, 24. dressers, 24.
fillers, 24. firemen, 24. founders, 24.
guttermen, 24.
mongers, 24.
ore-burners, 24.
ore-diggers, 24.
ore-pounders, 24.
ore-wheelers, 24.
patternmen, 24. turners, 24.
Capen, Purchase, 43, 45.
Carronades, 40, 41.
Carver, David, 15.
Case, Dudley, 42.
Chapman, Titus, 44.
Charcoal contracts, 17.
Chatfield, Philip, 10.
Chipman, Thomas, 20.
Christ Church, Hartford, 13. Church, Chief Justice Sam- uel, 8.
Codman, Peter, 14.
Colebrook, 12, 13, 14, 18.
Colebrook forges, 9.
Colebrook steel works, 14. Colliers, 18.
Coleman, Chief (Indian), 14.
Confederacy, frigate, 39.
Conklin, Thomas, 18.
Connecticut Constitution, 8.
Connecticut Charter, 8. Connecticut State Armory, gun from, 40. Cornice ring, 30, 36, 47. Cornwall, 17.
Cornwall forges, 9. Countersigns, 45, 46. Crane, Ezra, 44. Crowder, Ariel, 43.
Day, Charles, 14.
Deane, Silas, 1, 2, 3.
Defence, ship, 49, 50.
Delaplace, Captain, 4.
Dennison, William, 13.
Depots, military, 22.
Deshon, Capt. John, 39.
Doolittle, Isaac, 7.
Dunbar, David, 43.
East Hartford powder mill, 7. Eggleston, Benjamin, 18.
Elderkin, Col. Jedediah, 7, 15, 20, 21.
Elderkin, Bela, 15.
Evarts, John, 44.
Everest, Elisha, 44.
Everest, Jared, 44.
Farmington River, 13.
Ferguson, Homer L., 52.
Ficks, Thomas, 18, 19, 44.
Finney, Col., his regiment, 5. Fitch, Ebenezer, 18.
Fitch, Jonathan, 18.
Forbes, Daniel, 18.
Forbes, Elisha, 10, 11.
Forbes, John, 11.
Forbes, Samuel, 9, 10, 11, 24. Fort Amherst, Crown Point, 53. Fox, John, 17.
French, Ichabod, 44.
Furnace barn, 21, 44.
Furnace bellows, 24.
Furnace description, 24, 25.
Furnace lot, 20.
General store, 45.
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INDEX
Gilbert, Nathaniel, 18. Government Guard, 43, 44. Great Guns, Exercises of, 55. Grimes, Abraham, 17. Grinnell, Noah, 44, 45. Guard house, 21, 45. Gun carriages, 22. Gunner's qualification, 35.
Hall, Silas, 44. Hall, William, 44. Hamlin, Mrs., 15.
Hanchet, Amos, 18, 20.
Hazelton, Col. John, 11, 24.
Henshaw, Benjamin, 23, 43. Henshaw and Whiting, 16, 19, 49. Holmes, Capt. James, 20, 44. Holmes, Joseph, 18.
Holloway, Ann, 10.
Holloway, George, 9.
Hopkins, Commodore, 5.
Humphrey, Daniel, 49, 50.
Huntington, Andrew, 5, 42. Huntington, Joshua, 4, 5.
Hutchinson, Ann, 11.
Hutchinson, John, 11.
Iron master, 11. Iron moulders, 15.
Jackson, Elias, 17. "Jingals," 51. Johnson, John, 14. Jones, Ephraim, 17.
Keith, Solomon (moulder), 43.
Kent forges, 9. Kingman, Samuel, 17. Knickerbocker, John, 44. Knight, Samuel, 44. Knox, Genl. Henry, 4.
Lake Champlain, 53. Lamb, Thomas, 9, 11.
Landon, Asa, 43, 45. Landon, James 3d, 44.
Lax, William, 22. Lead bullets, 54. Lead works (Middletown), . 54. Leavenworth, Major Mark, 42.
Lebanon, 6, 13, 15, 17.
Liester, negro, 44.
Lime Rock, forge, 9.
Litchfield, 17.
Livingston, Robert, Jr., 10.
London stecl, 19.
Lyles, Everett E., 9, 11.
Lyman, Noah, 44.
MacLean, John, 43.
MacLean, Murdock, 43.
Mallet, John, 43.
Maples, Stephen, 44.
Marsh, George, 19, 44.
Marshall, William, 14.
Matthewson, William, 18.
McCarly, Charles, 14.
McLean, Jacob, 43.
Mead, John. 14.
Morrison, Ebenezer, 44.
Middleborough, Mass., 15. Middletown, 22.
Miles, John, 17.
Miles, Stephen, 17.
Miles, Stephen, Jr., 17.
Molding house, 20, 21.
Molds and models, 26, 27.
Moore, Alexander, 43. Mumford, Thomas, 1, 3.
