Program Information

The skill of the commander and the bravery of the common soldier weren’t the only factors leading to success in the War for Independence. Artillery obviously did play an important role in the American Revolution. The Americans were at a disadvantage just having access to adequate guns… artillery pieces.

Transcript

LEAD: The skill of the commander and the bravery of the common soldier weren’t the only factors leading to success in the War for Independence.

E.A: Artillery obviously did play an important role in the American Revolution. The Americans were at a disadvantage just having access to adequate guns… artillery pieces.

Intro: I’m Steve Clark with Moments in History, Sponsored by Yorktown Victory Center, a living history museum in Virginia’s Historic Triangle.

S.C.: Edward Ayres is historian at the Yorktown Victory Center.

E.A: In the eighteenth century there were three basic types of artillery: guns or just cannon, mortars and howitzers. Cannon fired solid shot on a relatively flat trajectory. No explosive shells of any kind. And cannon were used in the field to break up enemy troop formations, and in a siege situation to batter down earthen or stone walls. Mortars lobbed explosive shells up over these walls and inside of defensive positions where they then exploded either on the ground or in the air. Howitzers were a sort of a mix of both kinds. They could fire explosive shells; they fired at a slightly lower elevation than mortars but not the flat trajectory of traditional cannon.

S.C.: Sources for American artillery varied during the Revolution. Colonials began making their own tubes out of iron… not as good as brass or bronze, but functional.

E.A: They do work. It’s just that they can’t be fired as often and they’re not as reliable. The Americans started off by confiscating some pieces that had been sent over here by the British before the Revolution began. The French sent over a number of pieces of what were for them outdated artillery guns, but on the whole I would say that even though the British may have had slightly better pieces of artillery than the Americans, I don’t thing the difference was great enough to cause either side to win any of the major battles.

S.C.: Artillery was used to intimidate and to injure the enemy, to break up troop formations, and to destroy fortifications. Unless there was overwhelming artillery superiority on one side or the other, the contest was usually decided by bayonet.

E.A: Where Artillery made the biggest difference was not in a field battle but in the siege of Yorktown. The French had access to the most up-to-date, superb artillery pieces that were specifically designed to batter down defensive walls… far superior to anything the British under Lord Cornwallis had at Yorktown to defend themselves. And it was a foregone conclusion that once the French artillery train was in place and had started firing that the British could not hold out very long. This is one battle of the American Revolution where artillery made a huge difference, and I think without the French pieces the Americans would have been hard pressed to have forced the British to surrender at Yorktown.

Conclusion: To learn more, visit Yorktown Victory Center or history is fun dot org

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