632 



ORDNANCE. 



quested to give any information they may have, or 

 may from time to time receive, to the Provost Mar- 

 shals or military authorities, whose duty it is to in- 

 form the nearest Provost Marshal General or other 

 military authority, and to take measures to arrest 

 and confine any and all connected with such organi- 

 zations. The late raid on the Lakes and in New 

 England are ample evidence that neither life nor 

 property are safe. 



All Provost Marshals and assistants, and all mili- 

 tary commanders, will take measures to obtain and 

 report at once any information that may lead to the 

 prevention of this interference with the rights of the 

 people, or aid in the arrest and punishment of the 

 offenders ; they from time to time will report by 

 telegraph any new facts. 



Local authorities will receive all the aid within the 

 control of the military commander. 



By command of Maj.-Gen. HOOKER. 



[Official :] 



C. H. POTTEE, Ass't Adj't Gen. 



ORDNANCE PROJECTILES AND SMALL 

 ARMS. In the ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1863, 

 the improvements in ordnance and projectiles 

 which had become established up to that period, 

 were very fully described. There has been 

 since that time some further experience in the 

 use of guns of large calibre which slightly 

 modifies, though it does not materially change, 

 the opinions there expressed of their merits, 

 and some new inventions having important al- 

 leged advantages over the old, are gradually 

 working their way into favor. The bombard- 

 ment of the forts at Mobile, the naval battle 

 between the Kearsarge and the Alabama, and 

 the two attacks on Fort Fisher, as well as the 

 numerous land conflicts in which artillery has 

 played an important part, have afforded oppor- 

 tunities rarely found for testing the quality of 

 ordnance and projectiles, as well as the armor 

 of iron-clad vessels. General Gillmore, a man 



of high authority in all matters appertaining tc 

 artillery service, and Mr. A. S. Holley, a civil 

 engineer of good repute, who has made both 

 ordnance and armor matters of special study, 

 have both published treatises on these subjects 

 during the past year. 



General Gillmore and Eear Admiral Porter, 

 while speaking in high terms of the 20 and 

 30-pounder Parrott guns, both complain of the 

 tendency of the larger calibres (the 100, 200, 

 and 300-pounders), to burst after a brief ser- 

 vice. In the second attack on Fort Fisher, six 

 of the 100-pounder Parrott rifles burst during 

 the bombardment. Of twenty five guns burst 

 or disabled in the siege of Charleston, sixteen 

 were Parrott 100-pounders, six Parrott 8-inch, 

 usually though incorrectly called 200-pounders, 

 and one a Parrott 10-inch, usually called 300- 

 pounder. The other two were a Parrott, which 

 had been fired 4,606 times, and the other was a 

 Whitworth 80-pounder, disabled at the lllth 

 round by the breech starting back and closing 

 the vent. Most of the Parrott 100-poundera 

 had been fired only about 200 times, the range 

 of their endurance being, with a single excep- 

 tion, from 36 to 500 rounds, while the 10-inch 

 gun was fractured at the 27th round, and three 

 of the 100-pounders at the 36th, 38th, and 87th 

 rounds. The power of cast-iron to withstand 

 the strain of a rifled projectile seems to de- 

 crease very rapidly with the increase of size. 



It is but justice, however, to the Parrott 

 gun, to give the following tables in reference 

 to its use in the navy, which were appended to 

 the report of the Board appointed by the Chief 

 of the Ordnance Bureau to examine and report 

 on rifled guns for the navy : 



In addition to these, five 100-pounders wero 



I. TABLE OF PAEEOTT RIFLED GUNS IN USE IN THE NAVY JANUARY IST, 1505. 



reported as having burst at the attack on Fort 

 Fisher (Admiral Porter says six) and thir- 

 teen others of different calibres elsewhere, but 

 no particulars of details have been received. 

 This table refers to the navy only. Those used 

 by General Gillmore belonged to the army. 



After a very careful and comprehensive ex- 

 amination of all the kinds of cannon in use, 

 ar:il statistical tables of the results of experi- 

 ments either in battle or siege, or test-firing 

 by the Ordnance Boards, Mr. Holley comes to 

 the conclusion that " a steel tube, so tempered 

 (probably by hardening in oil) as to have the 

 greatest possible elongation within its elastic 

 limits, and forced into (or otherwise com- 



pressed within) a heavy cast-iron jacket of 

 good shape, like the United States 15-inch 

 hollow-cast navy gun (Rodman), with trun- 

 nions and cascabel cast on for cheapness the 

 slight initial compression of the steel being 

 sufficient to compensate for its want of safe 

 elongation would appear to be the. best sys- 

 tem of fabricating strong, cheap, and trust- 

 worthy cannon of large calibre." 



Elsewhere, after a full consideration of the 

 effect of the two plans proposed of dealing with 

 armored ships, viz. : by very heavy shot impel- 

 led by a low velocity, to exert a smashing force 

 on the armor, and by shot and shell of smaller 

 diameter, usually in the form of bolts or elon 



