Something a bit different this week: improvised artillery! I've been planning on painting rebel artillery for a while now. As soon as I read about this particular cannon I knew I'd have to include it in my army!
In Thomas Pakenham's "The Year of Liberty", the author describes a ramshackle cannon used by Henry Joy-McCracken's men in County Antrim. The rebels had possession of an old Irish Volunteers cannon barrel. The barrel had been buried under a church for safekeeping. The rebels had to mount the barrel on an old civilian cart. The gun's "cradle" was hewn from a log.
Pakenham notes the instability of such a weapon, as it was not built to withstand the force of recoil. He notes it was soon put out of action, possibly as a result of this. Furlong's account of the Battle of Vinegar Hill in "Fr. John Murphy" also describes a cart-mounted cannon. As part of the defence of Enniscorthy, a 4 pounder on a cart was used at the town bridge. Furlong refers to it as a "morale stiffener"; it is unlikely to have been very effective. Regardless of its real world performance, this model is a fun way to represent rebel artillery.
Among the crew is a sharply dressed fellow armed with... socks? He's another character from Antrim as described by Pakenham. He states that a Quaker haberdasher provided the rebels with grapeshot cartridges by filling socks with musket balls.
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