A Quaker gun is a deception tactic that was commonly used in warfare during the 18th and 19th centuries. Although resembling an actual cannon, the Quaker gun was simply a wooden log, usually painted black, used to deceive an enemy. Misleading the enemy as to the strength of an emplacement was an effective delaying tactic. The name derives from the Religious Society of Friends or "Quakers", who have traditionally held a religious opposition to war and violence in the Peace Testimony.
During the American War of Independence, after nearly a year of brutal backcountry conflict between American Colonel William Washington and the British commander Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, Colonel Washington had retreated to North Carolina in October 1780.[ citation needed ]
Ordered to leave a regular force of colonial dragoons in the North Carolina theater by Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, Colonel Washington still lacked the proper artillery to dislodge the Loyalists. On December 4, the Americans were able to trap the Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his force of about 125 men in Rugeley's house and barn near Camden, South Carolina. Washington told his cavalrymen to dismount and surround the barn. Out of Rugeley's sight, Washington's men prepared a pine log to resemble a cannon. [1]
The "Quaker gun trick" worked. Colonel Washington aimed the wooden "cannon" toward the buildings in which the Loyalists had barricaded themselves and threatened to open fire if they did not immediately surrender. Rugeley quickly surrendered his entire force without a single shot being fired. [1]
During the Siege of Genoa in 1800, the French forces commander, Andre Massena, placed wooden dummy cannons on the city walls to confuse and divert the besieging Austrian army.
Quaker guns were used by both the North and South in the American Civil War. The Confederate States Army frequently resorted to them because of its shortage of artillery. The wooden guns were painted black and positioned in fortifications to delay Union assaults. Sometimes actual gun carriages were used in the deception. [2]
One notable use of a Quaker gun was by Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, who placed them in his field works around Centreville, Virginia, in March 1862, to give the appearance that the works were still occupied, while his men were actually withdrawing to the Rappahannock River.[ citation needed ]
Another example happened during the Siege of Corinth. "During the night of May 29, the Confederate army moved out. They used the Mobile and Ohio Railroad to carry the sick and wounded, the heavy artillery, and tons of supplies. When a train arrived, the troops cheered as though reinforcements were arriving. They set up dummy Quaker guns along the defensive earthworks. Camp fires were kept burning, and buglers and drummers played. The rest of the men slipped away undetected..." [3]
Quaker guns were also used to bolster Confederate fortifications during the Siege of Petersburg. They assisted in prolonging the Confederates' hold on their positions against the overwhelmingly superior numbers of Union troops. [4]
The widespread adoption of aerial reconnaissance in World War I led both sides to experiment with both deception operations and aerial camouflage.
A similar idea was employed during the Doolittle Raid, which occurred in the early stages of the Pacific War of World War II, where Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle led a squadron of B-25 Mitchells to bomb Tokyo. The early model B-25B lacked any protective guns installed in the tail section, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from the rear. While modifying the bombers for the mission at Eglin Field, Florida, Doolittle had fake machine guns consisting of a pair of broomsticks painted black mounted at the tail end of the fuselage to simulate tail guns. [5]
Similarly, while preparing for the coming invasion of France, the German forces on Pointe du Hoc moved their artillery battery and replaced it with upturned logs and barrels to spoof the photo-reconnaissance and fool the invading Allied forces. [6] Dummy equipment was also used extensively by the Allies in Operation Fortitude, to persuade the Germans that a non-existent field army was preparing to attack Calais.[ citation needed ]
The pre–World War I British battleship HMS Centurion was obsolete and disarmed by World War II. However, from 1942 to 1944, she was fitted with wooden guns and stationed in the eastern Mediterranean, to make British naval forces in the area seem stronger than they were.[ citation needed ]
Fake gun emplacements, quickly constructed from local timber, were widely employed in the Soviet Union to fool and mislead German air reconnaissance.[ citation needed ]
Unlike a Quaker gun, a wooden cannon is a functional weapon, albeit notoriously weak and only able to fire a few shots, sometimes even just one shot, before bursting. These were used by those without access to metal or the skill to construct metallic cannons. [7]
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island near Charleston, South Carolina to defend the region from a naval invasion. It was built after British forces captured and occupied Washington during the War of 1812 via a naval attack. The fort was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle of Fort Sumter occurred, sparking the American Civil War. It was severely damaged during the battle and left in ruins. Although there were some efforts at reconstruction after the war, the fort as conceived was never completed. Since the middle of the 20th century, Fort Sumter has been open to the public as part of the Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, operated by the National Park Service.
