Author Description

Olmstead, Stark, & Tucker's "The Big Guns" is the companion work to Hazlett, Olmstead, and Parks' "Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War" and follows the same general format. As such the work provides the most complete catalog of these heavy artillery pieces available, and it includes a dircectory of known survivors. The authors focus on the development of these weapons and their mechanical/metallurgical details rather than their detailed deployment in battle. The ordnance pieces reviewed are siege, seacoast, and naval cannon as well as mortars and flank howitzers. <p>The history of the development of these heavy pieces of iron ordnance is fascinating. The metallurgical details of good and bad gun iron are explained as well as how ordnance men discovered the answers over decades of examination and research. The text details how casting methods and exterior ornamentation were altered over time to produce more reliable guns. Rodman's hollow casting is reviewed in depth as well as replacement of the ratchet elevation system, and elimination of preponderance in heavy pieces. Similarly, the CSA's slow acceptance of some of the improved Federal methods is also highlighted, as are key differences in CSA manufacturing and design techniques. Imported pieces are also reviewed.