New boring mill, 20.
New Hartford. 13. New Haven powder mill, 7. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 52. Norfolk forge, 9.
Oblong, N. Y., 14, 17.
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INDEX
Officer of the guard, 21.
Ogden, Jacob, 13, 14. Oldham, Abel, 44. Oldham, David, 15, 43. Orders, Government Guard, 44, 45. Ore diggers, 18.
Owen, Aaron, 17, 43.
Owen, Charles, 17.
Owen, Elijah, 11.
Owen, Eliphalet, 11.
Owen, Jolın, 18.
Owen, Lennerd (sic), 11.
Owen, Zacheus, 43.
Parker, Medad, 18, 20. Parson, Col. Samuel Holden, 1, 2, 3. Patrols, 44. Pattern-makers, 18, 39.
Pattern making, 39, 40.
Perkins, Capt. Jabez, 42.
Pettibone, Col. Jonathan, 28. Phelps, Col. Noah, 49.
Pierce, Lucy, 11.
Pierpont, Samuel, 43.
Pinkerton, .William, 43.
Pitkin, William, 7.
Pitkin, Governor William, 8, 12. Porter, John, 6.
Porter, Col. Joshua, 3, 8, 15, 16, 18, 23, 28, 41, 43, 44.
Porter, Nicholas, 18, 43.
Powder mills, 7.
Prime, Benjamin, 16, 21, 43, 44, 45.
Proving of cannon, 20, 30. Pudney, John, 18. Pumpelly, John, 43. Putnam, Genl. Israel, 2.
"Rabinets," 51. Ramforce ring, 36, 47, 48. Ranney, Stephen, 22.
Ransom, William, 14.
Reed, John, 10.
Refined iron, 12.
Rockwell, Jerusha, 13.
Rockwell, Joseph, 13.
Root, Jesse, 3. Rowley, Timothy, 17.
Rudd, Malcolm D., 41.
Russell, Capt. Samuel, 54.
Sage, Hezekiah, 18. Safety, Council of, 6, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23.
Salisbury, Account books
of, 42.
Salisbury, Furnace account, 7 months blast, 41. Salisbury forges, 9.
Salisbury furnaces, 9, 54.
Salisbury incorporated, 7.
Salisbury, Settlement of, 7.
Salisbury town records, 9.
Sandisfield, Mass., 18.
Schuyler, Genl. Philip, 42.
Sharon, 17. Sheldon, Ezra, 18, 20.
Sheffield, Mass., 17.
Shepard, Dr. Charles V., 54.
Ship's gun, 18th century, 50.
Shot garlands, 54.
Shot racks, 54.
Shot sprues (dead-heads), 53. Shot troughs, 54. Simmons, Perez, 43.
Smedley, Capt. Samuel, 49, 50. Smith, Elijah, 43.
Smith, Richard, 7, 12, 13.
Smith, Seth, 13.
Sprues, 19, 27.
Street, Robert, 44.
Strong, Simeon, 18, 43.
Sturmy, Capt. Samuel, mag- azine, 31, 32.
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INDEX
Swetland, Aaron, 19, 43, 45.
Swivel, ammunition, 52.
Swivel, blunderbus, 52.
Swivel, guns, 51, 52.
Swivel, "murtherers," 52.
Swivel, "stalks," 51.
Swivels, from Yorktown, Va., 52.
Taylor, Absolom, 44. Teamsters, 18.
Ticonderoga, 1, 2, 4, 5, 11.
Tiley, Capt. William, 12, 28, 42. Tomlinson, Thomas, 43. Tousey, Matthew, 44.
Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan, 5, 6, 14, 15, 21, 49. Tubbs, Martin, 44. Turner, Zebedee, 17.
U. S. Naval Academy, 56. Upper dam, 21, 44.
Wales, Nathaniel, 7. War Office, Lebanon, 6.
Washburn, Abijah, 44.
Washburn, Jonathan, 43.
Washington, General, 28. ' Webb, Charles, 3.
Welsh, Capt. John, 18, 43. Westcott, Prof. Allan, 56. Wheeler, Eliphalet, 44.
Wheeler, William, express rider, 17.
Whetten, Thomas, 17. Whitcomb, Edward, 18, 25, 44. Whitcomb, Robert, 18, 20. White, Benjamin, 9, 10.
White, Joel, 44.
White, Zebalon, 15, 43.
Whiting, William, 23, 43.
Whittlesey, Mrs., 15. Williams, Benajah, 18, 19, 44. Williams, Ellen C., 6.
Williams, Ezekiel, 3, 12.
Williams, Prince. 44.
Williams, William, 3.
Winchester, 17.
Windham, 15.
Windham powder mills, 7.
Working force, 24, 42-43, 44. Workmen exempt, 13, 14. Wyllys, Samuel, 1, 2, 3.
Yeoman of powder, 36.
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