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems. The term is also used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships.
Henry Jackson Hunt was Chief of Artillery in the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. Considered by his contemporaries the greatest artillery tactician and strategist of the war, he was a master of the science of gunnery and rewrote the manual on the organization and use of artillery in early modern armies. His courage and tactics affected the outcome of some of the most significant battles in the war, including Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and most notably at Gettysburg, where his operational decisions regarding strategic cannon placement and conservation of ammunition for the Confederate main assault, contributed greatly to the defeat of Pickett's Charge.
Fort Pulaski National Monument is located on Cockspur Island between Savannah and Tybee Island, Georgia. It preserves Fort Pulaski, the place where the Union Army successfully tested rifled cannon in combat during the American Civil War in 1862, the success of which rendered brick fortifications obsolete. The fort was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp.
The Parrott rifle was a type of muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon used extensively in the American Civil War.
The siege of Corinth was an American Civil War engagement lasting from April 29 to May 30, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. A collection of Union forces under the overall command of Major General Henry Halleck engaged in a month-long siege of the city, whose Confederate occupants were commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard. The siege resulted in the capture of the town by Federal forces.
Field artillery in the American Civil War refers to the artillery weapons, equipment, and practices used by the Artillery branch to support the infantry and cavalry forces in the field. It does not include siege artillery, use of artillery in fixed fortifications, or coastal or naval artillery. Nor does it include smaller, specialized artillery classified as small arms.
A Coehorn is a lightweight mortar originally designed by Dutch military engineer Menno van Coehoorn.
Siege artillery is heavy artillery primarily used in military attacks on fortified positions. At the time of the American Civil War, the U.S. Army classified its artillery into three types, depending on the gun's weight and intended use. Field artillery were light pieces that often traveled with the armies. Siege and garrison artillery were heavy pieces that could be used either in attacking or defending fortified places. Seacoast artillery were the heaviest pieces and were intended to be used in permanent fortifications along the seaboard. They were primarily designed to fire on attacking warships. The distinctions are somewhat arbitrary, as field, siege and garrison, and seacoast artillery were all used in various attacks and defenses of fortifications. This article will focus on the use of heavy artillery in the attack of fortified places during the American Civil War.
Dummy tanks superficially resemble real tanks and are often deployed as a means of military deception in the absence of real tanks. Early designs included wooden shells and inflatable props that could fool enemy intelligence; they were fragile and only believable from a distance. Modern designs are more advanced and can imitate heat signatures, making them more effective illusions.
Wooden cannons have been manufactured and used in wars in many countries. The wooden parts were invariably strengthened with metal fittings or even rope.
Blakely rifle or Blakely gun is the name of a series of rifled muzzle-loading cannon designed by British army officer Captain Theophilus Alexander Blakely in the 1850s and 1860s. Blakely was a pioneer in the banding and rifling of cannon but the British army declined to use Blakely's design. The guns were mostly sold to Russia and the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Blakely rifles were imported by the Confederacy in larger numbers than other Imported English cannon. The State of Massachusetts bought eight 9-inch and four 11-inch models.
The Monticello Artillery (1862–1865) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War. The unit was also known as: Owen's Battery, or Howell's Battery. Some post war records refer to the unit as the Drew Light Artillery because most original members were from Drew County, Arkansas.
The 9th Texas Cavalry Regiment was a unit of mounted volunteers that fought in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The regiment fought at Round Mountain and Bird Creek (Chusto-Talasah) in 1861, Pea Ridge, Siege of Corinth, Second Corinth, Hatchie's Bridge and the Holly Springs Raid in 1862, and in the Atlanta campaign, Franklin, and Murfreesboro in 1864. The unit fought dismounted at Second Corinth and Hatchie's Bridge before being remounted as cavalry for the remainder of the war. The regiment surrendered to Federal forces on 4 May 1865 and its remaining personnel were paroled.
Landis's Missouri Battery, also known as Landis's Company, Missouri Light Artillery, was an artillery battery that served in the Confederate States Army during the early stages of the American Civil War. The battery was formed when Captain John C. Landis recruited men from the Missouri State Guard in late 1861 and early 1862. The battery fielded two 12-pounder Napoleon field guns and two 24-pounder howitzers for much of its existence, and had a highest reported numerical strength of 62 men. After initially serving in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, where it may have fought in the Battle of Pea Ridge, the unit was transferred east of the Mississippi River. The battery saw limited action in 1862 at the Battle of Iuka and at the Second Battle of Corinth.
Wade's Battery was an artillery battery in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The battery was mustered into Confederate service on December 28, 1861; many of the members of the battery had previously served in the Missouri State Guard. Assigned to the First Missouri Brigade, the battery saw action at the Battle of Pea Ridge and the Second Battle of Corinth in 1862. In 1863, the battery fought at the Battle of Grand Gulf, where Captain William Wade, first commander of the battery, was killed. The battery later saw action at the Battle of Champion Hill, Battle of Big Black River Bridge, and the Siege of Vicksburg. When the Confederates surrendered at the end of the Siege of Vicksburg, the men of the battery became prisoners of war. After a prisoner exchange, the men of the battery were combined with Landis's Battery and Guibor's Battery on October 3, 1863, and Wade's Battery ceased to exist as a separate unit.
Hiram Bledsoe's Missouri Battery was an artillery battery that served in the Missouri State Guard and the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The battery was formed when the Missouri State Guard was formed as a pro-secession state militia unit in response to the Camp Jackson affair. As part of the Missouri State Guard, the unit was engaged in the Engagement near Carthage and the Battle of Wilson's Creek during mid-1861, before fighting at the Battle of Dry Wood Creek and the Siege of Lexington later that year when Major General Sterling Price led the Guard northwards towards the Missouri River. After the Missouri State Guard retreated into Arkansas in early 1862, Bledsoe's Battery served during the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Pea Ridge in March. The battery, as part of the Army of the West, transferred across the Mississippi River into Tennessee in April, where it left the Guard to enter Confederate service on April 21.
Battery B, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery Regiment was an artillery battery from Illinois that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The battery was organized in June 1861. It fought at Shiloh, First Corinth, and Second Corinth in 1862. Subsequently, the unit garrisoned Corinth, Mississippi until January 1864. It was stationed at Memphis, Tennessee until June 1864 when it fought at Brices Cross Roads. The battery garrisoned Memphis until it was mustered out in July 1865.
Barrett's Missouri Battery was an artillery battery that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After entering Confederate service on April 1, 1862, the unit was armed with two 6-pounder smoothbore cannons and two 12-pounder howitzers and was commanded by Captain Overton W. Barrett. It was present during the Siege of Corinth, but saw no action. During the Battle of Perryville in October 1862, Barrett's battery provided artillery support for a Confederate brigade. After spending the next several months moving around Tennessee, the battery supported a Confederate attack during the Battle of Stones River in December. The 1863 Chickamauga campaign brought light action for the unit, which also fought in the Battle of Missionary Ridge. When the Confederates retreated after the Missionary Ridge fighting, Barrett's battery was part of the Confederate rear guard at the Battle of Ringgold Gap, earning the praise of Patrick R. Cleburne. Rearmed with four 12-pounder howitzers, the unit was action in the 1864 Atlanta campaign as part of the Confederate reserve artillery, although two of the cannons were lost to attrition. On April 16, 1865, the battery ceased to exist when its flag, cannons, and most of its members were captured during the Battle of Columbus, Georgia. As of January 2021, its battle flag is part of the collection of the Missouri State Museum.